“April 29th was power to the people, and we might just see a sequel,” rapped Ice Cube in Wicked. Not even one of my favorite songs by Cube, but I remember that line and in result I remember that April 29th is the anniversary of the riots that took place after the police were acquitted of beating the hell out of Rodney King. That came out in ’92, at the height of my rap listening days and the fact that I still remember it speaks to the power of hip hop.
15 years and how much has changed? Some cops were just charged with killing an 88 year old woman in Atlanta. We had the famed “41 shots” case in New York City. The mother of the Notorious BIG is suing the city of Los Angeles for wrongful death for a second time, the first was declared a mistrial when it was discovered that a police detective had intentionally hid statements from a jailhouse snitch linking the accused cops to the killing. Cube was right, we might just see a sequel. As hip hop comes under fire for its controversial content, its warnings are ignored. It’s eerily similar to how we missed the warnings of a large scale terrorist attack pre-9/11.
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Over the weekend I watched a cultural phenomenon that most people my age have never heard of. High School Musical, that’s right you bastards, I watched it and I’m man enough to admit it. Hey, these are the things you do when you’re hanging out with a 5, sorry, 5 ½ year old. And you know what? It wasn’t awful. I mean its bad, it’s cheesy and I hope kids aren’t expecting high school to be anything like they portrayed it to be. But for kids, it’s actually a good little movie. They get popular sounding music, and more importantly you don’t have to worry about the lyrical content as you do with pop music on the radio.
Two things were very clear to me while viewing this movie: First, this is what the Backdoor Boys and N’sync and all those pop gum artists of the late 90’s should have been doing. Two, this is where American Idol contestants should end up, especially that annoying Sanjay and his hair.
1 comment:
The 5 1/2 year old loved it and I couldn't agree more! Beats her walking throuh the grocery store singing about her humps and lovely lady lumps!
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