tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/kanye-west-6174/articles
Kanye West – The Conversation
2024-03-08T13:35:33Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223506
2024-03-08T13:35:33Z
2024-03-08T13:35:33Z
Centuries after Christine de Pizan wrote a book railing against misogyny, Taylor Swift is building her own ‘City of Ladies’
<p>In her work, Taylor Swift has taken inspiration from women of the past, including actress <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/lyrics/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department-clara-bow-family-reacts-1235607902/">Clara Bow</a>, socialite <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/the-outrageous-life-of-rebekah-harkness-taylor-swifts-high-society-muse">Rebekah Harkness</a> and her grandmother <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-marjorie-song-video-evermore-album-sheffield-1103100/">Marjorie Finlay</a>, who was an opera singer. </p>
<p>But sometimes I wonder what the 34-year-old pop star would think of the life and work of Italian-born French writer <a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/christine_de_pisan">Christine de Pizan</a>. </p>
<p>Back in the 15th century, Christine – who scholars customarily refer to using her first name, because “de Pizan” simply reflects her place of birth, and she may not have had a last name – dealt with her share of “<a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article282745283.html">dads, Brads and Chads</a>,” just as Swift has in the 21st century. </p>
<p>Thought to be the first French woman to make a living as a writer, Christine compiled “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667679/">The Book of the City of Ladies</a>” in 1405 to challenge the negative stereotypes of women in the Middle Ages. In it, she offers dozens of examples of accomplished women found throughout history, including queens, saints, warriors and poets. </p>
<p>Christine’s writings continue to resonate – especially with women – and are used widely in college courses on women and gender. I recently used excerpts from “The Book of the City of Ladies” in my course on women and gender in early modern Europe.</p>
<p>In reflecting on Christine’s writings from over 600 years ago, I am struck by how she recognized the pernicious effects of attacks on women’s intellect and accomplishments – the ways in which they could be internalized and accepted if women did not challenge the stereotypes. </p>
<h2>Building the ‘City of Ladies’</h2>
<p>Christine de Pizan was born in Italy but spent much of her life in the royal court of France during the rule of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valois-dynasty">the House of Valois</a>. </p>
<p>Her father, a court physician and astrologer, encouraged her education alongside her brothers. She had three children with her husband, a French royal secretary named Etienne de Castel, who died when Christine was just 25 years old.</p>
<p>Widowed and facing the prospect of raising and financially supporting children on her own, she turned to composing works that appealed to elites, resulting in commissions from patrons. She wrote on a variety of topics, including <a href="https://roseandchess.lib.uchicago.edu/rose.html">a poem celebrating Joan of Arc’s success on the battlefield</a>.</p>
<p>But her most ambitious and enduring work is “The Book of the City of Ladies.” </p>
<p>Discouraged by all the misogyny she had read, Christine whimsically claimed that she had received a vision from three ladies: Reason, Rectitude and Justice, who tasked her with the project.</p>
<p>By gathering stories about the accomplishments of women, Christine set out to build an allegorical city where women and their achievements would be safe from the insults and slander of men. </p>
<p>In “The City,” she specifically referenced “<a href="http://www.theabsolute.net/misogyny/matheol.html">The Lamentations of Matheolus</a>,” from 1295, a lengthy essay written in Latin by a cleric from Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Its French translation from the late 1300s would have been the version Christine read. </p>
<p>It is full of hateful views of women, but Matheolus saves most of his ire for wives.</p>
<p>“Anyone who wishes to immolate himself on the altar of marriage will have a lot to put up with,” he writes, adding that the torture of marriage “is worse than the torments of hell.” He derides women as “always quarrelsome … cruel, and shrewish” – “terribly perverse” individuals who have “deceived all the greatest men in the world.”</p>
<p>Matheolus was not alone in his low views of women. Other popular writings of the time included Jean de Meun’s “<a href="https://roseandchess.lib.uchicago.edu/rose.html">The Romance of the Rose</a>,” which portrayed women as untrustworthy and jealous, and an anonymous treatise, “<a href="https://pius.slu.edu/special-collections/?p=4037">On the Secrets of Women</a>,” which offered misinformation about the biology of women. </p>
<p>With so much misogyny coming from so many sources, Christine acknowledged how easy it was for women to believe what was said about them: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It’s no wonder that women have been the losers in the war against them since the envious slanderers and vicious traitors who criticize them have been allowed to aim all manner of weapons at their defenseless targets.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Christine recognized the reasons behind this widespread misogyny: Women who were smarter and kinder than men were seen as a threat and a challenge to <a href="https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/women-in-medieval-literature-and-society/">the established patriarchy</a> of Western society. </p>
<h2>Taylor Swift’s ‘big ole city’</h2>
<p>Like Christine, Swift is a gifted writer who began making a living with her pen when she was a teenager. </p>
<p>She has built her own city of sorts to protect her reputation, her music and her self-esteem.</p>
<p>In her 2020 documentary “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11388580/">Miss Americana</a>,” Swift opens up about her struggles with media scrutiny, which contributed to an eating disorder. In it, she describes herself as “trying to deprogram the misogyny in my own brain.”</p>
<p>She <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/arts/music/taylor-swift-trial-jury-verdict.html">sued a DJ that groped her and won</a>, leading to her being featured as one of the “silence breakers” <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/6/16742166/taylor-swift-time-magazine-person-year-2017-silence-breaker-me-too">on the cover</a> of Time magazine in 2017 at the dawn of the #MeToo movement. And in 2021, she began reclaiming her words and music <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/music/taylors-version-meaning-swift-rerecording-albums-rcna98513">by re-recording her older albums</a> as “Taylor’s Versions” after the original masters were sold by her first record label without her consent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tattooed arms peruse vinyl records featuring a young woman on the cover." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580547/original/file-20240307-18-oq6pk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580547/original/file-20240307-18-oq6pk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580547/original/file-20240307-18-oq6pk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580547/original/file-20240307-18-oq6pk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580547/original/file-20240307-18-oq6pk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580547/original/file-20240307-18-oq6pk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580547/original/file-20240307-18-oq6pk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An employee of an Ohio record store stocks a shelf with copies of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ in 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/OhioDailyLife/23ee9d50617546c092a62ec7a51c301f/photo?Query=taylor%27s%20version&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=138&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Aaron Doster</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In her songs, Swift also repeatedly confronts the men who have discounted her talent and intellect. Her song “<a href="https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-mean-lyrics">Mean</a>” is widely believed to be about the critics who questioned her talent, such as <a href="https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2010/02/01/grammys/">Bob Lefsetz</a>, who wrote that Swift clearly couldn’t sing and had possibly destroyed her career after <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/taylor-swifts-out-of-tune-grammy-performance-defended-by-label-201042/">a shaky performance</a> at the 2010 Grammys.</p>
<p>“Someday, I’ll be livin’ in a big, ole city,” Swift retorts in the track, “And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.”</p>
<p>At the conclusion of “The Book of the City of Ladies,” her mission to record the achievements of women accomplished, Christine de Pizan invites her female readers to join her: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“All of you who love virtue, glory and a fine reputation can now be lodged in great splendour inside its walls, not just women of the past but also those of the present and the future, for this has been founded and built to accommodate all deserving women.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Though the City of Ladies was built centuries ago, I have a feeling that Taylor Swift would be right at home in that big, ole city.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill R. Fehleison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
By compiling stories about the accomplishments of women, Christine set out to build an allegorical city where women and their achievements would be safe from sexist insults and slander.
Jill R. Fehleison, Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies, Quinnipiac University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222510
2024-02-19T01:11:58Z
2024-02-19T01:11:58Z
The video art of Arthur Jafa: a counterpunch to anyone who wants to put people of colour in their place
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576121/original/file-20240216-28-6btxw6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C3318%2C1863&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death (video still), 2016, single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 7min 25sec. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Arthur Jafa’s Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death (2016) is, essentially, a music video. Currently on show at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane, it is also one of only a handful of video works in the world that could be called a masterpiece with a straight face. </p>
<p>Set to the booming rhythms of Kanye West’s <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21542-the-life-of-pablo/">Ultralight Beam</a> (2016), Jafa’s work is seven-and-a-half-minutes of impeccably edited montages, most appropriated from the internet. </p>
<p>Black bodies in the turmoils and exultations of American life are shown striving, shuddering, dancing, fleeing, falling and in moments of reclaimed grace. Subtle repetitions – such as alien movie excerpts, police officers abusing their authority, the blistering surface of the sun – function as through-lines, grounding it in unconventional thematic registers.</p>
<p>Jafa elevates the music video while emulating the tenor of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcXTnyCmQbg">sports brand advertising</a>. Sequences alternate between the prosaic and the universal; political reality and spirituality. </p>
<p>The majority of Jafa’s scenes are taken from amateur posts on YouTube, but others bear the watermarks of their IP owners (such as Getty Images, Amazing Space and Movieclips.com), as if in homage to the videos of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/19/elaine-sturtevant">Elaine Sturtevant</a>, a pioneer of appropriation art. </p>
<h2>The depths and virtuosity of Black identity</h2>
<p>Love Is the Message begins with footage of a Black man, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKWmx0JNmqY">Charles Ramsey</a>, who gained prominence for helping a white woman escape her kidnapper after being held captive for over a decade. He tells a reporter: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl runs into a Black man’s arms.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Scenes like this are imbued with racial division, which Jafa compiles like notes in a gospel score. They run adjacent to footage of some unequivocal geniuses of American culture: Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jordan, Aretha Franklin, Serena Williams, Martin Luther King, Miles Davis and more. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576123/original/file-20240216-18-a2azx9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death (video still), 2016, single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 7min 25sec. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These Black stars are shown in all their glory, but their presences are also tinged with melancholy; the shadow of great achievements born from social hardships, or of arrested potentiality. </p>
<p>Days after the presidential victory of Donald Trump, Jafa, at the ripe age of 56, first exhibited Love Is the Message in his New York solo debut. There it embodied public outrage over the 2014 deaths of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/us/eric-garner-police-shootings.html">Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner</a> at the hands of white police officers, anticipating the then incoming government’s indifference to matters of racial injustice. </p>
<p>Described by critic Roberta Smith as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/arts/design/what-to-see-in-new-york-city-galleries-this-week.html">unbearably pertinent to our times</a>”, Love Is the Message effectively relaunched Jafa’s artistic career. </p>
<p>Before then, he had spent years working as a cinematographer for Spike Lee, Julie Dash and John Akomfrah, amongst others (including second-unit work with Stanley Kubrick). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576122/original/file-20240216-16-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death (video still), 2016, single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 7min 25sec. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recent years Jafa has expanded his practice beyond the realms of live-shot film and appropriated video. He now pursues his unique visual language through a variety of media, including <a href="https://monumentaltour.org/arthur-jafa">oversized tyre sculptures</a> and <a href="https://www.artforum.com/columns/arthur-jafas-new-wavelength-251206/">CGI projections</a>, looking increasingly like a cultural archivist-turned-artist. </p>
<p>In all of this, Jafa examines the depths and virtuosity of Black identity, which, he asserts, is “<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2022/06/18/deep-down-i-feel-more-like-a-thing-arthur-jafa-an-artist-in-search-of-african-american-identity_5987247_117.html">an open ending</a>”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/50-years-of-hip-hop-its-social-and-political-power-resonates-far-beyond-its-new-york-birthplace-209784">50 years of hip-hop: Its social and political power resonates far beyond its New York birthplace</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A time capsule</h2>
<p>Eight years after its premiere, in the exhibition signage IMA director Robert Leonard situates Love Is the Message as a “time capsule”. </p>
<p>In 2024, we engage with the work very differently now that Kanye West, whose music is integral to its emotional core, is a <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/kanye-west-musk-trump-nazism/">controversial antisemitic symbol</a>. Few saw this turn coming in 2016. </p>
<p>That said, even before the Kanye controversies, Jafa’s work was, in part, already dealing with the theme of greatness marred. Its closing scene is James Brown in concert – the soul singer who was <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/james-brown-70-arrested-on-domestic-violence-charge-20040130-gdx7ke.html">arrested in 2004</a> on charges of domestic violence. In addition to this, Picasso, an artist central to <a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-picassos-legacy-feminist-lens">debates</a> about how we should discuss great art made by bad people, is specifically referenced by the album, The Life of Pablo, that Kanye’s song was taken from. </p>
<p>In this sense, Love Is the Message asks us to think about how we might separate our love for the art (the message) from any misgivings we may have about the artist (the messenger). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576124/original/file-20240216-30-yi2h3e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death (video still), 2016, single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 7min 25sec. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As time marches on and the work’s meanings shift, to my mind what resonates most today is its craft and conviction. There is its peculiar imagery and abstruse juxtapositions, the deathly gloom that hangs over its comical and ecstatic sequences, the surprising inferences of alien ontology. </p>
<p>Jafa has long been fascinated with the links between Black identity and alien symbolism. “Have you noticed that 2001’s monolith, Darth Vader’s uniform/flesh, and H. R. Giger’s alien are all composed of the same black substance?” he asks rhetorically in a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62da2cb6a16dcf1cbdfbaa4d/t/6405105d8b8b1614188cb487/1678053470739/zz.+Arthur+Jafa%2C+My+Black+Death+copy.pdf">2015 essay</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576125/original/file-20240216-22-9aako6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Jafa, Love is the Message, The Message is Death (video still), 2016, single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 7min 25sec. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Regardless of where we draw our moral lines, Love Is the Message is undeniably rousing; a love song to identity as an unrestricted thing, capable of being motivated by awe and rebellion.</p>
<p>While not particularly religious himself, Jafa “<a href="https://nowtoronto.com/culture/five-things-we-learned-from-arthur-jafas-ago-talk/">believes in Black people believing</a>”. </p>
<p>His work presents spirituality as a counterpunch to anyone who wants to put people of colour in their place. </p>
<p><em>Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death is at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, until 7 April.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kanye-west-and-wyndham-lewis-how-cancellation-affected-two-artists-a-century-apart-200031">Kanye West and Wyndham Lewis: how 'cancellation' affected two artists, a century apart</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222510/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wes Hill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death is undeniably rousing; a love song to identity as an unrestricted thing, capable of being motivated by awe and rebellion.
Wes Hill, Associate Professor, art history and visual culture, Southern Cross University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209784
2023-10-02T19:23:59Z
2023-10-02T19:23:59Z
50 years of hip-hop: Its social and political power resonates far beyond its New York birthplace
<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/50-years-of-hip-hop-its-social-and-political-power-resonates-far-beyond-its-new-york-birthplace" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Some historians say hip-hop culture all started at a <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hip-hop-is-born-at-a-birthday-party-in-the-bronx">party one hot August night in the South Bronx in 1973</a>. DJ Kool Herc plugged his parents’ record gear into a street lamp and began creating what is known as breaks — longer instrumentals in records created by replaying the musical interludes over and over. </p>
<p>In 1980, the first <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192750303/rappers-delight-how-hip-hop-got-its-first-record-deal">commercial rap record</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-sugarhill-gangs-rappers-delight-becomes-hip-hops-first-top-40-hit"><em>Rapper’s Delight</em>, was recorded</a>. With its large distribution network and popularity, this song reached the Billboard Top 40.</p>
<p>Soon hip-hop culture and rap music became a global phenomenon — leading to this year marking the <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-global-musical-phenomenon-turns-50-a-hip-hop-professor-explains-what-the-word-dope-means-to-him-200872">50th anniversary of hip-hop</a>. </p>
<p>Today, hip-hop culture, and <a href="https://medium.com/just-to-talk-about/the-4-pillars-of-hip-hop-and-cinema-59e99acf73a5">its four main elements</a> — MCing (rap), DJing, breaking (dance) and graffiti, are staples of youth culture <a href="https://www.pbs.org/articles/q-a-chuck-d-lorrie-boula-and-yemi-bamiro-on-fight-the-power-and-the-50th-anniversary-of-hip-hop/">all over the globe</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond being a billboard sensation and generating celebrity artists, hip-hop culture and art are <a href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1152139160/50-years-of-hip-hop">still as youthful and popular as ever</a> far beyond where they originated.</p>
<h2>Social and political power of hip-hop</h2>
<p>Scholars of hip-hop and popular culture, such as Tricia Rose and Richard Iton, have highlighted the important <a href="https://www.triciarose.com/books/thehiphopwars">social and political power of hip-hop</a>.</p>
<p>For example, Iton examines how through extra-political means, such as mass movements, uprisings and protests, Black people both today and historically have used <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/in-search-of-the-black-fantastic-9780195178463?cc=ca&lang=en&">popular culture and art to ignite calls for social and political change</a>. </p>
<p>Created as an <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hip-hop-standing-black-lives-decades-15-songs/story?id=71195591">art of resistance</a> by young Black people struggling against oppression, hip-hop culture has found a home in resistance struggles globally.</p>
<p>As is commemorated in a radio documentary about the rap group Public Enemy, Chuck D, Public Enemy’s leader, once famously stated rap music <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/jun/25/black-cnn-hip-hop-took-control">is “the Black CNN</a>.” He believed rap functioned similarly to news channels through “informing people, connecting people, being a direct source of information.” </p>
<h2>Connecting people, exposing issues</h2>
<p>For decades hip-hop artists have <a href="https://youtu.be/gYMkEMCHtJ4">used their power as</a> popular culture stars to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTuRPuhneAs">influence the political sphere</a>. As <a href="https://www.okayplayer.com/news/hip-hop-professors-in-academia.html">academics have begun to take notice</a> of the power of hip-hop to inspire youth and impact social change, more and more research on the history and power of hip-hop has developed. </p>
<p>Hip-hop is being used for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/17/us/cnn-heroes-alvarez/index.html">therapeutic purposes</a> and can help provide young people with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2014.974433">sense of self and community</a>. Young people have been using hip-hop in their respective communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.992322">to shed light on important social issues and demand change</a>.</p>
<p>Youth all over the world are using hip-hop both as the means and the fuel to fight for social and political change.</p>
<h2>Speaking up</h2>
<p>There are many Indigenous artists using <a href="https://www.complex.com/music/a/kyle-mullin/indigenous-rap-renaissance">rap music</a> to engage in Indigenous resurgence as well as speak up about colonialism and racism. </p>
<p>Artists such as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/music/prism-prize-2023-snotty-nose-rez-kids-damn-right-1.6899919">Snotty Nose Rez Kids</a>, the rap duo <a href="https://www.socanmagazine.ca/news/video-interview-snotty-nose-rez-kids-create-life-after/">from the Haisla Nation</a> in British Columbia, combine socially conscious rap lyrics with music and dancing from their culture, often to question colonial Canadian policies and demand change for social problems. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Q6jZ_nqT94?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Snotty Nose Rez Kids official music video ‘I Can’t Remember My Name.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their music video for “I Can’t Remember My Name,” intersperses footage of performers stripping off western suits and people in traditional regalia dancing. Lyrics like “I’m smudging the dirt off my shoulder” melds traditional practices with hip-hop culture.</p>
<h2>Forging hybrid identities, outlets for stress</h2>
<p>Scholars Mela Sarkar and Dawn Allen have documented how Québec-based rappers of Haitian, Dominican and African origin <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15348450701341253">use rap music to build community and forge hybrid identities in the context of migration, the globalization of youth culture</a> and systemic barriers like poverty and racism. </p>
<p>In Toronto, several organizations offer after-school hip-hop programming in order to support young people in finding <a href="https://www.toronto.com/life/wellness/unity-charity-celebrates-10-years-of-helping-youth-through-hip-hop/article_f2ca403f-5097-5c28-9e93-573a9b42b4aa.html?">positive outlets for stress</a>. </p>
<p>Hip-hop artists in Toronto are using their art to challenge dominant stereotypical narratives of Black and racialized communities and highlight important social issues, such as racism, poverty, violence or substance use. For example, RISE Edutainment offers Black youth a community to use <a href="https://www.breakfasttelevision.ca/videos/this-organization-strives-to-empower-young-bipoc-artists/">art as a way to understand systemic inequality</a>.</p>
<h2>A classic: ‘Jamaican Funk Canadian style’</h2>
<p>To mark this momentous anniversary in hip-hop history, special events have been popping up including concerts and <a href="https://www.torontodance.com/rolling-loud-hip-hop-festival-in-toronto-september-9-11/">festivals</a>. </p>
<p>The Juno Awards 2023 <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/music/junos/2023-junos-will-celebrate-the-50th-anniversary-of-hip-hop-with-all-star-performance-1.6764442">celebrated this anniversary</a> by showcasing some of the talented rappers north of the border including <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/urban-music-emc#">the first Canadian MC</a> to sign an American record label, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1864239259">Michie Mee</a>, playing her hit classic, “<a href="https://youtu.be/ObqLwv7UtP8">Jamaican Funk Canadian Style</a>.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lwB-Fd8CXkM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC Music Video - The Making of Michie Mee’s ‘Jamaican Canadian Funk Style’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Positively impacting young people</h2>
<p>Over the last 50 years, hip-hop has been positively impacting young people who identify with its messaging and find comfort and solidarity in the community it creates. </p>
<p>This culture has grown and spread over the last half-century and shows no signs of stopping. </p>
<p>Hip-hop’s message of empowerment and the platform it provides to marginalized communities means we can expect another transformative 50 years ahead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Lippman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Created as an art of resistance by Black artists in the U.S., hip-hop culture has inspired global struggles and youth culture across the world, including in Canada.
Anna Lippman, Sociology Instructor, York University, Canada
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205243
2023-05-12T12:19:32Z
2023-05-12T12:19:32Z
Tupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ endures as rap artists detail complex relationships with their mothers, street life and the pursuit of success
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525777/original/file-20230512-37636-ry2d6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C4%2C793%2C555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Afenia Shakur (left). mother of Tupac Shakur (right).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In hip-hop music, it sometimes seems as if songs to and about mothers are common enough that audiences might take them for granted. </p>
<p>As someone who <a href="https://music.virginia.edu/people/profile/acarson">studies hip-hop</a> and how it shapes and is shaped by society and culture, I don’t believe rap has ever abandoned the idea that a song for your mother or mother figure is expected of any artist. </p>
<p>The past few years have seen many notable contributions to this genre. Two of my favorites are 7xvethegenius’s 2019 song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNpdTbbCEjI">Black Soul</a>,” on which she talks about the death of her grandmother and not wanting to let her mother down, and Tierra Whack’s 2021 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90BCSVhDu3I">Cutting Onions</a>,” which is about mourning the loss of her grandmother.</p>
<p>Of the long list of lyrical tributes to mothers that rap artists have recorded over the past 50 years, perhaps none has had as an enduring impact as Tupac Shakur’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1ZvUDvLDY">Dear Mama</a>.” The song <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1995-04-29/">peaked at No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1995</a> and has since generated <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7GtJfdmWvlX1ZlKVrOFcFB">more than 257 million streams</a> on Spotify. For comparison, Kanye West’s “Hey Mama” had only a fraction of that at <a href="https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/5K4W6rqBFWDnAN6FQUkS6x_songs.html">85 million streams</a> on Spotify.</p>
<p>The popularity of the “Dear Mama” song will undoubtedly continue to grow now that it shares the same title as an <a href="https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/dear-mama">FX docuseries</a> about Tupac and his mother, Afeni Shakur, directed by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0400441/">Allen Hughes</a>, the co-director of “Menace II Society” and “Dead Presidents” with his twin brother, Albert.</p>
<p>The director also had a violent history with the rapper, which resulted in Tupac <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-tupacassault11march1194-story.html">serving 15 days in jail for assault in 1994</a>. </p>
<p>Contentious relationships may be a hallmark of Tupac’s brief and prolific career. “Dear Mama,” the documentary series, narrates the ins and outs of the relationship he had with his mother. The docuseries deals with, among other things, Afeni’s <a href="https://freedomarchives.org/the-political-thought-of-afeni-shakur/">radical politics</a>, her involvement with the Black Panther Party and the influence her politics had on Tupac’s life and his music. “Dear Mama,” the song, was released in 1995, the year before the rapper was <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/remembering-tupac-shakurs-murder-examined-25-years-later-2427634/">murdered in Las Vegas</a>.</p>
<h2>Sounds across generations</h2>
<p>If the song has intergenerational appeal, that is easily understood by the fact that in it, Tupac raps over a sample of Joe Sample’s 1978 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLtB1pWcS00">In All My Wildest Dreams.”</a> And for the song’s hook, singers borrow from the 1974 song dedicated to mothers, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb92Uh3mQLw">Sadie,</a>” by The Spinners.</p>
<p>Tupac’s autobiographic ode to his mother showcases the rapper’s storytelling ability with vivid and vulnerable details of their shared struggles and battles. His family’s poverty, his mother’s <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/shakur-afeni#:%7E:text=Shakur%20became%20addicted%20to%20crack,leave%20her%20drug%20use%20behind.">struggles with drug addiction</a>, his defiance of authority and the love they shared through it all are the foundational lyrical elements, delivered with the signature punchy grit of Tupac’s singsong cadence. He intones to his “Black Queen, Mama,” and offers variations of “There’s no way I can pay you back / but my plan is to show you that I understand. / You are appreciated.” to punctuate each verse.</p>
<p>Below are some of my other favorite rap songs with lyrics devoted to mothers, grandmothers, aunts and other mother figures who raised the artists through the struggles they faced. Some feature the artist addressing their mothers directly in the style of “Dear Mama.”</p>
<p>Because my <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-global-musical-phenomenon-turns-50-a-hip-hop-professor-explains-what-the-word-dope-means-to-him-200872">academic and artistic work is about “dope,” and hip-hop music as one of its forms</a>, it’s worth pointing out how, in many of these harrowing tales, the men rapping offer similar reasons for their involvement in the alternate economies of America’s illicit drug sales. In most cases, they narrate their activities as a way to achieve a version of the American Dream, which in many cases includes securing a better standard of living for their mothers. </p>
<p>Tupac himself did this in “Dear Mama” when he wrote:</p>
<p><em>“I ain’t guilty, ‘cause even though I sell rocks / it feels good putting money in your mailbox. / I love payin’ rent when the rent is due. / I hope you got the diamond necklace that I sent to you.”</em></p>
<p>In Above the Law’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPvYdnvK9kU">Black Superman,</a>” which predates “Dear Mama,” the group struck a similar chord:</p>
<p><em>“I got my mama up outta there. / Because y’all motherf—ers just don’t care. / Uh, you really wanna know why I sold scum. / Because my mama, to me, comes number one. / Now you sucker motherf—ers don’t understand, / but to my mama, I’m her real Black Superman.”</em></p>
<p>Tupac is far from the only rapper who wrote lyrics about using proceeds from selling illicit drugs to shower his mother with material gifts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rapper Jay Z with his mother Gloria Carter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C17%2C2991%2C2519&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525749/original/file-20230511-17-p5mlke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rapper Jay-Z poses with his mother, Gloria Carter, at an event hosted by the Shawn Carter Foundation in 2011 in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jay-z-poses-with-his-mother-gloria-carter-during-an-evening-news-photo/127579081?adppopup=true">Jamie McCarthy via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In “I Made It,” Jay-Z, who was featured in a 2021 article titled “<a href="https://www.theceomagazine.com/business/coverstory/jay-z/">How Jay-Z went from teen drug dealer to the world’s richest musician,</a>” wrote about how he couldn’t believe he went from his “earlier stages to bein’ on stages.”</p>
<p><em>“Now your lil misfit / make sure every day is Christmas. / Write out your wish list. / Sixes, wrist is / glistening. / You don’t even like jewels. / But you could get missing anywhere you like to.”</em></p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dzf8YhM4K5w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jay Z’s “I Made It”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Along similar lines, and using a similar title, Benny the Butcher created a 2020 song titled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaTbB0qhPYQ">Thank God I Made It</a>.” In it, he raps about navigating racism and how it affected his life choices, but still being indebted to his mother for dealing with all the stress he caused as a troublesome boy – in many ways echoing how Tupac spoke of how he would “reminisce on the stress” he caused his mother and how “it was hell huggin’ on my mama from a jail cell.”</p>
<p><em>“I was raised by a woman, so shout out to single mothers / who had to teach their teenage boys to use rubbers. / Getting calls home from school, then wondering, why she bugging. / ‘Cause that’s just more stress to add on top of struggling. / Few things I wanna show you, cause I feel like I owe you. / You made me the man I am today. I never told you. / Dressed me in hand-me-downs cause you couldn’t afford Polo. / How it feel to see your two oldest boys’ names on logos?”</em></p>
<p>Some artists offer a candid look at the nuanced interactions between mother and son and their respective vices.</p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YNL5DCRNec">Life of the Party</a>,” a 2021 song by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and Andre 3000, Andre 3000 prayerfully addresses Ye’s mother, Donda West, who passed away in 2007, with hopes that both mothers can meet and still offer motherly advice from the afterlife.</p>
<p><em>“Miss Donda, you see my mama, tell her I’m lost. / You see, she’d always light a cigarette. We’d talk. I would cough. / Exaggerating a little bit so she’d get the point / Trying to get her to stop smoking. I would leave and fire up a joint.”</em></p>
<p>While many artists have devoted lyrics to describing the complex relationships they have with their mothers, others have offered more mundane yet vivid descriptions of the everyday lives their matriarchs lead at home.</p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC76jFla_Og">The Weather,</a>” a 2023 song by Black Thought & El Michels Affair, Black Thought raps about his grandmother:</p>
<p><em>“Minnie be grinning knowing I done spent a day of penny pinching and sinning. / See her in the kitchen cooking fish or chicken depending / on what day it is. / If I’m staying there, then yeah, that’s just the way it is. / If she say it is. / In Minnie crib, the time froze. / After sundown, you keep them curtains and the blinds closed.”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From Tupac to Jay-Z, many a rap artist has set pen to paper to pay homage to the women who gave them birth.
