April 18, 2004

• VERY well executed, even if the guy is obviously grinding an axe. The diagram of bastardized Swedish is well worth seeing. I don't see why he is picking on Sweden, though -- the "wigga" culture is truly global. This could be any affluent American suburb.
• While we're on the subject, check out Wiggaz!
• All this makes me want to do is listen to some Swedish rap.
• In general, I am ambivalent. While I understand his disapointment at so much copying from the US, it doesn't seem to come from a desire for more Swedish pride in their own culture, but because they just don't do it as well as the US. Also, since when does someone's skin colour give them access to a media or genre or not? That would be like arguing that only white kids from the (nice American-style) 'burbs should sing opera. Those Swedish suburbs look just like American projects, if they really are full of heartless concrete apartment blocks. I have also been in suburban ghettos - poor, drug and crime filled - and they look like that. I too want to listen to Swedish rap - he should have at least provided a small sample to prove his point. and of course, maybe he should move to the US. Perhaps then he would appreciate the lack of sincerity regarding extreme poverty, drugs and crime in Swedish rap.
• Also, since when does someone's skin colour give them access to a media or genre or not? obviously it's not about skin colour, it's about people pretending to be things they aren't. that's what the comic is making fun of. it was funny, too... nice drawings.
• All this makes me want to do is listen to some Swedish rap. Ha ha, same here, i searched it up on soulseek right i after i saw this pictoral essay
• Here are some samples. I can't comment on the quality, so I'll leave that to others. I have an mp3 of Blues - Andra Sidan which I enjoy.
• sutureself: It would be nice if that weren't the case, but there's huge racism in the rap world. Show up as a white rapper and see what reaction you get - you'll have to make a huge effort to "prove" your "credibility", yet no-one seems to tak potshots at black artists like Sean Coombs, who's more Huxtable than Harlem. jb: Agreed. Pining for the "authenticity" of thugs, murderers, and the like seems pretty damn stupid in and of itself. On a related note, a large chunk of Kiwi rap and hip hop looked like it was going the route of wanabe gangsters. While we aren't quite the socialist utopia of Sweden, it was pretty farcical. Fortuntely guys like Scribe and Che Fu have done a lot to use the form to work up stuff that relates to New Zealand, not some wannabe thug.
• anybody wanna dropload me a track or two?
• I imagine the 1960 Liverpool kid copying Little Richard caught a smiliar wrath. That said, I think the hard front of most rappers is either silly or just too bad. Yeah yeah, you're so bad, whatever *click*
• My swap CD is going to be NZ hiphop, so just hope you're in my swap group, forks. :)
• I hear people, both black and white, making fun of "Diddy" all the time, rodgerd. Granted, he still has a formidable career, but anyone who knows anything about hip-hop* thinks he's essentially a horse's ass. *I can't claim to be one of that number, but I know several people who are well-qualified to speak about the genre.
• a great many people who know nothing about hiphop also think diddy is a horse's ass.
• Any time you have one culture trying to mimic another culture it comes out as an abortion. But the whole ghetto thug thing is particularly sickening. Not only does it look lame, but why in the hell would you want to mimic a culture like that? My ex-girlfriend's apartment butted right up against public housing. She was a huge fan of Snoop and other gangsta rappers. One night, after having some of the residents start yelling racial epithets at us while we were out on the porch and then start hurling rocks and bottles at us, I had had it. I looked at her and said, "That's the ghetto. That's what's being glorified by rap. That's the real thing, not the suburban white boy version of it that consists solely of wearing pants that don't fit. That's the real thing, the poverty, the hopelessness, the violence and stupidity." Why on Earth any group would want to mimic that is beyond me. Spend five minutes in one and you'll be cleansed of all your illusions.
• I have a feeling it's much like how the French aristocrats during Louis XIV's time pretended to be milkmaids and shepherds. There's some glamour in imitating the 'lower classes'. I chalk it down to excess - excess of time and money.
• Wait 'till this guy comes to the States and sees how many American rappers are posers, just like the guys back home. (ducks and runs)