I will be the first to admit that I like Michael Jackson's music. I've been a fan since the "I Want You Back" days.
However, I have mixed feelings about the new movie coming out tomorrow. I'm not sure that it is an honest attempt to pay tribute to one of the world's greatest entertainers or just a scam for greedy media moguls to recoup some of the money that they lost when Jackson died.
Also, there is the issue of the hypocrisy that folks like Rev. Al Sharpton brought up after The King of Pop's death. Rev. was right, many of the same people who were boo hooin' last July, were hatin' on him the day before he died.
I remember the video channels playing "They Don't Really Care About Us," Jackson's most political song. The same stations probably hadn't played the song since some people criticized the lyrics as "anti-semitic."
A lot of folks hated Jackson's political side that began to surface after the accusations of his having improper relations with children.
Now I wasn't really feelin' all the damage control when he was on the tube talkin' about how proud he was to be a "black African American."
(I wasn't with the OJ Simpson attempt to prove that he was "down with the brothas, either)
But when MJ started calling out the big shots who control the music industry, I was impressed!
What is sad is that the movie will probably make millions more than his come back attempt would have made. To most folks, Mike was a 50 year old has been.
It could be argued that Tupac Shakur would have long been replaced by the Lil Wayne's of the world if he hadn't been killed.
Americans seem to really dig posthumous music.
I guess Notorious BIG was right.
"You're nobody till somebody kills you."
Showing posts with label exploitation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exploitation. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
NWSF Bullet: Nike's Black History Month Sneakers
Gee, thanks Nike! (I think...)
I caught Roland Martin's segment on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, this morning. He had some dude from Nike talking about their new Black History Month Air Force Ones.
http://theshoegame.com/articles/2009-black-history-month-nike-air-force-1.html
Since there are only two days left in Black History Month, I thought it was a little late...But, ok
When the guy said that the sneakers were supposed to commemorate the contributions of African Americans, I thought Tom Joyner posed a legitimate question...
"How? "
Are they going to have pictures of black folks are the shoes?
I don't think that the Nike guy was expecting such a deep question about how a sneaker could represent black history because Joyner had to ask the question again before he got an answer.
At that point Roland Martin came to the rescue by saying that the shoe has a hundred symbol on the back to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NAACP.
(Thanks for clearing that up, Ro. I thought that it was the price of the shoe before tax...)
He also said that the shoe was red, black and green; the colors of Marcus Garvey's Universal African Negro Improvement Organization.
(Psst...Someone please tell the brainiacs at Nike that the NAACP was opposed to the Garvey Movement and the colors associated with it)
Any way, I still thought that it was still kinda cool to put out a Black History shoe. Surely, they must be puttin' the sneakers in hoods across the country for an affordable price of $20 or so and maybe...just maybe...including a black history book in each shoe box...
Nope. They are only producing 350 pairs to be given to black folks who have made a contribution to black history..
I suddenly got a visual of 80 year old Civil Rights veterans sportin' their new kicks and dancin' to Nelly's song "Air Force Ones."
What probably happened is some marketing exec at Nike said , "Hey guys...It's almost March and we haven't exploited Black History Month,yet."
So, they got 350 pairs of old Air Force Ones and spray painted them red, black and green and called the producers at the Tom Joyner Morning Show and got some free advertising on the top rated urban morning show in the country.
Hey, Roland...I'm giving out a couple of No Warning Shots Fired.com Black History Month shoe strings this weekend...
Can I get five minutes on the TJMS to plug my website?
I caught Roland Martin's segment on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, this morning. He had some dude from Nike talking about their new Black History Month Air Force Ones.
http://theshoegame.com/articles/2009-black-history-month-nike-air-force-1.html
Since there are only two days left in Black History Month, I thought it was a little late...But, ok
When the guy said that the sneakers were supposed to commemorate the contributions of African Americans, I thought Tom Joyner posed a legitimate question...
"How? "
Are they going to have pictures of black folks are the shoes?
I don't think that the Nike guy was expecting such a deep question about how a sneaker could represent black history because Joyner had to ask the question again before he got an answer.
At that point Roland Martin came to the rescue by saying that the shoe has a hundred symbol on the back to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NAACP.
(Thanks for clearing that up, Ro. I thought that it was the price of the shoe before tax...)
He also said that the shoe was red, black and green; the colors of Marcus Garvey's Universal African Negro Improvement Organization.
(Psst...Someone please tell the brainiacs at Nike that the NAACP was opposed to the Garvey Movement and the colors associated with it)
Any way, I still thought that it was still kinda cool to put out a Black History shoe. Surely, they must be puttin' the sneakers in hoods across the country for an affordable price of $20 or so and maybe...just maybe...including a black history book in each shoe box...
