The Great Delay

Oh, history:

You are cruel to the defeated, overly kind to the powerful, and dismissive of the everymyn.

You are laudatory of the fortunately-timed, worshipful of false idols, exculpatory of the gloriously flawed, and encouraging of secret theatre.

You are overly nostalgic, keenly vulnerable to bias, and prone to scapegoating.

For every Richard Nixon there is a (Nixon-era) Dick Cheney; for every Pol Pot there is a Harry Truman; for every Milli Vanilli, there is a Led Zeppelin. For every Oliver North, there is a Ronald Reagan. For every Aaron Burr, there is an Andrew Jackson.

For every story you tell there is a cause and an effect. Every beginning is a middle is an end. Every fractal loop is deceptively familiar, lulling the preoccupied into complacence with delusions of repetition.

So what are you going to make of this time in which we now live?

Will you cast George W. Bush as the main villain, and ignore Bush-era Dick Cheney? Or will Karl Rove be granted an exception to Godwin's Law and recognized as the rightful heir to the Goebbelian mantra of social control, a laundry list of crimes detailed in leiu of the full picture, covering ye olde asses of the avaricious PNAC?

Will Al Gore's political death and rebirth be canonized as the silencing of prophetic foresight? Or will he go down, in the final calculation, as that guy who accidentally claimed to have invented the Internet and was super serial about ManBearPig?

Will you blame us, the American people, first? For prolonging this Great Delay in the face of catastrophic pressures? For egoism that prevents us from acknowledging mistakes and thus condemns us to repeat them? For stupid brutal pride, for a lack of determination to uphold things we can regard with moral certainty but are Family Guyed and Facebooked into waiving away?

Oh, history... you frontin' ass mofucka.

Whiteness and Rap

Been having some interesting discussions the past few days about hiphop and race, starting with the good ol' Strange Famous Forum, and then via the backchannel with my man J.Fo. The SFF thread is kind of a mess, and I got a little bit emotional as I am wont to do regarding race, but it features some interesting comments from Slug and Brother Ali (the latter via an anecdote related by Sage Francis). It started as a thread about political rappers and why sometimes rappers' politics become fodder for disses, and evolved from there when I asked about the politics of rap itself, finally coming full circle to upping some of today's more on-point political rappers like dead prez and The Coup. An interesting read, if you're so inclined.

But I'm also gonna share with y'all some parts of the chat Jeremy and I had...

J.Fo: what do you mean by "politics of the personal"

Embryo: like, the way we relate to other people. whether it's trying to find the justice (and thus peace) in how men and women relate, or trying to deal with some intense experience with drugs or racism or being poor or being rich or cops or what have you

J.Fo: yeah ok

Embryo: personal experiences rather than theoretical nonsense
Embryo: i'm just saying that the politics of the personal are a classic and important part of rap music and discarding it as part of a process of appropriation is disrespectful

J.Fo: part of a process of appropriation?

Embryo: yeah, it's just one of those things where white kids don't know that race is important, so they miss its significance when they leap into rap music. they're well-intentioned and reverent but often they don't listen with both ears because there's so little pesonal experience with trying to grapple with oppression. there's all these realms of black relationship to race and racism that you can hear some of [in rap music] as a white person, but if you don't understand that the process of addressing those things is the important part, not so much the verbal result that you hear, then you might not realize that it's a process you should be taking part in too, even though the result is going to be very different.

J.Fo: so WHY is it important that they understand these things? to become a smarter and more intellectual being, sure. but it sounds to me like you're just trying to define hip hop and the people associated with it. can't people just make (and listen to) the music they want? as long as there are "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts," creativity is constrained and is no longer a free notion

Embryo: yeah, but creativity has never been a free notion. musicians just like any artist or any person for that matter have a responsibility to the effect of their actions. that means anticipating how people are going to hear you and making sure you're not legitimizing ideas that you don't want to support.
Embryo: and culture's not neutral... people need to recognize the difference between something they created and something they borrowed
Embryo: i just don't think there can be "no rules". there are rules, the universe unfortunately is complicated like that.
Embryo: as a white person, you can pretend there's no negative impact to you rapping, or you can recognize and mitigate the potential for negative consequences.