A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of Virginia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200031
2023-04-03T09:19:32Z
2023-04-03T09:19:32Z
Kanye West and Wyndham Lewis: how ‘cancellation’ affected two artists, a century apart
<p>It may seem like the modernist painter and writer <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-war-i-and-the-loss-of-artistic-innocence-29862">Wyndham Lewis</a> (1882-1957) and Kanye West (the rapper and <a href="https://theconversation.com/kanye-for-president-the-dangerous-allure-of-the-celebrity-politician-142229">onetime presidential hopeful</a> now known as Ye) have little in common. But their stories are connected: both are known for making controversial statements about the Nazis.</p>
<p>In 1931, Lewis published a sympathetic study of Adolf Hitler, who was then still on his way to power in Germany. Simply titled <a href="https://archive.org/details/Hitler_Lewis">Hitler</a>, his book was politically naive and casually antisemitic. Almost a century later, <a href="https://theweek.com/kanye-west/1017995/a-complete-timeline-of-kanye-wests-antisemitism-fallout">in late 2022</a>, Ye made a sequence of antisemitic remarks, aligned himself with Hitler, praised Nazism and denied the Holocaust.</p>
<p>Both artists faced boycotts and public vilification. In the years after his Hitler book Lewis found himself, as he put it in his poem One-Way Song (1933), “not famous but infamous”. He started to suspect that readers were avoiding his books and that he had gained a reputation for disastrous thinking. </p>
<p>Ye similarly found himself in a storm. Business contracts and sponsorship deals were <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-10-25/ye-kanye-west-companies-dropped-antisemitic-comments">ended</a> and he was <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leylamohammed/kanye-west-suspended-twitter-swastika-elon-musk">suspended from Twitter</a> after posting an image of a swastika entwined with a Star of David.</p>
<p>There are important differences between the two. Lewis wrote sympathetically about Adolf Hitler throughout the early 1930s, but a visit to Nazi Germany in 1937 <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/23166/summary">made him re-evaluate his opinions</a>. He became a committed anti-fascist, rejected Nazism in a book called <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/2395853">The Hitler Cult</a> (1939) and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/literature/english-literature-1900-1945/cambridge-companion-wyndham-lewis?format=HB&isbn=9781107053984">condemned the Holocaust</a> as soon as he learned of it.</p>
<p>Unlike Lewis, who lived through the events as they unfolded, Ye aired his views in full knowledge of the Nazi legacy and presumably in full expectation of the response to his comments. </p>
<h2>Cancellation before ‘cancel culture’</h2>
<p>The different media landscapes in the 1930s and in the 2020s have shaped these artists’ respective backlashes. Due to the speed at which information circulates on social media, Ye’s vilification was instantaneous. Lewis’s shaming, by contrast, occurred over months and years.</p>
<p>There are also differences in motivation to consider. Ye’s remarks appear to be an offensive provocation. Lewis’s Hitler book was certainly provocative, but it wasn’t thoughtless. His priority, however misguided, was to give an <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/erea/220">“objective”</a> hearing to political agendas that could in his view stop a second world war. On this front, Nazism temporarily seemed to Lewis like a realistic prospect.</p>
<p>If the idea of “cancellation” as we know it today had been available to him, Lewis would almost certainly have used it to describe the fallout from his Hitler book. </p>
<p>In seeking to purchase the social media platform Parler, Ye has moved to make himself and others who share his opinions “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63285698">uncancellable</a>”. Nevertheless, media outlets <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a41764688/kanye-cancelled-yeezy-adidas/">continue to report</a> on the extent of the damage to his reputation – and his bank balance – through his “inappropriate behaviour”. To many, “cancelled” is precisely what Ye seems to be.</p>
<p>There is a difference, all the same, between being denied the chance to continue doing something – such as making money from a sponsorship deal or having a certain audience – and being denied the chance to do anything or to speak to anyone at all.</p>
<p>Denial in this sense is not “cancellation”, if by that word we mean a complete silencing of the person under fire. In being “cancelled”, those who are vilified for expressing ill judged or simply abhorrent views usually lose one kind of audience and gain another. </p>
<p>Lewis wasn’t cancelled in the sense of being stopped from doing anything. Despite the backlash to the Hitler book, he continued painting (and being esteemed for his painting) until he went blind in 1951 and he published books until his death. But he did suffer consequences for his opinions, even though he knew that he could transform controversy into an opportunity for PR. </p>
<p>An astute <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/441959">self promoter</a>, Lewis used the Hitler “storm” to his advantage by capitalising in subsequent writings on the hullabaloo it generated. His career may in fact have been helped rather than hindered by it.</p>
<p>Ye may or may not be “uncancellable”, but as history shows there are <a href="https://medium.com/@kiahcato/is-kanye-west-uncancellable-56679cf385b1">profits to be made from scandal</a>. If Ye’s remarks indicate his allegiance to far-right politics and if he intends to run again for public office, then planting the idea that he has been cancelled will aid his cause among a certain voter demographic. Cancellation, as Ye’s example indicates, can loop back on itself to become empowerment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ye-and-adidas-break-up-why-brand-marriages-sometimes-go-bad-191975">Ye and Adidas break up: Why brand marriages sometimes go bad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Comparing Lewis and Ye emphasises differences in scale and immediacy in cases of so called cancellation. It also demonstrates that being cancelled doesn’t mean being banished from, but being repositioned within the public sphere, sometimes at great personal cost. </p>
<p>Their controversies are a reminder that the right to be heard doesn’t automatically entail the right to go unchallenged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Waddell receives funding from The British Academy. </span></em></p>
If the idea of “cancellation” as we know it today had been available to him, Wyndham Lewis would almost certainly have used it to describe the fallout from his Hitler book.
Nathan Waddell, Associate Professor in Twentieth-Century Literature, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201830
2023-03-20T13:02:03Z
2023-03-20T13:02:03Z
Antisemitism on Twitter has more than doubled since Elon Musk took over the platform – new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516136/original/file-20230317-4292-df14ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C90%2C5015%2C3267&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What goes on in the Twitter shadows. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>In the days after Elon Musk <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/technology/elon-musk-twitter-deal-complete.html">took over Twitter</a> in October 2022, the social media platform saw a “surge in hateful conduct,” which its <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/video/twitter-own-head-safety-reported-173641824.html">then safety chief put down to</a> a “focused, short-term trolling campaign.” New research suggests that when it comes to antisemitism, it was anything but.</p>
<p>Rather, antisemitic tweets have <a href="https://beamdisinfo.org/deployments/antisemitism-on-twitter-before-and-after-elon-musks-acquisition/">more than doubled</a> over the months since Musk took charge, according to <a href="https://demos.co.uk/people/carl-miller/">research that I</a> and colleagues at tech firm <a href="https://www.casmtechnology.com">CASM Technology</a> and the <a href="https://www.isdglobal.org">Institute for Strategic Dialogue</a> think tank conducted. Between June and Oct. 26, 2022, the day before Twitter’s acquisition by Musk, there was a weekly average of 6,204 tweets deemed “plausibly antisemitic” – that is, where at least one reasonable interpretation of the tweet falls within the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/legal%20analysis%20IHRA%20working%20definition%20of%20antisemitism.pdf">definition of the term</a> as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews.”</p>
<p>But from Oct. 27 until Feb 9, 2023, the average was 12,762 – an increase of 105%. In all, a total of 325,739 tweets from 146,516 accounts were labeled as “plausibly antisemitic” over the course of our study, stretching from June 1, 2022 to Feb. 9, 2023. </p>
<p><iframe id="ya6mD" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ya6mD/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Finding antisemitism with AI</h2>
<p>To identify plausibly antisemitic tweets, my co-authors and I combined 22 published hate speech-identifying algorithms into a single mechanism and used even more machine learning to see which combinations of decisions led to the correct result. We then passed through all tweets – over a million in total – that contained any one of 119 words, phrases, slurs and epithets related to antisemitism.</p>
<p>No such process is perfect. We estimate our model to make a correct decision about 75% of the time. We also no doubt missed some antisemitic tweets not containing any of those 119 key words, as well as those taken down before early December when we collected the data. </p>
<p>We then used an algorithm to draw out 10 different themes of antisemitism seen in the tweets. Some centered around the use of specific antisemitic derogatory epithets. Others alluded to conspiracy theories concerning hidden Jewish influence and control.</p>
<p>Antisemitic tweets directed at Jewish investor and philanthropist George Soros warranted its own category. He was mentioned more than any other person in our data, over 19,000 times, with tweets <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/soros-conspiracy-theories-and-protests-gateway-antisemitism">claiming he was a member</a> of a hidden globalist, Jewish or “Nazi” world order.</p>
<p>Another theme were tweets defending the rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, who had made a <a href="https://www.ajc.org/news/5-of-kanye-wests-antisemitic-remarks-explained">number of antisemitic remarks</a> after he had his account briefly reinstated by Musk.</p>
<p>Our research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also found around 4,000 of the antisemitic tweets were <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/exploring-hate/2022/05/10/yales-eliyahu-stern-on-antisemitism-and-the-ukraine-war/">focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>. These variously claimed that the conflict was caused by Jews, or that Jews secretly caused the U.S. to support Ukraine. They also contained direct antisemitism directed against the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish.</p>
<h2>Musk rolls back content moderation</h2>
<p>Musk’s acquisition of Twitter came on the back of what I have observed as a decadelong trend among tech giants to take more responsibility for hate speech, harassment, incitement, disinformation and other harms lurking in the information flowing through their platforms. Over that period, companies such as Facebook and Twitter gradually enacted policies to respond to extremism, hate speech and harassment, or increase “civility,” as Twitter itself <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/twitter-partners-with-academics-for-more-healthy-conversation/">described it in 2018</a>,
and built out the teams and tools to enforce them.</p>
<p>Musk, a self-professed “free speech absolutist,” pointed the platform in a different direction after taking control. In short order, Twitter’s independent Trust and Safety Council was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-dissolves-trust-safety-council-2022-12-13/">dissolved</a>, previously <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-accounts-reinstated-elon-musk-donald-trump-kanye-ye-jordan-peterson-kathy-griffin-andrew-tate/">banned accounts were reinstated</a> and over half of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/26/technology/twitter-layoffs.html">Twitter’s staff was laid off</a> or simply left – including many of those responsible for enforcing the company’s hate speech policies. </p>
<p>As someone who has tracked hate speech on places like Twitter for around 10 years, I believe the changes to Twitter’s moderation practices are only partly to blame for the jump in antisemitism on the platform. </p>
<p>The media spectacle surrounding Musk’s takeover, along with his very vocal views on free speech, likely also encouraged exactly those people to join or rejoin the platform who had fallen foul of its previous attempts to confront hate. Our research gives some backing to this theory. Some 3,855 accounts we identified as posting at least one plausibly antisemitic tweet joined Twitter in the 10 days after Musk took over. This is, however, only a small proportion of the 146,516 accounts that sent at least one antisemitic tweet over the course of the entire study. </p>
<p><iframe id="olfaG" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/olfaG/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Little effect on curbing hate speech</h2>
<p>A surge in hate speech on Twitter was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/28/musk-twitter-racist-posts">flagged</a> by researchers in the weeks after Musk took over, concerns the billionaire <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1598755659499044879">dismissed</a> as “utterly false,” having earlier vowed to “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593673339826212864?lang=en">max deboosted & demonetized</a>” hateful tweets.</p>
<p>If Twitter has been de-amplifying antisemitism, our research shows almost no evidence of it. Before Oct. 27, antisemitic tweets received an average of 6.4 “favorites” and 1.2 retweets. Since then, they have averaged 6 “favorites” and 1 retweet. Although such engagement isn’t a perfect measure for visibility, tweets made much less visible to users would generally receive less engagement. </p>
<p>We also attempted to measure takedowns of antisemitic tweets. On Feb. 15, 45 days after we initially collected the data, we tried to re-collect all the tweets we identified as antisemitic. Tweets can be unavailable for lots of reasons, and Twitter’s enforcement is only one of them. Imperfect though this is, it does give us a tentative glimpse of what might be happening in regard to the removal of antisemitic posts. And across those dates, 17,589 antisemitic tweets were taken down – 8.5% of the total.</p>
<h2>Rising tide of antisemitism</h2>
<p>Our findings come at a time when many fear <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139971241/anti-semitism-is-on-the-rise-and-not-just-among-high-profile-figures">growing threats to Jewish communities</a>. In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League tracked the highest number of antisemitic incidents – including harassment, vandalism and assaults – in the U.S. since they started tracking numbers in 1979. And this is not just a U.S. phenomenon; in the U.K., the Community Security Trust has recorded <a href="https://cst.org.uk/news/blog/2023/02/09/antisemitic-incidents-report-2022">a similar spike in anti-Jewish activity</a>, while in Germany, anti-Jewish crimes <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/politically-motivated-crimes-hit-a-record-high-in-germany-57018">surged</a> by 29% over the pandemic. </p>
<p>Studying social media has shown me again and again just how powerfully it helps to form the cultures and ideas that underlie its users’ behavior. Ultimately, the proliferation of tweets that hold Jews responsible for all the world’s ills, that circulate dark conspiracies of control and cover-up, or that fire derogatory attacks directed toward Jews, can only support antisemitism online – and in the real world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carl Miller is a Partner of CASM Technology and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. They conduct a wide range of public-interest social media research on online harms for a range of philanthropic, foundation and public sector institutions.
</span></em></p>
New research shows that antisemitic posts surged as the ‘free speech absolutist’ took over the social media giant. And it has settled at a higher level since.
Carl Miller, Research Fellow, King's College London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198498
2023-01-25T05:41:31Z
2023-01-25T05:41:31Z
Should Australia let Kanye West in?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506269/original/file-20230125-24-azfpam.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=182%2C8%2C1787%2C1386&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Evan Agostini/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just one year after then-Immigration Minister Alex Hawke <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-novak-djokovic-lost-his-fight-to-stay-i%20n-australia-and-why-it-sets-a-concerning-precedent-175038">moved to expel tennis star Novak Djokovic</a> from Australia on character grounds, his Labor successor, Andrew Giles, is faced with another controversial visitor in the form of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-25/kanye-west-may-be-refused-visa-over-anti-semitism/101889728">Ye (formerly known as Kanye West)</a>. </p>
<p>Although he’s both a musician and rapper, Ye may be best described as a social influencer – and one with very <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/ye-kanye-west-what-you-need-know">offensive views</a>, especially when it comes to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/12/02/hitler-kanye-west-black-germans-holocaust/">Jewish people</a> and the Holocaust. </p>
<p>Never one to miss a political opportunity, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, a former home affairs and immigration minister, has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/kanye-should-not-be-allowed-entry-to-australia-dutton-20230124-p5cf5b.html">declared</a> he would block Ye if he had the power. As media interest mounts, Giles, the minister with the actual responsibility here, has yet to respond. Ye’s prospects and travel plans remain in the balance.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-novak-djokovic-lost-his-fight-to-stay-in-australia-and-why-it-sets-a-concerning-precedent-175038">Why Novak Djokovic lost his fight to stay in Australia – and why it sets a concerning precedent</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Denying visas on ‘character’ grounds</h2>
<p>Ye’s case centres on the <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s501.html">section of the Migration Act</a> that permits the exclusion of people from Australia on “character” grounds. This includes anyone who may “vilify a segment of the Australian community” or “incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community”.</p>
<p>Our current migration laws have been shaped by a long history of high-profile, controversial visa applicants. All of these cases underscore the fact that rights to freedom of speech and expression have never been recognised under the law when it comes to those seeking entry to Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506272/original/file-20230125-16-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506272/original/file-20230125-16-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506272/original/file-20230125-16-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506272/original/file-20230125-16-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506272/original/file-20230125-16-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506272/original/file-20230125-16-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506272/original/file-20230125-16-102fb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Irving in 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hans Punz/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the most notable cases involved British Holocaust denier David Irving, whose visitor’s visa was denied in 1993 on character grounds, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=zNx40FbA8W0C&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=david+irving+%22likely+to+become+involved+in+activities+disruptive+to,+or+violence+threatening+harm+to+the+Australian+community%22&source=bl&ots=P34z99iIV3&sig=ACfU3U1ZlTimthxH0Tac4HoKkPvYnisvDA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiMh9_A4eH8AhVXwjgGHdzXDA4Q6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=david%20irving%20%22likely%20to%20become%20involved%20in%20activities%20disruptive%20to%2C%20or%20violence%20threatening%20harm%20to%20the%20Australian%20community%22&f=false">specifically</a> because he was “likely to become involved in activities disruptive to, or violence threatening harm to the Australian community”. </p>
<p>Irving’s proposed visit drew loud protests from various community groups. His supporters, however, funded challenges to the minister’s decision in the Federal Court. In spite of concerns the laws were creating a “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler%27s_veto">heckler’s veto</a>”, the court found no legal error in the minister’s decision. Irving has since been <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/irving-refused-aussie-visa-again-20030117-gdg4ed.html">rejected</a> for a visa a couple more times.</p>
<p>This pattern has been repeated in many other cases, including last year’s decision to cancel Djokovic’s visa due to his stance on COVID vaccination.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/governments-bid-for-an-enhanced-character-test-is-unnecessary-and-unlikely-to-pass-before-the-election-anyway-177157">Government's bid for an enhanced 'character test' is unnecessary - and unlikely to pass before the election anyway</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A failed dictation test in Scottish Gaelic</h2>
<p>Ironically, one of the most famous visitor cases involved an individual who came to Australia to warn people about the dangers of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe. </p>
<p>In 1934, a prominent Czech communist, <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/learn/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/society-and-culture/migration-and-multiculturalism/czechoslovakian-communist-declared-prohibited-immigrant#:%7E:text=Although%20Kisch%20was%20declared%20a,ship%20on%20arrival%20in%20Melbourne.">Egon Kisch</a>, had been invited to speak at an anti-war event in Melbourne. The federal government believed his visit might be used to spread communist propaganda. </p>
<p>There was no “character test” when it came to migration matters in the 1930s, but politicians still played a key role in the admission process. </p>
<p>Instead, the exclusionary device used was the “<a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C1901A00017">dictation test</a>” in the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, which prohibited entry to</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any person who when asked to do so by an officer fails to write out at dictation and sign in the presence of the officer a passage of 50 words in length in an European language directed by the officer. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Frustrated by Kisch’s linguistic brilliance – he was fluent in a number of languages – the immigration official resorted to a test in Scottish Gaelic, a language with which neither Kisch nor the officer were familiar. The High Court <a href="https://library.deakin.edu.au/record=b2084729%7ES1">overturned</a> the decision to expel Kisch on the basis Scottish Gaelic was not “a European language under the act”, fuelling anger in the Scottish community in Australia. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the decision to expel Kisch was made by the newly minted Liberal attorney-general, <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/australias-prime-ministers/robert-menzies/before-office#commonwealth-attorney-general-1934-39">Robert Gordon Menzies</a>. Menzies had learned of Kisch’s earlier exclusion from Britain and considered this a sufficient reason to follow suit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506274/original/file-20230125-12-102fb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506274/original/file-20230125-12-102fb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506274/original/file-20230125-12-102fb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506274/original/file-20230125-12-102fb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506274/original/file-20230125-12-102fb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506274/original/file-20230125-12-102fb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506274/original/file-20230125-12-102fb3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Egon Kisch addressing a crowd in Sydney’s Domain on the dangers of Hitler’s Nazi regime in 1935.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Political calculations often play a role</h2>
<p>The potential for controversial visitors to espouse offensive views has been a concern for politicians on both sides of the political divide. </p>
<p>However, it does seem conservative politicians have been particularly keen to play the character card. In 1997, for example, the then-acting immigration minister, Amanda Vanstone, <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2005/09/visa-s14.html">decided to cancel the visitor visa</a> of US racial equality activist Lorenzo Ervin. The move followed interventions by outspoken right-wing Senator Pauline Hanson, who complained about Ervin’s criminal past. </p>
<p>Like Kisch, Ervin was imprisoned and released after a <a href="http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCATrans/1997/214.html">successful High Court challenge</a>.</p>
<p>Another US political activist, Scott Parkin, enjoyed less success a decade later when he was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/deported-activist-not-violent-admits-asio-chief-20051101-gdmczx.html">targeted</a> for engaging in protests against the US invasion of Iraq. Vanstone (again) cancelled his visa on character grounds and he was removed from Australia. </p>
<p>All attempts to obtain reasons for the decision – or to gain access to his adverse security assessment <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2006/02/09/the-scott-parkin-mystery-continues/">failed</a>.</p>
<h2>Where does this leave Ye’s case?</h2>
<p>Where does this leave Ye’s potential trip to Australia? Unlike Irving, Ervin, Parkin and Kisch before him, Ye does not seem to have a public reason for his visit, such as a performance or speech.</p>
<p>Having married a Melbourne woman, he would simply be seeking entry to meet his partner’s family. This may be enough to distinguish him from these earlier cases. </p>
<p>What is clear from previous cases is the fact the immigration minister has long enjoyed extraordinary power to exclude and expel non-citizens whose presence in Australia might prove unpopular. And these decisions inevitably involve political calculations. Just ask Novak Djokovic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Crock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Character grounds have long been cited as a reason for denying visas to visit Australia. And politics is usually just beneath the surface.
