This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I will be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers.
Editor's note: This is the first of several guest previews from contributor Seth Graves, who has graciously offered to help with this project. Seth is a freelance writer and videographer based in Nashville; he can be reached at casiocasanova@gmail.com and you can check out more of his writing at the Nashville Cream.
Last week, the latest great white hype Asher Roth dropped a record much to both the delight and dismay of various fans, bloggers and critics. Roth’s schtick isn’t that he can or can’t rap (he’s okay), it’s that he looks less like pop culture’s archetype of a rap star and more like the vast majority of kids just who love rap. He’s just a skinny white kid who likes to rhyme, doesn’t pay homage to black culture or pretend to be from the ghetto, and basically just writes songs about being in college. Through sly and relentless internet promotion, this is going to make him a star.
Pretty crazy, right? Yeah, I guess. But only because 1) most music bloggers are too young to remember when the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill dropped roughly 25 years ago, 1/4 of a decade before Asher Roth’s “I Love College” became a Greek Row anthem, and when the term “frat rap” was coined specifically for the Beasties. And 2) The Beastie Boys invented the art of “How to Be a White Rapper Without Your Entire Career Being Predicated on the Fact You’re White”. That is to say, despite being the first caucasian MC’s of any importance, I don’t think it necessarily occurs to anyone anymore when referencing the Beastie Boys that their race in conjunction with their profession is the least bit remarkable.
It’s a feat obviously easier said than done. I’ve mentioned the first step of the plan already: get your foot in the door by releasing a juvenile, sophomoric record of minimal hip hop all about getting drunk, getting laid, and fighting for your right to do both those things. Go on the road opening for Madonna where you’ll erect a giant 30-foot inflatable penis on stage before an audience of mostly tween-age girls and their parents. This lets the world know you’re not fucking around. Tipper Gore will talk about you on Oprah, and your record will spread like wildfire across suburban America to kids who never even liked hip hop before. Eventually, 8-year-olds in rural Alabama know every lyric on your album by heart (that’s me).
Next, rather than aligning yourself on stage with established, accepted African American artists to boost your street cred, team up with a couple of inventive producers like, say, The Dust Brothers [imagine here the Girl Talk of 1986], refine your sound and alienate your audience from everything they’ve come to expect from you. Release what basically amounts to the Sgt. Pepper’s of hip hop; a magnum opus featuring a dense tapestry of samples and pop culture references that will be panned by critics and ignored by fans only to be years later touted as one of the greatest albums of all time by every major music magazine in America [referring, of course, to Paul's Boutique].
What’s next? Convince your label to give you the money to build your own studio. Spend the next five years skateboarding, playing basketball, and making music with your friends. Oh yeah, and start a real band with drums and bass and guitars and shit. Do all this until the world completely forgets you exist, and then drop a jam-packed culture bomb of hardcore punk, funk instrumentals, and old school rap like Check Your Head on the world and BOOM -- the world no longer sees the connection between your race and your occupation.
Follow that up immediately with another record almost like Check Your Head, but not quite as good and a bunch of crazy, innovative music videos directed by Spike Jonze and just over a decade later, you’re playing Bonnaroo -- and you didn’t even have to use the internet. I doubt Asher Roth has this kind of 25-year plan in the works, but it looks like he’s on the right path so far.
"Pass the Mic" (from Check Your Head)
"Egg Man" (from Paul's Boutique)
I give you props for giving credit where credit IS due. Don't forget the Obscure "In Sound from Way Out" album.
Posted by: movoodoo | Thursday, May 07, 2009 at 07:49 PM