Saturday, October 13, 2007

VH-1's Hip Hop Honors -- Class Of 2007, Suggestions For 2008

Another year, another VH1 Hip Hop Honors Awards. As it stands, this is the closest thing that hip hop has to a Hall of Fame, until someone decides to create one. How did this year's awards ceremony go? Glad you asked. First, let's talk about the honorees. Ladies and gentlemen, your Hip Hop Honors Class Of 2007:


Missy Elliot


Snoop Dogg


Whodini


The movie "Wild Style"


New Jack Swing


A Tribe Called Quest

Comedian Tracy Morgan was the host.

Now, on with the festivities. They opened up by honoring Missy Elliot. To me, this seemed like "OK, let's get this one out of the way so that we can get to the real innovators." I don't HATE Missy, but if you are going to honor her, it is FAR too soon to do so. I will give her credit because her videos are innovative (not too many people would like like a black Sta-Puf Marshmallow Man on purpose). But is that innovation a tribute to her, or to the director? Anyway, for the most part, she is known for her production skills and turning nonsensical phrases into an art form. Who would have thought that "Beep beep/who got the keys to the jeep?/errrrrmmmmmmm..." would be something that someone would quote? It sounds like something you'd hear from someone who needs a helmet to protect themselves. Ciara and a bunch of other folks did some OK renditions of her song. Again, with someone like Queen Latifah not being honored yet, it's too soon to honor Missy. And the whole set seemed to be "...now that we got this over with, let's get on to the festivities."

The tribute to the movie "Wild Style" was OK. The best part of that was a performance by old school legends Chief Rocker Busy Bee and Grandmaster Caz (did you know that he wrote one of the raps for the Sugar Hill Gang?) and recent honoree KRS-One. It was nice, and it sounded like KRS was freestyling the whole time. All of them sounded like they still had it (of course, KRS never lost it).

The tribute to "New Jack Swing" was a bit too long. T-Pain did the impossible and sounded worse than Keith Sweat. Keisha Cole (who has the most gorgeous eyes ever) just went through the motions. Doug E Fresh was pretty good, and one of the Blackstreet dudes (Chauncey, I think) was capable in the supporting role. Nick Cannon (which made me think "Who invited HIM?") did an OK job during this set as well.

The highlight of the set was the appearance of this man:



...Kool Moe Dee, doing "How You Like Me Now." As you can see, it looks like our friend Moe Dee has been in the buffet line too many times. It looks like his name should be "Kool! Mo' Desserts!" Vocally, he sounded as fresh as ever, but him doing any dance steps was simply out of the question. I say that they missed a golden opportunity for complete awesomeness by not having Bobby Brown come out, even for a brief moment, to do "My Prerogative." That would've been television history.

Don't ask me about the Snoop Dogg portion, because at the time, the season premiere of "Boondocks" was on, and I decided that Boondocks >>> Snoop Dogg. Yeah, I said it. Big whoop, wanna fight about it? I do remember that T.I. did one of the Snoop tribute songs, and he sounded better working a Snoop Dogg verse than he did trying to flip a Big Daddy Kane verse.

The tribute where everyone seemed to have the most fun was Whodini's "enshrinement." Nelly and Jermaine Dupri came out and did a couple of songs, and Whodini themselves came out and performed. Dr. Ice, from UTFO, was working the "hype-man" role, and doing a good job of it... especially since Ecstacy sounded like he had one too many Newports before the show started. During "Funky Beat", Dr. Ice was going through a bunch of old school dances, and Nelly even joined him to do the Wop. Jermaine (who got his start working as a dancer for Whodini) did some breakdancing footwork. The set ended with Grand Master D on the turntables, and he had to be carried off stage. It was great... everyone lifted him up, and his hands were still on the tables, and he was still sounding like a skilled DJ. Like I said, it looked like they had fun.

