(The following started out as post on Barbelith, but it got so long and I've been meaning to write it for so long that I thought I'd include it here, too.)

Notorious B.I.G.: A real rapper from the days of true hip hop, when it was about the five elements and dropping science, not just talking about sex, guns and money over repetitive samples and r&b hooks.

"Damn right I like the life I live
Cuz I went from negative to positive"

So it's pretty fascinating to me the position that Biggie now holds in relation to people's attitudes towards what's good hip hop and what's not (I mean, of the people who divide these things up on the basis of anything other than case-by-case judgments). Back around the time of his death and shortly afterwards, I remember that he was still seen as being part of bad, evil mainstream rap by a lot of kids who just listened to Wu-Tang and Jeru, etc, including me. Not surprising: his best mate/producer/record boss was Puff Daddy, a lot of his singles had r&b hooks, he rapped a lot about how he liked women and specifically having sex with them, he also told stories involving guns - lots of guns - and he was obsessed with designer-name clothes and other forms of materialism.

Brief anecdotal bit here: I then made a friend at university who was a hip hop DJ, and he couldn't believe that I didn't like B.I.G. He played me a lot of tracks, he leant me a tape, and slowly it dawned on me (starting with the more rugged tracks first, as was the way for me back then): this guy was a genius. In retrospect I think realising that paved the way for me realising that the whole underground = good, mainstream = bad dichotomy applied to rap was bullshit. Apart from anything else, for the first time I realised that being a lyrical genius wasn't just a matter of cramming in a lot of very long words and making references that were as obscure as possible - you can come up with smart, funny, insightful rhymes using relatively straightforward language.

But I've noticed that many of the people who still cling to that dichotomy solve the problem of Biggie by just putting him on the right side of that divide. Which is amazing to me because in some ways, for the reasons listed above, the Notorious one really was an example of the textbook 'bad' mainstream rapper. And I'm wondering how this works in those people's heads. Is it, as I suspect, simply just a question of there always being a statute of limitations on when mainstream rap is always seen as bad by the people who hold this mindset? Say 6-8 years, give or take? In other words, back in the mid-90s it was Biggie and Pac and Puffy who were bad, but NWA and Ice-T might just be okay. Now, Biggie might be okay, but 50 Cent or Fabulous are definitely bad... Does the fact that he's dead add to that, canonising him earlier than would otherwise be the case?

Ironically, I think the artist who holds the closest position to this today is Jay-Z - ie, ask someone who divides hip hop up into the good/real/true hip hop and the bad/mainstream/fake rap, and you won't be able to predict necessarily which side of the fence they'll put Jigga on. I'm not sure that's what Jay-Z meant when he went on and on about taking over from Biggie all those times. But is interesting - for me, it's interesting because I think examples like B.I.G. and Jay should up how unworkable that divide is.

Favourite B.I.G. tunes: for me obviously the whole of Ready To Die is a classic, especially (off the top of my head) 'Things Done Changed', 'Warning', 'Juicy', 'The What' and the title track. In fact 'Juicy' was a real epiphany-inducer for me. But I also love a lot of tracks from Life After Death: 'Somebody's Got To Die', 'I Love The Dough', 'I Got A Story To Tell' and of course 'Mo Money, Mo Problems'...

"B-I-G, P-O, P-P-A
No windfall for the DEA
Federal agents mad cuz I'm flagrant
Tap my cell, and the phone in my basement"

what this means

Because sleaze asked, and in case anybody cares...

This blog used to be called The New Hip Hop, Political Correctness Trend, which was a bastardised version of a phrase that appeared in a letter that was published in an issue of the comic X-Statix. Formerly known as X-Force, and for a long time concerned with muscled, mulleted people gritting their teeth and wearing costumes that featured lots of pockets (and guns! and shoulder pads!), the title was completely revamped when writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred took over. An entire new cast was introduced, and the book became essentially a satire of celebrity culture and politics. Suffice to say, this angered some existing readers/fans, and it probably didn't help that Milligan also chose not only to include queer and non-white characters within the book, but also to focus on issues of sexuality and colour in the context of pop culture and America in general. Decrying this, one of many letters of complaint described the inclusion of these characters and issues of being part of "the new hip hop, political correctness, latest fashion buzz".

That phrase stuck in my head because it seemed like the perfect dilution of the way different, even contradictory threats to straight-white-well-off-male lalaland are perceived as some kind of unified, sinister threat. I'm a great believer in taking derogatory terms and twisting them into badges of pride, and I would love to believe that The New Hip Hop, Political Correctness Trend exists. More over, while it was the title of my blog, I liked to believe in my more deluded moments that it was a banner which I was helping to carry... And I also liked to think that by looking at that title, one could immediately tell what this blog was about (in other words: right-wingers and rockists step off). Although the most useful thing about that title was the number of random Googlers it attracted...

Shortly after the US election result came through, I was having a bit of a rant in response to what I perceived as the misguided sentiment that what the 'left' (yeah, I know, like it was 'the left' that got shot up by Kerry losing, I know) needed to do in order to avoid a repeat of the same result (yeah, like waiting another four years for a chance to change things is anything less than crazy, I know) was to be more sympathetic to the opinions of the people who voted for Bush, to engage more with the right-wing, to "listen" more... While there are versions of those ideas that I think are workable and necessary, it all seemed a little too close to saying "let's move even nearer to the 'centre' (ie, the right)", and I wasn't trying to hear that. So I was spitting flame and whatever, when somebody asked me "well, what is the solution?", and the only answer I could think of was in the form of two words: better propaganda.

Better Propaganda is needed. We as a people (oh, I'm aware I'm deluding myself to believe in that kind of unity again) need to stop kidding ourselves that what we do to get our message across is anything other than propaganda, and we need to stop being ashamed about that. We need to make the best, most effective, most sexy propaganda we can. And so far I don't think I'm really contributing to that yet, but I'm going to try.

Boiled down: The New Hip Hop, Political Trend = too close to dilletantism. The time for dilletantism has passed.

I couldn't believe it was true, oh Lord

No way. No fucking way. I fucking jinxed it.

RIP, ODB.

This has been a bad year.

Just the other weekend I was telling a friend about how good Dirty's performances on the new Wu-Tang live album sounded from what little I'd heard, and we were discussing the possibility of new material...

Like Wylie says: "Fuck you, God."