GWSS Blog Post #3

mintgreenelephant

Blog Post 3

5/19/20

In Kevin Young’s piece, “Final Chorus: Planet Rock, The End of the Record,” he writes that the NWA were “saying the unsayable … making the listener as deliriously uneasy as the unrest that NWA hinted was the music’s real source. … where the Sex Pistols chanted ‘no future,’ gansta rap said there wasn’t even a present,” (Young, 339). This description brings up how hip-hop often utilizes uneasiness or discomfort to protest because discomfort allows for listeners to stop and think about the statements that they are making. Young makes an interesting comparison between different genre’s protests against society. While Punk is centered on a pessimistic attitude toward the future, gansta rap focuses on the ‘unrest’ that is currently happening. This contrast shows the urgency of the issues that hip-hop and rap artists protest about and that if there is no present, there is definitely no future.

Regina Bradley similarly brings up discomfort in an NPR conversation about Beyoncé’s Lemonade. She explains, “Beyoncé made people uncomfortable because her performance in Lemonade wasn't just a curation of the blueswoman aesthetic but an active reckoning with it as it manifested in southern spaces,” (Bradley). Through this ‘active reckoning’, Beyoncé is able to get across the importance of recognizing and empowering black women in America and their experiences. The discomfort that she creates is an effective way of getting people to talk about her critique of society and issues such as racism and police brutality, and people could not stop talking about Lemonade.

DJ Selections:

The Offspring - “Kill the President” (1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxudIpbKdjk

This song is an anti-establishment protest which expresses the desire to kill the authority figure in the government, as they are thought to be the cause of what’s wrong in the world, and taking control of your own life. The song was removed from their self-titled album after 2001 due to its controversy. This song relates to Young’s mention of punk protest and the use of discomfort to get a message of protest across.

Joey Bada$$ - “Land of the Free” (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQW-9Cg8qs

This song makes a stand against racial inequality in the US: especially protesting white supremacy and the political climate at the time that Donald Trump was just elected. It connects to the theme of discomfort and uneasiness because the music video depicts members of the KKK taking off their masks, only to replace them with police uniform caps.

Sources:

Kevin Young, “Final Chorus: Planet Rock, The End of the Record.” The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness. (Graywolf Press, 2012) (PDF).

Bradley, Regina, and Dream Hampton. “Close To Home: A Conversation About Beyoncé's 'Lemonade'.” NPR, NPR, 26 Apr. 2016.