J.Fo: but how is ignoring an issue, or simply not recognizing it in a song, legitimizing an idea? so, as a white person, what is the negative impact of rapping on me (or musicians)? how does that avoid any "negative consequences?"

Embryo: i think that being a white person who is rapping to an audience mostly made up of white people is more than enough to implicitly justify the state of things. you're taking the audience's money and you're building your name among that crowd. the conversation you're having is with white folks by and large... black people and other folks of color are therefore left out of the exchange. basically what i'm saying is that because whiteness is normalized, it is not talked about... most white rappers don't realize that it is -weird- to be rapping to only white kids. that's weird. music's not hiphop just because the person who says it is. it's not hiphop just because the listener thinks it is. it's hiphop if it's hiphop... white people can't just make their own communities that look and sound like hiphop save for completely missing any people of color, and then call it hiphop. it's just annexing rap music
Embryo: i think it's pretty messed up
Embryo: a lot of white rappers' business models basically boils down to annexing hiphop and cultivating a little fiefdom of indie rap white kids, and then selling them product under the banner 'hiphop'. they're lying to those kids, telling them they are rap music when they are not. white suburban kids aren't hiphop. they might watch it from outside . but the moment they are allowed to believe they are aprt of it, without actually doing anything active to become part of it, that's a problem.
Embryo: see what i'm saying? hiphop is a product of a specific community... it follows a linear progression of growth... it's defined by the places it comes from and the people who make it. until the white underground shows up and then all of a sudden it starts to grow from a completely different place, sans any of the actual multiculturalism that made it so colorful and fruitful.
Embryo: somehow white kids went from listening to the voice of the city, to believing that they were that voice.

J.Fo: yeah i see what you're saying
J.Fo: you are proposing that, by addressing the issue of race in hip hop, we can save a culture. but, at this point the culture from which hip hop derived stands separate from the SUBculture we now call hip hop. and by saying that white suburban kids aren't hip hop you are saying that they are not welcome into this newer, independent subculture.
J.Fo: hip hop is no longer a part of a culture, it is a culture. i'm not disagreeing with your discomfort. white dominates--it's the name of the game. it shouldn't be, but it is. and in opposing that idea you're actually promoting a restriction on the progression of music. it would be great if there was more of the original culture in this music, but there's not. telling someone they shouldn't rap because they're a white suburban kid is like refuting the notion of the free press. if you don't like what the newspaper is saying, don't read it. if you don't like the music, don't listen to it and don't call yourself hip hop.
J.Fo: since "we" took over, the integrity of hip hop has definitely diminished. there's no question about that. but from an ethical standpoint on equality for all, we can't tell people not to smoke weed just cuz they're not rasta, you know?

Embryo: a couple thoughts
Embryo: i'm not trying to save a culture
Embryo: or hiphop for that matter
Embryo: i'm trying to not be a part of destroying it. and unfortunately just doing what i do without commentary on race would be tantamount to participating in its destruction. it's the silent appropriation of rap that is so destructive, not white people participating in it. i'm not proposing that white folks should restrict their participation, im just saying that they shouldn't annex it. it's the difference between joining a club and starting your own and then giving it the same name and logo. one's a righteous thing to do and the other is not.
Embryo:i also don't think hiphop is a culture
Embryo: it's a movement within a culture, urban culture, which is an amalgamation of various city cultures. that's the multicultural part
Embryo: it's a multi-cultural movement
Embryo: for white people to make it into a subculture within white culture
Embryo: is just silly
Embryo: it's actually creating something new
Embryo: it's not a progression of rap
Embryo: but, it can drown rap out

J.Fo: right thats my point

Embryo: and that's what i think we should all seek to avoid

J.Fo: yeah that makes sense

Embryo: yeah. i mean there's a difference between writing a letter to the editor, and starting your own newspaper where you can control the entirety of its content. being one voice among many, or being the only voice.