Nope. They are only producing 350 pairs to be given to black folks who have made a contribution to black history..
I suddenly got a visual of 80 year old Civil Rights veterans sportin' their new kicks and dancin' to Nelly's song "Air Force Ones."
What probably happened is some marketing exec at Nike said , "Hey guys...It's almost March and we haven't exploited Black History Month,yet."
So, they got 350 pairs of old Air Force Ones and spray painted them red, black and green and called the producers at the Tom Joyner Morning Show and got some free advertising on the top rated urban morning show in the country.
Hey, Roland...I'm giving out a couple of No Warning Shots Fired.com Black History Month shoe strings this weekend...
Can I get five minutes on the TJMS to plug my website?
Sunday, December 7, 2008
White Daddies, Pink Caddies and Black Bastards
White Daddies, Pink Caddies and Black Bastards:
The Truth Behind Cadillac Records
Paul Scott
There is a scene from the new movie, Cadillac Records where disc jockey and payola hustler, Alan Freed tells Rock and Roll pioneer, Chuck Berry , that he is going to make him famous but tells record label owner, Leonard Chess that he is going to make him rich.
Although the movie takes place in the 1950's, we see the same power relationships happening within black music today, especially Hip Hop.
Cadillac Records tells the story of the rise and fall of one of the early exploiters of black talent, Chess records. The company was owned by Leonard Chess, a Jewish immigrant with an ear for black music, which at that time was referred to as "race music."
The movie chronicles the careers of such blues artists such as Muddy Waters, Lil Walter, Howlin' Wolf and Etta James, the founders of what would become known as Rock and Roll. While the film deals with multiple topics such as rocky relationships and drug abuse issues that have plagued many artists, the moral of the story is the commercial root of the exploitation of black talent by whites. Unfortunately, since many young Hip Hop heads will only go to the movie to gaze at Sasha Fierce (I mean Beyonce), who plays Etta James, this theme will be missed , as well as its connection to the Hip Hop empire of today.
While the movie deals, primarily, with the period just before the rise of the Rock and Roll era , the origin of the exploitation of black music started with the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.
In his outstanding book , "White Labor, Black Wealth: The Search for Power and Economic Justice," Dr. Claud Anderson traces the roots of white fascination with black music back to the slave ships when the captains let the captives blow off some steam during rituals known as "dancing the slaves." This trend continued on to the plantations when the enslaved Africans' renditions of "Camp Town Lady" helped the plantation owners get their party on.
As pointed out in the movie, during the early years of Rock, white artists like Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones "borrowed" the styles of black artists like Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, quickly diminishing their value in an industry that would much more readily accept white artists who could sing "black" instead of blacks, themselves.
Also, the black artists often signed weak contracts that paid them only a fraction of what white record owners, who didn't sing one note, were making from their talent.
According to Fredric Dannen's book, "Hit Men," which goes into detail about the rise of the major labels, while the early record executives, such as the owners of Chess, King and Savoy Records saw that race music had a bright future "many of them were crooks...their victims were usually poor blacks."
As in the movie, Dannen goes on to write that a black artist would get tricked into getting paid with a big shiny "Cadillac worth a fraction of what he was owed."
This leads us to the Hip Hop Era, where white corporations found a new source of black talent to exploit that came gift wrapped with a low overhead and an already established fan base.
So just like in the 50's, black Hip Hop artists are still selling their souls, both liberally and figuratively, for Cadillacs in the form of pimped out Escalades.
Although, some may point to the early success of small record labels such as Enjoy and Sugar Hill Records as examples of black economic empowerment with the popularity of their early Hip Hop releases, it was not until Hip Hop began to cross over to the white market that the mansions and limousines that many Bronx teens rapped about became a reality. The crossover appeal of Hip Hop was not so much because of the talent of the black artists but "culture bandits," as writer Del Jones once referred to them, such as the Beastie Boys and later Vanilla Ice.
As much as many Conservatives have decried the rise of "gangsta rap" in the late 80's/early 90's as some kind of moral deficiency on the behalf of black folks, they often overlooked the white financed origins of the genre by record moguls such as Jerry Heller (Ruthless Records) and Jimmy Iovine (distribution of Death Row Records.)
What should also be noted is that while the destructive lifestyles of the early black artists, though tolerated, were bad for the bottom line, as in Chuck Berry's imprisonment and Etta James' drug addiction, the self destructive lifestyles of the Hip Hop artists were seen as a boost for record sells. If we look at the tragic lives of some of the Death Row artists such as Tupac Shakur, we see that although "Self Destruction" was denounced in a unity record by early Hip Hop top artists in 1988, by 1992 it had become celebrated.