Mary Crock, Professor of Public Law, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191975
2022-11-07T13:35:47Z
2022-11-07T13:35:47Z
Ye and Adidas break up: Why brand marriages sometimes go bad
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492643/original/file-20221031-23-ir8tys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C67%2C2910%2C1926&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ye, formerly Kanye West, lost some of his corporate partners after expressing antisemitic remarks. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/YeSportsTerminations/fb53306fd45643e48955537691a04757/photo?Query=Kanye%20west&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2813&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Brand partnerships between seemingly disparate companies or organizations are all around us.</p>
<p>Clothing retailer H&M <a href="https://www2.hm.com/en_us/life/culture/inside-h-m/co-exist-peta-approved.html">partnered with animal rights group PETA</a> in 2021 to launch a vegan fashion collection. <a href="https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/worldcup/goal-of-the-century">FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, and automaker Hyundai agreed</a> in 2022 to run a global campaign that uses soccer to promote sustainability. Meditation app <a href="https://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/whole-foods-market-and-headspace-team-up/">Headspace collaborated with Whole Foods Market</a> in 2021 to create a video series on Instagram’s IGTV video app on mindful shopping, cooking and eating.</p>
<p>The idea of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1050.0153">two brands getting hitched for strategic purposes</a> is a quintessential marketing tactic. When done well, the collaboration helps both partners grow their brands and amplify a shared message, such as the idea of animal-friendly clothing in the case of H&M and PETA. </p>
<p>But just like any marriage, it doesn’t always go well.</p>
<p>Recent examples of this are breakups between fashion line Yeezy – owned by rapper and artist Ye, formerly known as Kanye West – and clothing retailers Gap and Adidas. Ye said on Sept. 15, 2022, that he <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2022/09/15/kanye-west-gap-partnership-done-ends-terminated/">ended his company’s partnership</a> with Gap because the company had “abandoned its contractual obligations.” The New York Times reported that the cited reasons were that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/business/kanye-west-yeezy-gap.html">Gap had failed to sell Yeezy products</a> in its namesake stores and had not opened new stores specifically to sell them. </p>
<p>Adidas <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/25/adidas-terminates-partnership-with-ye-following-rappers-antisemitic-remarks.html">broke off its partnership</a> with Yeezy over Ye’s recent antisemitic remarks.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://www.ou.edu/price/marketing_supplychainmanagement/people/pankhuri-malhotra">assistant professor of marketing</a> who studies <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7RZwe9cAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">user behavior on social media in the context of brand partnerships</a>. Research shows forming <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2013.0806">partnerships can be valuable for some – but they can also be perilous for others</a>. My recent work on partnerships shows a handy method that companies can use for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221083668">finding potential collaborators</a>, by analyzing who follows them on Twitter and other social media.</p>
<h2>Why companies form branding partnerships?</h2>
<p>Brand collaborations are strategic partnerships between two or more brands to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221083668">boost awareness and increase sales</a> by tapping into the partner’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299305700203">existing customers</a>. </p>
<p>This whole idea of companies pooling their resources to boost their own unique value is the epitome of a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20110704">win-win situation</a> – at least in most situations.</p>
<p>Research shows that these types of marketing alliances have a variety of potential benefits, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.73.5">increasing a company’s value</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0642">bottom line gains</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0642">access to new products</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299706100403">skills</a>.</p>
<p>For brand marriages to truly work, both partners need to get something out of the relationship. </p>
<p>For example, in 2015, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomiprins/2015/05/19/the-spotify-starbucks-partnership-is-digital-co-branding-genius/?sh=117b10e4a7ae">Starbucks began a collaboration</a> with music streaming service Spotify. Starbucks aimed to <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-spotify-partnership">add more customers</a> to its loyalty program by adding a Spotify tab to its smartphone app. And Spotify users were able to earn “stars” for free coffee products if they paid for a premium membership. </p>
<p>Both Starbucks and Spotify <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomiprins/2015/05/19/the-spotify-starbucks-partnership-is-digital-co-branding-genius/?sh=15475f014a7a">had something to gain</a> from their partnership.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign for Adidas and Yeezy sits behind some shoes of various colors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492637/original/file-20221031-20-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492637/original/file-20221031-20-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492637/original/file-20221031-20-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492637/original/file-20221031-20-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492637/original/file-20221031-20-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492637/original/file-20221031-20-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492637/original/file-20221031-20-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adidas said it will take approximately a $250 million hit by ending its partnership with Yeezy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/YeAdidas/074b178f0f324232a7be8686823f2c08/photo?Query=Kanye%20west%20adidas&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=50&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Seth Wenig</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shared values</h2>
<p>But sometimes breakups are bound to happen.</p>
<p>Adidas, for instance, <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/10/25/adidas-cut-ties-kanye-west-after-rapper-anti-semitic-remarks">severed its partnership deal</a> with Ye after the controversial artist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/10/27/antisemitism-kanye-trump-adidas-jews/">made a series of offensive and antisemitic comments</a> in early October 2022. On Oct. 25, <a href="https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2022/adidas-terminates-partnership-ye-immediately/">Adidas said that Ye’s comments</a> were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”</p>
<p>The partnership failed – with Adidas even swallowing a loss of about US$250 million – because their values didn’t align. </p>
<p>That reveals another lesson from academic research on the topic: Partnerships work out best when partners share the same values or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2013.0806">similar brand image</a>, which refers to the way consumers perceive the company. When partner brands’ images are not aligned, consumers are more likely to question why the two companies are collaborating – and this can generate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379803500105">negative views</a> toward the alliance. </p>
<p>A classic example of how inconsistent values can lead to a parting of the ways was the brand partnership between <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/lego-to-end-shell-collaboration-after-greenpeace-campaign-1412845373">Dutch oil company Shell and Danish toy company Lego</a>.</p>
<p>Since the 1960s, Lego has sold toys branded with the Shell logo, such as gas stations and race cars. In exchange, Shell helped distribute Lego products around the world and sold them at service stations in more than 25 countries. The partnership <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/09/lego-ends-shell-partnership-following-greenpeace-campaign">was valued at about $78 million</a> in today’s dollars.</p>
<p>But their brand images weren’t well aligned. Lego, with its colorful bricks for kids, has the <a href="https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2014/10/lego-end-partnership-shell-current-contract-ends/">image of a “friendly toymaker</a>,” while Shell is an oil giant with complicated associations with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/28/shell-ceases-alaska-arctic-drilling-exploratory-well-oil-gas-disappoints">drilling in the Arctic</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/africa/shell-oil-spills-nigeria-intl-cmd/index.html">oil spills</a>. </p>
<p>That’s why Greenpeace launched a petition in 2014 calling on Lego to end its partnership with Shell, which the environmental group said was operating recklessly by exploring for oil in the Arctic. Greenpeace said it had collected a million signatures when Lego announced in October that year that it would not renew the contract it had with Shell. The <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/220234-lego-to-cut-ties-with-shell-after-greenpeace-campaign">partnership formally ended in 2016</a>, when the contract expired. </p>
<h2>Social media followings can offer partnership clues</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221083668">My own research focuses</a> more on social media and the role it can play in helping companies determine who might make a good partner. </p>
<p>Several colleagues and I found that when two brands have a lot of shared followers on Twitter or Facebook – especially when they don’t also share them with many other companies – it suggests there might be a natural alignment between them, thus making them good candidates for a partnership. And a separate study found that a company’s base of Twitter followers represents the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.14.0643">tastes and likes of its audience</a>; thus, more shared followers between two brands suggests they also have similar likes. </p>
<p>It’s one way companies looking for a partner can avoid going to bed with another business that doesn’t share its values or brand image. </p>
<p>For example, as you might expect, Shell and Lego don’t have a lot of followers in common. Spotify and Starbucks, however, do, which is why their partnership is going strong and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomiprins/2015/05/19/the-spotify-starbucks-partnership-is-digital-co-branding-genius/?sh=15475f014a7a">benefiting both companies</a>. They had 299,000 followers in common when we did our analysis in 2020. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomiprins/2015/05/19/the-spotify-starbucks-partnership-is-digital-co-branding-genius/?sh=117b10e4a7ae">The partnership is also an example</a> of how having common followers could suggest the companies’ customers have complementary consumption patterns, since <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2015.0968">most people follow a brand because they like its products</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, a significant share of Starbucks followers also follow beer maker Guinness – about 16% as of 2020 – so it wasn’t a surprise to my colleagues and me that they collaborated in 2016 on a product together: <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/05/31/news/companies/starbucks-nitro-cold-brew-coffee/index.html">nitro brew coffee</a>. Another example of a partnership made in social media heaven is the deal between <a href="https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0169486EN/louis-vuitton-creates-tailor-made-luggage-for-the-bmw-i8-forward-looking-travel-bags-for-progressive-driving-made-from-carbon-fibre?language=en">car manufacturer BMW and fashion company Louis Vuitton</a>, who shared over 225,000 followers on Twitter in 2020. In 2014, they created a line of luxury luggage for business travelers. </p>
<p>We don’t know if companies like Starbucks or BMW used social media to determine those tie-ups, but in a recent paper, <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/00222429221083668">we suggest it’s a smart way</a> to find a partner that shares values. </p>
<p>Just like with a marriage, the consequences of forming a bad match can be costly, as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-09-23/the-kanye-west-gap-breakup-will-be-very-tough-on-adidas">Adidas is learning</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pankhuri Malhotra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
While corporate partnerships can be ‘win-win’ arrangements, sometimes they don’t work out – especially when values don’t align.
Pankhuri Malhotra, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Oklahoma
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191116
2022-10-24T17:03:11Z
2022-10-24T17:03:11Z
How Hitler conspiracies and other Holocaust disinformation undermine democratic institutions
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490176/original/file-20221017-6899-yxtviw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C475%2C4673%2C2668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a classroom with a sign 'Z' on the door used by Russian forces in the retaken area of Kapitolivka, Ukraine, Sept. 25, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin spread an outlandish conspiracy theory to justify military invasion of Ukraine.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-hitler-conspiracies-and-other-holocaust-disinformation-undermine-democratic-institutions" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Godwin’s Law posits that any online argument, if it continues long enough, will <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/memes/godwins-law/">inevitably invoke a comparison to Hitler</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps there should be an updated version: If you examine any given conspiracy theory, even seemingly innocuous ones, it won’t be long until you find coded and explicit antisemitism. </p>
<p>Some cases are obvious. Remember how far-right U.S. congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene embraced the <a href="https://www.globalnews.ca/news/7607501/marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-laser/">“Jewish space lasers</a>” theory after the California wildfires in 2018? </p>
<p>Other conspiracy theories, such as those that claim <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/antisemitic-conspiracies-about-911-endure-20-years-later">9/11 was an inside job</a>, require a little more deciphering. </p>
<p>More recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin spread an outlandish conspiracy theory to justify his military invasion of Ukraine. Nothing less than the <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/disinformation-threat-to-democracy-requires-stronger-response-by-noelle-lenoir-2022-05">de-nazification of Ukraine</a> was required, Putin bizarrely claimed, while neglecting the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/in-israel-zelensky-tells-own-familys-holocaust-story.html">and lost family members in the Holocaust</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-putins-denazification-campaign-hits-babyn-yar-holocaust-memorial-to-33-000-murdered-jews-178403">Ukraine war: Putin's 'denazification' campaign hits Babyn Yar holocaust memorial to 33,000 murdered Jews</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All too often, such theories and disinformation are rooted in <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/02/09/abbie-richards-fights-tiktok-disinformation-with-a-cup-of-tea-a-conspiracy-chart-and-a-punchline">antisemitic tropes</a>. These promote false claims of Jewish control over institutions and even the outcome of specific events. </p>
<p>While it might be easy to dismiss such disinformation as harmless or too bizarre to be believable, in reality disinformation and conspiracy theorizing often spreads harmful antisemitic messages and also <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691188836/a-lot-of-people-are-saying">undermines our democratic institutions</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man seen holidng a sign that says 'We shall not forget.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anti-Nazi demonstration, Carlton St., Toronto, May 31, 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ontario Jewish Archives, item 3076-3077)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Longevity of antisemitic conspiracy theory</h2>
<p>One of the longest lasting conspiracy theories — even though it has been repeatedly proven false — is the narrative of a Jewish world conspiracy presented in <em><a href="https://www.theconversation.com/why-the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-is-still-pushed-by-anti-semites-more-than-a-century-after-hoax-first-circulated-145220">The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.</a></em> </p>
<p>British historian <a href="https://www.richardjevans.com/">Richard Evans</a> will explore the longevity of the Protocols and how they are seen within the framework of Nazi ideology, in Toronto on Nov. 2, <a href="https://www.holocaustcentre.com/hew/featured-programs2022">opening Holocaust Education Week 2022</a>.</p>
<p>Evans’s book <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314851/the-hitler-conspiracies-by-evans-richard-j/9780141991498"><em>The Hitler Conspiracies</em></a> is an important reminder of the perennial fascination with and longevity of the inherently antisemitic conspiracy theory that historian <a href="https://www.commentary.org/articles/walter-laqueur/warrant-for-genocide-by-norman-cohn/">Norman Cohn famously described as a “warrant for genocide.</a>” </p>
<p>As Yehuda Bauer, honorary chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, stated, “a half truth is worse than a full lie.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/most-popular-conspiracy-theories">Myths and disinformation about the Holocaust</a> continue to permeate social media and increasingly, political discourse, even while the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/deniers_01.shtml">Holocaust is one</a> of the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution">most thoroughly documented events</a> in history.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman seen standing at the side of a wall of names." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman lays a flower on the Wall of Names during a ceremony at the memorial garden of the children of the Vel d'Hiv Roundup in Paris, July 16, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Distortion, misinformation</h2>
<p>Whether intentional or not, disinformation breathes new life into old, often violence-inducing antisemitic narratives. The power of distortion and misinformation is its seemingly immutable ability to defy the historical truth. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-ways-to-spot-polarizing-language-how-to-choose-responsibly-what-to-amplify-online-or-in-person-177276">7 ways to spot polarizing language — how to choose responsibly what to amplify online or in-person</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Dangerous narratives found in the <em>Protocols</em> continue to inform attempts to deny and distort the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum calls it the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion">most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times</a>.</p>
<p>Born out of fear and hatred, Holocaust conspiracy theories have enormous longevity and regain traction in times of uncertainty and societal unease. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conspiracy-theories-and-the-people-who-believe-them-9780190844073?q=Conspiracy%20Theories%20and%20the%20People%20Who%20Believe%20Them&lang=en&cc=ca#">distortion and disinformation attempts to erode our belief</a> in the historical record and cast aspersions on Jews, it simultaneously nourishes conspiracy theories that encourage extreme nationalism, and not infrequently antisemitism. </p>
<p>Antisemitism is inherently conspiratorial. In the 20th century, it became <a href="https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/violent-impact-anti-semitic-conspiracy">deeply enmeshed in western antidemocratic and fascist politics</a>.</p>
<p>Visions of shadowy Jewish cabals pulling the strings behind world events and orchestrating disasters, both macro and personal, continue to hold sway in our political imagination. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1547250248204095488"}"></div></p>
<h2>Pandemic misappropriations</h2>
<p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-lockdown protesters around the world frequently <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/holocaust-survivor-decries-abuse-of-yellow-star-at-covid-protests/">appropriated the yellow star</a> that was forced upon Jews during the Holocaust. Others invoked visuals of the <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/shameful-auschwitz-style-banner-polish-133615944.html">notorious death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau</a> in a misguided attempt to compare their supposed victimization to the genocide of European Jewry. </p>
<p>Holocaust distortion and conspiracism are equally dangerous: both open the door to entertaining fantasies and ideas that have historically led to mass murder of Jews. </p>
<p>This is the case whether it is the intentionally hateful kind espoused by infamous neo-Nazis <a href="https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/holocaust-denial/ernst-zundel/">like Ernst Zundel</a>, or misguided appropriations by anti-lockdown protesters <a href="https://www.againstholocaustdistortion.org/news/debunking-inappropriate-holocaust-comparisons-the-covid-19-yellow-star">during the pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>One result of this phenomenon is <a href="https://www.governing.com/now/conspiracy-theories-cast-shadows-over-washington-midterms">the weakening of our democratic institutions</a>, which are the foundation of western democracy itself. </p>
<h2>Weakend public trust</h2>
<p>Just as the spread of this disinformation and false equivalencies instrumentalize history, they also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211000217">weaken public trust in</a> the bodies <a href="https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/transparency-communication-and-trust-the-role-of-public-communication-in-responding-to-the-wave-of-disinformation-about-the-new-coronavirus-bef7ad6e/">that determine public health guidelines</a> and oversee public safety <a href="https://thehub.ca/2022-08-25/rudyard-griffiths-wef-conspiracies-are-antisemitic-and-a-moral-stain-on-conservative-politics">and economic policy</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Health-care workers in scrubs and masks look out a window at the top of protest signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Health-care workers watch from a window as demonstrators gather outside Toronto General Hospital, in September 2021, to protest against COVID-19 vaccines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Characteristically, conspiracy theories, disinformation and misinformation don’t need to prove their claims. They need only to cause doubt and undermine the agencies and departments that function as part of the democratic process.</p>
<p>We are living in conspiratorial times. The concerning prevalence of Holocaust distortion and denial material online today poses a serious challenge to educators. Even when debunked, disinformation can remain accessible through online platforms influencing new generations unaware of how this information has been discredited. </p>
<p>A recent UNESCO study reported that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/13/holocaust-denial-telegram-history-distortion-content-moderation/">nearly half of the Holocaust content on the app Telegram</a> contained denial and disinformation. <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381958">Educational programs have been developed</a> that target the specific challenges posed by this proliferation of falsehoods and disinformation. </p>
<h2>Robust Holocaust education, digital literacy</h2>
<p>It will require however, prioritizing teaching digital literacy and robust Holocaust education — and repeatedly equipping learners with <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/02/09/abbie-richards-fights-tiktok-disinformation-with-a-cup-of-tea-a-conspiracy-chart-and-a-punchline">tools to critically analyze what they encounter in online forums</a>. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6890257204004359430?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Holocaust distortion and conspiracism are only one form of ugly disinformation swirling our polluted media ecosystems and social networks, but they are a particularly venomous and dangerous one. </p>
<p>Addressing this problem will not be easy. It requires a collaborative response that must include international co-operation from all levels of governments, leaders and international organizations devoted to nurturing and protecting civil society. When a celebrity such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/19/kanye-west-changes-name-ye">Ye, formerly known as Kanye West</a>, can espouse <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/us/los-angeles-demonstrators-kanye-west-antisemitic-remarks/index.html">antisemitic conspiracy theories</a> and still have a business partnership with Adidas — <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/25/adidas-terminates-partnership-with-ye-following-rappers-antisemitic-remarks.html">now ended after mounting public pressure</a> — there is indeed a lot of work to do. To their credit, <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/10/21/kanye-west-balenciaga-antisemetic-comments-twitter-instagram/?queryly=related_article">sponsor Balenciaga severed ties</a> with him after his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/arts/music/kanye-west-adidas-balenciaga-yeezy.html">antisemitic outbursts</a>.</p>
<p>To effect real change, education, collective responsibility and action are essential for success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carson Phillips is affiliated with the Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto, Canada and a Canadian delegate to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.</span></em></p>
Many conspiracy theories and disinformation are rooted in antisemitic tropes which spread harm and undermine our democratic institutions.
Carson Phillips, Adjunct, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Gratz College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191160
2022-09-27T12:27:09Z
2022-09-27T12:27:09Z
Kanye may not like books, but hip-hop fosters a love of literature
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486302/original/file-20220923-9077-4oxn6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C71%2C2959%2C2393&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West provoked criticism recently when he compared reading to eating Brussels sprouts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kanye-west-arrives-at-the-balenciaga-show-on-may-22-2022-in-news-photo/1398688334?adppopup=true">Gotham via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Ye – the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58965500">artist formerly known as Kanye West</a> – stated during a recent podcast that he <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kanye-west-says-he-doesnt-read-any-books-donda-academy-1234594688/">doesn’t read books</a>, some people questioned whether he was <a href="https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/levar-burton-kanye-west-havent-read-book">sending the wrong message to children</a>.</p>
<p>Those questions took on more importance in light of the fact that Ye <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/kanye-west-donda-academy-school-1234593961/">recently launched</a> Donda Academy, a private educational venture named after his late mother, Donda West, who was herself an <a href="https://www.mtv.com/news/g0pma2/donda-west-noted-scholar-and-kanyes-mother-dies-at-58">English professor</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://aydeethegreat.com/">rap artist</a>, author and <a href="https://news.virginia.edu/content/meet-ad-carson-uvas-professor-hip-hop">academic</a>, I would never argue that reading lots of books is the only path to gaining knowledge or showing intelligence. </p>
<p>After all, I created the <a href="https://www.publishing.umich.edu/stories-of-impact/rethinking-peer-review">first-ever peer-reviewed hip-hop album published by a university press</a>. For my doctoral dissertation in 2017, I made <a href="http://phd.aydeethegreat.com">a rap album</a> and resisted any calls to submit a formally written explanation of the work.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 400px; height: 472px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3235103611/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless="" width="100%" height="400"><a href="https://aydeethegreat.bandcamp.com/album/owning-my-masters-the-rhetorics-of-rhymes-revolutions">Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions by A.D. Carson</a></iframe>
<h2>Verbal intelligence</h2>
<p>Even as a former high school literature teacher, I <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/08/06/more-college-students-should-study-rap-opinion">never believed</a> the only way – or even the primary way – for people to demonstrate intellect was through reading books. I think that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXfkk82c0-k">performing a freestyle</a> – that is to say, writing and reciting seemingly spontaneous rap lyrics on the spot – requires levels of intelligence that are often overlooked or <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/632638-the-racist-element-of-natural-abilityphysically-gifted">racistly</a> cast off as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-myth-of-natural-talent-8793">natural talent</a>” that don’t require studying or practice. For instance, the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-roots-black-thought-on-how-he-spit-nearly-10-minute-viral-freestyle-197206/">mind-blowing</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prmQgSpV3fA">10-minute freestyle</a> that rapper Black Thought performed live on New York radio station <a href="https://www.hot97.com/">Hot 97</a> in 2017 is a master-class demonstration of brilliance that is a result of years of study and practice.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/prmQgSpV3fA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Black Thought performs a 10-minute freestyle on New York radio station Hot 97 in 2017.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In some ways, you might say Kanye West and I are on the same page. Where I disagree with Ye, however, is in his total dismissal of reading books, which he likens to “<a href="https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/kanye-west-reading-books-vegetables#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CWhen%20you%20said%20I%20hadn,the%20Giorgio%20Baldi%20corn%20ravioli.%E2%80%9D">eating Brussels sprouts</a>.” Rap music is a lot of things, but it includes quite a bit of reverence for literature.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d0EyGdo2hxA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A direct rap response to Kanye West’s dismissive remarks about not reading books, 10 years in advance: “A.R.T. [The Motto],” by A.D. Carson.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Kanye as ‘Gatsby’</h2>
<p>Books have a high place in hip-hop. As I’ve pointed out in the various <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/jay-z-essays-on-hip-hops-philosopher-king/oclc/690102796">book chapters</a> that I’ve authored on different aspects of rap music – and in the classes that I teach – a wealth of lyrics that contain direct and indirect references to a rich array of literary works. These works span multiple millennia and originate from across the globe.</p>
<p>And long before the book-hating controversy, I once referred to Ye as potentially being <a href="https://genius.com/Ad-carson-trimalchio-from-chicago-flashing-lights-and-the-great-kanye-in-west-egg-excerpt-lyrics">hip-hop’s Jay Gatsby</a>, a reference to the central character of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby,” because of the striking parallels that I saw between their lives. The novel contains teachable comparisons to “Graduation” in its use of the flashing-lights metaphor for hope and desire for wealth and class.</p>
<p>While Kanye West professes a disdain for books, the same cannot be said of many of his predecessors and contemporaries.</p>
<p>For instance, in 1996, Tupac Shakur released his 1996 album “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” under the alias Makaveli – a variation of the name of author Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s 16th-century works “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Niccolo-Machiavelli/The-Prince">The Prince</a>” and “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Niccolo-Machiavelli/The-Discourses-on-Livy">Discourses on Livy</a>” could offer interesting insights into the album and the creative process that Tupac undertook during the final period of his life. For example, Machiavelli famously details his observations on obtaining and keeping political power in “The Prince.” Similarly, Tupac ends his album by talking about his own ascendancy of sorts, shouting out “soldiers with military minds” and detailing foretold rules of war.</p>
<p>What follows is a brief overview of other notable instances in which rap artists refer – either directly or indirectly – to influential literary works written by authors from around the world and throughout the ages.</p>
<h2>Black Star’s 1998 ‘Thieves in the Night’</h2>
<p>This song name-drops and quotes Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” The <a href="https://youtu.be/GjxtRehIz2Y">hook of the song</a> borrows and revises the quote from the novel: </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A book cover emblazoned with the words 'The Bluest Eye: A Novel by Toni Morrison'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486329/original/file-20220923-10723-4dfcsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486329/original/file-20220923-10723-4dfcsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486329/original/file-20220923-10723-4dfcsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486329/original/file-20220923-10723-4dfcsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486329/original/file-20220923-10723-4dfcsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486329/original/file-20220923-10723-4dfcsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486329/original/file-20220923-10723-4dfcsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toni Morrison’s novel ‘The Bluest Eye.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/117662/the-bluest-eye-by-toni-morrison/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote>
<p><em>“… for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life.”</em> </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Noname’s 2021 single ‘Rainforest’</h2>
<p>This song directly names the 1961 book “The Wretched of the Earth” by psychiatrist and political philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frantz-fanon/">Frantz Fanon</a>. It is a lyrical allusion to the ongoing effects of colonialism.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UQieH79aZXg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“Rainforest” by Noname.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>KXNG Crooked and Joell Ortiz’s 2022 song ‘Heat Wave’</h2>
<p>Crooked makes a passing reference in this song to Plato’s philosophical text “Symposium,” in which characters, including the philosopher Socrates, compete performing improvised speeches. Plato isn’t exactly writing about rap battles, but there are similarities.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iE6liNqysyM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“Heat Wave” by KXNG Crooked and Joell Ortiz.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’</h2>
<p>There are interesting parallels to Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” throughout the album. The insistent reference to “yams” on the song “King Kunta” evokes the scene from the 1952 novel in which the narrator encounters a vendor selling yams, which remind him of home, so he eats them until they make him sick.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hRK7PVJFbS8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“King Kunta” by Kendrick Lamar.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Roots’ 2004 album ‘The Tipping Point’</h2>
<p>This album borrows its name from a 2000 Malcolm Gladwell book. Gladwell describes a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” The album cover features a photo of a young Malcolm X, presumably at a tipping point of sorts, before he becomes a world-famous Muslim minister and eventually co-authors the influential 1965 “The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/83ZMUMOIlmg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“The Tipping Point” by The Roots.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Common’s 2000 album ‘Like Water for Chocolate’</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover of 'Assata: An Autobiography,' by Assata Shakur." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486559/original/file-20220926-15-99gdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Assata: An Autobiography,’ by Assata Shakur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.biblio.com/9781556520747">Biblio</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This album takes its name from the 1989 novel by Mexican author Laura Esquivel. The book uses magical realism to convey the emotions of the main character, Tita, to the people who eat the food she makes while being a caretaker for her mother, which prevents her from fulfilling her true desires.</p>
<p>The album also features a song called “<a href="https://youtu.be/HaqXrT9bU10">A Song for Assata</a>” that features audio from an interview Common did with exiled Black freedom fighter Assata Shakur, author of the 1989 book “Assata: An Autobiography.”</p>
<h2>Dead prez’s 2000 album ‘Let’s Get Free’</h2>
<p>This album features many literary illusions and influences. Notably, the lyrics of the song “We Want Freedom” begin with the words, “I Ching,” which is the name of an ancient Chinese text. The group’s logo comprises a symbol, hexagram 46, used in the text that represents the word “army.” Group member stic.man <a href="https://rollingout.com/2013/02/02/dead-prez-explain-their-evolving-approach-fighting-fire-with-water/">says</a> the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1shJ-rA3XS/?hl=en">symbol</a> is meant to represent “forward motion, progress and adapting in our lives.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NceKuXts95U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“We Want Freedom” by dead prez.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rapsody’s 2019 album ‘Eve’</h2>
<p>All the titles of the songs on this album are the names of noteworthy women. “Eve” is the first woman named in a major work of literature – the Bible – and several of the other women mentioned are authors, including “Oprah,” “Myrlie,” “Michelle” and “Maya.” The song named for Maya Angelou focuses on themes in Angelou’s work and also quotes from her writing. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bvA5gKqlQCo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“Maya” by Rapsody.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps Kanye West’s recent remarks about reading will inspire some thoughtful conversation about how American society views reading and determines intelligence. If they do, the archives of hip-hop – whether in book form or music – offer an abundance of ways to take those conversations to greater depths.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A hip-hop artist and scholar says that while rap stresses the oral tradition, the music is also rife with references to a rich range of literature that spans the globe.
