The Next Big Things
By Kevan • Apr 22nd, 2007 • Category: Art & Technology
Just minutes before the weekend began, my friend Harrison posted a bevy of Feist footage; new music videos of songs from Feist’s new album. Now as the weekend ends, I think these sweet videos need a bookend. Please enjoy this fantastic song by “Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip.” It’s called “Thou Shalt Always Kill.” The English poet rapper has an excellent beard and makes some beautiful points about music. Most of all, it’s just catchy and entertaining.
And while I’m nodding in Harrison’s direction, here’s another link that anybody who likes Saul Williams, race issues and music would enjoy: an open letter from Saul Williams to Oprah Winfrey, on the subject of hip-hop and gangsta chic and its effect on culture.
One last treasure to share: the story of Marcus Montana, the Australian pop-star that never was. In 1989, after an incredibly ambitious advertising campaign that let every single Australian know of the impending arrival of a singer named Marcus, he arrived…only to be booed off stage for being one of the biggest posers in music history. Read the Sydney Morning Herald’s fascinating essay on the life and demise of Marcus Montana.
Kevan is a life-size replica of a 5'8" tall human being, and comes with several interchangeable outfits and a realistic haircut. With a BA in Communications from Trinity Western University, Kevan’s professional writing, graphic design, web and creative consulting services are available for hire. Kevan resides with his beautiful wife Kendra in Vancouver, BC, and is generally a nice person.
Email this author | All posts by Kevan
That video is sweet.
Man, I love Saul Williams. The guy is, essentially, exactly what I think I would have become if I didn’t choose Christianity.
Saul Williams’ thoughts regarding the intersection between hip hop and poetry are spot on. Not all rappers are poets, but some are, and Saul Williams is at the top of this brittle intersection, along with rappers like Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab, Sage Francis, and the like. I agree with him there.
I agree that our dual love and hate of the feminine is at the root of hip hop in the same way that it was at the root of fantasy literature, Moby Dick, Romanticism, and everything else. Braggadocio means the power to control the real world and shut out anything that would threaten your supposed firm grip, but the feminine represents the otherworld, the mystical, the unnatural, the magical, the mystical, the wonderful . . . these things threaten power because they cannot be grasped. So we hate them. I agree with Saul Williams on this.
What I do not agree with, and never have, is his understanding of the church, the trinity, and God. He is willing to call God both god and goddess, but he doesn’t realize that God is a genderless deity. We recognize him as a father because we need to, frankly, but he frustrates us because he simultaneously represents the feminine. Those who follow the Bible are not inherently woman-haters. They are inherently human, and Saul Williams has, in this same letter, explained why this is problematic. Cut us some slack. We breath the same air as those who don’t follow the Bible.
Jesus was not a Christian, but his followers are indeed his. Jesus loves us, has fellowship with us, and expects that we will love his followers as well, even when they are as far from “getting it” as Peter. I wish Saul Williams could understand that Christians are never really gonna get it. But they’ll try. When they fail, it’s not because they’re Christian, it’s because they’re human, and if they read a little closer, Jesus beseeched them to sacrifice that humanity fully in order to follow him properly. So no, religion is not my problem, Saul Williams.
I am.