J.Fo: that's a good way to put it

Embryo: i guess the reason behind my beef is just the money part. it's the money and fame part. it would be one thing if white folks were just rapping in their own circles, whatever, that's harmless. it's not going to change racism but that's my agenda, not everybody's. it's not actually going to have a detrimental effect on hiphop in other forms and communities. it's the part where it grows as part of an industry, where white rappers grow a white fanbase and milk them for sustenance, and then seek to push that circle outwards where it affects more and more people, that's the point where you've gone from being one of many different "nodes" of hiphop, to claiming that you -are- hiphop, that your little circle has grown big enough to just be the only part of rap that matters.
Embryo: you know, you see a lot of that from white rap fans, coming up with reasons to put "their" rap on a tier above other hiphop communities' idea of rap
Embryo: you know, oh, this is conscious, that shit is just bullshit
Embryo: nahhh... you just don't know how to listen, or don't make the effort

J.Fo: yeah yeah i feel you
J.Fo: you're coming at it from a business perspective, if you will

Embryo: that's just that subtle ethnocentrism that whiteness encourages, thinking of yourself as neutral and other people as different, as others... it's a familiar pattern of thought so of course white folks are gonna trend towards it in general if they don't make the effort to avoid doing so

J.Fo: a more cultural approach. i was just thinking of the integrity of the music
J.Fo: exactly
J.Fo: that's what i was sayin before

Embryo: well, i think the business part is important, if you're going to commodify someone else's culture, somehow that bothers me more than just being an artists, where you don't have the motive to be predatory, if that makes sense.
Embryo:: yeah, it's not just about the music, it's about the power of rap
Embryo: the cultural power of blackness being co-opted by white people for their own enrichment
Embryo: the credibility that white people who can cop certain aspects of "black dialogue", automatically get from other white people
Embryo: it's nuts how hype some white folks get when i rap. it's just insane. i'm not good enough to deserve that yet. and because of that i know that i can never trust white people's opinions, like if i brought it hotter, it wouldn't matter. they wouldn't know the difference, apparently.

J.Fo: well cuz everybody wants to be hip hop
J.Fo: like you said
J.Fo: black culture is the most imitated culture of all

Embryo: it's just annoying hahah. for all those white people rap's been redefined as this amateur faux blackness, thanks to wack white rappers who set the bar real low.
Embryo: yeah
Embryo: i guess i'm saying that the reason for that is a little bit sick
Embryo: imitation is one thing
Embryo: i mean that's flattery
Embryo:: but when you imitate with a goal of profit, that's more of exploitation than respect
Embryo: like, seeing the gullible white kids eager to see someone they can more easily identify with, it's a niche you recognize and then fill
Embryo: black, but white
Embryo: $$$
Embryo: you're encouraging those kids not to listen to things that are harder for them to relate to
Embryo: why bother stretching your perspective when you can listen to stuff that's more accessible to you?

J.Fo: you think these underground rappers have profit in mind?

Embryo: i wanna make rap music that isn't easier for white kids to listen to just because i'm white
Embryo: well, sure
Embryo: some more than others

J.Fo: i mean sure, everybody wants to make money

Embryo: but once you throw yourself on the altar of music for your sustenance
Embryo:i think people's mindsets change
Embryo: taking shortcuts becomes a matter of survival
Embryo: ethics fall by the wayside
Embryo: it's all very understandable

J.Fo: but what's real is when these heads do it for the love. when they do it out of sheer appreciation for the music and culture