A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of Virginia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/175714
2022-01-27T11:48:04Z
2022-01-27T11:48:04Z
Taylor Swift v Damon Albarn: why the idea of the lone songwriter is outdated
<p>Damon Albarn, the lead singer of Blur and Gorillaz, has recently been criticised for his “outdated” views of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60121132">modern songwriting</a>. In an interview with the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-01-23/damon-albarn-blur-gorillaz">LA Times</a>, Albarn explained that US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s “co-writing” approach was at odds with his “traditionalist” view of writing songs. He went on to say that co-writing “doesn’t count” as songwriting.</p>
<p>Calling out fellow songwriters for not writing their own material is bad form for musicians, particularly so given that the definition of songwriting has become ever more fluid over time, and depends greatly on the genre of music. Pop music is often written collaboratively, and these teams are becoming larger. Indeed, 2017 analysis by <a href="https://www.musicweek.com/publishing/read/songwriting-why-it-takes-more-than-two-to-make-a-hit-nowadays/068478">Music Week magazine</a> shows it now takes an average of four and a half writers to create a hit single. </p>
<p>The process of creating songs has both integrated itself within and kicked against the industrialisation of the music industry. And it has developed hand in hand with <a href="https://www.toptal.com/finance/market-research-analysts/state-of-music-industry">technological changes</a> both in “manufacture” and distribution.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1485714265675812866"}"></div></p>
<p>Authorship is at the heart of debates about songwriting, partly because of the notion of the creative auteur, where the songwriter is seen as the major creative force of the band, or artist. Much of the artists’ income generated from music comes from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/mar/31/top-songwriters-call-for-end-to-bully-tactics-by-artists-over-royalties">songwriting royalties</a>, and sharing authorship is one way of rewarding musicians who contribute to the success of a hit song.</p>
<h2>The singer-songwriter</h2>
<p>The concept of the singer-songwriter, in the more traditionalist way we know today – think <a href="https://jonimitchell.com/">Joni Mitchell</a>, <a href="https://neilyoungarchives.com/">Neil Young</a>, <a href="https://www.paulsimon.com/">Paul Simon</a>, <a href="https://dollyparton.com/">Dolly Parton</a> – came into being during the 1960s and early 1970s. This is when folk music crossed over into the development of rock music. And with it came the idea of being authentic. </p>
<p>This was a challenge to “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Tin-Pan-Alley-musical-history">Tin Pan Alley</a>” writing, which involved music publishers effectively employing songwriters to create hits for artists to record and perform. An alternative <a href="https://www.jimcarrollsblog.com/blog/2020/4/22/motown-ten-commercial-lessons-from-the-hit-factory">conveyor belt method</a>, where tracks were built up by sending them from studio to studio, depending on where the best and most appropriate session players worked, was also seen as something to move away from. </p>
<p>This method was used by labels like <a href="https://www.motownrecords.com/">Motown</a> in the US, who <a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/motown-sound-producers-and-songwriters/">transferred recorded tracks</a> between Detroit and the West Coast, building on them between the two locations. This could feel <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stevie-wonder-beat-motown-records/">disempowering to musicians</a>, who often had no overview of the track they were contributing to, and only heard the final version of the song when it was released.</p>
<p>This idea of authenticity became important to both black and white musicians. <a href="http://www.chuckberry.com/">Chuck Berry</a> was regarded as “real”, for instance, and so was <a href="https://www.bobdylan.com/">Bob Dylan</a>, whereas a lot of music that was considered to be pop was not. The key authentic band in the UK at this time was <a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/shes-at-the-controls/">The Beatles</a>. Although they began by doing covers, they soon developed a style that sounded unique while still paying homage to their influences. Songs were often about their personal feelings or everyday situations. This style of songwriting still thrives in indie and DIY communities today.</p>
<h2>Complex collaborations</h2>
<p>Modern songwriting has moved on further still, with artists engaging with studio technology very early in the process. Here, a song may be built up from a beat, and the beatmaker is considered to be part of the songwriting team, which may also include producers, arrangers, programmers and chorus specialists. Kanye West, for example, credits <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/2094846/kanye-west-all-day-writing-production-credits/">21 musicians</a> on his 2015 track, All Day. This can seem remarkably different from the perception of the “traditional way” of writing music.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BVRUMIrwuN4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As I discuss in my <a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/shes-at-the-controls/">recent book</a> on sound engineering and production, each component writer in these complex studio tracks is a specialist in their field. They possess not only the technical skills but are also in the know about the latest underground sounds – so in this way, they actually have a lot in common with the Tin Pan Alley teams or the Motown writers. </p>
<p>Indeed, if we were to define songwriting as the construction of songs where before there were only ideas, then anyone involved in creating a song is a songwriter. Whether they are created by a team on a production line or in a bedroom by a solo artist, they are still skilful combinations of music, rhythms and lyrics.</p>
<p>Taylor Swift began her professional life as a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkD20ajVxnY">country singer</a>, and to gain any credibility within that very rigorous music scene, she really had to know how to write a song, as well as carry one as a performer. Almost certainly, Damon Albarn knows this. His own skills as a writer have really diversified to incorporate different technologies and musical influences. Both are excellent songwriters, regardless of their preferred ways of working.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Reddington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Anyone involved in the creation of a song is a songwriter.
Helen Reddington, Senior Lecturer Department of Music, Writing & Performance , School of Arts and Creative Industries, University of East London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/143198
2020-07-29T09:09:31Z
2020-07-29T09:09:31Z
What is bipolar disorder, the condition Kanye West lives with?
<p>American rapper Kanye West has been making headlines recently as he mounts a campaign to be elected president of the United States.</p>
<p>We’ve seen a series of chaotic and emotional public outbursts, including during his first <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/kanye-west-launches-presidential-campaign-emotional-rally-200720004838830.html">presidential campaign appearance</a>, as well as a string of <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/kanye-west-starts-twitter-rant-amid-presidential-campaign/">incoherent tweets</a> which he subsequently retracted.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349834/original/file-20200728-15-a07mk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349834/original/file-20200728-15-a07mk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349834/original/file-20200728-15-a07mk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349834/original/file-20200728-15-a07mk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349834/original/file-20200728-15-a07mk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349834/original/file-20200728-15-a07mk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349834/original/file-20200728-15-a07mk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Kanye West’s 2018 album Ye reads ‘I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although the journey from celebrity to high public office is no longer implausible, it is tempting simply to dismiss West’s outbursts as yet another display of 21st-century narcissism. </p>
<p>But he suffers from <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kanye-west-opens-up-to-david-letterman-about-his-struggle-with-bipolar-disorder/">bipolar disorder</a>, so it’s important we understand his behaviour in the context of his mental illness.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mood-and-personality-disorders-are-often-misconceived-heres-what-you-need-to-know-94971">Mood and personality disorders are often misconceived: here's what you need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is bipolar disorder?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)00241-X/fulltext">Bipolar disorder</a>, previously known as manic-depressive illness, involves <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/468501592/2020-Bipolar-disorder">alternating periods</a> of intense mania (high energy and activity) and severe depression (low energy and mood).</p>
<p>Manic periods, which can last days to weeks, are associated with: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>an intense internal drive to be active and inability to sit still</p></li>
<li><p>grandiose ideas and motivation to achieve big things</p></li>
<li><p>fast speech that’s difficult to interrupt</p></li>
<li><p>poor sleep</p></li>
<li><p>a strong sense of oneness with the world</p></li>
<li><p>irritable or elated moods. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>When these periods are less severe or shorter, it’s typically referred to as hypomania. </p>
<p>West’s recent public behaviour indicates he may have been experiencing a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/468501592/2020-Bipolar-disorder">hypomanic period</a>.</p>
<p>Depressed periods, which often last weeks to months, are associated with: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>overwhelming fatigue</p></li>
<li><p>low moods </p></li>
<li><p>suicidal thoughts and behaviours.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We also see mixed states, where the person is very active or agitated but simultaneously very distressed. </p>
<p>And as the illness is characteristically episodic rather than persistent, many people with bipolar disorder have long periods of being well and productively engaged with their families, work and wider society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young woman sits against the wall at home looking outside into the night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349835/original/file-20200728-25-4ydy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349835/original/file-20200728-25-4ydy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349835/original/file-20200728-25-4ydy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349835/original/file-20200728-25-4ydy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349835/original/file-20200728-25-4ydy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349835/original/file-20200728-25-4ydy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349835/original/file-20200728-25-4ydy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bipolar disorder affects men and women equally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who does bipolar disorder affect, and what causes it?</h2>
<p>The illness typically has its onset <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2749076">during adolescence</a>, and goes on to affect about <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)00241-X/fulltext">1% of the adult population</a>. It runs <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/mp2013173">strongly in families</a> and occurs equally <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09540261.2010.514601?journalCode=iirp20">in men and women</a>.</p>
<p>Less severe forms of the illness, often termed bipolar II or bipolar spectrum disorders, have less intense manic periods (hypomania) as well as unstable or depressed mood, and may affect <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/468501592/2020-Bipolar-disorder">a further 2-3%</a> of adults. </p>
<p>While classified descriptively as “mood disorders”, it’s more likely these disorders represent a failure of the internal body (circadian) clock to stay in close synchronisation with our normal 24-hour light/dark and activity/sleep cycles. </p>
<p>Some researchers have proposed this failure of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1517/14728222.2015.1018822">internal circadian system</a> to maintain strong rhythms is the true cause of bipolar disorder. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gene-based-tests-may-improve-treatment-for-people-with-bipolar-disorder-87680">Gene-based tests may improve treatment for people with bipolar disorder</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Indeed, switches from normal daily rhythms to manic periods <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924977X16000754?via%3Dihub">commonly occur</a> with seasonal changes in autumn and spring, when the day length (and period of light exposure) varies most rapidly.</p>
<p>This sits well with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1517/14728222.2015.1018822">recent evidence</a> showing regular exposure to daylight has profound effects on the motor behaviour and moods of diurnal (active during daylight) mammals.</p>
<p>Similarly, other factors that disrupt the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27418862/">normal sleep-wake cycle</a> can precipitate episodes, such as international travel, rotating shift-work, stimulant drugs and childbirth.</p>
<p>But we still have a lot more to learn about what causes bipolar disorder and what sparks the manic episodes that come with it.</p>
<h2>Can bipolar disorder be treated?</h2>
<p>Untreated bipolar disorder can have adverse effects on a person’s life, including on their relationships and capacity to participate in society. But the condition can be treated.</p>
<p>In the late 1940s, Australian psychiatrist John Cade made one of the most remarkable therapeutic discoveries in modern medicine: <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02480-0">lithium carbonate</a>. Lithium continues to be used today as a “mood stabiliser” for people with bipolar disorder.</p>
<p>Lithium has been shown to induce a unique state of calming without sedation in hypomania or mania, prevent recurrence of further manic episodes and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02480-0">reduce suicidal behaviour</a>.</p>
<p>But not everyone responds to lithium, and it does have <a href="https://journalbipolardisorders.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40345-016-0068-y">side effects</a>. In high doses, it’s toxic to the brain, while in therapeutic doses it may cause tremor, thirst, urination, diarrhoea, nausea, acne and reduced thyroid function.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-people-with-bipolar-struggle-to-communicate-and-heres-why-40895">Some people with bipolar struggle to communicate – and here's why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One of lithium’s primary effects is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1517/14728222.2015.1018822">stabilisation of the circadian (body) clock</a>, probably via its direct biochemical impact on the molecular machinery in the brain. This has created interest in what other medical, psychological and behavioural therapies may achieve the same result — ideally with less risk. </p>
<p>Today, a range of other agents that stabilise brain function (most notably <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181564/">anti-epileptic compounds</a> such as carbamazepine, sodium valproate and lamotrigine) or target the brain’s circadian clock (by mimicking the normal night-time release of the sleep hormone melatonin) are also used.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young teenage boy sits on couch talking with counsellor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349841/original/file-20200728-35-1n9sg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349841/original/file-20200728-35-1n9sg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349841/original/file-20200728-35-1n9sg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349841/original/file-20200728-35-1n9sg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349841/original/file-20200728-35-1n9sg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349841/original/file-20200728-35-1n9sg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349841/original/file-20200728-35-1n9sg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Symptoms of bipolar disorder generally begin during adolescence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Often, providing effective treatment for the depressive phase is the most challenging. Many <a href="https://journalbipolardisorders.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40345-018-0133-9">common antidepressant drugs</a> are less effective for bipolar disorder, or may lead to further mood instability.</p>
<p>Importantly, all medicines should be combined with key behavioural features like regular work and social rhythms, daily exercise, morning light exposure and regular sleep patterns to have the greatest effects. Psychological therapies may also play a role.</p>
<h2>Creative, perceptive, driven</h2>
<p>People with bipolar disorder, often between episodes of illness or when receiving effective treatments, have been frequently observed to be <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22088366/">highly creative</a>, socially sensitive, exquisitely perceptive, remarkably lucid, and having strong drive to pursue collective social goals.</p>
<p>When we encounter public displays like West’s, before rushing to judgement, we need to take a little more time to consider the experience of the person at the centre of the media storm, and the effects on their family. His wife <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-23/kanye-west-struggle-bipolar-wife-kim-kardashian-says/12482944">Kim Kardashian West</a> has implored compassion.</p>
<p>We still have a long way to go before we can really appreciate the challenges of living with bipolar or any other major mental disorder.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-your-mental-health-deteriorating-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-heres-what-to-look-out-for-134827">Is your mental health deteriorating during the coronavirus pandemic? Here's what to look out for</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Hickie is a Senior Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council. He has previously led public and professional education programs focusing on depressive disorders supported by various pharmaceutical companies. He has conducted investigator-initiated medication treatment trials for depressive disorders, focusing on the role of melatonin and a synthetic analogue compound, agomelatine (produced by Servier Pharmaceuticals). He has a 5% equity shareholding in Innowell Pty Ltd, a joint venture company of University of Sydney and PwC, established to develop digital mental health care. </span></em></p>
Kanye West’s recent outbursts have shone a spotlight on his struggles with bipolar disorder. The condition involves alternating periods of intense mania and severe depression.
Ian Hickie, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/142229
2020-07-09T12:43:19Z
2020-07-09T12:43:19Z
Kanye for president: the dangerous allure of the celebrity politician
<p>Rapper and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/kanye-west-trump-biden-us-election-2020-interview-maga-a9466581.html">sometime Trump supporter</a> Kanye West has <a href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1279575273365594112">announced</a> that he will be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/05/kanye-west-president-white-house-trump-biden-kim-kardashian">running for president</a> of the United States. Without the tens of thousands of signatures needed to get on the ballot in all states or the backing of a small party, West’s chances of winning are almost zero. </p>
<p>Although West won’t be entering the White House any time soon, plenty of other celebrities have made a successful career in politics. A mix of charisma, media-savvy and anti-establishment airs can help them appeal to voters. We should be alert to what makes these people popular with voters because it rarely plays out well when they actually find themselves in office</p>
<p>In addition to Trump, the US has seen a swathe of celebrities turned politicians. The singer Sonny Bono, of Sonny and Cher fame, became the <a href="https://apnews.com/43bddd319caec585d87988e68f96a736">mayor of Palm Springs, California in 1988</a> and then was <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/this-day-in-politics-083525">elected to Congress in 1994</a>. Professional wrestler Jesse “the Body” Ventura was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/former-professional-wrestler-jesse-ventura-sworn-in-as-minn-governor/2017/12/20/bb1cfa1a-cfaa-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html">elected governor of Minnesota</a> in 1999 and held the position until 2003. Then there was California governor and later US president Ronald Reagan, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/20/us/ronald-reagan-s-long-political-ascent-from-hollywood-actor-to-presidency.html">rose to fame as a Hollywood actor</a>.</p>
<p>This phenomenon is not limited to the US. The prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19844270">was a cricketer</a>. The president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jimmy-morales-how-the-comedian-became-president-of-guatemala-a6810931.html">was a comedian</a>. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/can-the-actor-who-ruled-ukraine-on-tv-do-it-in-real-life">was an actor</a> who played the president in the Ukrainian television show Servant of the People. All over the world, celebrities have become involved in politics, with some occupying the highest offices.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JinkCAN6Bx0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The celebrity advantage</h2>
<p>Celebrity and politics may seem to be a natural fit. Celebrities are often charismatic and well versed in engaging with the media. They already have more experience in working on camera and cultivating an image. Today, they also may have more understanding of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10584609.2016.1262700?casa_token=DBmiI2Irg6wAAAAA:dHxfzOx2WGQgRz7RuAT5zTnfEnrjJqFFOsCqw0GH4z49QlcpivrSJg4IbTykfbUcAO_lgGJx_HcPDz4">how to use social media</a>. </p>
<p>Unlike outsiders that come out of nowhere, celebrities also benefit from name recognition and their campaigns are <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-60249-3">more likely to garner media attention</a>. For example, the media’s fascination with Trump’s antics <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/politics/donald-trump-rode-5-billion-in-free-media-to-the-white-house-13896916">earned him nearly $5 billion</a> (£4 billion) worth of free airtime during the 2016 campaign. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346322/original/file-20200708-3974-4c3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346322/original/file-20200708-3974-4c3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346322/original/file-20200708-3974-4c3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346322/original/file-20200708-3974-4c3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346322/original/file-20200708-3974-4c3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346322/original/file-20200708-3974-4c3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346322/original/file-20200708-3974-4c3da9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before becoming president, Donald Trump starred on reality TV show The Apprentice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pasadena-ca-jan-16-donald-trump-385504729">Joe Seer/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise of celebrity politicians has, in part, to do with changes in politics from traditional political skills to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-856X.2004.00149.x">media management and fundraising</a>. While the qualities of a celebrity are often poorly suited to the duties of governing, they can attract the necessary attention from the media without any prior political accomplishment.</p>
<p>Additionally, increasingly blurred lines between entertainment and news (or <a href="https://ecpr.eu/Filestore/PaperProposal/bbcf93d9-5361-484e-a926-a8b1d7bbbe11.pdf">infotainment</a>) have <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/31/politics/politicon-politics-entertainment-overlap/index.html">lowered barriers</a> for celebrities to enter politics. With the news focused on entertaining viewers more than informing them, profiling a celebrity candidate is a perfect story to run with.</p>
<p>But it is not just the role of the media and changes in politics that are important here. Voters are also drawn to celebrities because they are anti-establishment. </p>
<h2>A break from traditional politics</h2>
<p>Though celebrities are not necessarily populist, there are aspects of their appeal that are similar. Celebrities are well known, charismatic. Many who end up running for office lack a deep knowledge of politics and governing and have no experience governing. </p>
<p>They may be able to use a simplistic communication style and direct language that <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Q9G8DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=lindstaedt+frantz&ots=Ux-6c-mYHp&sig=yGhhNr8bCUYuhff497BoaBwpJWM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=lindstaedt%20frantz&f=false">appeals to the common man</a> and gives the impression that they are relatable. They also tend to not have the same academic backgrounds – for instance, degrees or associations with prestigious institutions – that many politicians have.</p>
<p>Like populists, some celebrities <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002716216662639?casa_token=-47yL8k1c1YAAAAA%3A8lyhJy2Kanw-JU4vWCLD8DudTYyf7kwbDmBjGu6eebHLjg9wPYa8vbseO57oiuxvy96HNpZhGdRo_7c">promote their lack of knowledge and expertise</a>. For example, the former wrestler <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cRCPp2i9OvsC&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=jesse+ventura+anti-intellectual&source=bl&ots=6fokc9Z5XS&sig=ACfU3U3lpdtF0yc60O3xmranr8O6j4Vnlg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7yJPG5r3qAhX8URUIHUwCAacQ6AEwEHoECBQQAQ#v=onepage&q=jesse%20ventura%20anti-intellectual&f=false">Jesse Ventura</a> attacked people with college degrees and bragged about being the only candidate for Governor of Minnesota that did not have a law degree. </p>
<p>Counterintuitively, this <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2017/08/30/had-enough-of-experts-anti-intellectualism-is-linked-to-voters-support-for-movements-that-are-skeptical-of-expertise/">anti-intellectualism is something that appeals</a> to some voters who do not want to support a candidate that appears to be smarter than they are. These characteristics are seen as an advantage, representing a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sf/article-abstract/94/4/1593/2461556">break from traditional politics</a>.</p>
<p>Once in power, celebrities do not have a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Q9G8DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=lindstaedt+frantz&ots=Ux-6c-mYHp&sig=yGhhNr8bCUYuhff497BoaBwpJWM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=lindstaedt%20frantz&f=false">strong record of governing</a>. Those that manage to be successful in political roles are the exception, not the rule. Their lack of experience and knowledge of laws and governing often make their political turns disastrous. At best, they continue with the status quo of dysfunctional politics.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8z6iKp3Poow?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>One-time actor and former President of the Philippines, Joseph Estrada was impeached for corruption. The President of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, has been accused of <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Sex-Assault-Case-Against-Guatemalan-President-Morales-Dropped-20181108-0031.html">sexual abuse</a>, though charges were later dropped, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/27/guatemalan-president-jimmy-morales-order-expel-head-un-body-suspended">blocking an investigation</a> by the International Commission Against Impunity (CICIG) in Guatemala into his party and his relatives. The presidency of former singer Michel Martelly (known as “Sweet Micky”) of Haiti <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/02/haiti-michel-martelly/461991/">was dogged</a> by delayed elections, accusations of corruption, political violence and rising poverty.</p>
<p>Most importantly the rise of celebrity politicians is not a sign of the democratic field becoming more interesting or open. The rise of such candidates is a sign of
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/10/celebrity-politicians-political-decline-oprah-winfrey">political decline</a> of democracies and wider frustration with professional politicians who voters feel disillusioned and distant from.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Lindstaedt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From wrestlers to movie stars, celebrities have risen to some of the highest political offices around the world. What makes them so appealing?
Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor, Department of Government, University of Essex
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128039
2020-01-03T09:36:56Z
2020-01-03T09:36:56Z
Why bipolar disorder is becoming more ‘desirable’ than other mental illnesses
<p>Bipolar disorder is a severe mental health condition. But in recent years it has become the one mental health diagnosis that patients are willing to accept. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CD7DCB2BFE1C2BA5118A1084F7307304/S1758320900004649a.pdf/i_want_to_be_bipolara_new_phenomenon.pdf">Research shows</a> that to some people it has actually become “desirable” when compared with other mood disorders.</p>
<p>This could be because of bipolar disorder’s association with creativity. For example, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/09/historical-geniuses-and-their-psychiatric-conditions/262249/">Charles Dickens and Beethoven</a> are thought to have had bipolar disorder. The de-stigmatising effect of considerable media coverage could also be factor. As could its association with successful celebrities such as Stephen Fry, Kanye West and Carrie Fisher.</p>
<p>Figures like Fry – who made the revealing BBC television documentary, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/jul/21/mentalhealth.broadcasting">The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive</a> – have used their positions to bring home the disturbing realities of the condition. </p>
<p>But it could be said that celebrities like West are skewing the perception of it in the public. For example, in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdDYjNImN4w">a high profile interview</a> with David Letterman, West said he “felt a heightened connection with the universe” when he was “ramping up”. Also, on his album Ye (which carried the banner I Hate Being Bipolar It’s Awesome) he refers to it as a “<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/kanye-west-talks-about-bipolar-disorder-on-his-new-album">superpower</a>”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kPPyUO6m3-4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>This is not to say that people are hoping to be diagnosed with a mental health condition. But it would seem from the most recent evidence that people who do have mental health issues, especially mood disorders, say they would rather be diagnosed with bipolar disorder than other conditions.</p>
<p>The fact is most people with bipolar disorder do not enjoy “a heightened connection with the universe”. Bipolar disorder is in fact a very destructive condition with a lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts of up to 30%, which is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2005.463003.x">higher than for any other psychiatric disorder</a>. During a depressive phase with low energy levels, poor concentration and negative thoughts, people struggle to maintain a normal level of functioning, nevermind display any behaviour likely to have them thought of as a creative genius.</p>
<p>Also, people in a state of elevated mood (a hypo-manic state) can engage in seriously socially embarrassing behaviour, such as being sexually dis-inhibited or while experiencing grandiose delusions may engage in excessive spending leaving them <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2018.1521920">in financial difficulties</a>. So the reality is that bipolar disorder can have negative as well as positive effects on people’s lives and can leave people in need of extended hospital treatment. </p>
<p>The often cited positive association with creativity is, at best, only part of the picture. Though people may have increased energy and believe themselves to be more creative, the reality of bipolar disorder is somewhat different for most people. When people’s mood becomes elevated they often find it difficult to concentrate on one task or train of thought. Such a state of mind may be conducive to creativity for some but cause chaos for others. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Manic_Depression_and_Creativity.html?id=NEU282Oo46cC&redir_esc=y">Researchers have argued</a> that for some people it is the grandiosity associated with manic states that sustains them in their endeavours, no matter the opinion of others, helping some creative people through long periods of hardship where their works go unrecognised. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dynamics-Creation-Anthony-Storr/dp/0345376730">other studies</a> point out that many creative people are encouraged from childhood to concentrate their energies in areas where they are seen to have a particular talent, rather than being driven by some form of psychopathology.