If Tyrone Jackson goes to his job at Mickey D's drunk, he gets the boot. But if TJ, the rapper comes to work high off Sizzurp (codeine and liquor), he gets a bonus.
Also, although there has always been a high level of competition between black groups (check out Funkadelic's 1975 diss to their rivals "Let's Take it to the Stage,), the record labels soon found out that it was more cost effective to add guns to the mix. And when the events climaxed to the predictable outcome, the industry realized that dead rappers actually sold more records than live rappers. Not to mention the movie deals such as Tupac Resurrection (Paramount) and the upcoming movie, Notorious (Foxlight Search).
So, while many black artists of the past were tricked into signing iron clad life long contracts, the contracts of today also cover the after life.
Although, the genesis of the white gangsta rap phenomenon was nearly 20 years ago, the impact can still be felt today as evidenced with the success of Iovine's Introscope/Universal Music Group's, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent the latest cultural exploiter, Eminem.
But the question is, with all the talent, as well as wealth that today's artists posses, why have they not come together and developed some process of Afrocentric "vertical integration, which Dr. Anderson defines as when " a single entity or group controls all aspects of the creation and sale of a service or product, including obtaining the raw materials, processing and manufacturing then distributing, marketing and selling the finished product."
Perhaps the answer lies in the most symbolically, powerful subplot of Cadillac Records. While the character "Lil Walter" refers to Leonard Cress as his "white daddy," Etta James is in a constant search for love from pool shark, Minnesota Fats whom she believed was her white, biological father.
Until black artists start believing that they can become self sufficient, they will forever be the music industry's little black bastards looking for a white daddy to take care of them.
Paul Scott, the Hip Hop TRUTH Minista's, blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
The Truth Behind Cadillac Records
Paul Scott
There is a scene from the new movie, Cadillac Records where disc jockey and payola hustler, Alan Freed tells Rock and Roll pioneer, Chuck Berry , that he is going to make him famous but tells record label owner, Leonard Chess that he is going to make him rich.
Although the movie takes place in the 1950's, we see the same power relationships happening within black music today, especially Hip Hop.
Cadillac Records tells the story of the rise and fall of one of the early exploiters of black talent, Chess records. The company was owned by Leonard Chess, a Jewish immigrant with an ear for black music, which at that time was referred to as "race music."
The movie chronicles the careers of such blues artists such as Muddy Waters, Lil Walter, Howlin' Wolf and Etta James, the founders of what would become known as Rock and Roll. While the film deals with multiple topics such as rocky relationships and drug abuse issues that have plagued many artists, the moral of the story is the commercial root of the exploitation of black talent by whites. Unfortunately, since many young Hip Hop heads will only go to the movie to gaze at Sasha Fierce (I mean Beyonce), who plays Etta James, this theme will be missed , as well as its connection to the Hip Hop empire of today.
While the movie deals, primarily, with the period just before the rise of the Rock and Roll era , the origin of the exploitation of black music started with the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.
In his outstanding book , "White Labor, Black Wealth: The Search for Power and Economic Justice," Dr. Claud Anderson traces the roots of white fascination with black music back to the slave ships when the captains let the captives blow off some steam during rituals known as "dancing the slaves." This trend continued on to the plantations when the enslaved Africans' renditions of "Camp Town Lady" helped the plantation owners get their party on.
As pointed out in the movie, during the early years of Rock, white artists like Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones "borrowed" the styles of black artists like Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, quickly diminishing their value in an industry that would much more readily accept white artists who could sing "black" instead of blacks, themselves.
Also, the black artists often signed weak contracts that paid them only a fraction of what white record owners, who didn't sing one note, were making from their talent.
According to Fredric Dannen's book, "Hit Men," which goes into detail about the rise of the major labels, while the early record executives, such as the owners of Chess, King and Savoy Records saw that race music had a bright future "many of them were crooks...their victims were usually poor blacks."
As in the movie, Dannen goes on to write that a black artist would get tricked into getting paid with a big shiny "Cadillac worth a fraction of what he was owed."
This leads us to the Hip Hop Era, where white corporations found a new source of black talent to exploit that came gift wrapped with a low overhead and an already established fan base.
So just like in the 50's, black Hip Hop artists are still selling their souls, both liberally and figuratively, for Cadillacs in the form of pimped out Escalades.
Although, some may point to the early success of small record labels such as Enjoy and Sugar Hill Records as examples of black economic empowerment with the popularity of their early Hip Hop releases, it was not until Hip Hop began to cross over to the white market that the mansions and limousines that many Bronx teens rapped about became a reality. The crossover appeal of Hip Hop was not so much because of the talent of the black artists but "culture bandits," as writer Del Jones once referred to them, such as the Beastie Boys and later Vanilla Ice.
