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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Cornel West Under Attack For Releasing Rap Album |
Current rating: 0 |
by Davey D repost via TPR
(No verified email address) |
07 Jan 2002
Modified: 09 Jan 2002 |
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The political beat from Davey D |
Harvard Professor and esteemed, award winning author Cornel West may be soon leaving his post. Apparently he has been catching heat from the University’s new President Lawrence Summers. Summers decided to attack West for releasing a Hip Hop CD called Sketches of My Culture. He claimed that what Cornel did was not befitting for a Harvard professor.
Talk about a shameful situation. If anyone ever peeped out Cornel’s CD, it would be quite obvious that this University president never listened to it. What’s there to disrespect? What’s so unbefitting? ‘Sketches of My Culture’ does not have Cornel trying to rap like he’s the next Jay-Z, E-40 or Rakim. Instead Cornel brings to life the rhyme style that was popular before rap- spoken work. His beats are jazz flavored and designed for those who want to chill and listen as opposed to dance. His subject matter is on point and reflects the things that Cornel always talks to the Hip Hop generation about…history and respect for elders, being responsible and productive within the community and the importance of having self-respect and pride. The tightest song on that album is a cut called the 3Ms where Cornel raps about Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and Malcolm X. It was a cut that generated lots of requests when we played on our show all last summer.
How Cornel could come under criticism is pure haterism… It’s a good album and it makes Cornel a lot more relatable to a generation of folks who he now teaches who grew up on Hip Hop. Its not like Cornel is featured on the cover holding a 40-ounce, grabbing his crotch and smoking a joint. It’s not like he released an album that calls women bitches and hoes.
I don’t get it. Perhaps Harvard’s new president doesn’t want a guy like Cornel to become relatable to a younger generation. Perhaps he wants to keep folks in our community divided. ‘Sketches of My Culture’ for the most part serves as an important bridge. Before the release of his album, Cornel West was not that well known by many who listen to my show. His album brought him name recognition and opened up a lot of younger cats to seek out his books and speeches. A lot of folks thought it was cool that he did an album. They also respected the fact that Cornel didn’t play himself and try and mimic the younger brothers and sisters he wished to reach. He provided a nice conversation piece and builds a much-needed bridge. Now we have an outside force trying to rebuke him. Shame, Shame, Shame.
Reverend Jesse Jackson who is gearing up to do a one-day Hip Hop entrepreneurial conference in New York is calling for a meeting with the Harvard President to discuss this and other matters dealing with the issue of diversity.
Davey D's Hip-Hop News Archive:
http://www.daveyd.com/newsArchive.asp |
See also:
http://www.daveyd.com/
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ehhh.... |
by j. fleming
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Jan 2002
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i'm not so sure it's haterism. i think mr. west is trying to have his cake and eat it too, a trap we can all relate to. on one hand, he wants to actually teach and relate and express himself organicly (which i hear he accomplishes with applomb on the album), while on the other he wants to retain his status as a serious academic thinker. no matter what you or i on the outside of the academic world may think, i wouldn't imagine that playing musician for a day would be recieved as "becoming of a professor" by his peers, and i'm sure he had that n mind when he comitted to developing the project. this is fine with me, if mr. west has decided to go from stuffed shirt to persuasive media darling, i'll be the first to tune in. |