So the relationship between their mental health issues and artistic creativity is by no means clear. Even in artists who openly discuss their depression, like the writer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/14/books/the-man-who-detested-the-sea.html">Joseph Conrad</a>, who referred to the “madness” in one of his most famous characters in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conrads-imperial-horror-story-heart-of-darkness-resonates-with-our-globalised-times-94723">Heart of Darkness</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cox0MAIrzxI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Side-effects</h2>
<p>One of the biggest dangers of an increase in desirability for bipolar disorder is that it could be leading to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395609002118?via%3Dihub">increased rates of misdiagnosis</a>. This could mean people being treated for a condition they don’t actually have or not receiving treatment for one that they do. This is important because the mood stabilising drugs used to treat bipolar disorder carry the risks of significant side-effects. Some of the mood stabilisers are very harmful to foetuses, for example, and so should not be given to women of child-bearing age unless they are prepared to use contraception. </p>
<p>Some are also very toxic in overdose and so require careful monitoring. These drugs should not be given to people where it is not clear they actually have bipolar disorder. The <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CD7DCB2BFE1C2BA5118A1084F7307304/S1758320900004649a.pdf/i_want_to_be_bipolara_new_phenomenon.pdf">pressure to diagnose bipolar</a> in those that don’t have it can also lead to conflict when doctors refuse to do so. Anecdotally, I have both seen and heard of this occurring in the teams across the city where I work. </p>
<p>It is no doubt true that the increased awareness of mental health issues brought about by anti-stigmatising campaigns and famous people talking about their mental health has had a positive impact on perception. But society must ensure that this does not lead to certain conditions becoming the one to have. It gives a false impression about the seriousness of those disorders and could have serious consequences if people are misdiagnosed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Fallon received funding from the Department of Health Research for his research fellowship 2002-2009</span></em></p>
Are high profile celebrities trivialising bipolar disorder by linking it to creativity?
Paul Fallon, Senior Practitioner for Nursing and Lecturer in Mental Health, University of Salford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/127498
2019-11-25T23:42:26Z
2019-11-25T23:42:26Z
Nebuchadnezzar explained: warrior king, rebuilder of cities, and musical muse
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303598/original/file-20191125-74593-12uoe48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C131%2C1494%2C965&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">William Blake's portrait of the Old Testament Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who in the Book of Daniel 'was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tate Britain</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kanye West’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kanye-west-opera-nebuchadnezzar-hollywood-bowl-913874/">first operatic work</a>, Nebuchadnezzar, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/25/kanye-west-nebuchadnezzar-opera-hollywood-bowl-los-angeles-review">just premiered</a> at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Set in the 6th century BCE, the opera is based on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/an-instagram-worthy-bible-aimed-at-millennials/2019/03/08/5a303cc0-411f-11e9-922c-64d6b7840b82_story.html">the biblical story </a> of Nebuchadnezzar II, a powerful ruler and the longest-reigning king of Babylon.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303599/original/file-20191125-74599-1ksb1js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kanye West: has spoken of parallels between himself and the Babylonian king.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Etienne Laurent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nebuchadnezzar was a warrior-king, often described as the greatest military leader of <a href="http://mini-site.louvre.fr/babylone/EN/html/1.4.4.html">the Neo-Babylonian empire.</a> He ruled from 605 – 562 BCE in the area around the Tigris-Euphrates basin. His leadership saw numerous military successes and the construction of building works such as the famous Ishtar Gate. </p>
<p>Thousands of years after his rule, Nebuchadnezzar’s name lives on in his buildings and in ancient literature. Interestingly, his name and life have inspired numerous musical works by artists such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZNpzS9tVn0&list=RDcZNpzS9tVn0&start_radio=1">jazz pianist Marcus Roberts</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGhd5kGM7dk">Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi</a>, and now, West.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1198788970299240448"}"></div></p>
<p>The name Nebuchadnezzar in <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brush-your-akkadian-new-online-dictionary-180964725/">Akkadian (an ancient Semitic language that is an early cognate of Hebrew)</a> is Nabu-Kudurri-usur, which means “O Nabu, protect my first-born son.” <a href="http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nabu/index.html">Nabu</a> was a major Mesopotamian deity associated with literacy and the work of scribes.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303596/original/file-20191125-74557-ook47h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An engraving on an eye stone of onyx with an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The late Iron Age in the Near East saw the end of the mighty Assyrian Empire around 609 BCE - partly fuelled by climate change. </p>
<p>The area became the focus of political manoeuvring between two regional superpowers – the Egyptian and the Babylonian empires. Under Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Neo-Babylonian armies swept through the area, leaving a trail of destruction <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-archaeology-babylon/ancient-tablets-reveal-life-of-jews-in-nebuchadnezzars-babylon-idUSKBN0L71EK20150203">including that of the biblical kingdom of Judah, which was besieged and destroyed</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-fueled-the-rise-and-demise-of-the-neo-assyrian-empire-superpower-of-the-ancient-world-126661">Climate change fueled the rise and demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, superpower of the ancient world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Redbuilding Babylon</h2>
<p>Nebuchadnezzar appears prominently in the Book of Daniel, as well as in Kings, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and rabbinical literature. The fall of the kingdom of Judah is presented in detail in 2 Kings 24-25. </p>
<p>Many scholars have noted that the historicity of the biblical account is supported by cuneiform sources. Indeed, this biblical account of the destruction is remarkably close to descriptions of the event found in Neo-Babylonian chronicles.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303388/original/file-20191125-74603-1hu4xtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle. Clay tablet; New Babylonian. Chronicle for years 605-594 BC. © Trustees of the British Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nebuchadnezzar’s military might looms large in the biblical text, but evidence from Neo-Babylonian sources from around the time of his reign offers a different emphasis. These sources focus on the king’s outstanding record in building and construction, and his religious piety. </p>
<p>Nebuchadnezzar <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-world-heritage-unesco-iraq/ancient-iraqi-city-of-babylon-designated-unesco-world-heritage-site-idUSKCN1U02AW">was committed to rebuilding Babylon</a> (in modern-day Iraq) after it had been freed from Assyrian rule. He turned the city into one that was famed for its opulence and majesty throughout the ancient world. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/ancient-near-east1/babylonian/v/ishtar-gate-and-processional-way-reconstruction-babylon-c-575-b-c-e">The famous Ishtar Gate</a>, part of the processional way leading into the heart of the city, was constructed under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, and carries his dedication. The walls of the processional way were decorated with images of lions, the sacred animal of Ishtar, goddess of love.</p>
<p>Bricks from the blue-glazed wall bearing Nebuchadnezzar’s inscription have been discovered in their thousands.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303390/original/file-20191125-74580-pn54fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A reconstruction of the blue Ishtar Gate of Babylon, decorated with extinct aurochs and mythological creatures, at the Pergamon History Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-legend-of-ishtar-first-goddess-of-love-and-war-78468">Friday essay: the legend of Ishtar, first goddess of love and war</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Legend has it that the mysterious Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built by Nebuchadnezzar as a gift for his wife, Amuhia.</p>
<p>The story goes that Amuhia was <a href="https://qz.com/1557308/psychoterratica-is-the-trauma-caused-by-distance-from-nature/">homesick for the forested landscape</a> of her homeland Medea (which in the modern-day includes parts of Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), so Nebuchadnezzar built the gardens to provide her with some comforts of home. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/173590">one of the seven wonders of the ancient world,</a> but their exact historical location remains unknown.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303389/original/file-20191125-74562-1huvjhk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, painting by Ferdinand Knab (1834-1902)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nebuchadnezzar’s building works are described in the works of Classical writers such as the 5th century historian, <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-histories-by-herodotus-53748">Herodotus</a>. Several ancient sources, including inscriptions ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar, suggest the king constructed a giant reservoir that was 200km in length. (However, alternate sources suggest the construction was the work of the ancient queens Nitocris or Semiramis.)</p>
<h2>Musical connections</h2>
<p>In a much-quoted interview with DJ Zane Lowe, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrislambert/2019/11/17/who-is-king-nebuchadnezzar-and-why-is-he-the-focus-of-kanye-wests-upcoming-opera/#2eff530a7b24">Kanye West has explained his connection to the Babylonian monarch</a>. West noted parallels between the exceptional successes enjoyed by Nebuchadnezzar and himself, and the relationship between their achievements and their religion.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1198796300151508992"}"></div></p>
<p>He has also observed that Nebuchadnezzar’s mental illness as described in the Bible (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boanthropy">there is a passage where he believes himself to be a cow</a>) has resonated with <a href="https://people.com/music/kanye-west-sprained-brain-mental-illness-stigma/">his own health issues</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303597/original/file-20191125-74557-1s3s590.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nebuchadnezzar Recovering His Reason, Robert Blyth, 1782.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several ancient sources also connect Nebuchadnezzar to hymns and musical performances. In the Book of Daniel, for instance, Nebuchadnezzar builds a giant golden statue in his own image. The king’s attendants decree that when people “hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music” they should fall down and worship this gold image.</p>
<p>Following Nebuchadnezzar’s death around 562 BCE, three different kings held the Babylonian throne in six years.</p>
<p>Two were assassinated - suggesting perhaps that Nebuchadnezzar’s many achievements made him a hard act to follow. While the king’s rule was undoubtedly complicated, his story is still providing inspiration for modern artists and diverse new tellings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Pryke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Nebuchadnezzar was a warrior-king of the Neo-Babylonian empire. And now, Kanye West has written an opera inspired by him.
Louise Pryke, Honorary Research Associate and Lecturer, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126191
2019-11-05T23:57:44Z
2019-11-05T23:57:44Z
I teach and play gospel music and I think Kanye’s Jesus is King is a remarkable gospel album
<p>Kanye West’s Jesus is King will probably not rate among many traditional gospel followers. Kanye is one of the world’s biggest rap artists. Gospel music has its roots in the Spiritual and the blues – African Americans singing their theology, their world view. </p>
<p>But, Kanye and gospel? A tantalising, provocative and interesting combination. So, what is it like?</p>
<p>As a musician who has been privileged to play with many contemporary gospel artists, I get it. Jesus is King is gospel. Maybe Kanye’s gospel, but gospel all the same. </p>
<p>Maybe not as we knew it (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/17/archives/clara-ward-gospel-singer-48-leader-of-popular-group-dies.html">I’m thinking here of the late, legendary singers Clara Ward</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/11/obituaries/the-rev-james-cleveland-59-pastor-hailed-as-king-of-gospel.html">James Cleveland</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin">Aretha Franklin</a>) but still true to its community. Emotional, honest, raw, laid bare and real – honouring God as the great forgiver and transformer of lives. </p>
<p>Kanye’s song writing, sound crafting, production values and sheer force of expression commands respect. And yes, for me, that’s gospel. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6CNPg2IQoC0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Selah, from Jesus is King.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aretha-franklin-and-her-community-opened-their-doors-and-their-hearts-to-me-101593">Aretha Franklin and her community opened their doors and their hearts to me</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Referencing and testifying</h2>
<p>Jesus is King has polarised discussion. Alicia Crosby, a minister speaking to Time, <a href="https://time.com/5716576/kanye-west-jesus-is-king-gospel-reaction/">said the album was</a>, “weak theology, it’s not substantive, it’s not glorifying.” However, Sam Hailes, the <a href="https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Jesus-is-King-confirms-Kanye-is-a-Christian.-Let-s-stop-judging-him">editor of Premier Christianity</a> said, “this Christ-focused album is packed full of eternal truth.”</p>
<p>I think Kanye has produced something remarkable. Genuinely contemporary, Jesus Is King will inevitably challenge the traditional concept of African American gospel while influencing it shape for years to come. It is rough and ready in places, but honest. </p>
<p>Gospel music has always been challenged. Thomas Dorsey changed (read; established) gospel by incorporating blues; James Cleveland brought pop songs back into a church context; Edwin Hawkins and Richard Smallwood used contemporary, black, popular music grooves and sounds.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3wl4ogb0ZbQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Kanye is simply treading in their footsteps, bringing in elements of rap, pop, RnB and hip-hop.</p>
<p>Jesus is King begins in church, with a piano, an organ, and a gospel choral arrangement. Kanye obliquely references Kirk Franklin’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXjVlb8jGzs">Brighter Day</a>; Frank Hammond’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TColh6y5NGg">Let The Praise Begin</a> and Myron Butler’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrwbNsEnRno">Set Me Free</a>. </p>
<p>Referencing is inherent in gospel music. Referencing ties you to the past: its sounds and values. It testifies. It binds you to your sustaining community. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MrwbNsEnRno?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Sampling from gospel – and from the Bible</h2>
<p>Kanye’s modern take arrests you immediately. </p>
<p>The power of gospel is its conviction in delivery and intent. Kanye’s rap is like preaching, punctuated by instrumental riffs and percussive punches. </p>
<p>Traditional lyrics are placed in a new, exciting setting. In Every Hour he references the traditional gospel song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiojL9nqPuM">Sing Till the Power of the Lord Comes Down</a>. This song, in turn, draws from Psalm 59:16.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/giWHNhNqpS8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Every Hour.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CNPg2IQoC0">Selah</a> illustrates Kanye’s more usual rap background, tracing his very personal journey of spiritual conversion. He references Franklin’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orT5RN3Zwak">The Verdict</a> and cites John 8:33 and 8:36, but also his own previous music, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGPNeHAljAY">Ultralight Beam</a> from his 2016 album The Life of Pablo.</p>
<p>Kanye references the past in his present, while looking to the future. A key aspect of contemporary gospel is lyrics that see life not as linear (always getting better!), but as circular.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-sounds-of-kanye-west-54169">Friday essay: the sounds of Kanye West</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Kanye makes no secret of it - this is where he is now. Re-aligned with the church that saved and sustained his people and culture, moving away from the excesses of his high profile life, he comes home to be nurtured, and reconnect. </p>
<p>Vocal arrangements performed by Kanye’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/kanye-west-jesus-is-king-jason-white-choir-905199/">Sunday Service Choir</a>, who sing at his Sunday service events, are standouts. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dojATOk1GHA">Hands On</a>, with legendary gospel singer Hammond, is a tour de force for Hammond’s truly amazing voice. Some musical references are less solid, like the Kenny G sample in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U95psxm7io">Use This Gospel</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1K0R-CPg9F8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The song Follow God samples <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgsK5xpzT90">Can You Lose By Following God</a> by Whole Truth, and we get to the heart of Kanye’s struggles: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was looking at the ‘Gram and I don’t even like likes<br>
I was screamin’ at my dad, he told me, ‘It ain’t Christ-like’<br>
I was screamin’ at the referee just like Mike<br>
Lookin’ for a bright light, Sigel, what your life like</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a hurt and angry young man here whose frustration shows throughout, especially towards the album’s end. </p>
<h2>Challenging gospel</h2>
<p>For all its innovation and contemporary style, the groundwork for this album was set over 20 years ago. Kirk Franklin’s 1997 album Stomp set a new bar for hip-hop and RnB coming into gospel, and with the highest production values. This too though, was based on the preceding sounds of late ‘70s gospel bands like Commissioned, the Wynans and Richard Smallwood.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5-MNuakMPVU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Stomp by Kirk Franklin and God’s Prooperty.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Innovation in gospel hasn’t always been readily embraced. Kirk Franklin and the Family were picketed outside concert and church venues for their use of contemporary grooves and sounds in gospel. Such was the challenge that the new brought to the old. </p>
<p>Sometimes the old has a point. Contemporary gospel artists, including me, regularly miss the original meanings and contexts of the old school music that we play, which underpins our new expressions and versions of it. </p>
<p>But artists like Kirk Franklin - and now Kanye - remind us gospel is the music and story of a whole community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Legg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Jesus is King has polarised discussion. But this genuinely contemporary album will challenge the traditional concept of African American gospel while influencing its shape for years to come.
Andrew Legg, Associate Professor, Conservatorium of Music, University of Tasmania
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97943
2018-06-08T11:32:44Z
2018-06-08T11:32:44Z
Kanye West’s new housing project, reviewed by a professor of urban design
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222352/original/file-20180608-191947-x75uxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=118%2C0%2C2178%2C1196&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/super45/5680998765/sizes/l">Super 45 | Música Independiente/Jalil Peraza</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a long history of patrons for architecture, who have ensured their legacy – and often enhanced their status – through the construction of lavish buildings. Of course, some of these have been philanthropic figures, such as Andrew Carnegie, who supported the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library">construction of more than 2,500 libraries around the world</a>, or Oprah Winfrey, whose many charitable causes include <a href="https://variety.com/2017/biz/news/oprah-winfrey-leadership-academy-for-girls-10-year-anniversary-1202510605/">building schools for children</a> in developing countries. </p>
<p>More recently, Brad Pitt has <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/brad-pitt-article">taken an interest</a> in architecture. His support for the construction of new homes in New Orleans – via his <a href="http://makeitright.org">Make It Right</a> foundation – following Hurricane Katrina has continued to keep social and environmental concerns in the public eye. Clearly, this is a worthwhile endeavour, and hard to fault. </p>
<p>Now entering the arena is Kanye West, who <a href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/993221454740185088">recently announced on Twitter</a> that his company Yeezy would be <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/kanye-west-yeezy-company-architecture-home-improvements-145-million-a8340001.html">branching out into architecture</a>. Early <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/images-unveiled-for-kanye-wests-frist-social-housing-project">visualisations</a> of West’s collaboration with architects <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jalilperaza/">Jalil Peraza</a> and Petra Kustrin and 3D artist <a href="https://3designvis.wordpress.com/about/">Nejc Škufca</a> suggest the first project will be a prefabricated concrete “low income” housing scheme, arguably designed in a Brutalist style. </p>
<p>Questions arise, perhaps not least regarding whether the self-proclaimed polymath genius is the right person to create social housing for the masses. As a professor of urban design, it’s not immediately clear to me how the competing forces of real estate, fame and social concerns can be remixed to blend harmoniously in the modern urban landscape. </p>
<h2>Form over content?</h2>
<p>By putting his weight behind this project, West has drawn much-needed attention to <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/html/how-public-housing-harms-cities-12410.html">a critical issue</a> in a society that, for many years, allowed housing to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fortress-complex-how-the-west-became-obsessed-with-home-security-67748">divide communities and determine social status</a>. In the US, public housing projects are much maligned – <a href="http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130620/lakeview/sros-housing-of-last-resort-face-extinction-as-chateau-hotel-closes/">sometimes referred to</a> as “the housing of last resort”. If West wants to enhance the reputation of public or affordable housing as something residents can take pride in, then his intentions are admirable. </p>
<p>But with Kanye West, the message can always overtake the medium. With typical bombast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxwfDlhJIpw&feature=youtu.be">he has said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m going to be one of the biggest real-estate developers of all time – what Howard Hughes was to air crafts and what Henry Ford was to cars … We gonna develop cities. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Having purchased 300 acres of land to develop five properties, it certainly seems he is committed to the idea at some level.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjm3K8nFZEo/?taken-by=jalilperaza","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>It may be unhelpful, at some level, to criticise West’s motives – but we can and should question the potential outcome. As West <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/11/19/kanye_west_speaks_on_architecture_at_harvard_graduate_school_of_design_more.html?via=gdpr-consent">told a group of Harvard students</a>: “I really do believe that the world can be saved through design, and everything needs to actually be ‘architected’.” </p>
<p>On the plus side, this kind of vision along with West’s high level connections, considerable resources and sheer force of personality could enable this development to actually happen – which, since the demolition of the dilapidated and crime ridden <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/870685/ad-classics-pruitt-igoe-housing-project-minoru-yamasaki-st-louis-usa-modernism">Pruitt-Igoe project</a> of St Louis, Missouri in 1973 further plunged the public view of mass housing into disrepute, is no small achievement.</p>
<p>Yet West is seemingly impervious to constructive criticism or capable of being managed – as <a href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989142253468708864">he has even said himself</a>. We can reasonably assume community engagement and participatory processes will go out of the window. These are essential for public housing, especially in the US where their <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/563603/why-american-cities-need-double-down-public-housing">omission has contributed to terrible living conditions</a>. </p>
<p>In their place, his love for the people is expected to be met by the appreciation and gratitude of the masses. His embrace of disruption does not acknowledge the consequences – in a lot of cases, innovation fails to favour people living on low incomes. In the context of urban design, putting in place infrastructure such as train tracks and highways <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/16/how-railroads-highways-and-other-man-made-lines-racially-divide-americas-cities/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.78e9dfd843d7">has typically served to provide sharp boundaries</a> between different communities. </p>
<h2>Hashtag ignorance</h2>
<p>Recent outbursts – such as his statement regarding <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/26/opinions/slavery-choice-kanye-west-opinion-sims-love/index.html">slavery being a choice</a> – have done little to display his ability to understand the very people the Yeezy Home is being designed for. Further, his <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/05/im-not-black-im-kanye/559763/">unwillingness to grapple</a> with the complexity of politics and racism endemic in US urban development only highlight how removed from history and society he actually is. </p>
<p>Megalomaniacs have produced many visions for cities over the years, with mixed results: consider the contrasting schemes of Swiss Modernist architect <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Le-Corbusier">Le Corbusier</a> or Hitler’s personal architect <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Speer">Albert Speer</a>, in their respective quests for a new urbanism. The neo-Brutalist aesthetic of the Yeezy homes is a sideshow in this arena, an Instagram-ready shorthand for contemporary cool. The real story is the grand vision into which the housing sits.</p>
<p>With West’s drive to build his utopia on behalf of others, while skirting around inconvenient issues such as social equity, <a href="http://spatialjustice.org/about/how-to-identify-spatial-justice-issues/">spatial justice</a> (determined by access and proximity to essential services, public funds and other features) and urban history, his success will be immense – just not in the way he imagines it. </p>
<p>By designing for – rather than with – people, ignoring important social and urban developments and assuming the role of great benefactor, West would enter the history books – but not as a pioneer for social good or innovative design. Instead, he would join an already crowded history of urban developers who designed black people out of the landscape. </p>
<p>For this particular entanglement of social housing and celebrity endorsement, the future of the Yeezy Home project looks likely to aid and abet gentrification processes, not resolve them. Another brand for him, in the guise of a concern for the many –– and that’s the brutal truth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Dunn receives funding from various research councils and government organisations. </span></em></p>
A first glimpse of the low-income housing scheme, designed in collaboration with West, raises red flags.