As much as many Conservatives have decried the rise of "gangsta rap" in the late 80's/early 90's as some kind of moral deficiency on the behalf of black folks, they often overlooked the white financed origins of the genre by record moguls such as Jerry Heller (Ruthless Records) and Jimmy Iovine (distribution of Death Row Records.)
What should also be noted is that while the destructive lifestyles of the early black artists, though tolerated, were bad for the bottom line, as in Chuck Berry's imprisonment and Etta James' drug addiction, the self destructive lifestyles of the Hip Hop artists were seen as a boost for record sells. If we look at the tragic lives of some of the Death Row artists such as Tupac Shakur, we see that although "Self Destruction" was denounced in a unity record by early Hip Hop top artists in 1988, by 1992 it had become celebrated.
If Tyrone Jackson goes to his job at Mickey D's drunk, he gets the boot. But if TJ, the rapper comes to work high off Sizzurp (codeine and liquor), he gets a bonus.
Also, although there has always been a high level of competition between black groups (check out Funkadelic's 1975 diss to their rivals "Let's Take it to the Stage,), the record labels soon found out that it was more cost effective to add guns to the mix. And when the events climaxed to the predictable outcome, the industry realized that dead rappers actually sold more records than live rappers. Not to mention the movie deals such as Tupac Resurrection (Paramount) and the upcoming movie, Notorious (Foxlight Search).
So, while many black artists of the past were tricked into signing iron clad life long contracts, the contracts of today also cover the after life.
Although, the genesis of the white gangsta rap phenomenon was nearly 20 years ago, the impact can still be felt today as evidenced with the success of Iovine's Introscope/Universal Music Group's, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent the latest cultural exploiter, Eminem.
But the question is, with all the talent, as well as wealth that today's artists posses, why have they not come together and developed some process of Afrocentric "vertical integration, which Dr. Anderson defines as when " a single entity or group controls all aspects of the creation and sale of a service or product, including obtaining the raw materials, processing and manufacturing then distributing, marketing and selling the finished product."
Perhaps the answer lies in the most symbolically, powerful subplot of Cadillac Records. While the character "Lil Walter" refers to Leonard Cress as his "white daddy," Etta James is in a constant search for love from pool shark, Minnesota Fats whom she believed was her white, biological father.
Until black artists start believing that they can become self sufficient, they will forever be the music industry's little black bastards looking for a white daddy to take care of them.
Paul Scott, the Hip Hop TRUTH Minista's, blog is http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Friday, November 28, 2008
NWSF Bullet: Are Black Youth Walking Billboards ?
Back in the day, Run from Run DMC once rapped:
"Calvin Klein's no friend of mine. Don't want nobody's name on my behind."
That was before Hip Hop sold out to the great powers of commercialism.
Now, a lot of kids are just walking billboards for multi billion dollar corporations.
Go to any mall and you will see high priced jackets advertising every thing from Mountain Dew to Home Depot.
Now, I must admit some of the clothes are kind of fly (from a Hip Hop standpoint).
But paying top dollar to wear a big Home Depot jacket ?
Maybe Tool man Tim from Home Improvement...But Tyrone from tha hood?
That is one of the problems with black culture. We come up with the freshest styles then someone else comes along, packages it and then sells it back to us at 1000 % profit. And our children become walking commercials without even knowing it.
What if black teens started designing their own clothing and selling it to their peers.
Maybe that's one way to put the drug dealers out of business.
If only more of our youth thought like that.
But some do.
Last night, I asked my college freshman nephew what he had chosen for a major.
He said without a moment of hesitation.
"Business and Entrepreneurism"
Maybe, there is hope for this generation, after all...
"Calvin Klein's no friend of mine. Don't want nobody's name on my behind."
That was before Hip Hop sold out to the great powers of commercialism.
Now, a lot of kids are just walking billboards for multi billion dollar corporations.
Go to any mall and you will see high priced jackets advertising every thing from Mountain Dew to Home Depot.
Now, I must admit some of the clothes are kind of fly (from a Hip Hop standpoint).
But paying top dollar to wear a big Home Depot jacket ?
Maybe Tool man Tim from Home Improvement...But Tyrone from tha hood?
That is one of the problems with black culture. We come up with the freshest styles then someone else comes along, packages it and then sells it back to us at 1000 % profit. And our children become walking commercials without even knowing it.
What if black teens started designing their own clothing and selling it to their peers.
Maybe that's one way to put the drug dealers out of business.
If only more of our youth thought like that.
But some do.
Last night, I asked my college freshman nephew what he had chosen for a major.
He said without a moment of hesitation.
"Business and Entrepreneurism"
Maybe, there is hope for this generation, after all...
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