January 31, 2013
When Conservatives Try to Talk About Rap Conservatives who talk that way don’t just forfeit the chance to influence the social norms surrounding the genre. They reinforce the perception that their views are shaped by little more than cartoonish stereotypes. One needn’t dig deep into obscure rap albums to find “human feeling”. Multi-platinum singles will do. Try “December 4th” by Jay Z or “Stan” by Eminem. All across America, kids are listening to rap lyrics that resonate with them more than anything else in their lives, capturing the way they feel about their absent father or the bliss of a long afternoon spent in the park with friends or how parenthood changed their perspective or the effect incarceration has on their community, or just about any other emotional situation people encounter. What do they think when a man capable of meticulously analyzing Hammerstein expends so little effort grappling with the genre that he doesn’t even grant that it has human feeling?   Read more. [Image: Flickr]

When Conservatives Try to Talk About Rap

Conservatives who talk that way don’t just forfeit the chance to influence the social norms surrounding the genre. They reinforce the perception that their views are shaped by little more than cartoonish stereotypes. One needn’t dig deep into obscure rap albums to find “human feeling”. Multi-platinum singles will do. Try “December 4th” by Jay Z or “Stan” by Eminem. All across America, kids are listening to rap lyrics that resonate with them more than anything else in their lives, capturing the way they feel about their absent father or the bliss of a long afternoon spent in the park with friends or how parenthood changed their perspective or the effect incarceration has on their community, or just about any other emotional situation people encounter. What do they think when a man capable of meticulously analyzing Hammerstein expends so little effort grappling with the genre that he doesn’t even grant that it has human feeling?   

Read more. [Image: Flickr]

11:08am
(Notes: 164)
  
  1. bookwormbreakfast reblogged this from theatlantic and added:
    THIS. ALL OF THIS. Dismissing an entire art form out of hand gets you nowhere, and acting like all rap sucks makes you...
  2. usurpthecity reblogged this from afternoonsnoozebutton
  3. intherainyseason reblogged this from theatlantic and added:
    a conservative tries...talk about conservatives trying to talk about rap, he never once...
  4. carvinglight reblogged this from theatlantic
  5. ave-atque-vale reblogged this from theatlantic
  6. lustermuse reblogged this from theatlantic
  7. powderedwigs reblogged this from theatlantic
  8. hunnashowrunna reblogged this from theatlantic
  9. ponymacoroni reblogged this from afternoonsnoozebutton
  10. i-am-the-epitome reblogged this from afternoonsnoozebutton
  11. thegazingabyss reblogged this from afternoonsnoozebutton
  12. hjwilliam reblogged this from theatlantic
  13. fangedcookie reblogged this from afternoonsnoozebutton
  14. rosierosina reblogged this from baconcheesewaffles
  15. totesbruh reblogged this from theatlantic
  16. thehareandthecrow reblogged this from afternoonsnoozebutton and added:
    I like this article!
  17. ramblewood reblogged this from theatlantic
  18. constellation-funk reblogged this from theatlantic
  19. cold-irons-bound reblogged this from afternoonsnoozebutton
  20. bsc0793 reblogged this from theatlantic
  21. notyetperfection reblogged this from theatlantic
  22. simplyscott reblogged this from theatlantic
  23. omnibuster reblogged this from theatlantic