Nick Dunn, Professor of Urban Design, Lancaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96379
2018-05-10T10:02:42Z
2018-05-10T10:02:42Z
Childish Gambino: This is America uses music and dance to expose society’s dark underbelly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218318/original/file-20180509-184630-1tg2s0s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This is America.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY">Childish Gambino/YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Childish Gambino’s new music video for his song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY">This is America</a> was viewed almost 50m times in five days. It is a remarkable artistic achievement given that it utilises finely-tuned choreography to satirise the role of the black man’s supposedly “joyous” song and dance routine. </p>
<p>The release of the video was particularly timely. Encountering the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2033604/">Hiro Murai-directed</a> promo brought some much-needed satisfaction – and sanity – to a week that had notably featured a Trump-endorsing Kanye West <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2018/05/02/tmz-live-kanye/">claiming slavery was “a choice”</a>. </p>
<p>After already amassing over 49m YouTube views, This is America has demonstrated the potential for an artist like Donald Glover – aka Childish Gambino – to use popular culture to critically address ongoing and deeply-ingrained issues surrounding race. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VYOjWnS4cMY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Not so ‘happy’ after all</h2>
<p>It achieves this while simultaneously criticising popular culture for placating audiences. It can be seen as the antithesis of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM">Pharrell Williams’s Happy</a> – a video that achieved its own constant rotation via more obvious feelgood escapism. </p>
<p>Glover’s hard-hitting cynicism can be pitched against Williams’ most buoyant song in a way that recounts Public Enemy’s 1990 citing of Bobby McFerrin’s similarly rose-tinted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU">Don’t Worry Be Happy</a> as little more than a distraction within their own call-to-arms, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaoLy7PHwk">Fight the Power</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps most controversial of all, This is America appears to openly question the entertainment industry’s support for what amounts to a continuation of “minstrelsy” (the once highly popular 19th-century “blackface” tradition that relied on damaging racist stereotypes). This aspect was picked up by creator of the comedy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5707802/">Dear White People</a>, Justin Simien, <a href="https://twitter.com/JSim07/status/993302602287792128">who observed</a> how Glover even contorts his body into the caricatured figure of Jim Crow – a slave archetype who was a mainstay of such performances.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218427/original/file-20180510-4803-n562n4.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218427/original/file-20180510-4803-n562n4.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218427/original/file-20180510-4803-n562n4.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218427/original/file-20180510-4803-n562n4.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218427/original/file-20180510-4803-n562n4.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218427/original/file-20180510-4803-n562n4.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218427/original/file-20180510-4803-n562n4.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Justin Simien on Twitter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/JSim07/status/993302602287792128">Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Utilising sharp choreography as part of his own bewitching performance, he leaves no misunderstanding about where he locates either the origins or the current role of the black man’s upbeat song and dance routine. </p>
<p>As a video, it immediately appears to have some kinship with Beyoncé’s Grammy-nominated <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQ">Formation</a>. Both appear to pull us towards the motivation behind the <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/">Black Lives Matter campaign</a> but, more than that, these are both examples of the music video as a politicised event. Formation is a fierce commentary on events from <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-black-lives-matter-movement-changed-america-one-year-later/">Ferguson</a> to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35248428">Sandra Bland</a> to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30350648">Eric Garner</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36494645">Freddie Gray</a>. The video marked Beyonce’s entrance into the political sphere while also ensuring that it is couched in mass appeal.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WDZJPJV__bQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>As cultural theorist <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/musicvideo-9781501313929/">Sunil Manghani identified</a>, these videos transcend the format of the music video itself, resulting in “a combined ‘object’ of music-video-news as it forms and reformulates through social media, news networks, and print journalism”. </p>
<p>Glover has now had a “moment” where he has dominated a cultural conversation by presenting work that is so fully formed in its complexity and accessibility. </p>
<h2>A satirical dance</h2>
<p>What is so remarkable about the way in which Glover used the form of the music video as a politicised event is in the layered and nuanced content with a direct message. Peppered throughout the video are the traces of various dance styles, from viral video moves to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t8Gies2Zps">Blocboy JB’s shoot dance</a>, to the South African <a href="http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/38824/1/rihanna-gwara-gwara-dance-grammys-wild-thoughts">Gwara Gwara</a>. Brought together, the differing origins form something that looks very American and which Glover appears to comment on directly.</p>
<p>Placing the choreography so front and centre seems to be saying that that mainstream culture is all America sees when they see the black community. The exaggerated facial expressions while dancing in the video, further pointing to the disparaging caricatures of the black man popularised in the Jim Crow era.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DzfpyUB60YY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The Sunken Place</h2>
<p>At the end of the video, Glover is seen running in semi darkness being chased by a group of what seem to be non-black people. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=this%20is%20america%20sunken%20place&src=typd">Like many on Twitter have theorised</a>, it is plausible to suggest that Glover is in fact running from the Sunken Place – a concept developed in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRfnevzM9kQ">Jordan Peele’s film Get Out</a>. </p>
<p>The Sunken Place represents a system that no matter how hard individuals and groups protest, it will silence them. <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/2017/11/get-out-jordan-peele-explains-sunken-place-meaning-1201902567/">As Peele explained</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You know when you’re going to sleep and it feels like you’re about to fall, so you wake up? What if you never woke up? Where would you fall? And that was kind of the most harrowing idea to me. And as I’m writing it becomes clear that the sunken place is this metaphor for the system that is suppressing the freedom of black people, of many outsiders, many minorities. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Glover in effect represents this concept through choreography and visual imagery in just four minutes and four seconds. Like Beyoncé, Glover has offered up a multi-layered political statement and one which the mainstream is now grappling with. If ever the music video had a moment, it is right now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Donald Glover’s music video is a multi-layered political statement which aims to kick its audience out of its complacency.
Daniel Cookney, Lecturer in Graphic Design, University of Salford
Kirsty Fairclough, Associate Dean: Research and Innovation, University of Salford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95911
2018-05-07T22:33:49Z
2018-05-07T22:33:49Z
Bromance alert: Kanye West and … Jordan Peterson?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217863/original/file-20180506-166890-37fjaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West is seen in this August 2015 photo accepting the video vanguard award at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kanye West, the hip hop star married to Kim Kardashian, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/politics/what-kanye-likes-about-trump/index.html">has come out in support</a> of U.S. President Donald Trump. </p>
<p>That was bad enough for many Americans who abhor Trump, particularly <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/trump-defends-white-nationalist-protesters-some-very-fine-people-on-both-sides/537012/">following the president’s defence</a> of white supremacists in the aftermath of the violence last summer in Charlottesville, Va. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"989227154993963009"}"></div></p>
<p>The Kanye ire is such that rapper and record producer Daz Dillinger called on The Crips, the infamous L.A.-based gang, <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/931327/kanye-west-surrounds-himself-with-bodyguards-amid-crip-gang-threat">to assault the rapper for his pro-Trump stance.</a> Kanye is now surrounded by security guards for protection and <a href="http://www.nme.com/news/music/kanye-west-daz-dillinger-restraining-order-2306746">has a restraining order against Dillinger.</a></p>
<p>Making matters worse? Kanye has also signalled his admiration for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jordan-peterson-is-on-a-crusade-to-toughen-up-young-men-its-landed-him-on-our-cultural-divide/2018/05/02/c5bafe48-31d6-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html?utm_term=.4a227b0c59a1">Jordan Peterson,</a> the controversial University of Toronto professor who is the hero of those who <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/26/17144166/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life">have dubbed themselves lobsters</a>
— Peterson fans who believe, as he does, that political correctness has spiralled out of control.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"991287930168758273"}"></div></p>
<p>It’s all exploding into the perfect celebrity storm. <em>The Apprentice: Existentialist Edition</em> is now ready to launch. </p>
<p>And it’s all over a simple idea, something called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy"><em>post-modernism.</em></a> The call for violence against Kanye is the result of arguing about something that isn’t even real. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-postmodernism-20791">Explainer: what is postmodernism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>How so? It’s impossible to identify Kanye’s “crime,” or Peterson’s, other than they reserve the right to offend. And apparently, offence is good enough reason to incite violence against someone.</p>
<h2>Freedom of speech battle</h2>
<p>All of this is about freedom of speech, but that prerogative seems to have been hijacked by the political right. For example, those on the extreme right want to deny Muslims entry into the United States and also want the freedom to slander them. This open door to inflammatory or even hate speech is hardly what lies at the heart of academic freedom.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-free-speech-debate-is-really-about-power-88459">University free speech debate is really about power</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The problems arise due to the fact that white supremacists, including the Ku Klux Klan, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/01/right-wing-media-reaction-trump-shithole-comments">have embraced Trump</a>. At the same time, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/who-is-jordan-peterson-favorite-figure-of-the-alt-right-1221615171523">they’ve found a philosophy</a> in Peterson’s work that’s compatible with Trump’s anti-fact bias. </p>
<p>It’s not that Peterson is against facts, it’s that he appeals to people who do not require them to form an idea — <a href="https://mic.com/articles/189089/kanye-west-just-tweeted-the-work-of-jordan-peterson-another-conservative-thinker#.QrdJ0iXDn">including, apparently, Kanye West,</a> who recently suggested that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/entertainment/kanye-west-slavery-choice-trnd/index.html">slavery was a choice.</a></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217132/original/file-20180502-135825-nk3l2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2000%2C1377&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217132/original/file-20180502-135825-nk3l2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217132/original/file-20180502-135825-nk3l2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217132/original/file-20180502-135825-nk3l2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217132/original/file-20180502-135825-nk3l2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217132/original/file-20180502-135825-nk3l2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217132/original/file-20180502-135825-nk3l2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kanye West and Donald Trump are seen in this December 2016 photo in the lobby of Trump Tower. West has declared his support of Trump in recent days. Where does Canada’s Jordan Peterson fit into it all?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Peterson argues that we’re all captives in a post-modern world, one in which nothing has more meaning that anything else. The issue is that his adherents are not informed enough to compare his philosophies with competing ideas.</p>
<p>There are other ways to frame our present social “philosophy.” There is the work of Socrates on <em>metanoia</em>, which means changing your behaviour to be a better you. Aristotle taught us about <em>eudaimonia,</em> which is an ancient way of talking about flourishing in life. There are a host of frameworks in psychology that address personality theory and socially constructed reality in terms of our own symbolic meanings.</p>
<h2>Those who disagree are wrong?</h2>
<p>Peterson fans are called lobsters due to his comparison of people to crustaceans in his new book <em>12 Rules For Life</em>. Lobsters identify others as friend or enemy, it’s that simple, and Peterson <a href="https://theconversation.com/psychologist-jordan-peterson-says-lobsters-help-to-explain-why-human-hierarchies-exist-do-they-90489">argues that the left does exactly that</a>. They view like-minded people as absolutely right and those who disagree with them as absolutely wrong, he says.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217864/original/file-20180506-166890-1a7fnn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217864/original/file-20180506-166890-1a7fnn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217864/original/file-20180506-166890-1a7fnn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217864/original/file-20180506-166890-1a7fnn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217864/original/file-20180506-166890-1a7fnn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217864/original/file-20180506-166890-1a7fnn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217864/original/file-20180506-166890-1a7fnn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jordan Peterson’s biggest problem is he believes in post-modernism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(YouTube)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Peterson’s biggest problem is that he believes there’s an identifiable entity called post-modernism. This kind of error in thinking is called <em>reification</em> in sociology. It is agreeing that something is real when it might not be. There is no basis to state that post-modernism is the root cause of our social ills.</p>
<p>To take these multiple social and psychological movements and combine them into one huge entity — a thought system, a shared philosophy — is what Peterson is literally doing when he points the finger at post-modernism, and that’s a step too far. </p>
<p>Peterson argues that modern-day gender politics is based on a refusal to acknowledge biology, and he also states that a primarily Marxist, anti-capitalist socialism has taken over academia. But surely, transformative events such as the relatively sudden rise of women’s economic power in the world shifts our thinking as much as anti-scientific and anti-corporate thinking.</p>
<h2>Peterson’s narrow views</h2>
<p>Peterson would do well to study and discuss other great thinkers like <a href="http://www.alanwatts.org/">Alan Watts</a>, <a href="http://dbohm.com/">David Bohm</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1977/prigogine-bio.html">Ilya Prigogine</a>, and spend less time trying to win the golden ticket to celebrity status. </p>
<p>These are all scholars who talk about reality from a more Eastern point of view. They argue that our reality itself, what we call the “world,” is not what it seems. Their philosophies are an extension of critical thinking in the 1960s that embraced more mystical views of life, including self-actualization. </p>
<p>Peterson, on the other hand, is disturbingly narrow, non-mystical and heavily rationalist in his view of the world. Indeed, it’s so narrow that it appeals to Klansmen and misogynists. Some of Peterson’s actually nuanced arguments about the culture of victimhood have been lost in the Trump-aligned right.</p>
<p>If in fact they are flirting with a bromance, maybe both Kanye and Peterson would do well to get a makeover from the Kardashians’ apparent fleet of makeup artists. </p>
<p>They could both use a fresh spring look that accentuates the positive rather than the relentlessly negative regard they seem to harbour for those who take issue with hatred.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Chandross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Kanye West is making headlines for his support of Donald Trump and remarks about slavery being a choice. The rapper has also signalled he’s a fan of controversial Canadian professor Jordan Peterson.
David Chandross, Professor: Education, Toronto Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87190
2017-11-19T09:17:07Z
2017-11-19T09:17:07Z
How the death of the hip-hop DJ spawned the superstar rapper
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195032/original/file-20171116-15454-797v9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Superstar rapper, Kanye West.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lucas Jackson/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the inception of hip-hop culture, the DJ has been its cornerstone. The culture’s starting point is widely accepted as the birthday party <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-djing-2857342">Kool DJ Herc</a> threw for his sister at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, The Bronx on August 11, 1973. </p>
<p>Kool Herc’s selection spanned the funk genre, and using two copies of the same record, he extended the break (typically a breakdown followed by a series of drum-only or drum and bass patterns). This pioneering DJ method set the tone for what became the core of hip-hop DJing for the past 45 years.</p>
<p>For the rest of that decade and throughout the 1980s the DJ was the first maker of hip-hop and the linchpin of experimentation. The <a href="https://turntable-dj.wonderhowto.com/how-to/cut-and-chop-dj-mixer-257281/">practice of</a> of scratching, mixing and cutting evolved through their various iterations and experienced many paradigm shifts thanks to DJs like <a href="http://brooklynmusic.blogspot.co.za/2009/07/brooklynbio-mystery-of-grandmaster.html">Grandmaster Flowers</a>, <a href="http://www.grandmasterflash.com/">Grandmaster Flash</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/13/grand-wizard-invents-scratching">Grandwizard Theodore</a> and, later, <a href="http://www.oldschoolhiphop.com/artists/emcees/wordofmouth.htm">DJ Cheese</a>, <a href="http://www.djjazzyjeff.com/">DJ Jazzy Jeff</a> and <a href="http://www.therealdjcashmoney.com/aboutdcjcashmoney/">DJ Cash Money</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dmcworld.com/">Disco Mix Club (DMC)</a>, initiated in 1983, has organised world mixing championships for 31 years. These celebrate hip hop DJs’ skills and talents. This year’s winner, Japan’s 12-year-old <a href="https://djmag.com/news/12-year-old-dj-rena-wins-dmc-world-championships-2017">DJ Rena</a>, is the youngest champion ever.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/koupNqLOvQY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">DJ Rena, the youngest DMC champion ever.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The artistry of hip hop DJing is truly a worldwide discipline. From the incredible teamwork of the UK’s <a href="https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/scratchperverts">Scratch Perverts</a> to the multidisciplinary approaches of South Africa’s Grand Master <a href="http://djreadyd.com/">Ready D</a>, mix DJs have revolutionised the broader field of dance music, and they’ve influenced other music genres too. But there’s now a huge, awkward elephant in hip-hop culture’s room: the ghost of the DJ.</p>
<h2>Huge, awkward elephant</h2>
<p>On 7 November 2017, DMC World DJ Champion of 1988, DJ Cash Money (Jerome Hewlett), announced his <a href="https://www.themaven.net/allhiphop/news/pioneering-dj-cash-money-quits-hip-hop-over-shady-promoters-KM7Utk2nqkisQPUqqmR5Ig">retirement</a> on Facebook, posting in caps: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>IT’S OFFICIAL I’M OUT OF THE GAME!!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s <a href="http://ambrosiaforheads.com/2017/11/dj-cash-money-retires-video/">a shockwave</a> the hip hop nation is still feeling, and one that’s raised some questions. DJ Cash Money has toured consistently and successfully since 1988. In his retirement post he stated that, for him, the music business has become negative. Dealing with overbearing promoters and agents was too problematic. A barrage of people have agreed with him.</p>
<p>The most common issue DJs as independent artists face is promoters’ unrealistic expectations. Coupled with reductions in how much the artist earns, it is understandable that DJs like Cash Money are looking outside hip hop to further their careers.</p>
<p>But there’s more than just money at stake. There’s a greater complex problem within hip hop culture itself: the DJ no longer takes a central creative role with shared responsibility for the overall sound, the design of the cuts and scratches in dialogue with the raps, and the live performance.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kz6RQV3X8sQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jam Master Jay on the decks.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Run DMC’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/oct/24/jam-master-jay-run-dmc-remembered">Jam Master Jay</a> was an exemplar of these methodologies. During the 1980s – when Run DMC were one of the most celebrated hip-hop crews – the DJ’s input was clearly prominent within hip-hop’s representations. Most hip-hop albums of the time contained an ode to the DJ – a sole track boasting the DJ’s skills – such as “Moe Luv’s Theme” by Ultramagnetic MCs, “DJ K La Boss” by EPMD and Cash Money & Marvelous’s “The Mighty Hard Rocker”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i61fPKiInro?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">DJ Cash Money on the wheels of steel.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The exposure gained from success in the DMC Championships also helped their crew’s publicity. But at some point in the 1990s the DJ’s presence seemed to fade from hip hop, which I believe links to the embracing of the sampler, a piece of digital hardware enabling the breakbeats to be extended without the DJ. </p>
<p>Beautifully produced albums such as <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/uptown-saturday-night-mw0000612957">“Uptown Saturday Night”</a> (1997) by Camp Lo contain little evidence of DJ practice. It illustrated this increased trend as emcee-producers (rappers who produce their own music) <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mf-doom-mn0000220563">MF Doom</a>, <a href="http://www.defjam.com/artists/q-tip">Q-Tip</a> and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lord-finesse-mn0000828447">Lord Finesse</a> set the tone for the arrival of the superstar rapper-producer. Cue: <a href="https://pitchfork.com/artists/4639-kanye-west/">Kanye West</a>. </p>
<p>The theory of “habitus” as presented by philosopher Pierre Bourdieu can help us understand the evolution and position of the DJ within hip hop. In <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674212770">“Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste”</a> Bourdieu <a href="http://routledgesoc.com/category/profile-tags/habitus">explains</a> the “habitus” as an embodiment of cultural capital evident within skills, disposition and attitude of members of a culture.</p>
<p>This evolution away from the DJ led to a shift in the mainstream construct of the habitus in the hip-hop production canon; yet outside this canon the underground maintains solid links to the DJ’s position evident in the sounds of America’s <a href="http://www.jurassic5.com/">Jurassic 5</a> and South Africa’s <a href="https://www.reverbnation.com/brassevanniekaap">Brasse Vannie Kaap</a>.</p>
<p>Drawing on Bourdieu’s notion there is a dislocation within the habitus of hip-hop. The underground habitus values skills, creativity and practice based on life experience, while the commercial habitus values the monetary gain that can be accrued from consolidation of such skills. </p>
<p>In the underground scene, DJs are clearly present in the final product, although all too often cuts and scratches are farmed out to DJs. These additions become decoration rather than an integral part of the song’s concept, which can drastically weaken the narrative.</p>
<h2>Return to the crew</h2>
<p>Hip-hop may benefit from a return to the crew and collective mentality, where the DJ once again is valued and plays a central creative role. This repositioning could rejuvenate the dynamic that has been gradually engineered out of hip-hop music. It can offer a counterpoint to the non-practicing promoters, agents and industry representatives who continue to drive the culture. </p>
<p>Hip-hop needs to reflect on its own origins in order to project into the future, working once again from the ground up. DJ Cash Money’s retirement should send a critical message to hip-hop practitioners worldwide. </p>
<p>The bottom line is hip-hop music cannot be sustained with rappers and producers only, nor can it continue to elevate without its original musician – the DJ –at its core.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam de Paor-Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Hip-hop may benefit from a return to the crew and collective mentality, where the DJ once again is valued and plays a central creative role.
Adam de Paor-Evans, Principal Lecturer in Cultural Theory / School Lead for Research and Innovation, School of Art, Design and Fashion, University of Central Lancashire
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84673
2017-10-22T21:55:57Z
2017-10-22T21:55:57Z
White people should never rap the n-word: A linguist breaks it down
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220048/original/file-20180523-51091-lgd6jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3600%2C2355&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Pulitzer Prize winning emcee Kendrick Lamar recently asked a white fan to refrain from rapping the n-word. A video recording of the incident has reignited a controversy that gained wide attention last year. In this 2016 file photo, Kendrick Lamar performs in New York. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At one of his recent shows, the Pulitzer Prize winning rapper and emcee Kendrick Lamar <a href="http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-23/rapper-kendrick-lamar-asks-white-fan-not-to-sing-n-word/9789938?pfmredir=sm">asked a white fan to stop rapping the n-word</a>. </p>
<p>The crowd in Gulf Shores, Ala., started booing as the fan used the racial slur. The rapper had invited the fan identified as “Delaney” on stage to sing “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10yrPDf92hY">M.A.A.D. City</a>” during his set. </p>
<p>But he stopped the music and told her, “You gotta bleep one single word.” Delaney appeared not to realize why Lamar had stopped her from singing. She asked: “Am I not cool enough for you, bro?”</p>
<p>She apologized, saying: “I’m so sorry …I’m used to singing it like you wrote it.”</p>
<p>A video recording of the incident in Alabama has <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44209141">reignited</a> a controversy that gained wide attention last year. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"998911391804395520"}"></div></p>
<p>Last fall social media <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4906642/Sorority-fire-video-showing-group-singing-n-word.html">erupted</a> after a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AllEyesOnUNH/videos/483458682033428/">video of white sorority girls</a> singing along to <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kanyewest/gold-digger-album-version">Kanye West’s mega hit</a> <em>Gold Digger</em> went viral. The lyrics include the word <em>n-gga</em>. The students <a href="http://www.unh.edu/mub/sites/default/files/media/pdf/letter_of_apology_alpha_phi_fraternity_.pdf">promptly apologized</a> and were <a href="http://nh1.com/news/new-hampshire/unh-sorority-apologizes-for-singing-the-n-word">absolved of racism by their university</a> and by commentators and journalists — <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4907740/PIERS-MORGAN-mad-Kanye-not-girls-singing-n-as.html">most notably Piers Morgan</a>. </p>
<p>Morgan, writing in the <em>Daily Mail</em>, insisted that white listeners of rap music cannot be reproached for using the n-word. Rather, he said, they are targeted and exploited by Kanye and other Black celebrities, who send <a href="https://twitter.com/alexberesfordTV/status/911245595687505920">mixed messages</a> about whether the n-word is offensive. Morgan wrote: “The only way to stop its use is for everyone to stop using it, including Black people.”</p>
<p>Though Morgan’s take on the n-word was <a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2017/09/piers-morgan-draws-outrage-after-column-on-kanye-west-the-n-word">widely derided</a>, it went viral, and a few commentators endorsed it <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/piers-morgan-n-word-kanye-west-racism-rap-music-white-sorority-girls-alpha-phi-university-new-a7961461.html">in whole</a> or <a href="https://www.maxim.com/news/sorority-girls-sing-gold-digger-2017-9">in part</a>. As a white fan of rap music and as a linguist who <a href="https://twitter.com/darin_flynn/status/525772285592862720">writes</a> and <a href="https://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2014-09-22/rap-linguistics-course-cool-challenging">teaches</a> about hip-hop language, I feel compelled to add my voice to others who have countered his poorly informed arguments.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6vwNcNOTVzY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption"><em>Gold Digger</em> by Kanye West features Jamie Foxx sampling Ray Charles (edited version) (C) 2005 Roc-A-Fella Records</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hip-hop as counterculture</h2>
<p>Though hip-hop is now <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB111521814339424546">consumed by mainstream pop audiences</a>, it is traditionally made for, and by, working-class Black youth whose “in-group” acceptance depends in large part on their fluent use of Black vernacular English. “There is no question that Black talk provides hip-hop’s linguistic underpinnings,” write linguist John Rickford and his son, journalist Russell Rickford, in <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spoken-soul-john-russell-rickford/1122979343"><em>Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English</em></a>. They go on to explain:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Nothing thumbs its nose at conformity like the unrestrained African American vernacular. Although white suburban youngsters eat up hip-hop’s edgy tales of money, sexual adventure, ghetto life, and racial injustice (and keep ghetto rhymes atop the pop charts), Black urban youngsters are the genre’s target audience.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now the n-word looms large in the vernacular of many Black youth. In a <a href="http://americanspeech.dukejournals.org/content/90/4/403.abstract">new linguistic study</a> of “Black Twitter,” the n-word stands out as the most frequent distinctively Black form, being used 6.6 million times by Black American Twitter users in a single month. The study notes that the n-word has various uses but defines it simply as “guy.”</p>
<p>Black emcees, too, generally use the n-word as “guy,” with diverse connotations, none of them truly offensive. In <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/something-from-nothing-the-art-of-rap/id854553741"><em>Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap</em></a>, Grandmaster Caz, a hip-hop elder, explores the word in a 300-word <a href="https://genius.com/Grandmaster-caz-im-that-freestyle-lyrics">freestyle</a> that includes 46 instances of the term. Caz shows that it has dozens of meanings, ranging from peaceful to aggressive, from camaraderie to competition, and from boasting to “dissing.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>I’m that top n-gga, … I won’t stop, n-gga … I’m that sweet n-gga, that never off-beat n-gga … I’m that cool n-gga, ran my whole high school n-gga … I’m that proud n-gga, that stand out in the crowd n-gga … I’m that smart n-gga, always first to start n-gga. I think with my head, but I feel with my heart, n-gga!</em></p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191153/original/file-20171020-1082-12qp45f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191153/original/file-20171020-1082-12qp45f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191153/original/file-20171020-1082-12qp45f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191153/original/file-20171020-1082-12qp45f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191153/original/file-20171020-1082-12qp45f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191153/original/file-20171020-1082-12qp45f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191153/original/file-20171020-1082-12qp45f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grandmaster Caz is a hip-hop elder from the Bronx who has been rapping since the mid 1970s. Here he is rapping to an audience circa 1977. In 2012 he explored the n-word in a 300-word freestyle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/hiphop/conzo_copyright.html#copyright">(©Joe Conzo and Cornell University Library)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A Black man from the Bronx, Caz’s use of the n-word in these lines is in direct opposition to “out-group” racist uses of the term. According to a philosopher of language, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530913000232">Adam Croom</a>, the racial slur describes “a constellation of prototypical attributes,” the most derogatory being “subservient,” “prone to laziness,” “prone to violence,” “simple-minded,” and “emotionally shallow.” Croom explains that slurs are used in non-derogatory ways within countercultures such as hip-hop, to oppose and to subvert entrenched sociocultural norms.</p>
<h2>Surviving racism and the evolution of language</h2>
<p>Black youth appear to strengthen their solidarity and identity by using the n-word as an in-group term. Linguist <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0075424211414807">Jacquelyn Rahman</a> argues the term may help Black males identify as “resourceful, pragmatic survivors” of racial injustice. “During the period of slavery, n-gga became a term that Africans used to refer to themselves and companions in the struggle to survive,” explains Rahman. “Using the term highlighted the identity of a speaker as participating in the culture of survival.” This is apparent <a href="https://genius.com/1904458">when Jay-Z tells himself</a> in <em>Holy Grail</em>, “you still alive, still that n-gga. N-gga, you survived, you still gettin’ bigger.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191115/original/file-20171019-1072-6c84v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191115/original/file-20171019-1072-6c84v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191115/original/file-20171019-1072-6c84v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191115/original/file-20171019-1072-6c84v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191115/original/file-20171019-1072-6c84v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191115/original/file-20171019-1072-6c84v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191115/original/file-20171019-1072-6c84v6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media erupted over a video that showed a group of white girls saying the n-word while singing along to</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Brian Kersey)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The survivor meaning of the n-word has a long history. But African Americans have also developed <a href="https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/ExtendedAbs/article/view/2994/2740">new meanings and uses</a> of the word in the last few decades. For instance, its use has expanded from noun to noun modifier. An iconic example is New Orleans’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys3RPPGXbd8">MC T. Tucker</a> who described himself as “the n-gga, the n-gga n-gga, … the n-gga n-gga n-gga you love to hate.” The n-word has also grown from an expression of solidarity among survivors to a term of endearment (as in, <a href="http://time.com/3930797/obama-maron-interview/">“that’s my n-gga”</a>). </p>
<p>The n-word has even evolved into a <a href="https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/ExtendedAbs/article/view/2994/2740">meaning-neutral pronoun</a> in the first or third person, similar to “I/me,” “we/us,” “he/him,” and “they/them.” So for instance, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kaanlifemusic/">KAAN</a> simply refers to himself when he <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kaanlifemusic/time-pro-genshin#t=1:30">raps</a>, “I’m still rolling by myself, a n-gga [I] never had a crew … you lookin for a n-gga [me], you know where to find me … Lawd knows that a n-gga [I’m] feelin hopeless.”</p>
<p>Altogether, then, the use of the n-word in hip-hop is about identity and survival. When a Black emcee says the n-word, it is intended without derogation. So can white hip-hop heads — like me — and other non-Black people rap along without being offensive?</p>
<h2>It is never OK: Eminem</h2>
<p>In my rap linguistics course a few years ago, a student of South Asian heritage made a memorable class presentation titled, “The meaning of <em>n-gga</em>.” He’d asked a Black childhood friend to join him in class that day, to stand beside him, and to say each instance of the n-word in his stead. My student said that though he is a person of colour and an emcee immersed in hip-hop culture, from a “hood area” in Northeast Calgary, he makes a point of never saying this word, even with Black friends who encourage him to use it. One of his idols, white rapper Eminem, never does either.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191111/original/file-20171019-1072-zlt2qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191111/original/file-20171019-1072-zlt2qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191111/original/file-20171019-1072-zlt2qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191111/original/file-20171019-1072-zlt2qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191111/original/file-20171019-1072-zlt2qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191111/original/file-20171019-1072-zlt2qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191111/original/file-20171019-1072-zlt2qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It is never OK for white folks to use the n-word. Famous white rapper Eminem agrees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, Eminem and the Black culture of hip-hop famously adopted each other. Much of Eminem’s accent, grammar and vocabulary are drawn from Black vernacular English, but he avoids saying the n-word. (<a href="https://genius.com/814896">He admitted he said it on occasion in his teens</a> but he has been mostly excused for this - <a href="https://genius.com/452714">as Nas wrote</a>, he’s “not mad ’cause Eminem said n-gga, ’cause he my n-gga.”) In <a href="https://genius.com/Eminem-till-i-collapse-lyrics"><em>’Till I Collapse</em>,</a> Eminem even avoids a euphemism for the n-word — by substituting “wizzle” for “nizzle” in Snoop Dogg’s well-known expression “fo’ shizzle, my nizzle.”</p>
<p>This song (like many others by Eminem, such as <a href="https://genius.com/Eminem-not-afraid-lyrics"><em>Not Afraid</em></a> and <a href="https://genius.com/Eminem-survival-lyrics"><em>Survival</em></a>) is about being a “survivor.” Because the n-word is deeply rooted in African-American history, Eminem cannot use it to mean “survivor,” no matter how integrated he is in the Black culture that is hip-hop. More generally, because Eminem is white, he cannot subvert the n-word as non-derogatory, as Black hip-hoppers can with each other. Only the in-group members that the slur was originally intended to target can perform this <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530913000232">“normative reversal.”</a></p>
<p>So for Eminem, the n-word must remain the <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/68082/the-source-accuses-eminem-of-racism">racist slur</a> that <a href="https://genius.com/Eminem-white-america-lyrics">white America</a> has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/14/school-stops-teaching-huckleberry-finn-community-costs-n-word">always used</a> and sadly, some <a href="https://www.theshadowleague.com/story/no-good-n-gger-rant-at-mike-tomlin-shows-importance-of-taking-a-knee">continue</a> to <a href="https://www.usafa.edu/superintendent-addresses-racial-slurs-usafa/">use</a>.</p>
<p>The bottom line is this: if a <a href="https://genius.com/Bad-meets-evil-renegade-lyrics">renegade</a> <a href="https://genius.com/Eminem-rap-god-lyrics">rap god</a>, who is one of the most unrestrained artists in hip-hop, won’t rap the n-word, then what might possess mere white listeners of rap music to do so?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darin Flynn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
At one of his shows, rapper Kendrick Lamar asked a white fan to refrain from rapping the n-word. A video of the incident has reignited a controversy: can white people ever rap the n-word?
