(01.09.06)

So today I read this on XXLmag.com ...

My problem is not with backpack rappers. My problem is with hardcore backpack rap fans.

Those dudes kill me. They have to be the most self-righteous Stans under the sun. Let me run down the profile.

You can find these hotheads in the record store copping a holier-than-thou attitude, spitting obscure hip-hop trivia with an almost religious fervor. They are the ones you see in the back of the club, glaring when the DJ drops a 50 joint.

These knuckle-shufflers harbor an obscene amount of nostalgia for a golden era that they were never a part of, and a baffling level of resentment for all that is gangsta and/or flashy and fly. They despise the music industry, without ever having had any contact with it. They romanticize poverty, worship political rappers (who, truth be told, often don't want these guys as fans in the first place), and demonize any artist that doesn't fit into their rigid definition of "real hip-hop." They deliberately ignore anything that calls their limited conception of "real hip-hop" into question. (The Jay-Z/dead prez collabo "Hell

Yeah," for example.) They have little interest in dialogue. More often than not, they are very young, suburban white dudes.

Adam Mansbach nailed it in his novel Angry Black White Boy:

'How, Macon wondered as he cut a path toward the small stage at the back of the club, had the backpack rap set gotten so self-righteous so quickly? These kids were as dogmatic as the bitterest old-school has-beens, oozing with keep-it-realness and wistful reminiscences of a misimagined past in which hip-hop hadn't been shackled to capitalism. The backpackers scorned commercial success and radio airplay—corrupting the culture, yo—but spent all their money on niche-marketed hip-hop accouterments, from breakdance videos to old-school Pumas. They ordered water at the bar, not for fear of being carded or out of desire to stay sharp-witted for the freestyle ciphers to come, but because their giddily professed pennilessness nudged them closer to the underground rappers they admired—rappers who for the most part would have traded all the adolescent-male dick-riding for a major-label advance check and used the money to move out of the projects.'

....

What's unsettling about the backpack boys is that their critique of mainstream hip-hop doesn't actually fall too far from hipster's ironic interest in crunk. Both feel free to mock elements of black culture. Both are certain of their own aesthetic and/or intellectual superiority. Both can't manage to see the humanity of those outside their own narrow worldview.

That isn't the entire article but it can be read in its entirety here.

Now, I thought it was funny that I should come across this article on the very same day that I read Davey D's blog "Conscious Rap is For Nerds" where he refers us to an article that is found on eastbayexpress.com that basically rips conscious rap that in turn makes one think. Well, at least it makes this particular ONE think.

First and foremost, it is no secret that I am a "backback rap" fan. I have always said that I believe that beats should compliment the lyrics and NOT the other way around but I do not believe that is to be done at the sacrifice of music. I am a music fan FIRST. The sub-genre of backpack rap is secondary. Good music is good music, though I do concern myself with the message in it.

With all that taken into account, I must say I agree with the author of XXL's mag's column, Tara Henley. I think she pretty much hit the proverbial nail on the head. The extremities of hip hop, from the hipsters to the backpackers, are really just two sides to the same coin. They (and I include myself in this collective) only serve to perpetuate an ongoing separatism of the music--a separatism that does not need to be there.

Sure songs like the "I Love Fried Chicken Song" (or whateverthefuck it's called) are degrading and demeaning towards a whole race but when we're slinging hate towards one another or an air of self importance and superiority because of our taste in music, we're not doing anything to better it. Yes, I love Little Brother and Lupe Fiasco and the lesser known group The Ill and no, I absolutely refuse to listen to D4L (Laffy Taffy doesn't even shake!), but that does not mean I look down my nose at anyone who does not share these same listening preferences. Nor will I refuse to befriend people who don't share my taste. However, I have seen this segregation in action and let me tell you ... IT'S CRAZY.

For those of you who are new to my blogs or just didn't know, I live in a recording studio. Or rather, stated correctly, when I'm not living in Atlanta, my house in Jacksonville is a recording studio that I happen to live in. With that said, I have a plethora of rappers, from backpackers to "crunk ones" to anything and everything that can fall in between the the two, and there have been some pretty uglyheated (yes, I said uglyheated) debates when the extremities batter horns like rams and lock. It's quite the debacle.

It's never gotten to the point of having to ban anyone from the house/studio but being an observer to some of the words that are exchanged is quite interesting. And several valid points are always made.

But really, what are your thoughts on the whole thing? Is backpack/conscious rap for nerds? And is it nerdy? And if it is nerdy, as my friend Drack Muse pointed out, is that such a bad thing? Especially when it was found in some studies (sorry can't find the link right now) that in a survey or elementary school children, many of them confessed that they "dumbed down" their intelligence as not to be ridiculed by their fellow classmates? And will we ever just get along?