The Tribe Called Quest tribute should've been the highlight of the night. But it was kinda marred by Lupe Fiasco messing up a verse... not for the mess-up itself, but for the attitude that he had afterwards, and how he was almost proud to proclaim that he never heard a Tribe album. Busta Rhymes came out during the performance of possibly one of the greatest posse cuts ever, "Scenario." But he yelled so much that you could barely understand what he was saying. I've seen Busta do MUCH better on TV, including an awards show where he did "Touch It" (which was capped off by a surprise Eminem performance -- but I digress). The Tribe tribute wasn't as great as it could've been. And also, Phife Dog needs a kidney. He was looking "sickly" throughout the tribute, and I found out that it's because he needs a kidney transplant.

All of this brings us to possible honorees for 2008. If it were up to me, here is who I would suggest for VH1's Hip Hop Honors Class of 2008:


Stetsasonic: The original hip hop band


Queen Latifah: Before she started singing, she was the epitome of the Female MC. Plus, her work with the Flavor Unit was ahead of modern-day moguls like Jay Z and Puff.


NWA: At the time, NWA produced groundbreaking material. And if you've gotten the attention of the FBI just for making songs, you must be doing something right.


Too $hort: I'm not a fan of Todd Shaw, aka Too $hort. But his influence in West Coast Hip Hop is unmistakable. Without Too $hort, there would arguably be no Snoop Dogg.


Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince: Shoot, why not? Plus, a DJ tribute to the Magnificent Jazzy Jeff would be face-meltingly awesome, if they got the right turntablists (Q-Bert, Roc Raider, Babu, Mix Master Mike, etc) to do the job.


The movie "Beat Street": What is more hip hop than a movie about a DJ at the famous Roxy, with secondary stories about breakdancing and graffiti, and performances by the Treacherous Three and Grandmaster Melle Mel? Not too many things, my friends.

Wild Card picks:


EPMD


Gangstarr


Slick Rick

See you in 2008!

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Celebrities As Activists... Is It A Good Idea, Or Should They Shut Up And Dance?

The situation in Jena has brought out the best in people, and the worst in people. There was a huge protest march a few weeks ago, and a few celebrities were there. Rapper Mos Def was one of the hip hop artists that was spearheading the movement. He was also quite upset that very few celebrities (especially in hip hop) made their presence felt.

This (and a discussion on my favorite message board) got me to thinking. SHOULD celebrities speak out on social issues? I'm split on the issue. On the one hand, it shows that they're not all self-absorbed twits and malcontent, and it shows that they are concerned about more than just how well their records or movies are doing, or who is dressing them. On the other hand, if they drop the ball, they come across so poorly that it would've been better if they left the deep topics to the grown folks.

A recent example is Adrienne Curry. Her attempt at unity by calling for a boycott of Black History Month and B.E.T. was so poorly worded and muddled that it did more to encourage hardcore racists to spew their venom and idiocy about their race. In her case, she was clearly and unmistakably uninformed about Black History, how Black people feel about B.E.T., and the fact that other cultures celebrate their heritage as well.

The best examples of celebrities speaking out, or dedicating their music to an issue, shows that there is actually depth to an artist. Pick a song by Public Enemy, X-Clan, Paris, and KRS-One, and you will see material that approaches the subject matter with depth and intelligence. Recently, there hasn't been too many hip hop acts that have united for a cause since the "Self-Destruction Movement" (as an aside, the fact that they never generated an album or two from all of those artists collaborating continues to be one of the greatest missteps in hip hop). The last time a collaboration of great artists popped up was during the Amidou Diallo killing, when rappers like Mos Def, Common, De La Soul, Pharoahe Monch, Kool G Rap, and others joined forces for Hip Hop 4 Respect, and released "One Four Love" as a response. Another excellent example speaks on the same subject. Bruce Springsteen's "American Skin - 41 Shots" addresses the issue of police brutality in a poignant and authentic way.