Darin Flynn, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Calgary
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64509
2016-10-05T10:02:20Z
2016-10-05T10:02:20Z
How saying you’re multiracial changes the way people see you
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140199/original/image-20161003-20239-1atkaxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Race and perceived beauty are closely intertwined.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-176175434/stock-photo-cultural-diversity-two-faces-colored-black-white-yin-yang-style.html?src=pp-same_model-176972174-2&ws=1">'Faces' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month, rapper Kanye West posted <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/09/kanye-west-multi-racial-casting-call-backlash">a controversial casting call</a> for his clothing line, Yeezy, mandating “multiracial women only.” Many objected, arguing that West had insulted darker-skinned black women. </p>
<p>But Kanye was only adhering to something fairly common in <a href="https://psmag.com/the-idea-of-racial-hierarchy-remains-entrenched-in-americans-psyches-3dcf1cc3a815#.5zxexe2ka">a society that still operates under a racial hierarchy</a>: the belief that multiracial people are more attractive, what <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1070289X.2012.672838">sociologist Jennifer Sims has termed</a> the “biracial beauty stereotype.”</p>
<p>Attractiveness may seem like a trite and shallow topic for an academic to study or even care about. But as a sociologist who specializes in inequality, I believe there’s a great deal to unpack, particularly when exploring how attractiveness might lead to biases in the same way race and gender do. </p>
<p>It’s not just important to point out who we find attractive; just as important is why we find them attractive. I’ve been especially interested in how racial self-identification influences these perceptions, exploring this topic in a recent study.</p>
<h2>The gift of beauty</h2>
<p>A wide variety of research has demonstrated that how attractive you’re perceived to be can dramatically shape your life. For example, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6348439.pdf">people who are seen as more attractive earn more money</a>, while in the classroom, <a href="http://rer.sagepub.com/content/62/4/413.short">teachers assume attractive people are more capable students</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, a <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155313">2016 study by sociologist Shawn Bauldry</a> found that more attractive people were much more likely to achieve social mobility. And as with many other aspects of American society, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886903002022">attractiveness has a racial element</a>, with black people on the bottom – seen as the least attractive – and white people perceived as most attractive.</p>
<p>But racialized attractiveness doesn’t operate in a strict dichotomy, with all black people automatically deemed uniformly unattractive.</p>
<p>Instead, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3090169?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">it’s more of a spectrum</a>. Studies have shown that black people who look more stereotypically black (darker skin, bigger lips, wider noses) tend to be perceived as less attractive than those who look less stereotypically black (lighter skin, thin lips, straight hair). </p>
<p>This idea undergirds the biracial beauty stereotype, particularly for black people. The prevailing belief is that multiracial people will have fewer of the physical features that make black people appear unattractive. In other words, in the context of beauty, multiracial means “more white” or “less black.”</p>
<p>These sentiments are historically rooted and build on a <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.600.7562&rep=rep1&type=pdf">long history of racial stratification and color segmentation</a> facilitated by <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-79098-5_3">the media</a>, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CyQEzCEV9XkC&pg=PA379&lpg=PA379&dq=Mulattoes+and+Blacks:+Intra-group+Color+Differences+and+Social+Stratification+in+Nineteenth-Century+Philadelphia&source=bl&ots=6vEQwFa3qI&sig=PSZzO96tJogilcvl0oGUkCZJQnU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwis1snHy6zPAhUn4YMKHcZYDNsQ6AEILzAF#v=onepage&q=Mulattoes%20and%20Blacks%3A%20Intra-group%20Color%20Differences%20and%20Social%20Stratification%20in%20Nineteenth-Century%20Philadelphia&f=false">social organizations</a> and other cultural forces. It all <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/45857099/Shades_of_Discrimination_Skin_Tone_and_W20160522-8650-5a7h11.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ56TQJRTWSMTNPEA&Expires=1474880806&Signature=iI3hClyhdNHBl6LWO4my9A9DgbE%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DShades_of_Discrimination_Skin_Tone_and_W.pdf">culminates in a preference for whiteness</a> that privileges black people who appear more like white people.</p>
<h2>Digging deeper</h2>
<p><a href="http://media.wix.com/ugd/5fff9b_76453571b1a54ed0bb5cd1bea7af4317.pdf">In a study I published in The Review of Black Political Economy</a>, I wanted to take this idea a step further. I wondered: What if people who identified as black simply said they were multiracial? Would people, in turn, tend to rate them as more attractive by virtue of how they self-identified? </p>
<p>In other words, is the simple suggestion that a person is not just black but black “plus something else” so powerful that others will think those people are more attractive irrespective of how they actually look?</p>
<p>Research already conducted by <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-010-0010-5">sociologist Siohban Brooks</a> and <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/g-strings-and-sympathy/?viewby=title">cultural anthropologist Katherine Frank</a> hinted this would be the case. In separate studies of American strip club patrons and workers, they found that female exotic dancers would tell customers they were multiracial as a way to make more money. They’d do this regardless of whether they actually identified this way, often fabricating a genealogy (“one-quarter Asian, one-quarter Native American, half black”) instead of just saying they were black.</p>
<p>For my investigation, I relied on regression analysis and a nationally representative survey, <a href="http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth">the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health</a>, which was originally conducted to track the social outcomes of adolescents through young adulthood. A diverse team of trained interviewers collected data on 3,200 black people. The interviewers recorded, among much other information, the skin tone of the respondent on a scale of one to five, hair color, eye color, race and how attractive they perceived the person on a scale from one to five. </p>
<p>The interviewers recorded their information, including attractiveness, about each respondent at the end of each interview – but only after they’d learned the respondent’s racial identification. </p>
<p>I tested whether multiracial black people were rated more attractive than monoracial black people even when accounting for racialized physical features: skin tone, hair color and eye color. </p>
<p>They were. Multiracial identification positively predicted attractiveness regardless of other physical features. In fact, it was a stronger predictor of attractiveness than skin tone – an astonishing finding considering the <a href="http://sf.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/03/04/sf.sou007.short">growing amount of research</a> demonstrating the strong negative effect of skin tone on social outcomes. </p>
<p>Not only were people who identified as multiracial rated as more attractive on average, but even the multiracial people with the darkest skin tones were rated as more attractive than the monoracial black people with lighter skin tones. In essence, this combination of results means that simply identifying as multiracial may make a black person appear more attractive to others, regardless of how he or she actually looks.</p>
<h2>The power of simple self-identification</h2>
<p>This complicates both our idea of race and our idea of attractiveness. </p>
<p>Research already suggests that perceived attractiveness influences people’s perception of characteristics completely unrelated to physical appearance. (For example, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-015-9644-6">people who are perceived as more attractive are also thought to be happier and more competent</a>.) </p>
<p>As far as race is concerned, it adds to our understanding of how knowing someone’s racial identification can have astonishing cognitive effects. </p>
<p>Famously, MacArthur Fellow and social psychologist Jennifer Richeson found that the stress of interracial interactions may be so great that <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/14/3/287.short">it temporarily decreases the memory and reasoning ability</a> of some white people as they struggle to not be perceived as racist. Conversely, <a href="http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/soco.2005.23.4.336">she found a similar phenomenon at play</a> for black people as they try to avoid conforming to racist stereotypes. And more recently, psychologists Adam Waytz, Kelly Marie Hoffman and Sophie Trawalter report that white people, in a display of dehumanization, <a href="http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/10/03/1948550614553642.abstract">generally think of black people as superhuman</a>, possessing abnormal strength, speed and pain tolerance.</p>
<p>The relationship between racial identification and attractiveness may operate similarly. It doesn’t matter what we see. The mere suggestion of a person’s blackness creates a cognitive hiccup that leads a sweeping judgment that influences how attractive they seem. </p>
<p>This, in turn, may influence how happy, competent and successful they appear – and, in the end, are.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert L. Reece does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A sociologist wanted to know how simply self-identifying as ‘multiracial’ – regardless of how you actually looked – would influence your attractiveness.
Robert L. Reece, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, Duke University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66035
2016-09-27T10:49:43Z
2016-09-27T10:49:43Z
How Kanye West and Adidas are conquering the millennial market
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139318/original/image-20160926-31837-xxknyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marketing king.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BJq0jdTgLig/?taken-by=yeezyboosts">yeezyboosts</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The word “drop” is now firmly lodged in my vocabulary after another day spent with a millennial waiting for a brand to release (or “drop”) its latest product. It involved watching the clock tick down to the moment of release, a race to place an order, and much hype on social media over what was – or was not – bagged. </p>
<p>The product was a pair of shoes (<a href="http://sneakernews.com/2016/09/23/complete-guide-yeezy-boost-350-v2-grey-solar-red-beluga/">the Yeezy Boost 350 v2</a>) designed by rapper-cum-designer Kanye West for sportswear giant Adidas. It’s not the first time the two have collaborated and had a sell-out product launch. Nor are they the pioneers of this new marketing strategy – skatewear brands Supreme and Palace are among the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/may/03/cult-label-palace-uk-skate-kids-hip-hop-royalty-brand-rihanna-jay-z-teens-dads-leve-tanju">masters of the art</a>. The whole process is an increasingly common part of millennial consumption and the epitome of some profound changes facing marketers.</p>
<p>Drops work something like this: a sportswear brand pushes out messages via its social media channels that a new product is going to be launched. To be effective, the drop will involve a highly distinctive product that is limited in quantity, endorsed by a celebrity and with a premium price tag. To further heighten the sense of expectation, the drop is appropriately timed and visible on company websites permitting consumers to count down to it. </p>
<p>In the most recent case, news about the latest Yeezy shoes dripped out over the summer, resulting in two months of buzz on social media. The era of Instagram and Snapchat is an <a href="http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/kevin-gould-kombo-ventures-guest-post-snapchat-facebook-instagram-niche-marketing/643293">essential part of the process</a> – social media enables millennials all over the world to readily discuss the products they covet.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"780255264905854976"}"></div></p>
<p>This digital word-of-mouth marketing is a joy for a brand’s bottom line. Rather than having to spend money on expensive advertising or promotions, consumers do their marketing for them. Instead, the brands can spend big on product endorsers, like West.</p>
<h2>Drop it like it’s hot</h2>
<p>On the day of a drop, the buzz on social media is normally intense with friends and followers engaged in frenzied activity you generally do not find associated with other products. Most of the people who sit online waiting to click “buy” on their devices never actually get anywhere near the product.</p>
<p>One reason for this is that some drops have become such hyped affairs that the technological infrastructure of retailers simply can’t cope with the sudden surge in traffic that takes place once the countdown clock reaches zero. Nonetheless, the products <a href="http://www.nicekicks.com/retailer-challenges-adidas-produce-yeezys-demand-overwhelming/">sell out in seconds</a>.</p>
<p>For the small minority of successful buyers, there is normally one primary response and one of two secondary responses. Success brings a sense of victory to a process characterised by competing to consume, alongside the satisfaction of owning a highly desired, branded product. Some will keep the product, and some don’t.</p>
<p>Those who don’t, sell their shoes on secondary markets like eBay. Having dropped at £150 through official channels, new Yeezys were available on the auction site minutes afterwards. At one stage on Saturday, the shoes’ price on the online auction site had reached £1,500. Dropped sportswear has rapidly become one of the most popular product categories on eBay.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139401/original/image-20160927-14615-10le5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139401/original/image-20160927-14615-10le5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139401/original/image-20160927-14615-10le5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139401/original/image-20160927-14615-10le5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139401/original/image-20160927-14615-10le5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139401/original/image-20160927-14615-10le5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139401/original/image-20160927-14615-10le5mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yeezys for sale on eBay shortly after the drop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simon Chadwick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For those unlucky to have missed out, the post-purchase experience is again one lived out on social media. Comments posted by those whose click wasn’t fast enough reveals a heady combination of myth-making, urban legend and bitter recrimination. At least until next time, when another drop takes place.</p>
<h2>Age-old tactics</h2>
<p>In some ways, what the world of sportswear witnesses during drops is an age-old tactic. Limiting the availability of a product is a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c9H7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT127&lpg=PT127&dq=rationing+limited+editions+in+marketing&source=bl&ots=ICGynYFer3&sig=VEaNxQmpKe4rWxKAljZkfIqTXOE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9pKqyrK3PAhUmLMAKHRDNAf8Q6AEIQjAG#v=onepage&q=rationing%20limited%20editions%20in%20marketing&f=false">common practice</a> and in simple terms this is all these drops are doing. Hyped launches and limited editions have long been used by marketers to boost sales. And products are often re-sold, whether at car boot sales or via small ads in newspapers.</p>
<p>However, waiting online for a drop while discussing it on social media seems to have become a distinctly 21st-century phenomenon. It is more than a convergence of buzz and word-of-mouth marketing. Nor is it simply just another online gimmick designed to turn over product units. Drops reveal something much more about millennials’ process of consumption and their experiences of it.</p>
<p>Even for physical products, it is now becoming increasingly clear that the millennial generation is content to do their shopping in a virtual world of mutual advice, support and story-telling. Plus, this world is inhabited by people from across the globe, rather than from the local neighbourhood, who create their image and identity via conversations with people they have never met before.</p>
<p>The importance of celebrities seems too to be more important than ever, as we see in Adidas’ relationships with musicians like West, <a href="http://footwearnews.com/2016/fashion/media/adidas-pharrell-williams-hu-nmd-collection-diversity-261750/">Pharrell Williams</a> and <a href="http://disruptltd.com/heres-how-adidas-won-big-with-stormzy-in-2015/">Stormzy</a>. Sportswear has become a lifestyle statement and products are laden with meaning. Getting the right names and faces with one’s brand is a vital part of a marketer’s decision making.</p>
<p>At the same time, drops are experiences, albeit uncertain ones. Whereas people used to drive or take buses to malls safe in the knowledge that they would find the product they were seeking in a shop, now younger consumers stay at home and wait for the chance to buy a product. This is a process at the end of which the consumer may fail to make a purchase. Competing to consume may be thrilling, but it is probably very disappointing too.</p>
<p>Drops are also an issue for retailers, the latest batch of website crashes testing their ability to trade in an online environment where huge traffic effectively incapacitates organisations, sometimes for considerable periods of time. For millennials though, this may also be part of the experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Sell-out product ‘drops’ are the new way that brands get millennials hooked on their goods.
Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise & Director of Sport Industry Collaboration Zone, University of Salford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/58741
2016-05-05T19:50:45Z
2016-05-05T19:50:45Z
Friday essay: the quest for legacy – how pop music is embracing high art
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121344/original/image-20160505-19838-5y4f78.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beyonce's baseball bat wielding spree in Lemonade, left, bears more than a passing resemblance to the work of Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Left, still from Lemonade (2016), right, still from Ever is Over All (1997) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From stadiums to galleries, the new frontier for today’s mega pop star is high art. Mass popularity has its charms – sales, world tours, legions of followers – but the legacy-conferring power of art is now the ultimate sign of one’s status within Western culture.</p>
<p>The rallying cry of “witness me, the artist” is the new mantra of pop royalty – from Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Lady Gaga to Kanye, and even Rihanna. Still, is this embrace of high art a phenomenon worth celebrating? Or, might it be seen more cynically, as a case of superstars using art to bestow credibility on their work in defiance of their own mass appeal?</p>
<p>Admittedly, there has never been a clear, dividing line between the pop and art world – and why should there be? Some of the most creative musicians in recent memory – David Bowie, Keith Richards, David Byrne, Brian Eno to name a few – began to study or pursued training in the visual arts. </p>
<p>In Australia, members of the 80’s band Mental as Anything met at art school in Sydney and Nick Cave studied painting before pursuing his music. More recently, Sia, the daughter of Adelaide artist and art lecturer, Leone Furler, has become recognisable for the giant wigs that cover her face, her remarkable voice and her artful music videos featuring various dance collaborations. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KWZGAExj-es?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Nor can we overlook the phenomenon of art rock that emerged in the sixties. Some of the most remarkable turning points in music history have been credited to the artistic turn in the work of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966), The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and The Velvet Underground & Nico’s eponymous (1967) album under the influence of Andy Warhol’s New York Factory scene.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MBruudQ9bgE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>While the emergence of the concept album took hold in the 70s, the pioneers of the music video age – Madonna, Michael Jackson and even Prince – understood the visual possibilities of the pop song better than many of their contemporaries. Their work endures for its blend of powerful music and evocative storytelling through videos such as Like a Prayer, Thriller, and When Doves Cry.</p>
<p>But today, the story is different. A song, mostly, is not enough. This is not to say that image is everything, but rather that one’s stake in the pop world depends on musical and visual novelty. For today’s pop leaders, this increasingly means sidestepping the boardrooms of marketing professionals in search of the artistic underground.</p>
<h2>Making art out of Lemonade</h2>
<p>Beyoncé’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyonces-lemonade-tell-all-or-fizzy-soap-operatic-art-object-58513">high-concept visual album Lemonade</a>, for instance, takes listeners on a bold new form of musical storytelling in the style of Prince’s Purple Rain (1984), Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (1988) or, perhaps more recently Kanye West’s 35 minute film Runaway (2010) and Lana Del Rey’s Tropico (2013).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jg5wkZ-dJXA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>For years, Beyoncé has been consciously attempting to shed herself of her Destiny’s Child/Top 40 persona. Lemonade accomplishes that. Equal parts high-art and high-profile, it tackles the personal and the political, solitude and sisterhood and the emotional wounds of infidelity against the backdrop of race in America today.</p>
<p>A tapestry of song, visuals and locales, Beyoncé plays the survivor, a women-in-healing, trying to come to terms with the emotional aftermath of a love gone wrong. With cinematic grandeur, the album swims in evocative visuals of nature’s mysterious powers (which have drawn <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/a-lot-of-people-are-comparing-beyonces-lemonade-to-terrence-malick-20160425">comparisons to the work of Terrence Malick</a>), and spoken word narratives, including <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/entertainment/warsan-shire-beyonce-lemonade/index.html">the poetry of London-based, Kenya-born Somali writer Warsan Shire</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-gd06ukX-rU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>References to high art abound. Beyoncé infamous <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3555858/Beyonce-smashes-car-baseball-bat-debuts-new-music-Lemonade-visual-album.html">baseball bat wielding sequence</a> in the song Hold Up pays homage to the work of Swiss artist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a56RPZ_cbdc">Pipilotti Rist, whose 1997 video installation Ever is Over All</a> featured a woman walking down a street smashing car windows. Some have accused Beyoncé
of appropriation rather than <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/beyonce-accused-of-stealing-swiss-artists-work-for-fiery-hold-up-video-clip-20160503-gokwvq.html">homage</a>. </p>
<p>Last year, such concerns were expressed about Drake’s video for <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/10/22/drake_s_hotline_bling_video_resembles_james_turrell_s_light_installations.html">Hotline Bling</a> which was strikingly similar to the light installation pieces of American artist, James Turell.</p>
<p>Beyoncé also collaborated with <a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/news/beyonce-lemonade-laolu-senbanjo-sacred-art-of-the-ori/">Nigerian visual artist Laolu Senbanjo, whose sacred body painting</a> features in the film.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121335/original/image-20160505-19736-1w7m7x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beyonce on the cover of Garage Magazine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Garage</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Observant Instagram followers of Queen Bey, meanwhile, will have noticed signs earlier this year of her increasing contact with the high art world. In collaboration with Swiss-born, New York-based Urs Fischer and Garage magazine (<a href="http://garagemag.com/beyonce-interview/">Spring/Summer 2016 edition</a>), Beyoncé offered her thoughts on art via the magazine’s app. On its cover, she was photographed with cornrows, amidst a thick swirl of pastels painted by Fischer. In the interview, she discussed Andy Warhol and her interest in modern art, name-dropping some of her favourite artists (Tracey Emin, Kara Walker, Aaron Young and Donald Judd).</p>
<p>What’s interesting about this new period of Beyoncé’s work is that she has reinvented herself as the Benjamin Button of the pop world – apparently becoming younger, less bourgeois and more defiant with age.</p>
<p>While most have certainly embraced her newly, empowered voice, other fans, however, wonder if the less complicated, <a href="http://www.gigwise.com/blogs/106621/beyonce-new-album-lemonade-review-no-hit-song-rihanna-kanye-west">radio-friendly Beyoncé</a> will ever return.</p>
<h2>Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner</h2>
<p>In his own plea for artistic cred on his 2013 album, Magna Carta, Holy Grail, Beyoncé’s husband Jay Z’s hyper-capitalist dreams come to the fore. In the song Picasso Baby, Jay name-drops icons of the art world (Rothko, Bacon, Basquiat etc).</p>
<p>In homage to the reigning queen of performance art herself, Marina Abramovic, Jay adapted her (2010) MoMA installation, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/arts/design/31diva.html">The Artist is Present</a> – in which she sat six days a week, seven hours a day in a chair for a “silent opera”.</p>
<p>Jay did a <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/51474-jay-z-performing-picasso-baby-for-six-straight-hours-today-apparently/">six-hour performance</a> of his Picasso Baby at at Pace Gallery in NYC. In the video of this, directed by Mark Romanek (who also did his “99 Problems” video and is one of the directors of Beyoncé’s Lemonade), Jay raps to a room full of carefully selected artistic and cultural leaders ranging from actor/director Judd Apatow to filmmaker Jim Jarmusch to artist Andreas Serrano to Abramovic herself.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/80930630" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Both Jay-Z and Abramovic were on good terms, until in <a href="http://www.spikeartmagazine.com/en/articles/i-will-never-do-it-again">an interview with Spike magazine,</a> she accused Jay of not meeting his end of the business deal – namely, a sizable donation to her new Marina Abramovic institute of performance art in upstate New York. The mutually-contrived deal turned into <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/20/jay-z-substantial-donation-maria-abramovic">an awkward PR debacle for both camps</a>. (Jay-Z’s people later confirmed that a donation had, in fact, been made and Abramovic apologized for the oversight.)</p>
<p>What’s unique (but slightly predictable) about Jay’s celebration of the art world is how he fantasies about it. Picasso Baby is less homage to great art for art’s sake, more reverence of the reckless spoils of the “good” life. Art is worshipped as a sign of cultural power and extreme wealth:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner <br>
Go ahead lean on that shit Blue, you own it.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121329/original/image-20160505-19745-qdnani.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jay-Z is a noted collector of street artist Jean Michel Basquiat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, 1982</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While some might argue that Picasso Baby is a “gateway hit” that opens younger fans up to the history of art, ultimately, the song never really embraces it as anything other than “art consumed by consumerism,” as one NPR commenter suggested.</p>
<p>We are not far away here from 19th century British cultural critic Matthew Arnold’s observations about the elitism of high culture. It is valued, he wrote, out of,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>sheer vanity or else as an engine of social or class distinction separating its holder like a badge or title, from other people who have not got it.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>From Queen Bey to Rhi Rhi</h2>
<p>Recently, Barbadian bad-girl Rihanna has also thrown herself into the art game. On her latest effort, Anti (2016), the art partnerships are numerous: Israeli-born artist <a href="http://www.roynachum.com/">Roy Nachum </a>and poet <a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/173552_rihanna_unveils_groundbreaking_new_album_art_featuring_childhood_photo_is_it_called_anti/">Chloe Mitchell</a> worked on the liner notes, and there were enough producers and writers to staff their own soccer team.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121331/original/image-20160505-19765-njhrrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Album art for Anti (2016).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The lead single, Work, was highly anticipated and ultimately a head scratcher. Her canoodling with Drake in the song’s video was predictably sexy but missed the feverish mystery suggested by the very powerful Antigone/Oedipal hallucination of <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rihanna-cover-artist-on-how-he-crafted-groundbreaking-anti-imagery-20151020">the cover art</a>. (On the album, a young Rihanna – eyes covered by a crown too big for her head – holds a balloon and is smothered by a blood red stain that she cannot see).</p>
<p>With songs like Woo and Work there’s a blatant disconnect between the music and imagery. Arguably, Rhianna appears to be swimming in artistic waters well over her head and not satisfying her <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/rihanna-anti-album-review-rihanna-without-the-hits/">Top 40 fan base either</a>.</p>
<p>Still, the recently released video for Needed Me, (directed by indie art renegade <a href="http://www.gagosian.com/artists/harmony-korine">Harmony Korine</a>) has a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2101441/">Springbreakers</a> meets <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086250/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Scarface</a> meets Viceland in Miami documentary feel to it, making Korine the perfect accomplice to Rihanna’s nihilistic turn. With a simple, yet devilishly dark storyline, Rihanna plays the elegant, savage murderess, taking care of business the only way she knows how.</p>
<h2>Pablo does Picasso</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kanye West dances during his the presentation of his fashion collection during the 2016 New York Fashion Week, which was also a listening party for his ‘The Life of Pablo’ album.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Andrew Kelly</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there’s Kanye. The insufferable “think” pieces on his latest album, The Life of Pablo (2016), the Twitter meltdowns and ego-mania have reached peak decibel level, but it should be noted that as a former art school student, Kanye embodies the “child-like curiosity” that German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche discusses so fondly in many of <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/94/The_Twin_Souls_of_Oscar_Wilde_and_Friedrich_Nietzsche">his aphorisms on art and creation</a>. </p>
<p>In interviews, it would appear that he can’t get his dreams on paper – or into the factory – fast enough. He has also suggested that the paintings of Picasso, Matisse have inspired his work. In a 2013 interview <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/arts/music/kanye-west-talks-about-his-career-and-album-yeezus.html">Behind Kanye’s Mask</a> with The New York Times, discussing his recent love for the history of architecture, he refers to himself as “a minimalist in a rapper’s body.”</p>
<p>West’s art idols are a unique blend of European and American artists/innovators (Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, George Condo, Pablo Picasso, Marco Brambilla, Vanessa Beecroft, just to name a few – and let’s not forget his collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami during his Graduation period either).</p>
<p>For a recent collaboration with filmmaker Steve McQueen, West opened up about <a href="http://www.artnews.com/2015/07/27/kanye-west-would-trade-his-grammys-to-be-in-an-art-context-the-rapper-discusses-his-new-steve-mcqueen-directed-video-at-lacma/">having his work seen primarily as art</a>, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would trade all my Grammys – or, maybe, two Grammys – to be able to be in an art context.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For his new album, he collaborated with relatively unknown <a href="http://www.thefader.com/2016/02/11/who-is-peter-de-potter-the-artist-behind-kanye-wests-new-album-cover">Belgian artist Peter de Potter</a> for the cover art. West’s artistic influences, fashion tastes (Givenchy, Balmain, Raf Simons) and interests in design, (The UK’s Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3482281/Kanye-West-visiting-Ikea-base-Sweden.html">caught him returning from a meeting with IKEA in Sweden earlier this month</a>), suggest an explorer’s spirit and a sense of genuine creative experimentation.</p>
<p>Vanessa Beecroft, one of West’s collaborators for his recent fashion/performance pieces, (the Adidas Yeezus fashion shows, the Yeezus tours, and some Art Basel projects) has spoken positively of the <a href="http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/03/16/vanessa-beecroft-working-with-kanye-west/">artistic freedom he allows on their projects</a>. Indeed American fashion has been revitalised by his street style alone. Consider the <a href="http://ca.complex.com/sneakers/2016/03/adidas-yeezy-boost-march-line-up">week-long lineup</a> outside any store releasing new editions of his Adidas Yeezus shoes.</p>
<p>West’s tireless quest for artistic perfection and new forms of visual expression is a welcome wake-up call to the increasingly blasé world of both high art and mainstream rap. Even if he raps about anal bleaching and “fame-thirsty” New York models, his obsession with garnering high-art legitimacy has generated some of the most interesting fusions of art, fashion and music in recent years.</p>
<h2>When Koons met Gaga met Botticelli</h2>
<p>Of course it would be impossible to discuss recent pop/high art collaborations without mentioning Lady Gaga’s undervalued 2013 release ARTPOP. The album’s cover art featured a prominent collaboration with Jeff Koons, with fractured pieces of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1484-6) spliced into the background.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Album art for ARTPOP (2013).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In interviews, Gaga appears to be highly articulate on the subject of artistic processes and influences.</p>
<p>She cites Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/understanding-lady-gaga/2011/02/14/AByv3jH_story.html">major source of artistic inspiration</a> and has a quote of his about the necessity of making art tattooed on her upper left forearm. With ARTPOP, her intention was to <a href="http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/132-lady-gagas-artrave-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-extravagant-album-launch/">bridge the world of pop and art</a> in ways that mass culture has never seen before.</p>
<p>Her powerful and unique songs, such as Artpop and Venus realised the goal. However, sales were lacklustre. Critics questioned whether her <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/11/artpop-review-lady-gaga-s-album-wants-to-be-everything-but-is-nothing-at-all.html">“art game” was as strong as her marketing prowess</a>, with some all-too-literal songs such as “Donatella” and “Fashion”.</p>
<h2>Legacy building</h2>
<p>Artistic legacy is clearly pop’s new watchword. Still, today’s pop stars might want to pay heed to Aristotle, whose observations about the process of artistic creation still ring true. “The aim of art,” he wrote, “is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”.</p>
<p>History teaches us that many artistic experiments flourish and fade. The true artists of our day (regardless of the medium) create works that connect with the complexities of the human soul in ways that crass materialism and persona-mongering cannot. </p>
<p>No amount of artistic referencing or posturing will take the place of original, inspired and soul-searching work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blair McDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From Beyoncé and Lady Gaga to Kanye and even Rihanna, pop royalty is crazy for high art. Is this a phenomenon worth celebrating or are pop stars mining the art world to gain credibility?
Blair McDonald, Lecturer in Journalism, Communications and New Media, Thompson Rivers University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/54169
2016-02-04T19:08:25Z
2016-02-04T19:08:25Z
Friday essay: the sounds of Kanye West
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110255/original/image-20160204-5857-3nvdk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye functions as a mirror for the most visible and occasionally garish values of his time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Platiau/ Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kanye West’s new album Waves is due out <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/kanye-west-new-album-waves-release-date-swish-name-change-track-listing-and-everything-we-know-so-a6836346.html">next week</a>, and there’s a palpable excitement building in the media. Kanye recently <a href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/692083418083921921">tweeted</a> it would not be “the album of the year, but the album of the life”, only to <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/3/10905494/kanye-west-waves-greatest-album">later clarify</a> that it would in fact only be “ONE of the greatest, not the greatest”. Meanwhile Rolling Stone <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/will-waves-be-kanye-wests-first-disappointing-album-20160202">is speculating</a> it could be a dud at the same time as producer Swizz Beatz <a href="http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/swizz-beatz-calls-waves-one-of-the-best-kanye-west-albums-ive-heard-news.19939.html">declares it</a> one of the best West albums he’s heard.</p>
<p>If anybody can casually ignite this kind of mini-media-firestorm, Kanye can. Like the late David Bowie through the 70s and 80s, Kanye functions as a mirror for the most visible and occasionally garish social and cultural values of his time. </p>
<p>Unlike the intensely private Bowie, though, Kanye’s performance extends beyond the stage, into his personal life, and every tic of his outsized personality is reflected back to us via his own twitter feed and an insatiable celebrity-obsessed media.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"692083418083921921"}"></div></p>
<p>This ubiquity makes Kanye a tough act to swallow for some. Coupled with a history of more or less zany attention bidding, he is all too often written off as no more than a cocky, albeit talented, egomaniac. </p>
<p>I suspect detractors are doing a disservice both to Kanye and themselves – separating musician from music has long been a necessary part of enjoying the art form (think of the murderous Gesualdo, the actively anti-Semitic Wagner).</p>
<p>At the heart of any story like this is the creative impulse writ large. Really large. So large in Kanye’s case that it threatens to engulf the man it inhabits at every turn. The combination of explosive creativity with megalomaniacal personality quirks leads to a kind of publicly delivered life-as-performance-art.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110257/original/image-20160204-3017-7l647s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dylan Martinez/ Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If Kanye West’s entire life is available for consumption as a single artistic package – where music is only the foundation of a lyrical, fashion-oriented, reality-TV inspired, visual and conceptual performance structure – it might seem futile to talk about his music separately.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the noise pollution around Kanye somewhat obscures what is one of the 21st century’s most vibrant musical phenomena.</p>
<p>Many have long forgotten the simple fact that Kanye West is one of the greatest producers of hip-hop in its 40-plus year history. His success is undeniable. A decade-long six-album streak of critically-acclaimed albums rivals the greatest icons of pop. Over and over again, Kanye has an ability to push popular music’s boundaries, via hip-hop, while remaining commercially viable.</p>
<p>It’s curious that the sonic aspect of hip-hop is so often under-contemplated. The lyrics of rap and hip-hop receive the lion’s share of critical attention, for obvious reasons. The music videos are also the subject of reams of commentary. </p>
<p>But the foundation of any musical object, to state the obvious, is its sound. Underneath all the posturing and showmanship, Kanye is an utterly professional artist and the material he most loves to work with is sound.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110261/original/image-20160204-2982-1xua2n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110261/original/image-20160204-2982-1xua2n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110261/original/image-20160204-2982-1xua2n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110261/original/image-20160204-2982-1xua2n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110261/original/image-20160204-2982-1xua2n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110261/original/image-20160204-2982-1xua2n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110261/original/image-20160204-2982-1xua2n5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kevork Djansezian/ Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His gift for sampling, in particular, is at the core of his artistic integrity. A thoroughly postmodern aesthetic practice, sampling is the heart of the art of hip-hop. The skill with which a DJ (or producer) selects, edits, processes, and combines any number of musical chunks from existing recordings is the measure of the DJ. </p>
<p>Transcending pastiche or collage, the finished product is usually intended to be a new creation, with its own sound and feel.</p>
<p>Chicago-based Soul and Funk from the 60s and 70s form the basis of Kanye’s sampling DNA. Chicago was also the birthplace of House, and exposure to that genre gave Kanye an openness and willingness to be experimental. With deep roots in a living, breathing and thriving musical tradition, it’s little wonder that Kanye’s musical foundation is strong.</p>
<p>By going back in time, and looking at some of the basic attributes of Kanye West’s music, we’re reminded that a deeply authentic artistic and creative impulse lies at the heart of all things Kanye. What emerges is a picture of a young person driven almost to distraction by a desire to be creative, to be expressive, and to communicate ever more impactful art, ever more grandly.</p>
<h2>Origins</h2>
<p>Kanye enjoyed an intellectually stimulating and middle-class upbringing as the only child of an English Literature professor mother, and an award-winning photojournalist/ erstwhile Black Panther member father.</p>
<p>In a VH1 special, West’s parents talk about Kanye’s youthful obsession with visual art giving way to music. The gift of an electronic keyboard at age 12 eventually robbed his father of summer visits and his friends of social time as Kanye spent every waking minute creating beats.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rIOfofsi3Jk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West: VH1 Driven (Full Episode).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The next ten years were spent honing his craft as a <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cratedigger">crate digger</a>. What West lacks in genuine street cred he easily gains back through those <a href="https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-lost-art-of-cratedigging-4ed652643618#.lzeokvuyc">years of gathering, dissecting and constructing beats</a>; an almost sacred rite of passage for hip-hop producers.</p>
<p>West soon developed a reputation as a producer, scoring a breakthrough when he joined Roc-A-Fella Records in 2000. West’s success on Jay Z’s career-rejuvenating <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-blueprint-mw0000013442">The Blueprint</a> (2001) would probably have guaranteed West a career as a producer. But Kanye’s ambition has always been of the vaulting variety; he wanted to rap.</p>
<p>Kanye’s bid for rapper stardom was thwarted for several years, the main obstacle being his clean-cut personality. He was too soft for the thug-mire that was commodified gangsta rap in the late 90s and early 2000s.</p>
<p>As it turns out, when West’s turn came, the innate contrast between West and the general environment of commercial rap came as a relief. Setting himself just beyond his contemporaries became the pattern that has defined his career.</p>
<h2>Trial by Wire</h2>
<p>It was 3:00am, October 23, 2002, and West was driving home from a late-night studio session when a car accident almost took his life. With his jaw smashed deep into his face, re-constituted through a mesh of wire, West saw and seized an opportunity.</p>
<p>In a stunning display of creativity’s relationship to opportunism, not to mention West’s determination to achieve success at any cost, he was in the recording studio only two weeks later. Finally he had a form of cred. Something he could rap about, something painful that could be transformed into expressive force.</p>
<p>The result was Through the Wire (below), a song that has ascended to a kind of creation story in the Kanye mythology. More than anything else, it’s a beautiful piece of music.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uvb-1wjAtk4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West – Through the Wire.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In an enormous creative risk, given the finished product’s contrast to commercial rap in that era, Through the Wire tells the story of the accident and recovery. It was recorded while his jaw was still essentially wired shut. The painful metal scaffolding audibly impairs his ability to speak, giving a tragi-comic flavour to lyrics that talk about resurrection and the defeat of death.</p>
<p>His tightly clenched delivery includes slurred jokes about metal detectors going off at airports. Not so much humorous as poignant, there’s a peculiar touching quality. The trauma is too real, too recent, and too audible.</p>
<p>Underpinning all this is the sounding heart of the song. West sampled a long chunk of iconic Chicago singer Chaka Khan’s Through the Fire (punned on with Through the Wire). The first sampled section comes from the soaring final iteration of the chorus, starting here at 3:15.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ymuWb8xtCsc?wmode=transparent&start=195" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Chaka Khan - Through the Fire.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Khan’s Through the Fire undeniably flirts with 80s-style musical syrup. But part of West’s sampling process involved speeding up the entire section of music, which in turn has the effect of raising the pitch of both vocal and instrumental tracks.</p>
<p>This process is something of a Kanye signature, and is known as the chipmunk effect for obvious reasons. At the faster tempo, the original song’s sentimentality is semi-banished. At the same time a transformation occurs whereby the emotional content of the song seems to acquire a modern sensibility.</p>
<p>West further hip-hop-ifies the sound by substantially juicing up the bass, and sampling entirely new drums to provide the groove. He uses an extended remix of Outkast’s 1993 Players Ball. He slightly slows this sample down, possibly for a more relaxed feel, but more likely to match the fastest reasonable speed for the Khan sample.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jTYUDZl21-g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Outkast – Players Ball.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The effect here is one of relaxed hipness, irresistible when combined with the funk beat and Snoop-tinged spoken word delivery.</p>
<p>The last thing to say about Through the Wire is one of the most important. It works so well thanks to a feature of music that is not often highlighted in hip hop: harmony.</p>
<p>Kanye cuts in right at the moment when a series of descending syncopated chords (starting at about 21 seconds) suggests a certain key is about emerge as the “home” key. It does this by setting up an expectation of this particular key, which should arrive in the form of a particular chord after a few bars – it happens that this chord would likely be a brightish, “happy” major chord.</p>
<p>Instead, at the 27th second, a harmonic bait and switch occurs and we get instead a more emotionally poignant “minor” chord. Kanye sensitively lets this moment play out without speaking, allowing Khan’s chorus to take off unimpeded.</p>
<p>What follows is chord progression that gives the whole song a kind of smiling quality; it happens to be a sequence of chords that’s been used by musicians for a couple of hundred years: the <a href="http://www.circleoffifths.com/">circle of fifths</a>.</p>
<p>As the name implies, it’s a progression that can be conceived as moving around a harmonic circle, with all the patterning and reassuring inevitability that implies. It conveys movement through the large intervals between chords, yet stasis through the cyclic nature of the progression. </p>
<p>It’s this progression, perhaps more than anything, that gives Through the Wire its long-range looped groove, somehow connecting with a sense of emotional reassurance.</p>
<p>Through the Wire is the beginning of Kanye West as creator of visionary song artefacts. Nothing in commercial rap until that point had managed to combine such vulnerable text, non-violently visceral real-life experience, and unabashedly expressive sampling. West here has seamlessly introduced new elements to both rapping and hip-hop sound production.</p>
<h2>Expansion</h2>
<p>From his roots in the music of Chicago, and Soul and Funk broadly, Kanye has always been eager to globalise his musical palette.</p>
<p>After the success of his first album, <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/8767-the-college-dropout/">The College Dropout</a> (2004), of which Through the Wire was the lead single, Kanye stretched his legs with <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/8768-late-registration/">Late Registration</a> (2005), which included the cinematically-conceived and human rights-oriented <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92FCRmggNqQ">Diamonds of Sierra Leone</a>. </p>
<p>Casting his net widely, he drew on the lush string sounds of English group Portishead as one of the ways to re-imagine what hip-hop could sound like.</p>
<p>Even more groundbreaking, <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10658-graduation/">Graduation</a> (2007), the third album in Kanye’s first-period trilogy, explored electronic dance music in a hip-hop context long before it seemed like a good idea to other artists.</p>
<p>Omnivorously appropriating ever more geographically distant influences into his hip-hop aesthetic, West seems especially interested in European styles such as the electronica of Daft Punk (or Good Morning’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CHs4x2uqcQ">beautiful</a> sample of Elton John).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PsO6ZnUZI0g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West – Stronger.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the case of Stronger, West not so much samples as explodes Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster in service of a then-innovative techno-rap-futurist vision.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gAjR4_CbPpQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Daft Punk – Harder Better Faster.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s a certain expansive majesty to West’s treatment of Harder Better Faster. If we hadn’t already sensed it, a solid seam of grandiose expressive ambition runs through Kanye’s musical vision. That grandiosity reflects his desire for cultural size, to out-express both his contemporaries and the confining normative dimensions of hip-hop itself.</p>
<p>A descending bass line is one of the radically simple techniques West uses to achieve this magisterial, epic quality. A technique that also has strong harmonic implications, descending bass lines have been used to convey any number of serious or important themes and emotions throughout musical history. </p>
<p>Henry Purcell, for example, used a descending bass line to reflect the gradual descent into death of Dido (Queen of Carthage variety) well over 300 years ago, heard here at the 57 second mark:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uGQq3HcOB0Y?wmode=transparent&start=57" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Purcell – Dido & Aeneas – When I am laid in earth (Dido’s lament), Elin Manahan Thomas.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apart from Stronger, another striking descending bass line underpins the much-discussed Runaway. The ominous and broad synthetic bass provides the perfect counterpoint to the icy un-nuanced stabbing of the high piano pitches (at the 55 second mark):</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bm5iA4Zupek?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West – Runaway (Video Version) ft. Pusha T.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sticking with Graduation for one more song, it’s hard to go past Flashing Lights. Like Stronger and Champion from the same album, Flashing Lights is kitted out with 80s-style synthesizer hooks. Filtered through Kanye’s own production techniques, they still represent a sound that no-one else was into at the time.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ila-hAUXR5U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West – Flashing Lights ft. Dwele.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Flashing Lights is a special song. Somehow classical in proportion, modern in its sleekness, it conveys an air of unrelenting but soft-edged melancholy. It gets this effect partly from the contrast of the opening string sounds alternating with the rhythmically propulsive synth.</p>
<p>Both string and synth parts are notable for their highest pitches; they are always dissonant with the chords beneath them. Even in their drooping, arching moments of resolution, these pitches remain outsiders – slightly alien to the fundamental chords below them. This permanently unresolved condition could be what keeps me coming back to this song over and over.</p>
<h2>Transition</h2>
<p>2007 saw the death of Donda West, Kanye’s mother and spiritual and intellectual mentor. Out of that personal heartbreak and loss was born another radical departure from the stylistic norms of hip-hop.</p>
<p>An eerily introspective album, <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12498-808s-and-heartbreak/">808s and Heartbreak</a> (2008) alienated some of Kanye’s fans but has achieved a positive critical re-evaluation in the years since. Moving even further away from the conventions of hip-hop, West embraced the generally execrable auto-tune device, employed it as serious artistic tool rather than a cosmetic façade, and spent most of the album singing instead of rapping.</p>
<p>Heartless typifies the album’s feel with the gloomily-deployed auto-tune and bass drops characteristic of the <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/14/5405878/roland-aira-tr-8-return-of-the-808">Roland TR-808 Bass</a> machine used throughout. Also notable is the odd pipe-organ sample from English progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project’s 1984 song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK-_2G7MMgc">Ammonia Avenue</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Co0tTeuUVhU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West – Heartless.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Recent years</h2>
<p>Astonishingly, Kanye’s next three major albums continued to innovate in sound. In what he describes as a “back-handed apology” for alienating fans with 808s and Heartbreak, <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14880-my-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy/">My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy</a> (2010) is something of a return-to-earlier form. Considered by some to be Kanye’s most exhilarating album, at a densely packed 70 minutes, MBDTF is full of layers, textures, compelling collaborations and dazzling inventiveness.</p>
<p>POWER is probably the most acclaimed track (apart from Runaway, mentioned earlier) in a very competitive field, representing a blazing return to hip-hop fundamentals. Described by West as “superhero theme music”, POWER is exultant, super-charged, and urgent. </p>
<p>Kanye’s messianic self-prophesies begin to manifest, girded by samples from more European sources: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9xwB6TPj7M">21st Century Schizoid Man</a> by English progressive rock band King Crimson, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-dtwySzcQc">Afromerica</a> by French disco act Continent Number 6.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L53gjP-TtGE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West – POWER.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>West followed MBDTF with a Jay Z collaboration, <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15725-watch-the-throne/">Watch the Throne</a> (2011), and <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18172-kanye-west-yeezus/">Yeezus</a> (2013).</p>
<p>Niggas in Paris was one of the most acclaimed tracks from Watch the Throne, with a literal and geographic European locus in addition to the sparse musical influence.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gG_dA32oH44?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris (Explicit).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Watch the Throne, taken together with the electro-punk, minimalist and somehow angry-sounding Yeezus, possibly completes the scene for Waves’ arrival next week.</p>
<p>Both albums are full of new ideas and sounds, just as inventive as West’s earlier work. If anything, these albums suffer from being too good, and too close to each other (especially when grouped with 2010’s MBDTF). It’s getting hard to distinguish the newness among all the newness. This raises questions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uu8YkQ-5I5M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kanye West – No More Parties In L.A. ft. Kendrick Lamar (Explicit).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Is this a function of an overcrowded market? Or have the years of Kanye’s non-musical distractions taken too heavy a toll? </p>
<p>Whatever the reason, it’s hard to imagine what unexplored direction there is left for Kanye to take.</p>
<p>If he does manage to innovate yet again, it will probably be a team effort. One of hip-hop’s most powerful tools is the creative sparks that fly when rappers compete and collaborate, whether sharpening their skills against each other through rap battles, or coming together to share a single.</p>
<p>Given that the already-released No More Parties in LA has Kanye teaming up with the hottest young talent currently on the scene, Kendrick Lamar, there’s every chance Waves will be something special.
<br>
<br>
<em>Liam Viney will be taking part in an Author Q&A from 2–3pm AEDT today. If you have any questions about Kanye’s career, music or, yes, his public image, you can leave them in the comments section, below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Viney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many have long forgotten the simple fact that Kanye West is one of the greatest producers of hip-hop in its history. A decade-long six-album streak of critically acclaimed albums rivals the greatest icons of pop.
Liam Viney, Piano Performance Fellow, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.