Bully in a china shop (re-edited the 21st)
One of my favorite quotes that Bill Simmons ever wrote was from last year, when the Colts were 12-0 and many were calling Tony Dungy the best coach in the game.
It was something like this: “I think Dungy’s demeanor is a little strange, as he’s top of the heap and he still seems quiet and nonchalant. Can you imagine if Brian Billick was 12-0. He’d be in a bomber jacket, smoking a cigar and demanding that people call him “Ace.””
To his credit, Billick won a Super Bowl, but it was against one of the worst teams (The Doug (actually it's Kerry, the hair is the confusion) Collins led New York Giants, who were rumored to be stealing signals and calls, and also rumored to have been forced to lay down in the SB to avoid punishment) and did so by having one of the greatest defenses in history, while he considers himself an offensive genius (he was behind the Cunningham, Moss, and Carter offense of the 98 Vikings that went 15-1and then crapped the bed against the dirty bird falcons, denying us what would have been the best Super Bowl match up ever against the 14-2 defending champ Broncos), the 2000 Ravens had trouble scoring on offense, but that’s the nature of a guy like Billick, to take credit when it comes his way.
He still swaggers with abnormal confidence, even as his team fails to make the playoffs two years in a row, and still hasn’t gotten anything out of their QB of the Future time and time again.
This is a guy that needs to be taken down a few pegs. And taken down often.
Seeing as I watch the NFL network about as much as I watch MTV’s video channels, it’s hard to miss the collective arrogance in most of Hip Hop today.
It’s bordering on suffocating, as each new rapper that hits with a single suddenly acts like he’s the Don of all Dons, referring to themselves in Gotti-esque terms and appearing in videos and shoots in Tony Montana style.
Side note, can we please address the Tony Montana fascination. I get it, he comes from the Street and makes his millions. But along the way, he kills his best friend, tries to sleep with his sister, argues for 20 minutes about money laundering, and then dies. What part of that translates from the Streets? At least in Godfather 1 and 2 Michael lives.
You gotta wonder, what the end game is for most Rappers?
Pac, Biggie, Jam Master J – dead.
Shyne, C-Murder, possibly Cassidy – in Jail.
Jay Z can’t stay retired, even though he is worth +300 mil.
Run wants to stay in the light, and takes the reality outlet.
Eminem quits, only to remarry and re-divorce, but I guess, he is likely to stay gone.
Unlike their Rock forerunners who stayed rich and busy by touring to the now wealthy and desperate-to-feel-young boomers, most rappers either suck live (so that’s out) or plan on making money off clothing lines. It may be out of a lack of information on my part, but is there any rap group out there that has that road-warrior tour mentality of a Metallica, Springsteen, or Pearl Jam. I can think of the Roots, maybe, but is there a Grateful Dead or Phish of the hip-hop world? Sure it's totally lame to be putting out album's like David Gilmore's On an Island or making songs for Jaguar when you used to be in The Police, and of course to be touring to women who have popped out kids who find your music totally hilarious, but it's better than an office job.
I guess it’s something we will find out soon enough, as Jay Z heads into the 40/40 club for his 40th Birthday in 3 years.
The rise of the prominence of Elder Statesman in rap is something I’m actually looking forward to, as it may be the time some of them are forced to open up their writing to new topics. It could be downright hilarious or it could be the shot in the arm that progresses the medium to another evolution. It may be a huge factor in the What’s Next for hip hop in the coming five years.
And it could very well spell the end of hip-hop as we know it, as each new wave of talent will struggle to get dominance, only to cede the throne 2 years later. Jay – Z was around for 10 plus years, which seems like an eternity compared to his contemporaries. Only LL has been around longer and in a high level of fame, but also was able to stay big because he actually made the leap to film and TV (anyone else remember In Da House, yeah I thought not). Change is coming, and it might involve the lack of former stars. Can you imagine an artist like Young Jeezy turning 35/getting married? Who is going to take care of his entourage? MTV needs, no must, film moments like this. Shit, DMX has some 70 or so in his click, how much longer can he keep them around before the well dries up for him. Dumb as they were, Motley Crue got the notion of having girls instead of guys around; all they had to pay for was booze and prophylactics for one or two girls.