It seems that the best examples occur when the artists put themselves to the side for the sake of the bigger issue, and try to not make themselves bigger than the issue that they are speaking about. But when it goes wrong, it comes across as mealy-mouthed pandering, sycophantic blubbering, or ignorant jibberish. Adrienne Curry was just one example. Kanye West inexplicably received accolades for the simplistic "George Bush doesn't care about Black people" comment during the Katrina aftermath. The best part about it was that it was a live, unscripted moment. The worst was that it (temporarily) elevated Kanye to being more than just a whiny little brat who doesn't get enough recognition from industry circle jerks. One local critic (Jim DeRogatis, for those who read the Sun Times) even compared Kanye's outburst to the groundbreaking commentary by Chuck D. Seriously. Someone has to break it to DeRogatis that Kanye's "George Bush doesn't care about Black people" doesn't come close to the incendiary commentary from "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", "Prophets of Rage", "Welcome to the Terrordome", and "By The Time I Get To Arizona." What was more disturbing was that people were applauding Kanye, as if he was the first rapper to speak about something other than being the Louis Vuitton Don.

Another example of a blurb being mistaken for in-depth social commentary came from Janet Jackson. In her "Rhythm Nation" song, she sang "Racism -- NO!", and the critics collectively wet their pants at Janet being so "bold" and "provocative." This was during the time that PE was in their heyday, so it's not as if she was the only one who ever spoke out on racism. "Racism -- NO!" is fluff and pandering disguised as outrage. It's like Frankenstein's monster giving a physics lessons on the properties of fire by saying "Fire BAD." That reminds me of yet another Kanye moment. He released two versions of "Diamonds are Forever." The first one was the typical ode to all things shiny. But he released a different version that came about as if someone whispered in Kanye's ear about what happens in Sierra Leone so that he CAN have those shiny trinkets. It came across as a bit contrived. Yet another example is Oprah's "Crash" moment. Now, I haven't seen the movie, but Oprah raising a ruckus about not being able to shop at a fancy couture store to get a purse after the store is closed is hardly comparable to being targeted for harassment by bigoted policemen.

Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron... all of these greats have tackled social issues in one form or another, and have done it well. These days, few are speaking out about things that affect them.

I kinda agree with Mos Def that more people should've been down there. His point about people only showing up en masse to promote their material (movies, TV, music) or their material gains was excellent. But conversely, you don't want a cerebral misfit speaking like a goofball and shifting the movement into reverse. You get enough of that from idjits like Quannel X (no, I haven't gotten over his peeing match with douchebag Guardian Angel Curtis Sliwa). I do appreciate the fact that Ice Cube sponsored buses to go down to Jena, almost under the radar (he could've easily made a big issue about it, and drew attention to himself, and using it to promote a project that he's working on ["Are We Played Out Yet?"]). David Bowie donated $10,000 to the defense fund. John Mellencamp has angered up the blood of the "good white folk" in Jena with his song "Jena (Take Those Nooses Down)." I can't imagine celebrity boobs (no pun intended) like Paris Hilton or whoever's starring in "Spiderman 4 -- It's Electro!" trying to pontificate on the ramifications of a racist power structure affecting the criminal justice system.

What would I love to see? A united hip hop front where feuds are buried and the best lyricists and producers come together to be modern-day Prophets of Rage, creating a brand new Terrordome. Imagine the fury of Paris, Ras Kass, Vakill, Jay Z, Kanye, Chino X, Pharoahe, Chuck, Brother J, The Lady of Rage, Bahamadia, and others coming together to lyrically indict and condemn what's going on down there. Imagine DJ Premier orchestrating the soundtrack for the new revolution.

Do I EXPECT celebrities to speak out on social issues? No, especially in this era of mainstream music and movies catering to the lowest common denominator. I would like to see especially Black entertainers take more chances and speak out on real injustice. The things in Jena, police brutality, racism, these are things that will affect a Black person, no matter how many Bentleys they own, or no matter how often they get Hermes purses on special order. Mos Def shouldn't have to scream from the mountaintops about the lack of participation. But sadly, that's the case. And these days, Chuck D's words from from PE's first album ring even more true: "Just growin'/not knowin'/about your past/now you're lookin' pretty stupid while you're shakin' your @$$..." (from "Rightstarter")