Media Watch

This is Alicia's World. We Just Live in It

nOvaMatic  |  04/14/2008 at 12:04 PM  |  Comments (9)

The best thing about everyone's reactions to the Alicia Keys Blender article is that it doesn't so much reveal anything new about her as it does us. It's somewhat astounding to me (and when I say "me", I mean nOva, not SoulBounce; I'm only speaking for myself in this regard) the backlash that ensues once someone with crossover appeal suddenly reminds the world "I'm black".

Because that's what this is really about, isn't it?

Your perfectly polished, fair-skinned Pop princess has revealed what resides in the deep recesses of her mind and suddenly she's "crazy" and "batsh*t" and (gasp) "not talented", all because she's a tad over-aware of the injustices committed against Black people. On the matter of "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other," I can only say "Well, duh!"

It certainly seems so, as the angry, politically-charged, Black extremist form of Hip Hop that preceded today's dumbed-down, overly-cinematic and cheesy version isn't something that is expected to move any units because it will never be correctly marketed and no one will be able to put it in it's proper context. Is it a ploy by the government? Probably not; if the government was that creative we'd all have jobs. However, to ignore the role that law enforcement (at Federal and local levels) and the legal system has played in the twisted history of Hip Hop and Black America in general, you are sticking your fingers in your ears, crying "La la la, I'm not listening" and willfully admitting to everyone that you have tunnel vision.

Additionally, her claims that "Tupac and Biggie were essentially assassinated, their beefs stoked 'by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing,'" is supported in some form by the fact that these murders have gone unsolved. The notion that Tupac and Biggie would've made "great Black leaders" is debatable-to-laughable, but would it really be that difficult to believe there's a coverup going on at the Federal level? Really?

Black people aren't "conspiracy theorists" because we're crazy; we have years and years of documented history to draw from that shapes our perspective in society. Seems to me, people would rather our entertainers deferred to the notion that we should tapdance for Massa without acknowledging where we came from or the struggles we continue to encounter on a regular basis.

An aside: in the article (that so many people have skipped over reading in full in order to engage in knee-jerk, baseless judgement), the interviewer specifically asked Alicia Keys what "gangsta rappers" she liked, which set off her tangent. "'Gangsta rap' didn't exist," she would say. Progressive Black thinkers don't even use that termanology.

Smells like a setup to me.

Tags: alicia keys