Back to Billick for a bit, as I see a lot of him in Rick Ross; the way both of them interview is not so much a Q&A style, but a Q& Testify mode of conversation, where they present answers as fact, they don’t fail because of their product, they fail because of others (if they fail). I’ll also note here that Rick Ross takes his handle from the man who purportedly introduced Crack to LA, which is the rap equivalent of Franz Ferdinand calling themselves Joseph Stalin instead.
Rick Ross is in this month’s Vice Magazine talking about Cops and his life as a Boss. Part of it is interesting as he does actually have a real background in this (opposed to Tupac, who did the whole Gansgta act in reverse), and he does drop some MIA lingo about deals, but for most of the article, he preaches about the issue of the Conspiracy law, and how it punishes people who didn’t actually commit crimes, they only talk about it. (Attempted murder, what is that. Do they give Nobel Prizes for Attempted Science – Sideshow Bob)
The interviewer brings up Shyne and Lil Kim, as two stars who went to jail instead of implicating others, and Ross runs with it for a bit. He’s a big fan of the Stop Snitching movement, which bothers me more than any of the other trends in hip hop today. While it made him an ever bigger star in the hood, it severely hurt Carmello’s rep to Madison Ave and to the League Officials (he was just as much a force for the dress code as AI was because of the video).
The Stop Snitching idea is terribly damaging as it only serves to keep the criminals and thug mindset in power, and it also tacitly promotes the lifestyle by preventing checks and balances against it.
And I go back to Rick Ross and the Scarface thought, because I don’t see where he or other rappers are going to go in 10 years when their career window closes. In Out Of Sight, Clooney asks Ving Rhames: “Have you ever heard of a guy who actually got the last big score?” The way Rick Ross talks and acts, I get the notion he has no intention of changing, he’ll stay on the other side of the law as long as he can, possibly to his death.
And the biggest corollary I can think of is that of a bully on the schoolyard. Bullies are bigger and stronger, and smart or not, they do not tend to be academic types. Eschewing book smarts for street smarts, they succeed by intimidation and thrive on fear. The practice of Stop Snitching is just another way to keep the bully in power, by tying their safety to a notion of cultural identity, making one not just a rat for doing so, but going against your own if you want a better life for your community. A bully can only get so far in life on their own, they have to depend on others to keep them in power. Kim Jong is doing it through torture and oppression; dealers do it by claiming they are part of the fabric of where they deal. Rick Ross is doing it by pushing his criminality as a part of his ethnic roots. Musicality be damned, as long as the moneys coming in for a hustler, the art seems to fall by the wayside.
Bullies always fall from power in the end. They never stay at the top because eventually people turn away, or someone removes them from power. The former course has been eliminated by logic along the “Don’t hate the player, hate the game” philosophy, but the latter option has a near equal success ratio, as it’s going to take a Nirvana vs. Hair Metal-esque revolution to get rid of the Bling Heavy rap world, and it’s got to come from within hip-hop. I don’t see this as a likely occurrence, not because of the artists themselves, but because of the delivery system (the labels) and the increasingly splintered music world.
As little as 8 years ago, people didn’t download music. Individuals did, but people didn’t. It’s all part of the Culture of Choice, and Klosterman may have nailed Hey Ya as the closest thing to a universal single since Napster, and also noting that 50 people he knew had never heard of the song or the artist. When you notice that High School Musical is atop the Billboard list and yet I know 99% of the people I work with haven’t heard of it, it’s easy to note that there are so many places to get music these days, the odds of meeting people here in the States who even know of an artist you like is going to diminish every year. The hipster’s are going to go nuts, because no one will have heard of anything.
Odds are that by the time Rick Ross makes two more albums, he’ll be irrelevant to the music scene. Not on talent, but on the simple shelf life of all music acts.
And if you the reader are wondering why I am once again writing about Hip Hop, the short answer is because I like to write about it, I find the whole world fascinating, mainly because it’s the most dominating force in the music world today, or at least the most heavily covered/broadcast.