Embryo: i don't think they think very hard about the impact of what they're doing
Embryo: yeah, absolutely.
Embryo: and a lot of rappers walk a line between those motivations
Embryo: and i dont think profit is an inappropriate consideration
Embryo: i just think that if you're trying to make money in music
Embryo: as a white person
Embryo: if that's your goal
Embryo: you should pick up a guitar and join the chorus of other white kids trying to do the exact same thing you're doing, except without the (racism-based) advantage of being "hip" because of your nominal blackness
Embryo: if you're not trying to make money, then things change a lot.
Embryo: you're not gonna do the damage that you otherwise would, trying to claim you're something you're not.
Embryo: you can just rap. and at that point you are doing it to be yourself and to express, and you're not gonna be fronting and misleading people.
Embryo: i dunno
Embryo: i'm not trying to project my ethics on others
Embryo: i just think it's counterproductive
Embryo: and kind of a buddyfuck, to use hiphop like that
Embryo: and to, in the end, dilute it with white kids who don't have the respect that you yourself had which made you want to rap
Embryo: and in the meantime, profit and easy ego is the reward. it's just kind of a shallow kind of profit, not real. more likely to fuck you up than help you out, anyway. white guys have too much ego already.

J.Fo: word

Embryo: i dunno, i'm kind of a hater, take it for whatever it's worth haha. thanks for the debate/discussion

J.Fo: well
J.Fo: i'm torn

Embryo: at some level if it's about art i don't wanna silence people. i just want them to think about what they're doing and why they're doing it
Embryo: nod

J.Fo: right
J.Fo: that's why i'm torn
J.Fo: it's important to keep hip hop intact
J.Fo: but at the same time i'm all for people doing what they want
J.Fo: k i need to go eat. i like where your head's at. problem is the ideal usually can't be real

Embryo: word, that's exactly what i mean -- i don't wanna see white folks grab the pie and wander off with it. you're right, all forces are against that not happening, but if there needs to be someone calling the alarm that's the kind of thing i occasionally enjoy doing. hahah. enjoy the grub, jeremy

J.Fo: lol yes you do. and we love you for it.
J.Fo: ttys bro

Embryo: peaace (:

'Economist General's Warning: Diamond Purchases Contribute To Massive Human Suffering.'

Recently my partner and I watched the summer's Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster, Blood Diamond, which was available On Demand one sickly, rainy evening. It's a pretty entertaining flick, with the added bonus of leaving its audience with a strong reaction to its realistic portrayals of the diamond industry and the child soldiers whose lives are defined by tragedy ultimately rooted in Western malfeasance. Normally, the line between social commentary and gratuitous exploration of explosions and gunfights is a hard one, but this movie does a decent job of maintaining its compass and sticking to the realistically-horrific facts of the situation in Sierra Leone, as far as I can tell.

One of the most striking aspects of the film was the difference in the way the good guys -- the non-murderous natives -- and the bad guys -- the smugglers, politicians, and mercenaries -- looked at the diamonds. The fact is, beauty isn't that hard to find in this world. Diamonds are pretty but so is the sunset, and that happens every day. So every time the profit-minded characters gazed deeply and fondly at these chunks of shiny rock, expressions of awe pouring from their sneering faces, I inched closer to realizing something, which finally dawned at the end: there's absolutely no effing reason to buy a diamond, ever. Not just for me, but... anyone. Any perceived sense of beauty is about their monetary value. The aspects of the stones that make them worth fawning over or not are about socially constructed notions of wealth and class, not about any actual, genuine measure of beauty.

So, not to be overly harsh, but here's how I see the lie: If you value diamonds, you're a chump being socially controlled. And if you buy them, you're a chump who is paying people to enslave children, murder people en masse, and generally just hurt themselves and everyone around them in the grand tradition of internalized racist Western hegemony, so that you can have your shiny piece of Africa.

Because the fact is, there's no way to tell if a diamond came from a conflict zone. Which means that everyone who buys a diamond is playing the lottery with their souls, and the best part is that you can never know whether or not the person who mined your lump of white death was killed by the very person who kidnapped them from their village and and/or murdered their family.

