I can’t believe that I actually care about this. And I really can’t believe that I’m about to side with Iggy Azalea over Q-Tip… but I am.
So apparently it’s a slow news day. I keep seeing people ranting about Iggy Azalea and how she apparently has failed to address the problem of racial violence from the police. I’ve seen more and more people tossing comments back and forth on Facebook and twitter the last few days and I thought to myself “that’s weird.” Then this morning, my wife actually asked me “hey, what do you think of the whole Iggy Azalea thing?” She figured I’d have an opinion on it, because… you know… I’m like me and stuff.
So here’s my thought: “Iggy Azalea didn’t comment on this. Good for her!”
Here’s the thing… why the fuck does anyone care about Iggy Azalea’s view on Brown or Garner? Remember when I spent like 12 hours watching round the clock coverage of the Ferguson riots and then wrote about it. I assure you, at no point did I ever in that time period think to myself “this is horrible and tragic. I wonder what Iggy Azalea thinks.” You know why? It’s not that I’m not an Iggy Azalea fan. I’m not, particularly. She’s ok. I see why people like her. On the other hand, I’m a huge Jay-Z fan, and at no point did I think to myself “this is horrible and tragic. I wonder what HOVA thinks.” either.
At the end of the day, Iggy Azalea is a 24-year-old white girl from Australia. Do you know why she didn’t comment on the grand jury decisions? She literally had nothing to add to the conversation. And good for her. What was she supposed to do? Tweet a token “the tragedy in Ferguson breaks my heart” just to show she was thinking about it. Because really. That’s all she can do. The majority of celebrity tweets come down to “Me too!”
And that’s ok. That’s what social media is for. If you have thoughts on something (good or bad), it’s great that you now have a platform to get them out there. I love that. But being mad at her for not bandwagoning is stupid. Do you know what Eminem had to say about Ferguson? Do you know what Jazzy Jeff’s stance is on Garner? What do you think Betty White had to say about Tamir Rice? I actually couldn’t tell you. Maybe they commented. Maybe they didn’t. I imagine if they said anything, they all said “wow, this sucks.” I didn’t go looking though, because I don’t actually care. I feel the exact same way about people who get mad when someone doesn’t address a veteran with “First of all, I want to thank you for your service…” Those words have lost all meaning. They’re not a thank you. They’re the customary opening to addressing someone in uniform. It means no more than “hello” and it’s stupid. At the end of the day, Iggy decided she had nothing substantive to say, and so she said nothing. Good!
Really, I’m mad at @QTip. And I’m a Q-Tip fan. But lecturing her on the way she should be using hip hop for social change?
HipHop is a creative artistic and socio-political movement/culture that sprang from the disparate ghettos of NY in the early 1970's
— QTip (@QtipTheAbstract) December 20, 2014
@IGGYAZALEA you have to take into account the HISTORY as you move underneath the banner of hiphop. As I said before
— QTip (@QtipTheAbstract) December 20, 2014
No! No she doesn’t. That’s the best part. That’s how you know it’s now for everyone. She shouldn’t be thinking about the origins of hip hop anymore than QTip should be thinking about Milton, Shakespeare, Chaucer or Spenser everytime he writes a verse. The most viable thing about hip hop is that it can be used to celebrate the beauty of African American street culture as well as the eternal struggle that a superficial white girl must go through to find the correct skirt that makes her ass look just right when she’s shaking it inappropriately during an oral report in school.
So it’s a good thing, Q-Tip. Stop trying to fuck it up.
I am not sure why I care either haha, but I read Q-Tip’s message the other day. Out of all the naysayers, he was definitely the kindest and most sincere. I think the history is interesting to note, but at the end of the day, you are right, she can make any music she wants, good or bad (we can discuss the quality of her music another day haha!). As a woman, it’s great she can have her approach to hip-hop, even if she’s not saying anything terribly profound about womankind! 🙂
Jen: Yeah, Q-Tip was actually really intelligent about it. That’s why I picked him instead of Azaleia Banks, who, as best as I can tell, started the whole mess. I didn’t want to write about whether or not either of them was vapid or who was jealous of who. I was more concerned with what rap/poetry/art should be used for.
Wait, you’re black? hmm . . . Didn’t notice.
I all seriousness, I wish celebrities would actually pipe down on things like this. It doesn’t need to be publicized what their opinion is. They can discuss it privately with their close friends and family, or just silently in their head.
As far as her having to know the history or rap/hip hop or whatever cultural music she does. I agree that’s a NO! She is a performer, a novelty, nothing more. I don’t feel she is trying to “prove” anything by her choice of music genre. She just wants to ride the fame train for as long as she can and make a few bucks.
Eminem sure doesn’t know what it’s like to be a black kid from the ghetto. His train ride lasted longer than I thought it would.
Also, I think a lot of these “artists” are simply “personas” that they made up and pretend to be. It’s mostly an act, a show, it’s entertainment. People take these type of music artists way too seriously.