The longer answer involves me wondering why the hell rock music isn’t as prominent, or in another way, why are so many of the major American acts so feminine. Why the hell are Panic! At the Disco and Fallout Boy going against Yung Joc and Rick Ross. Can’t we at least put Wolfmother or the Rakes up there? And why do we as rock fans turn on our bands and yet rap fans barely do? I mean is there a Non-Union equivalent of INLY somewhere who hates on Cam’ron like I do Tom DeLounge?
And I came upon the starting point for all of this. Or at least I am going to pin the blame on this one person, truth be damned.
Listening to Alanis Morrisette today, I came to the conclusion. This was the flashpoint. I think her raw anger and feistiness scared the living shit out of every white male. We knew that we couldn’t keep being the same type of male, and we tried to turn sensitive because the 80’s movies we watched told us the nice guys finished first and the fear of getting the revenge treatment from an Alanis spurred us on.
This whole shift might have been laid in the groundwork of grunge, but at least that rocked, something you can’t say about… most every band since 1997. Radiohead doesn’t rock, The Strokes are almost anti-rock, The Rapture, The Firey Furnaces, and Arcade Fire are intellectual sad bastard music, even if they rock in moments. We’re left with The Darkness, Tenacious D, and Andrew WK, which means we are almost laughing with them as we rock. Wolfmother is close, but they need to get a single beyond Woman to start going. Back to the Culture of Choice thing, maybe it’s just the numbers playing out, it’s harder to sell to the widely split 70% than it is the united 13%. We have more nerds like me than their community does.
Whatever. We’ve got bullies on one side and AV geeks on another. Can’t anyone evolve? I am pretty sure Alanis isn’t going to date Dave Coulier again and write another album about her breakup.
Where does this end and, once again why do I care.
I think this sums it up.
Actually that was supposed to be a clip of the older, Black Tri Lams coming to the aid of their nerd fraternal brothers at the end of Revenge of the Nerds. The Link has changed. That moment in the film is essential to my growth and views. but you know what, that clip works abot 50% and I'll keep it in. Ending be damed.
It was something like this: “I think Dungy’s demeanor is a little strange, as he’s top of the heap and he still seems quiet and nonchalant. Can you imagine if Brian Billick was 12-0. He’d be in a bomber jacket, smoking a cigar and demanding that people call him “Ace.””
To his credit, Billick won a Super Bowl, but it was against one of the worst teams (The Doug (actually it's Kerry, the hair is the confusion) Collins led New York Giants, who were rumored to be stealing signals and calls, and also rumored to have been forced to lay down in the SB to avoid punishment) and did so by having one of the greatest defenses in history, while he considers himself an offensive genius (he was behind the Cunningham, Moss, and Carter offense of the 98 Vikings that went 15-1and then crapped the bed against the dirty bird falcons, denying us what would have been the best Super Bowl match up ever against the 14-2 defending champ Broncos), the 2000 Ravens had trouble scoring on offense, but that’s the nature of a guy like Billick, to take credit when it comes his way.
He still swaggers with abnormal confidence, even as his team fails to make the playoffs two years in a row, and still hasn’t gotten anything out of their QB of the Future time and time again.
This is a guy that needs to be taken down a few pegs. And taken down often.
Seeing as I watch the NFL network about as much as I watch MTV’s video channels, it’s hard to miss the collective arrogance in most of Hip Hop today.
It’s bordering on suffocating, as each new rapper that hits with a single suddenly acts like he’s the Don of all Dons, referring to themselves in Gotti-esque terms and appearing in videos and shoots in Tony Montana style.
Side note, can we please address the Tony Montana fascination. I get it, he comes from the Street and makes his millions. But along the way, he kills his best friend, tries to sleep with his sister, argues for 20 minutes about money laundering, and then dies. What part of that translates from the Streets? At least in Godfather 1 and 2 Michael lives.
You gotta wonder, what the end game is for most Rappers?
Pac, Biggie, Jam Master J – dead.