Cigarette companies are forced by law to warn their customers that they are playing Russian roulette with their health, so why not put other externalities in places where susceptible consumers will see them? How about a sign in any jewelry stores carrying diamonds saying: "Economic General's Warning: Any Diamond Purchased May Have Been Mined By Now-Severed Hands." Or something like that. Granted, we'd have to create the cabinet position of Economist General, but does the idea of the government helping people keep track of industry's external and delayed costs seem so far-fetched? There's quite a precedent for such a thing between the FDA's food labeling and, as I mentioned before, cigarettes.

Jewelers should know that it's bad business to sell products that virtually drip blood, and the diamond industry should be denied the right to present their products as clean until the relevant NGOs agree that the market is free of blood diamonds. And last but not least, consumers should know the facts before we as a society let them decide to purchase diamonds, so that when they go ahead and do it anyway, we know they are terrible people, and rather than showering them with shallow, easy praise, we can shun them and not invite them to cocktail parties.

Commander Keen in: Steam Dreams

I had the fortune of spending this Halloween rocking out at Hampshire College with some rad kids -- dope music, lots of fun. But just like every year, my big vision for a spectacular Halloween costume that makes everyone feel like -they're- under-costumed came down to the last 24 hours of earnest scrambling. But, forced to shit or get off the pot, I bought a pogo stick (rated for 50 to 80 lb. humans) for 3 dollars from some nice family who posted about kid's stuff on Craigslist, went to Salvo for some really tight nerdy jeans and a pink t-shirt, and sprayed a cap gun: Commander Keen, at yer service.

Of course, in addition to the curse of the last-minute costume, my other favorite Halloween syndrome is the ol' who-are-you-supposed-to-be?-oh -- no one apparently knows who Commander Keen is except me. Buncha amateur console gamers! Commander Keen, also known as Billy Blaze, was my idol at age 8 -- himself supposedly an 8-year-old genius who'd built a spaceship, the Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket, out of his brother's game joystick, his parents' car battery, his mom's vacuum cleaner, and his Dad's Everclear. He went to Mars and beyond kicking alien ass -- however, it turned out the aliens were being controlled by an evil human mastermind, teaching me a valuable lesson about fascism, social control, and the risks of using violence to solve your problems.

iD: Where's the new Keen game that's waiting to become a smash hit? Bring it on! Everyone else, you can relive the magic by purchasing the first 5 keen episodes on Steam. It's like 5 bucks. I remember pleading with my Dad to buy the first 3 for like 20 or 25 when I was 8! Think how much less begging will be required for you.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: An interesting tidbit I just found on this nerdy-ass Commander Keen fansite, regarding the possibility of more Keen:

Tom Hall, being the great guy that he is, responded...telling me that with Wolf3D and Doom their plans just didn't materialize and that when he went over to work at Apogee that pretty much ended any chances of Keen 7 ever being made. He also went on to say that he loved working on the Keen games and would love to do more if he ever got the chance.

Well, I dediced I'd go ask John Carmack, who was still at id... He said that they would never make one now that Tom Hall was over at Ion Storm, but that they considered giving the rights over to Apogee while Tom was there....

After hearing that id almost gave the rights to make Keen games over to Apogee I felt it was my duty as a Commander Keen enthuist to tell Tom Hall about it. Well, I forwarded the email... from Carmack to him and...got a response ....along the lines of "Hmm.... interesting".

It's been about two years now since all that happened and so far nothing's happened. I've talked to Tom and he says that he's trying to get the rights to keen but id won't budge.

Come on, id! If this is still the deal, I exhort you to make some kind of arrangement with Ion Storm to allow Tom Hall to work with you, and get it done. Valve is getting ahead of you in variety and inventiveness of content: Commander Keen is a unique character who could enable a unique style of play. Keen 3D could be your Portal. And that pogo stick is so deeply badass. I think you know what the right thing to do is!

zombie song

Lahdee dahdee,
We like to hunt zombies
We don't eat brains
and we don't bother dead bodies