In the past week I've been doing some listening to Distant Relatives, an joint album by New York hip hop veteran Nas and Jamaican reggae/rapper Damian Marley. Musically it stounds out for its beats & backing vocals, both borrowing African elements, but where it truly distinguishes itself is by the themes it explores, dropping stereotypical hip hop's tribal and materialistic allusions to sex, fame and fortune in favour of deeper wisdom and moral questions such as having grace before desire (Count Your Blessings), valuing strength of character (Friends), and the troubling nature of man's existence (Patience).
Arguably most rap already involves these ideas only in much cruder lyrics. In fact, on the track Friends, Nas' lyric 'real men, we have a code of ethics, no questions / no jealousy, no feminine tendencies...' is instantly comparable to the Jay-Z line 'males shouldn't be jealous, that's a female trait' (track Heart of the City, album The Blueprint). While both exhibit rappers' supposed chauvism when read out of context, Jay-Z is easier to criticize because his sound is very commercial and he's had tremendous mainstream success, putting him in the firing line for hip hop skeptics to label him as just another sexist rapper. Nas, in contrast, sounds more respectable because he and Marley are not ashamed to speak openly about their values with sensitivity and sentiment. They would be unfashionably saccharine if they weren't already highly respected musicians.
I watched Spellbound on Friday night, the American documentary that follows a handful of children before then during the National Spelling Bee. I watched it about ten years ago when it came out in cinemas and absolutely loved it. I suppose the filmmaker did his job; I got caught up in the drama of the spelling bee, I was completely engaged with the story and rode all the bumps with the characters.
This time I watched it I still enjoyed it but acknkowledged it was occasionally dull, such as the early scenes in rural Texas. I realised that the most recent thing I watched from this part of Texas was Friday Night Lights, which involves the punishment & glory of emotionally charged high-stakes football; a rather contrasting genre to a spelling bee (but arguably no more dramatic for its protagonists than Spellbound, in its own way). I noted this with amusement but with equal measure of wariness I also avoided drawing parallels about the way I've changed over the past ten years.
Arguably most rap already involves these ideas only in much cruder lyrics. In fact, on the track Friends, Nas' lyric 'real men, we have a code of ethics, no questions / no jealousy, no feminine tendencies...' is instantly comparable to the Jay-Z line 'males shouldn't be jealous, that's a female trait' (track Heart of the City, album The Blueprint). While both exhibit rappers' supposed chauvism when read out of context, Jay-Z is easier to criticize because his sound is very commercial and he's had tremendous mainstream success, putting him in the firing line for hip hop skeptics to label him as just another sexist rapper. Nas, in contrast, sounds more respectable because he and Marley are not ashamed to speak openly about their values with sensitivity and sentiment. They would be unfashionably saccharine if they weren't already highly respected musicians.I watched Spellbound on Friday night, the American documentary that follows a handful of children before then during the National Spelling Bee. I watched it about ten years ago when it came out in cinemas and absolutely loved it. I suppose the filmmaker did his job; I got caught up in the drama of the spelling bee, I was completely engaged with the story and rode all the bumps with the characters.
This time I watched it I still enjoyed it but acknkowledged it was occasionally dull, such as the early scenes in rural Texas. I realised that the most recent thing I watched from this part of Texas was Friday Night Lights, which involves the punishment & glory of emotionally charged high-stakes football; a rather contrasting genre to a spelling bee (but arguably no more dramatic for its protagonists than Spellbound, in its own way). I noted this with amusement but with equal measure of wariness I also avoided drawing parallels about the way I've changed over the past ten years.
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