365 DAYS OF SNOW

no, no, the other kind
As I mentioned in an earlier post this month, one of the things that stood out about hip-hop in 2005 was the incredible popularity of crack rap. I mentioned in both my pieces that many of my ideas were spurred by conversations with Hua Hsu and he wrote his own musings on the subject the other week in an essay called "After the Snow," for the Village Voice. A few key lines to note:

"Crack morphed into an adjective (most notably Kanye West's "Crack Music") and it became interchangeable with the enthusiast (Santana's "I Am Crack"); the tone moved from survival to sport. Everything felt bad morally and good aesthetically."

"That violent sliver of New York history known as the "crack wars" has become a discrete historical moment, free for all kinds of post facto analysis and nostalgia. Twentysomething rappers have their uses for history; it's the 1980s again in the streets, all me-first, get-rich-quick flash. Upstairs, veterans of the war are returning home after 15- and 20- year stints behind bars; survivors survey what has become of the city, listen to the music that was made in their name, and decide there is room for their stories as well."

"With the epidemic behind us, crack, for those who aren't still in its throes, has become a clean surface, an impetus for stories retold. New York may have celebrated its 17th consecutive year of declining crime rates, but there is still an odd fixation with broken windows and restless summers."

Not to be outdone, the Voice ran a second piece on crack rap this past week in the form of Nick Sylvester's review of both the Clipse's We Got It For Cheap Vol 2 and Young Jeezy's Thug Motivation 101. I have to say, the title for this was genius: "Trapped In the Kitchen" (R. Kelly title detournement = always a good look), even if it seems odd that the Voice was half a year late in reviewing either the Clipse's mixtape or Jeezy's summer smash album. That said, Sylvester also has some good points to make:

"[Jeezy] can "do it for the hood" only because the hood can't; he escaped the 'jects because he kept his customers trapped there."

"In return for the free pass on the moral issues, is it too much to ask for motivation beyond rags-or-riches, or rappers who can rhyme "shotta" with more than "shotta"?"

"Deeply wronged and psychologically motivated, Clipse are closer to Scarfaces and spaghetti western gangstas than mere get-out-the-ghetto hustlers. Jeezy and Juelz are entertaining, but Clipse appeal to our sense of justice. Our sympathies mount the more viciously they flow: "All the snow in the timepiece confusing them/all the snow on the concrete Peruvian/I flew 'em in, it ruined men, I'm through with them/blame for misguiding their life/so go and sue me then." Compare that to Jeezy's lame excuses when haters press him about young fans wearing his snowman shirt."

--O.W.