Feigning Musical Diversity

The New Yorker - always a valuable bellwether for what's in vogue with New York-driven cosmopolitan thought - adds fuel to the New Millennium trend of well off white people suddenly discovering that rap exists. Under normal circumstances, I'd gladly call this a good thing and I welcome their introduction to the early 90's, but this trend comes with a rather pretentious and tedious condescension that's evolved from quaint-but-hilarious to insufferable. 

It would be one thing if they admitted that their introduction to the genre was an introduction. It'd be nice if they embraced rap with the humility of people getting engaged with something they probably haven't given much attention to and probably don't know well enough to comment on. I'd even like it if they were open to a little intra-genre exploration and made an attempt to semi-retroactively give a little attention to underground/old school rappers and freestylers or the culture that informs their prominence. But the Hipster-induction to the community of rap listeners has to come with a series of artists just for them, and needless to say, they're all better than the lazy, normal rap you (and Those People) like. You can tell because all of them are described as edgy artists taking rap in unprecedented directions. 

But really, there's no need to shy away from what this is. It's a pretty homogeneous sect of usually-indie/post-rock/shoegaze listening suburbanites padding their playlists with honorary black faces and pretending their inclusion was because the artists and the genre has done something more or different to earn their hallowed attention. And since we're in the age where this demographic is most capable of exerting cultural dominance, that attention has transformed into a canonical truth that makes reality instead of reflects it. While the Odd Future's, Shabazz Palace's, Death Grips (with one qualification in the comments section) Lil B's and - to a lesser extent - Kanye's and Lil Wayne's of the world greatly benefit from this (just like Eminem benefited from being more ethnically and culturally relatable to a media clamoring for gateway material), rap as a culturally ingrained genre in the tradition of folk offshoots like Celtic and Country suffers from the glib ignorance of their formulation. And that's the point.

The new pantheon of artists included in the "Acceptable Rapper" category aren't necessarily chosen to subvert rap. They're chosen because - Lil Wayne and Kanye notwithstanding (and even those exclusions aren't clear-cut) - they shift, deflect and detach themselves from the qualities typically associated with rapping and rappers. No obscure references to gang-related activities, no stark or straightforward depictions of ghetto/hood life, no afro-centric politicization or moralizing, little real instrumental frugality, and lyrics that conform to semi-juvenile (read: acceptable) definitions of "catchy", "witty" and "edgy". It's not favored because it's substantively different from artists who've previously provided good material in the genre. It's favored because it's safe. It's different enough to be different to the newly enchanted while being sufficiently detached from minority experiences and stereotypes about rap to be deemed likable and even new. With this new set of rap, a slew of people with rather monolithic tastes can now enjoy the wonder of having the musical equivalent of a black best friend. 

Except people will actually believe that this precludes them from unfortunate biases. 

This isn't necessarily a judgment of the artists themselves. I like some of their work, have varied opinions of them and tend to think that they don't have a creative or moral requirement to be representatives of x culture. My issue is almost exclusively with the typically electronic/indie reviewers at Pitchfork-style media outlets and newly christened rap fans who think that their sudden exposure to new genre of music makes their opinions on it definitive and informed. There's an almost insultingly arrogant undercurrent to "This is the evolution of rap"-style remarks that doesn't just stand as a commentary on the artists they like, but as an automatic rejection of the artists they don't (regardless of whether they've listened to them). In some cases and some genres, this has a degree of justification. This isn't one of them. I'm willing to accept that in certain, limited circumstances my critique is inapplicable, but it's strange looking at, say, Odd Future's borderline all-white fanbase and hearing "This is the evolution of rap" comments from well dressed white teenagers. In a perfect world, this would be an innocuous - if beautifully ignorant - sentiment. In the world we actually live in, it's quite telling and more astute people should be irked by what it says.