so recently (and by recent, I mean since the advent of something that I can't actually remember sometime within the last two decades), I've been listening to rap from overseas. I listen to American rap as well, but I've been enjoying what other countries are doing to the art form. Not, mind you, that I claim to be an expert on it or anything.
(I don't know what art is, but I know what I like?)
In keeping with my quirks, I enjoy some of the more surreal shit that's out there. A perennial favorite (with me & my kid anyway) is Die Antwoord. They are a South African pair (sorta maybe a trio), that is part of the Zef movement, which I'm not even going to bother to attempt to define, because, well, I can't. I'm not there, I'm not part of the culture, I have, maybe, a 2% grasp of what it's about, and I'm not even going to try. The other day in Soho (NYC), I saw an aspiring model type coming out of a casting call (with a group of other aspiring model types), carrying a status bag, fancy shoes on her feet, wearing a stocking cap with "Zef" embroidered on it. Cracked me the hell up.
Here's one of my favorites from them, the deliciously disturbing "I Fink U Freeky" (which was alternating with "Call Me Maybe" two years ago, which made for a delightfully fucked up summer.)
From Sweden, we have Yung Lean, who I've been following for a little while after accidentally stumbling across him on YouTube. Or maybe not so accidentally. I mean, my algorithm on google has been totally screwed by searching for random things like images of dolphin vaginas, amputee porn, pili multigemini and Jennifer Lopez, so why the hell wouldn't YouTube suggest Yung Lean for me? Anyway, he just got a writeup in the New York Times and has apparently now played two sold out shows in NYC, which I've managed to be too busy to track lately (you may have noticed my long absence from the blog. stupid day jobs). I would have been really fascinated to observe the crowd at these concerts.
Yung Lean has some pretty damn surreal lyrics, although he seems much more conventional with the production on his music and in his videos than Die Antwoord. This is his latest video, Yoshi City:
And I have to contrast the artists I mention above with Iggy Azalea. Who is uber-commercial. In fact, I'm rather torn about her, given my whole non-ironic love of commercial pop music. She's Australian. She's blond. She's rapping in a very distinctly African-American style (and accent). Her lyrics can be good, or they can be crap, much like this line from "Fancy" that drives me batshit every time I hear it:
"I could hold you down, like I'm givin' lessons in physics"
What does that even mean?
To pose a few questions: is this actually co-opting on her part? What does it mean when a white woman from Australia comes to the US and finds commercial success through a historically black art-form, that was born of the impoverished inner-city areas here? I guess versions of this question have probably been wrestled with enough, especially after Macklemore took the Grammy over Kendrick Lamar earlier this year. Or since Miley Cyrus started twerking. It's also worth noting that the other artists mentioned above are white, however, I suppose I question them less, as they're maybe adding their own take on the art form, rather than just parroting it? But I don't think that's really fair to Izzy, who I think has a fair measure of talent. Which makes me the asshole. (It's a state I'm comfortable with)
In that vein, I offer you Pu$$y, which I find...mindlessly offensive from a racial standpoint, but I like the song (if the video gets taken down, it's probably up elsewhere, and is googleable):
far cry from Fancy:
Has there been an outcry against her? I haven't been paying attention at all lately.
