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.

Hip Hop esta muerte, no fuerte.

the less i know about this group/song/video the better, i just woke up to this nightmare this afternoon and unfortunately it's lodged in my head, so i'm detoxing with good music with catchy melodies in the hopes of shaking it loose.

i just use it to illustrate a rather disheartening point.

hip hop really is dead.

i'm so upset by the current trend in "urban" music that i can't piece together some striking, eloquent appeal, so i'll be brief.

where the fuck is new york? where the fuck is the bronx? where the fuck is harlem at? bk? queens? shaolin?

jesus.

has the "laffy taffy" finger snap bullshit really silenced the hip hop epicenter of the universe? has hovah permanently destroyed the psyche of would-be hustlers turned rappers with his whole "i'm a business-man!" nonsense? has the stratospheric marketability of vapid southern rap totally diluted the viability of talented and conscientious northeastern hip-hop artists? have mtv and bet completely ruined the hip-hop spirit?

southern rap does certainly have its merits (read: clipse's hell hath no fury, good to smoke blunts to, perfect drive by soundtrack), but ya basta. enough is enough! a change has gotta come, and since LA is generally on some bullshit, i was kind of hoping that the beast coast would stand and deliver.