TRP as Wu-Tang Warrior

[MantaRay at aol.com]

PynHeads:

>>This message is as confusing to me as Ice-T's anti-violence rants between
>>songs at the first Lollapalooza, all of which were delivered in front a
>>large tapestry displaying his image on a blazon featuring two shotguns and
>>a large dollar sign. 

Well, Ice-T's anti-violence rants were always targeted within the balck
community,
to stop killing itself: "We're just borthers on the street killing
brothers/In
a system that's geared to kill one another". He had no prblem taking it
outside,
though, "Cop Killer" for example. A massive blacklash was his plan at one
point,
a plan which goes back very far: Chester Himes', in Plan B, felt that was
what
would truly put black people on equal footing with whites, and it was always
the
white nightmare. Ice_t wanted to use that fear as a motivator. But it was,
like
all art in one way or another is, a posture. Holding guns make you look hard.


>>Wu-Tang, like so many other rap acts have a hard time
>>drawing the line between clever channeling and marketable violence. In the
>>post-Tupac/Biggie Smalls era, this is not only artistically questionable
>>but possibly thanatologically unwise.

I agree, although I'm beginning to have less and less compunction over
rappers
blowing each other away. On De La's "Buhloone Mind State" they hold back from
an on-record reprisal because they know it's a pointless enterprise.


>>I
>>haven't seen the white press fawning over Wu-Tang Clan yet because I can't
>>get past all of the stupid articles gloating about how Suge Knight is in
>>prison now or that the LV cops have no leads in the Tupac Shakur shooting.

Wu-Tang gets a ton of press. There's a spread on them in Spin. Plus, they've
been
disbanded for awhile now; there was a vacuum there. Now that they're back
together,
they're everywhere. In either case, the articles on Suge (who is a serious
fucking
thug) and Tupac ARE news; 1)because record company screw-jobs are always
reported
and 2)because Tupac is some kind of martyr now. Kids can't get enough of him.

>>Fugees/Salt n' Pepa/TLC/etc. ad nauseam are pop by the accepted standard
>>and would get press today just like the Platters and the Temptations got
>>press in the 1960s. The negative press over gangsta rap (i.e. most black
>>music that doesn't make MTV/Rolling Stone) is overwhelmingly greater than
>>any real reviews thereof. 

Well, TLC are not rap. They R&B, whatever they say, The Fugees are straddling
that
fence, but they've got some of the goods. S&P deserve whatever they get.

>>Damn right. Try listening to "3 Feet High and Rising" by De La Soul and
>>attempt to decode the speech in it that they developed for their vocal
>>style and compare that to the extensive paronomasia that Pynchon engages
>>in and a few more correspondences come to mind immediately. 

The voice of Reason. If any TRP fan, doesn't have 3Feet in their stacks, they
are
missing crucial, relevant connections. 

>>Yeah, Mason and Dixon pretty much only lands Sonic Youth fans. 

And? SY are innovators up there with DeLa. Shit, Kim Gordon couldn't keep her
hand
off Chuck D or LLCoolJ...

>>Here's hoping that TP secretly goes out on the town with Posdnuos and Mase
>>to plan their collaborative effort. THAT would set the newsgroup
>>a-buzzin'. 

This would be a personal wetdream of mine, also.

MantaRay