acousticophilia: May 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011

RE: SebastiAn - Embody

I'm not exactly a fan of Odd Future but the debate over their popularity amongst middle-class white kids (and relative exclusion by the black hip-hop community) due seemingly to the fetishization of black rage (read here or see here) and the controversy surrounding their misogynist lyrics encapsulated by a public tirade by Tegan & Sara of all people has definitely got me interested.

I believe this to be a more complex debate than previous hip-hop critiques precisely because the audience is predominantly white. A younger Arthur (i.e. pre-thirties, i.e. like last week) would have been all for Tyler, the creator spouting off how radical and disruptive this is to middle-America but it's middle-America who's eating this shit up thus, effacing its critical force. A younger Arthur would have been like, he's not actually promoting hatred against women, he's just being hypothetical but after reading Tyler's tweet responding to T&S, one can't continue to separate theory/praxis. A younger Arthur, now exhausting all excuses, would have been like, its fucking art, art is shocking sometimes. But rape fantasies aren't shocking to me anymore, and thus, following the logic, can't hold up as art.

So the question is, am I getting old or what?!? Please shed some light on this. Am I missing something about Odd Futures that will bring me back to my allegiance with the 'dark side' of hip-hop or have my critical politics finally trumped my musical tastes?