Shyne, C-Murder, possibly Cassidy – in Jail.
Jay Z can’t stay retired, even though he is worth +300 mil.
Run wants to stay in the light, and takes the reality outlet.
Eminem quits, only to remarry and re-divorce, but I guess, he is likely to stay gone.
Unlike their Rock forerunners who stayed rich and busy by touring to the now wealthy and desperate-to-feel-young boomers, most rappers either suck live (so that’s out) or plan on making money off clothing lines. It may be out of a lack of information on my part, but is there any rap group out there that has that road-warrior tour mentality of a Metallica, Springsteen, or Pearl Jam. I can think of the Roots, maybe, but is there a Grateful Dead or Phish of the hip-hop world? Sure it's totally lame to be putting out album's like David Gilmore's On an Island or making songs for Jaguar when you used to be in The Police, and of course to be touring to women who have popped out kids who find your music totally hilarious, but it's better than an office job.
I guess it’s something we will find out soon enough, as Jay Z heads into the 40/40 club for his 40th Birthday in 3 years.
The rise of the prominence of Elder Statesman in rap is something I’m actually looking forward to, as it may be the time some of them are forced to open up their writing to new topics. It could be downright hilarious or it could be the shot in the arm that progresses the medium to another evolution. It may be a huge factor in the What’s Next for hip hop in the coming five years.
And it could very well spell the end of hip-hop as we know it, as each new wave of talent will struggle to get dominance, only to cede the throne 2 years later. Jay – Z was around for 10 plus years, which seems like an eternity compared to his contemporaries. Only LL has been around longer and in a high level of fame, but also was able to stay big because he actually made the leap to film and TV (anyone else remember In Da House, yeah I thought not). Change is coming, and it might involve the lack of former stars. Can you imagine an artist like Young Jeezy turning 35/getting married? Who is going to take care of his entourage? MTV needs, no must, film moments like this. Shit, DMX has some 70 or so in his click, how much longer can he keep them around before the well dries up for him. Dumb as they were, Motley Crue got the notion of having girls instead of guys around; all they had to pay for was booze and prophylactics for one or two girls.
Back to Billick for a bit, as I see a lot of him in Rick Ross; the way both of them interview is not so much a Q&A style, but a Q& Testify mode of conversation, where they present answers as fact, they don’t fail because of their product, they fail because of others (if they fail). I’ll also note here that Rick Ross takes his handle from the man who purportedly introduced Crack to LA, which is the rap equivalent of Franz Ferdinand calling themselves Joseph Stalin instead.
Rick Ross is in this month’s Vice Magazine talking about Cops and his life as a Boss. Part of it is interesting as he does actually have a real background in this (opposed to Tupac, who did the whole Gansgta act in reverse), and he does drop some MIA lingo about deals, but for most of the article, he preaches about the issue of the Conspiracy law, and how it punishes people who didn’t actually commit crimes, they only talk about it. (Attempted murder, what is that. Do they give Nobel Prizes for Attempted Science – Sideshow Bob)
The interviewer brings up Shyne and Lil Kim, as two stars who went to jail instead of implicating others, and Ross runs with it for a bit. He’s a big fan of the Stop Snitching movement, which bothers me more than any of the other trends in hip hop today. While it made him an ever bigger star in the hood, it severely hurt Carmello’s rep to Madison Ave and to the League Officials (he was just as much a force for the dress code as AI was because of the video).
The Stop Snitching idea is terribly damaging as it only serves to keep the criminals and thug mindset in power, and it also tacitly promotes the lifestyle by preventing checks and balances against it.
And I go back to Rick Ross and the Scarface thought, because I don’t see where he or other rappers are going to go in 10 years when their career window closes. In Out Of Sight, Clooney asks Ving Rhames: “Have you ever heard of a guy who actually got the last big score?” The way Rick Ross talks and acts, I get the notion he has no intention of changing, he’ll stay on the other side of the law as long as he can, possibly to his death.
