yo baby wasssup!?!

a youtube clip brought to my attention by Mr. Cardona.

Crankin(g) - apparently some new dance craze that's making waves on the interweb. yeah. everybody's setting up webcams and dancin' up a storm these days, hoping to be on the cusp of some idiotic new trend. better yet, maybe the dance will get so big that they'll be asked to do it in the new Missy Elliott video.

YAYYYY!!!

some (many?) may see "crankin'" as another in a long line of postmodern minstrel traditions.

hmmmm...

sure. hip-hop/rap is crowded with no-talent, long-neglected children with names like Young Leek and Lil Boosie. it could even be said that hip-hop/rap is dead. and unfortunately, the seemingly harmless actions of a YouTube cranker or a "picaninny" rapper do tend to have negative effects on the mainstream perception of Blacks, both at home and abroad. that's just the way it is.

but the real victims here aren't the negatively impacted individuals of African descent who are actually doing something with their lives. oh no.

the true victims here are the middle-class White youth, eager to bite off the Black, excuse me, "Urban" tastemakers that he observes through media outlets both traditional and non-traditional alike.

yes. this is the real tragedy. thousands, possibly millions of pretty little children, emulating what they assume to be "cool." the lost generation.

at least Elvis/John Lennon/Jimmy Page/Keith Richards were ripping off beasts.

we will keep you in our prayers misguided middle American youths. we will keep you in our prayers.