GWSS Blog Post #3

GWSS Blog Post #3

Matthew Trajano

In Kevin Young, Planet Rock: Final Chorus, he quotes Jay-Z discussing the relationship between a rapper and the rap game. He says "The rapper's character is essentially a conceit, a first-person literary creation....You can be anybody in the booth. It's like wearing a mask. It's an amazing freedom but also temptation. The temptation is to go too far, to pretend the mask is real and try to convince people that your'e something that you're not." (Young, 337) This op-ed shows us the interesting relationship between the rapper (and I argue any artist) and their craft allowing themselves to create characters and interpretations of themselves in literary form. Their music allows them to have a space to produce their ideas and and present whatever they want to present, but it has its limits. In many ways, I think punk also has its limits.

In Mimi Nguyen's It's (Not) a White World- Looking for Race in Punk, she discusses her cynicism and analysis around the idea of punk, and how the contradictory ideas around race and racial discourse in the punk scene. She discusses how problematic punk is in regards to "rugged individualism, saying that "punk's hyper-individualism it's a slippery slope to the kinds of neo-conservative political arguments suggesting, among other things, that affirmative action is "unfair" (like structural inequalities aren't,"" (Nguyen, 4). Similar to what Jay-Z was saying regarding hip-hop artists going down a slippery slope in creating a certain appearance, I see how the punk scene's emphasis on hyper-individualism can create a slippery slope for punk fans and artists to deduct ideas that might not reflect the same values of their female fans and fans of color.


My DJ selections:

"Express Yourself" by NWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u31FO_4d9TY
I chose Express Yourself by NWA because it represents the idea of expressing yourself and being whoever you want to be, which I want to connect to what Jay-Z said about being whoever you want to be.

"Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRu5wxl5frk
I chose Bad Reputation by Joan Jett because it applies some of the sentiment of someone who considers themselves in the umbrella of 'Punk' and what that attitude consists of, especially from the viewpoint of a woman.