And the biggest corollary I can think of is that of a bully on the schoolyard. Bullies are bigger and stronger, and smart or not, they do not tend to be academic types. Eschewing book smarts for street smarts, they succeed by intimidation and thrive on fear. The practice of Stop Snitching is just another way to keep the bully in power, by tying their safety to a notion of cultural identity, making one not just a rat for doing so, but going against your own if you want a better life for your community. A bully can only get so far in life on their own, they have to depend on others to keep them in power. Kim Jong is doing it through torture and oppression; dealers do it by claiming they are part of the fabric of where they deal. Rick Ross is doing it by pushing his criminality as a part of his ethnic roots. Musicality be damned, as long as the moneys coming in for a hustler, the art seems to fall by the wayside.
Bullies always fall from power in the end. They never stay at the top because eventually people turn away, or someone removes them from power. The former course has been eliminated by logic along the “Don’t hate the player, hate the game” philosophy, but the latter option has a near equal success ratio, as it’s going to take a Nirvana vs. Hair Metal-esque revolution to get rid of the Bling Heavy rap world, and it’s got to come from within hip-hop. I don’t see this as a likely occurrence, not because of the artists themselves, but because of the delivery system (the labels) and the increasingly splintered music world.
As little as 8 years ago, people didn’t download music. Individuals did, but people didn’t. It’s all part of the Culture of Choice, and Klosterman may have nailed Hey Ya as the closest thing to a universal single since Napster, and also noting that 50 people he knew had never heard of the song or the artist. When you notice that High School Musical is atop the Billboard list and yet I know 99% of the people I work with haven’t heard of it, it’s easy to note that there are so many places to get music these days, the odds of meeting people here in the States who even know of an artist you like is going to diminish every year. The hipster’s are going to go nuts, because no one will have heard of anything.
Odds are that by the time Rick Ross makes two more albums, he’ll be irrelevant to the music scene. Not on talent, but on the simple shelf life of all music acts.
And if you the reader are wondering why I am once again writing about Hip Hop, the short answer is because I like to write about it, I find the whole world fascinating, mainly because it’s the most dominating force in the music world today, or at least the most heavily covered/broadcast.
The longer answer involves me wondering why the hell rock music isn’t as prominent, or in another way, why are so many of the major American acts so feminine. Why the hell are Panic! At the Disco and Fallout Boy going against Yung Joc and Rick Ross. Can’t we at least put Wolfmother or the Rakes up there? And why do we as rock fans turn on our bands and yet rap fans barely do? I mean is there a Non-Union equivalent of INLY somewhere who hates on Cam’ron like I do Tom DeLounge?
And I came upon the starting point for all of this. Or at least I am going to pin the blame on this one person, truth be damned.
Listening to Alanis Morrisette today, I came to the conclusion. This was the flashpoint. I think her raw anger and feistiness scared the living shit out of every white male. We knew that we couldn’t keep being the same type of male, and we tried to turn sensitive because the 80’s movies we watched told us the nice guys finished first and the fear of getting the revenge treatment from an Alanis spurred us on.
This whole shift might have been laid in the groundwork of grunge, but at least that rocked, something you can’t say about… most every band since 1997. Radiohead doesn’t rock, The Strokes are almost anti-rock, The Rapture, The Firey Furnaces, and Arcade Fire are intellectual sad bastard music, even if they rock in moments. We’re left with The Darkness, Tenacious D, and Andrew WK, which means we are almost laughing with them as we rock. Wolfmother is close, but they need to get a single beyond Woman to start going. Back to the Culture of Choice thing, maybe it’s just the numbers playing out, it’s harder to sell to the widely split 70% than it is the united 13%. We have more nerds like me than their community does.
Whatever. We’ve got bullies on one side and AV geeks on another. Can’t anyone evolve? I am pretty sure Alanis isn’t going to date Dave Coulier again and write another album about her breakup.
Where does this end and, once again why do I care.
I think this sums it up.
Actually that was supposed to be a clip of the older, Black Tri Lams coming to the aid of their nerd fraternal brothers at the end of Revenge of the Nerds. The Link has changed. That moment in the film is essential to my growth and views. but you know what, that clip works abot 50% and I'll keep it in. Ending be damed.
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