I love the writing of Harlan, but I think he is wrong about rap. But if I tell him that, he will pull my tonsils out and use them to lube his stamps.

Harlan is an award winning writer/critic who has written for Star Trek, Outer Limits, and wrote the story the Termanator was based on.

I asked him about rap a while back and he is his answer. He got pissed.


'Now, what if what I had actually said was, "I despise rap and the most WHINEY KINDS of country music." The "awwww, mah honey done gone an' wrenched off mah love an' pissed down mah aaadoray-shun" kind of earplug cacophany. How about that? Does that sound a bit more like Ellison than what was mildly attributed to me? And, in fact, what I said was, "I despise rap, which is nothing more than semiliterate forced-rhyme doggerel, screamed at the top of someone's voice with pre-amps cranked to ear-damage levels so you cannot even comprehend the 'meaningful social comment lyrics,' most of which reiterate the startling and ineffable cosmic truths that adolescent assholes like to whup they bitches, like to gangsta pop anything that moves, like to strut their wide and proclaim how bad they gone be." What I actually said was, "This abominable shit is a disgrace to every noble and talented black man and woman from W.E.B. Dubois to Bessie Smith to Langston Hughes to Billy Strayhorn to Chester Himes to Jimmy Baldwin to Chip Delany who ever strove to create beauty." I went on to vociferate that no matter how much you con yourself into thinking I may be a "man of my age" (which means I went deaf and devoid of discernment somewhere post-Stevie Ray but pre-Run DMZ) and how much da bomb rap is, the truth (as I hear it) is that this swill is nothing more than minimally-artful commercial crap WHITE&BLACK MUSIC HUSTLERS have gulled immature and tasteless adolescents into thinking "speaks for them." And kindly spare me the Political correctness that such endless suck-my-dick earsplit accompanied by epileptic excuses for choreography express the Soul of the New Black Youth. Bite me, buckaroo! It has no more value as a marker for Black Folks' need to express their unhappiness with whatever each individual is unhappy about at that moment, than Tom Green's persona and farting expresses the need of young artists to Reach for the Stars. For every three rap "classics" about which you will belabor me with your panegyrics, there are two thousand that serve no greater purpose than to make record labels richer, and street homies less capable of dealing with the Big Mean White Man's World. As for country music, what I said was, "I cannot listen to the most whiney kinds of country. And I would rather masticate a poison pill than have to sit through Grand Opera. Apart from those three, I can, and do, listen to everything."

Harlan Ellison

Pook, a cute wittle monkeybutt u.

Harlon is one talented dude, even if he does come across as a crochety old man who hates everything.

Well, I mean, anyone who wrote for Star Trek is as contemporary as can be...

Just kidding. I actually appreciate Ellison's age because it affords him the advantages of history and wisdom. Seriously, rap music and its immense popularity are mere extensions of the American tradition of rock and roll. Hip hop is a broad form of music, and in my response to Ellison's rant, I'll limit my discussion to the sort of rap music he was slamming.

That form of rap satisfies the traditional "youth expression" model that rock music used to, but I find that it often satisfies a prurient, intercultural element as well. And that is what I'll term the "blacks as animals" model. That and the "poor whites as animals" model have made the "Jerry Springer Show" and "Cops" some of the most-watched and most-reviled shows on TV.

The rap music Ellison refers to often features artists proudly donning the garb of criminals, deviants and sex addicts. To listen to their rhymes, these rappers are people who plunder, assault, freak, disrespect and (sometimes) kill at will. It's all about the hustle and the party.

And, whereas rock bands are stuck with the image of working hard to satisfy their labels, many rappers enterprising enough to own their own labels or empires are still mired in the criminal image. Their hangers-on are violent enough to warrant police surveillance (ask the cops in Miami). The thug has become a glorified thing.

And, here we find Ellison to be right on: These rappers have absolutely no connection to the sorts of artists that came out of the Harlem Renaissance, they don't live by the same codes of artistry and honor, and I'm pretty sure they couldn't care less.

Even his rejection of the disclaimer that such artists don't speak for the best of the genre is true. I used to make the same defense, but these gangsters have begun to define the art form. They have done to rap what the devil-idolizing, "kill your parents" heavy metal bands never succeeded in doing to rock music.

And, it's a shame.

Very good threadbare. You have the music chops fella.

2freaky4church1 said:

And nice hair.

Is he bald?

2freaky4church1 said:

Indeed.

2freaky4church1 said:

Cool! Very smart man.

Cloudbuster said:

Pray for some hair sucka.