In Defense of Lil Wayne.. |
Memorial Day Weekend was ground zero for Lil Wayne‘s rock music offensive.
Dropping not 1, but 4 brand new music videos for his rock album, the oft-delayed “Re-Birth” in an attempt to overwhelm the masses, where the album itself upon its release, had underwhelmed the critics. It was brought to my attention on TWiB! by another blogger in his post about “Knockout” featuring Nicki Minaj.
My instinct was to, of course, bash, mock, laugh, taunt, and proverbially shit on Mr. Carter’s attempts at rock. I like rock. I was the strange kid in the middle of the hood that was singing Soundgarden and Pearl Jam (Yes I WAS beaten, how’d you guess?) So I feel like I can properly gauge Wayne in the space of his new genre. It is incredibly easy to shit on Weezy’s rock album. But something strange happened as I listened.
I…kind of…respected him.
I will be the first to rant and spew venom towards Wayne and Young Money for their constant barrage of garbage that seems to fill the Hip Hop radio waves but this morning I had to call bullshit on myself. I hate the mediocrity and recycled nonsense that seems to define urban music now, but when an artist of Wayne’s profile attempts something radically different from what he’s known for, I then shit on THAT too? Thats lunacy. What are artists supposed to do? Either stay in the pre-defined box that we’ve set up for them and watch the sound they helped pioneer become the very sound that marks them as being “yesterday.” Or try something different and possibly fail, and be told they were foolish to even attempt such artistic endeavors.
This is the problem with art and success.
The act of being creative is magic. The act of being creative and strike a chord within the popular culture is damn near BLACK magic (“eye of newt” black, not President Obama Black…) To continually repeat the previous success is virtually impossible (Chappelle Show, Boondocks, the Original Black Star Album.) Yet we, when acting as consumers expect this. There’s a great talk on TED concerning this that you may want to check out.
I made myself stop being a dick for a moment (which really? Terribly hard. It’s like I have a disease or something) and listened and watched the videos. Lo and behold, I found a song I kinda like.
I dig this singer on the hook. I enjoy the juxtaposition of a voice that you might be more at ease hearing sing R & B belting over a guitar…a generic guitar, but a guitar nonetheless. So today, just for a moment, I put down my Hateriffic hat and commend an effort to break the way he’s perceived. Hell, this possibly shakes up the general view of black artists in rock. Yes, “we” know black folk have been a part of rock since it’s inception (cough, CREATED IT, cough) but OTHER folks don’t. I’m all about shifting perceptions.
The other 3 videos are below. You may dig something you weren’t prepared to dig. Don’t be surprised. I actually hope artists attempt to take more risks. Maybe Nicki Minaj will try not to be annoying? WHO KNOWS!?
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