Hip-hop & Messianic behaviour - Why?

(You and your LDS/SLC!! I have suddenly realised that mormons fucking rool!! Mikal Gilmore is admittedly a somewhat rubbish rock critic but SHOT IN THE HEART = one of the four/five gratest books abt old weird america vs rock'n'roll EVA WRITTEN...)

good article on the provo punk scene

As for the original post -- can someone post an exact quote? I find it hard to take the idea seriously in the slightest that someone would actually say that...

Is that something that REAL hardcore twee-indie fans wear?

What interests me more is that many hip-hop stars go a step beyond this. "I've got the money and the cars and the clothes and the lifestyle," they seem to say, "but I still don't have the influence over things that matter." They then develop pretentions of being philosophers or politicians, pretentions which come across as silly but are, I think, kind of admirable. (For instance: Ice T taking honorary degrees in philosophy and following the college lecture circuit.)

Also, isn't the idea of complete powerlessness as described most applicable if you come from a really *really* shitty all-around background? By which I mean clearly not all hip-hop folks have a down- in-the-ditch upbringing, though perhaps this is something for another thread.

Is this a joke?

I do think that it should be said that the Snoop Dogg quote really isn't that much more outrageous than John Lennon's "We're bigger than Jesus," if one thinks about it.

Well, I meant "admirable" in the sense that pretension toward philosophical or political acuity (in the Chuck D / KRS-One / new Ice- T vein) are superior to the usual pretension toward having loads of money and guns. "Also, isn't the idea of complete powerlessness as described most applicable if you come from a really *really* shitty all-around background? By which I mean clearly not all hip-hop folks have a down- in-the-ditch upbringing."

That's certainly true, but I think it's a function of the culture as a whole rather than the individuals involved in it. Which is to say: even a middle-class kid who starts rapping is, in certain senses, involving himself with a larger culture that has its roots in a particular kind of urban poverty. And let's face it: that particular kind of urban poverty really is a really really shitty environment. Obviously there are worse situations in the world, but the people living in projects in New Orleans or Atlanta aren't exactly comparing themselves to Sudanese refugees. They're making judgements based on what they see, which is a lot of middle-class and wealthy Americans existing in environments which are infinitely more pleasant than theirs.

If it was indeed Brandi, then it sort of makes sense because from what I have read/heard she has led a very sheltered life with her stage parents convincing her she *is* the center of the universe.

Well, I liked (pre-"Dude Looks Like a Lady") Aerosmith before Run-DMC did "Walk This Way." And Billy Squier still sucks, Run- DMC or not (parachute pants don't make it, to paraphrase Saint Frank).

White musicians with political/social agendas tend to express themselves in terms of subversion of the current order and artistic freedom, because they are coming from a position of relative social privilege. Hip-hop artists of necessity phrase these concerns in far more concrete terms of liberation for their people, and in a more direct fashion, which in turn is construed as aggressive and scary by the white listener and therefore worthy of comment.