Robert Christgau, Das Racist, and Something About Youth Culture

http://flushingexceptionalism.com/robert-christgau-das-racist-and-something-about-youth-culture.html

i thought this was interesting. i don't know who wrote it. didn't know which one of the zillion xgau threads i should put it on. so, there you have it.

This past week I went to see Das Racist perform as part of the SummerStage series in Red Hook. Das Racist is two emcees, Himanshu Suri ( AKA Heems) and Victor Vasquez (Kool A.D.), and their hype man, Ashok Kondabolu (Dapwell). Together they’re the most significant musical act to come out of Queens in my lifetime.

oh come on

(sorry to not respond to the xgau part)

to be fair maybe the author is 3 years old

if there ever were an article that called for a quick and dismissive "tl;dr" this would be it

maybe they are 23? i dunno.

i don't actually find it odd for something to think that! they can think that. is it that crazy? for them it might be very true.

not feeling that article but i like das racist

is it that crazy? for them it might be very true.

I dunno, I just don't like Das Racist. there are a lot of other rappers from Queens! and yes from the About page it seems the author is college age, or at least references graduating and coming back to Flushing.

i mean if he's 19 or 20 he's post-nas or whoever.

Kinda interesting. The discussion with Christgau is pretty good. I feel like the whole essay dances around a thesis without ever really bringing it into focus. Good on Xgau for being up for hanging out, tho.

Every young person who truly cares about rock and roll will at some point stumble on Robert Christgau’s music reviews and get indignant about them.

...am i supposed read past this

*to

well you got indignant didn't you? mission accomplished

"stopped reading, MISH ACCOMP'D!"

i mean its kinda true isn't it? if you are the kind of young person who reads a lot anyway.

yeah thesis should have been spelled out better at the beginning. aren't you supposed to learn that in college? but i thought the writing was decent. and i hate everything.

even if he's 8 years old, nicki minaj >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

i mean i READ the whole thing and i don't go out of my way to read about xgau, queens OR das racist. maybe i'm just bored though. didn't really feel like working today...

more annoyed with the suggestion that if you care about X music you've just GOTTA come across Y person's reviews, or any reviews at all really but i can see how someone pressed enough to write about a reviewer would think this, fine

FINE

99% of "heavy" write-ups on das racist, in a sentence: "wow so they're not black rappers, but they're not white rappers either...boy, there are no answers in the back of the book on this one!"

i mean if he's 19 or 20 he's post-nas or whoever.

― scott seward, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 5:46 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

however you feel about 50 Cent it's hard to argue against his significance, although if the bar is Das Racist i think even Tony Yayo clears it

Flushing Exceptionalism: News and Commentary from the Most Interesting Toilet in New York

dude we are not talking about you with your impeccable taste of music. talking about a college kid who feels out of place in his home town and out of step with his peers. dontcha think das racist would speak to him more than fiddddddy? hmmmmmm?

Together they’re the most significant musical act to come out of Queens in my lifetime.

this is a pretty absolute statement

what i'm saying

i mean he could have said "artistically significant" or pretty much anything not involving the word "significant" and had ample room for subjectivity

no the term 'significant' is pretty subjective too

so I wouldn't get too upset bout it

ok thanks cause i was definitely catching feelings and not just talking shit

np

cant believe you caught feelings on this blog post

love articles about rap bands

guys "I think" and "I feel" aren't necessary to qualify opinions

scott I feel that you're cool but why this thread

he most significant blog to come out of Queens in my lifetime.

I went to college and blogged once

guys "I think" and "I feel" aren't necessary to qualify opinions

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, July 10, 2012 9:26 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

eh i think 'significant' implies some objective weight unless you're saying 'personally significant' or w/e. i mean obviously that isn't the only ridiculous sentence in the article so i shouldn't stand tough on it.

he's still wrong even if he "feels" or "thinks" it. people think wrong things. opinions can be wrong, they usually are, for examples check most of ilm

I like the article cause I like reading about queens history, that shoulda been more of the article

for me "in my lifetime" carried the weight of subjectivity, i.e. an opinion of his I don't have to take seriously but is entertaining enough to discuss on an ILM thread.

There’s this new HBO comedy series called Girls, about the travails of four young women who move to Brooklyn to live and love and learn. I keep seeing ads for it on the buses and subways. This has become the dominant story of New York City today. It’s been here for a while, but now it’s firmly entrenched in the mainstream consciousness. It’s the narrative of a people with a certain set of privileged backgrounds and fall-back options that are searching for a more abstruse kind of fulfillment. They are not concerned with the old American Dream so much as “living the dream,” as the tagline says. Obviously that’s perfectly okay, and there is a place for them in New York. I am happy for them. But sometimes lost in the shuffle are the people like those in our neighborhood, who have been here all this time and live every day in an organic community and pursue very tangible goals.

"Tina Turner's Break Every Rule is the most significant musical act created by a major female artist in my lifetime" = great! Let's discuss this over wine and cigarettes.

I feel the pizza hut I feel the taco bell

one can only think Taco Bell.

"scott I feel that you're cool but why this thread"

you feel right. i thought it was interesting! so sue me. i actually liked the weird structure of it. although he/she never should have tacked the das racist thing onto the end of it. that was dumb. but the hometown thing blending in with the interview that's not quite an interview...i dug that. i might even steal it.

yeah I liked it too scott

I only read the das racist part

I didn't read it, kind of scroll'd it, thanks for the explanation

is there a thread to post cool songs that we've never heard before, I just listened to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAdmzIStZbE

he's still wrong even if he "feels" or "thinks" it. people think wrong things. opinions can be wrong, they usually are, for examples check most of ilm

― max, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 9:35 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

ilm amirite!? ::eagerly refreshes 'truth bomb' thread to check for reposting::

I thought that was an SAT analogy at first

*makes mental note that people on ilx usually narrate actions with asterisks and not colons*

I actually want a primer on narrating actions, I still kinda don't know how to do it effectively

"it puts the lotion in the basket"

here's a start:

*has a fantasy*

The band had a great musical presence to their performance, and they crisscrossed the stage with a magnetic kind of intensity. But I kept looking around at the crowd as well. It seemed like a very neighborly gathering, although of course there were also outsiders streaming in from the other boroughs. Christgau was somewhere in the crowd too. As the show went on, some of the people playing soccer in the nearby fields wandered over to join us. The girls wearing flower dresses immediately next to me were singing along and were so excited to be there. The show was good and I enjoyed it very much, but I am from Flushing and I am not used to being excited. And everyone around me knew the lyrics to the songs better than I did.

david shapiro back

hey, someone in the internet is talking about me! thanks to everyone who took the time to read that long piece. and i really appreciate the kind words from the two guys who kinda sorta liked it. i'm 23 and i moved back after college and i run a small neighborhood website. most of the stuff there is about community issues and stuff (the next post i'm working on is about the chinatown commuter bus wars). not a lot of people read my site and i know shit all about self promotion. but it's a pleasant surprise to see my site get some attention, and if you're interested in community organization and urban history more than my opinions about music, then stick around maybe.

jefferson

keep up the good work, dude!

jefferson

http://media.egotvonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/jefferson_528_poster.jpg

Am I the only one who read the thread title and thought someone was calling Xgau a Nazi racist?

yes