how to stop the clickbait from rap legends
treat them like legends
Photo Credit: Samantha Lauren Photographie
This is the first new edition of my newsletter since last summer. I see people continuously subscribing to my newsletter every day, so I feel like at the least I should drop something once a month. I have a personal essay I’ve been meaning to write about my time in LA that I’ll probably publish here (though I might not send it to your inbox, I might just post it on substack). I slowed down on the newsletter in late 2020 because it was hard to balance a consistent stream of newsletter pieces with my work at Complex and now Rolling Stone. But I recently decided that it’s necessary to reignite this space. I think at least once a month I can write about something that doesn’t end up getting the full-length treatment at RS.
One such idea is Melle Mel’s recent spate of interviews at Art Of Dialogue, and what they say about how veteran acts may feel like they have to engage the media cycle. First off, I think people should know that even as a journalist, I don’t have an opinion on everything, and they’re definitely not on-demand. I’m often too exhausted and inundated with the things I write about to carry on about them outside work. And when it comes to clickbait, I just don’t engage. So yeah, I sort of saw what so and so said. No, I have no opinion on it. With that said, I’m not about to litigate Melle Mel’s view on the artistic merit of Jay-Z, Kendrick, Tupac, and whoever else…the man downplayed his own music; everyone is fair game.
I think more interesting than what he’s saying is why it’s being amplified. Mel’s interview comes after Keith Murray’s late December Art Of Dialogue interviews where he went viral for sharing an obscene story about Foxy Brown. More than whatever humor people derived from it, it was depressing to me. He looked like he might not have been sober; it felt exploitative. In the heat of those clips, media personality Doggie Diamonds tweeted about how YouTubers pay legends a nice bag to say off-the-wall shit on their channel, knowing they’ll recoup and then some. It looks like that’s Mighty Bolton’s current play on his Art Of Dialogue channel.
I generally like Bolton’s channel. He does important archival work. The interviews with Jewell are great to watch, especially in light of her passing. Thomas Hobbs spoke to him for Okayplayer, where he said, “When people used to tell me I was recording history, I wouldn’t back myself, but I’m really starting to believe it now. I want people to watch my videos 30 or 40 years from now.” It’s important for people like him to document history. But it’s also important for people to actually watch them because what happens otherwise is they end up resorting to putting up anything up for views.
The hip-hop blogosphere has created an environment where sites all aggregate content about the same 11 people, and anything else that doesn’t fit that obvious sphere is disregarded as if we don’t have unlimited real estate online. I’ve seen it happen in places I work(ed) at. That leaves most legends in the dark when it comes time to promote what they have going on. I feel like over time, that dynamic has resulted in legendary acts feeling like they have to resort to clickbait to get attention. It’s as if they tell themselves, “If they don’t want to hear me talk about my legacy, they’ll surely wanna hear me shake the table about new artists.”
It’s a sad predicament in a game full of artists dying too young, in an exploitative industry where they signed unfavorable deals and were never subject to the mega budgets they paved the way for. Maybe instead of feeding into the clickbait, we can all do a better job of running valuable, substantive stories about rap legends (and not just when it’s tied to hip-hop’s 50th). The same sites that will run what Keith Murray said about Foxy, or what Melle Mel said about Kendrick won’t run anything else about them this year. That’s a problem. If you’re as annoyed by the clickbait YouTube clips as I am, give the legends more chances for legitimate coverage. That’s how I see it anyway.
quick takes:
March is the real start of the year for me. It’s always felt like new beginnings throughout my adult life. On a basic level, it’s (usually) the end of winter and the start of spring. But it’s also tied to other things: I moved to NY in March 2013. I moved to my first place in Brooklyn in March 2018. This week, 10 years after I first got here, I’m moving into a new apartment after wondering last year if I was going to stick it out. Over this past week, I’ve been sitting back and brainstorming how to actualize some of my ideas. People know me as a writer, which is cool, but that’s not the whole of what I’m passionate about, and more than ever I feel like it’s time to demonstrate that. I think this month will be the start of even more great things.
Speaking of which, I think I’m going to start a podcast. One thing that I don’t love about editorial is having to be attentive to word count. At times, I’ve had 90-minute conversations condensed down to a third of the copy. So I want to have a pod where I have those same real conversations in an unimpeded format. I’m not going to overthink it or start worrying about filling a niche or having bells and whistles, I just want y’all to hear the conversations I have because the chance to have that next fulfilling convo is what makes journalism worth it when the bullshit starts to feel insurmountable. Anyway, if you’re familiar with developing pods, feel free to hit me and offer whatever advice you have for me going into it.
Thankfully DatPiff isn’t going under, and they appear to merely be dealing with some technical issues, but the hysteria over whatever was happening last night underscores the precarity of digital media. Maybe physical copies of work shouldn’t just be a souvenir, but insurance. If a platform goes under, years’ worth of material can disappear in an instant. We may all have the classic mixtapes tucked away on a hard drive somewhere (and if you don’t you need to), but what about the under-the-radar work? What about the artists who’ve passed, or moved on from music, whose uploaded mixtape is the sole documentation of a phase of their life? It’s wild how technology has replaced the physical footprint with a digital one that can fade away at a moment’s notice.
bars of the moment:
“I’m not desperate for rebirth in the public eye. I don’t need to make some press conference declaration to an audience about being more than just this, or about how I’m an artist and an individual when I know whatever I say will be followed by, ‘Wait isn’t that the Ugly Mane guy?’ And I say that with no indignation either. It is what it is. I have a billion monikers already, I’ll revisit them sometime. I just don’t need to be a city zoning committee and constantly change the name of the street. If you need to find me, head over to Lil Ugly Mane.”
- Lil Ugly Mane in Patrick Lyons’ An Ugly Mane Reborn piece
“As Lewis considers the illusory nature of these shorthands for our longing, we are left with the radiant intimation that “the thing itself” is not something we reach for, something beyond us, but something we are:”
- Maria Popova, in The Thing Itself: C.S. Lewis on What We Long for in Our Existential Longing
“But diving in has left me conflicted, because while I love having [De La Soul’s] classic material at my fingertips, it feels grim to think about the role of tech companies in preserving important musical legacies. If anything, the entire saga bolsters the power of platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, because it has been treated as if this music wouldn’t exist without them.”
- Alphonse Pierre in De La Soul Is Finally Streaming—But at What Cost?
artifact
Speaking of celebrating rap legends, are you tapped in with DJ Premier’s So Wassup series on YouTube, where he dives into the stories behind his most well-known beats? Check out the clip about “I Gave You Power,” one of my favorite beats.
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Venmo: Andre-Gee
I also thought DatPiff "shutting down" was the end of an era for sure but I'm glad it's not. As you said, I have multiple projects from there from my middle and high school days on flash drives. Whenever the conversation of "digital vs physical" comes up, I think of that.