Kids, Watch Your Back

But it’s not like EPMD or anyone directly inspired by them is going to break Clear Channel rotation today. The deals are going to those who have already scored cross-over dance hits (from electremo sensations Drake and Kid Cudi), to teen dance-acts (Soulja Boy, the Jerkin’ kids) to neo hip-house artists (LMFAO and Far East Movement).What was conveniently glossed over by critics of Sasha Frere-Jones’ essay on the death of hip-hop, was that Jones wasn’t really reading its eulogy, but rather pointing out that it was no longer the vanguard of the avant-garde. And as much as I’d like to, I can’t argue with that thesis. The most popular rap albums this year have been The Blueprint 3 and Relapse, disappointing efforts from veteran artists on the downward slope. While the biggest commercial debuts have been from Drake (Mase-lite), Cudi (Kanye-lite), and Asher Roth (Eminem-lite), relatively tame artists with no reluctance to play the promotional game, follow existing trends, and cultivate a fanbase of giggling 14-year old girls.

A dizzying, sprawling PotW post about Wale’s (perhaps predictably disappointing, and I’ve tried) new album, in which Jeff Weiss touches on just about everything troubling hip-hop today, especially the impossible constraints that artists are being forced to fit into.  I came up with three versions of a retort to Das Racist’s well-intentioned but misguided attempt at a retort to Frere-Jones’ piece, but then again, I know about .0001% as much about rap as does Weiss.  (It’ll wind up here sooner or later, but more as a series of thoughts on genre.)  But enough about me.  This post is a must-read, if not only for the first three paragraphs of ridiculously unbelievable (and completely, paradigmatically related) Weissian auto-bio.

Sorry, one more quote, because it’s so good:

Were he an indie rock artist, Wale probably would’ve released several albums on an major indie like Merge or Matador, toured relentlessly, and cultivated a steady and loyal fanbase, allowing him to make the leap to a major with enough clout to ensure that his vision was relatively untampered. Or did you think that Capitol would’ve let The Decemberists release a prog-rock opus based on a Japanese folk tale, without having first wooed the beards and flannel set on their Kill Rock Stars jaunts.

Filed under: hip-hop  indie rock  mixtapes  Passion of the Weiss  Wale