Oh, I feel quite the opposite way. I don’t at all mind when celebrities give their opinions on stuff. In fact, I think it’s a great thing. They have a platform so they can bring attention to issues that say, I can’t because far less people pay attention to me. BUT, that doesn’t mean she is required to or honor bound to. She can talk about the issues she wants. Maybe that’s police violence, maybe that’s how nice her butt looks in a short skirt. Her call.
Brilliant cuz! Imma fan! ( not of Iggy )
I remember that PE cassette too. I felt the same way when XCLan dropped To the east Blackwards
I’d feel much more comfortable with Iggy Azalea if she seemed to be being herself instead of co-opting someone else’s accent when she raps. I much, much prefer the Hilltop Hoods. It’s certainly true that she doesn’t have to be mindful of the history of hip-hop when she raps, but, well, frankly, it would be kind of nice. In my experience, rappers who understand and acknowledge the history of the culture make better rap music than those who don’t. Mav compares Iggy not thinking about earlier hip-hop artists to Q-Tip not thinking about earlier poets, but I don’t think that’s a correct equivalence (leaving aside that Q-Tip, of course, does clearly think about Shakespeare because he took the time to note that he is prominent like him.) Q-Tip is practicing the same art as earlier poets, but he’s not practicing the same art in the same cultural context and the art in question and his form of it is not tightly coupled to the culture of centuries old English poets. No one has ever listened to Q-Tip and said “Man, he’s not giving Milton his due”. If Iggy were just rapping in her own style, I would have no problem with it. But Iggy is not just rapping, but rapping in a fashion which is very specific to hip-hop culture. Based only on listening to her, it would be easy to assume that she was a black rapper from Atlanta. If she does that without acknowledging or embracing the culture, we have a term for that: biter.
If instead, you’re doing dancehall reggae, reggaeton, hip life, or rapso, then your cultural context is different and you don’t necessarily need to think about the roots of American hip-hop culture when rapping. But when you do something which sounds just like American hip-hop without considering or acknowledging the roots of it, then you’re gonna piss people off.
Loved this. Thank you.
Side-note: I grabbed Kyprios’ ‘boob’ last week at a party, and he mimed grabbing mine too. Boyfriend was happy. I was completely unaware that he was Kyprios (I grew up with N’Sync, what can I say?)
I like that you managed to group Jazzy Jeff and Betty White together.
Kyprios from Sweatshop Union?
Keith: The problem is what does rapping in her own voice mean? I mean, ok, lets say someone makes the assumption listening to her that she’s a black woman from Atlanta rather than a white woman from Sydney. Why is that her problem? At worst, she’s derivative. So what?
What it really comes down to is that she’s white. In fact, once of the articles I linked to on the blog points out that what she’s doing is unfair because she is appropriating a black sound but using her whiteness to sell the album. I say, so what. They are her tools, why shouldn’t she use them? It’s not like she’s plagiarizing. She’s doing nothing any more wrong than Amy Winehouse or in Living Color.
Art by its very nature is derivative. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Iggy admits being influenced by Missy Elliot. The fact that Missy was influenced Salt & Pepa or MC Lyte doesn’t mean Iggy is doing anything wrong by ignoring them. It just means that she is the next step along the tradition. Take another medium. Say comic books. Every prominent artist from the 70s will say “I was influenced by Jack Kirby.” Every one from the 90s will acknowledge Romita. Maybe today you’ll hear people talking about Adams or Lee. So when you look at Chris Bachalo today, you can see some Art Adams in that… but you can also see the transitive John Romita Sr and through him the Jack Kirby. And for that matter you can see the influence of Da Vinci. That doesn’t mean that Chris Bachalo should be considering the Virtuvian Man every time he picks up a pencil. He is doing something different with his art. He can take whatever he wants and doesn’t want. That’s part of being an artist.
Even though I ignored her (for good reason) in my original post, this all started because of Azealia Banks. And at the end of the day, Banks is picking on Iggy because she’s white and successful. There are plenty of black rap artists that ignore the tradition of hip hop. Q-Tip knows this. Social Activism was never a requirement for hiphop. It was just one part. For every Public Enemy singing about Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos, there’s a Kurtis Blow sing (amazingly) about Basketball. The annals of the form are filled with far more Rappin’ Dukes than KRS-1s. And again, this is ok. There’s no reason to have a problem with that.
I’m not saying anyone has to like her. I’m not even a fan. I listened to her music and she is ok. She shows some talent. I’m not dying to buy the album. But the criticism of her basically boils down to “she shouldn’t be allowed to be an artists because she’s not using art the right way.” And that is against the nature of art itself.
Marli: I’m glad you picked up on that. I for one think Betty White has mad flow!
I was actually more impressed by the inclusion of DJ Jazzy Jeff. It’s apparently “cool” these days to reference Betty White, and I don’t really get why. DJJJ is old school.