--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
<http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0734,selah,77552,22.html>
>
> Ebony and Imus
> Cornel West hangs with Prince and challenges—not
> denounces—hip-hop
> by Makkada B. Selah
> August 21st, 2007 12:53 PM
>
> "There's a white brother named Paul Woodruff
> singing—he sounds better
> than Robin Thicke!" Princeton University professor
> Cornel West says
> excitedly, referring to "Still Here," a single on
> his new spoken-word
> CD, Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations. West,
> the public
> intellectual and widely cited authority on American
> race relations
> now famous for playing himself, "Councillor West of
> Zion," in the
> last two Matrix movies, calls everybody "brother" or
> "sister." It's
> so very '60s and Christian and gentlemanly of him.
> He and "Brother
> Prince," Mr. 3121 Jehovah's Witness Brother Prince
> himself, wrote
> Never Forget's first single, "Dear Mr. Man," and
> have become good
> friends. Prince surprised a few people with last
> month's protest LP
> Planet Earth, and now this. "The question is" (one
> of Professor
> West's favorite phrases), since when has he been
> down for the cause?
>
> "I went to Paisley Park some years ago," says West.
> "You know,
> [Prince] has those xenophobia conferences every
> year. He brings in
> people from all around the world. He pays for it,
> actually. They're
> there for three days. There's dialogue during the
> day on all the
> various forms of xenophobia. I gave a lecture. And
> then that night, I
> remember seeing Norah Jones before she was big. Of
> course, Sheila
> [E.] was there. Maceo [Parker] was there. Chaka Khan
> was there . . . "
>
> "Dear Mr. Man," an organ-goosed open letter to the
> U.S. government in
> which most of West's contributions consist of
> ad-libs like "Break it
> down, Brother Prince!", finds the Purple One railing
> against
> environmental abuses, constitutional abuses, Geneva
> Conventions
> abuses, and institutional racism. We tired of y'all,
> he says. We
> tired of y'all spyin' on fellow citizens, adds West.
> We tired of
> y'all lyin' to justify war. We tired of y'all
> torturing innocent
> people. And though other Never Forget tracks like
> "America" (featuring Black Thought and Rah Digga),
> "Mr.
> President" (featuring KRS-One and M1), and
> "Bushonomics" (featuring
> Talib Kweli) tout similar sentiments, not all of the
> fire and
> brimstone here is directed at the White House. West
> also calls out
> his rap-artist brothers and sisters for "degradin'
> other folk."
>
> "50 Cent, Snoop, Game, Nelly," West says, as if he's
> writing their
> names on the board. "On one level, I love those
> brothers, because
> their artistic and aesthetic work is a part of who I
> am . . . . On
> the other hand, I challenge those brothers because
> I'm just against
> misogyny. I'm against homophobia. So somebody can be
> in my house and
> in my community and I still have to present a moral
> critique, because
> I'm just against those things. I just think they're
> wrong. "So the
> question is," West continues, "how do I deal with
> the love and
> embrace of them as artists and at the same time
> respectfully
> challenge them? So in that sense, I'm not really
> with the crowd that
> trashes hip-hop. I can't stand that. That's
> ridiculous. And I'm not
> with the crowd that somehow tries to give some
> justification for
> misogyny or homophobia. I just think the critique of
> homophobia has
> to be more explicit on hip-hop records—that's why
> I've addressed it
> on my album. Including the domestic violence and the
> misogyny and the
> sexism and so forth—it goes hand in hand with that.
> That's true with
> anything—anti-Semitism, it could be racism, any form
> of bigotry. I
> just have to take a stand against that. It's just
> who I am. Now
> that's a little different from this post-Imus
> trashing of Snoop.
> Because I'm not part of that crowd. At all."
>
> West bridges the generation gap on Never Forget by
> including guests
> from Lenny Williams and Gerald Levert (before his
> death late last
> year) to Andre 3000 and Rhymefest. Though the opus
> is hip-hop-heavy,
> West doesn't consider himself a part of the hip-hop
> generation. He
> calls himself a "Motown–Philly Sound–Curtis
> Mayfield–generation
> brother" who "intervenes in the culture of young
> people."
>
> "It's a matter of trying to present to young people
> a danceable
> education," he says. "Or what I call a 'singing
> paideia.' [Paideia
> means "a deep education" in Greek.] You have to get
> people's
> attention and focus on serious issues. Then you try
> to cultivate
> their self and put a premium on critical reflection,
> and then you try
> and engage in the maturation of the soul, which has
> to do with
> courage, compassion, and just love, basically."
>
> That's what's happening on "The N Word," the Never
> Forget dialogue
> with Georgetown University professor Michael Eric
> Dyson. It's a
> sequel to a song of the same name on West's 2001 CD,
> Sketches of My
> Culture, in which he calls on black folk and rap
> artists to stop
> using the word "nigga." In April of this year,
> Russell Simmons and
> other record-industry leaders officially called for
> a moratorium on
> the word in hip-hop records. Many argue that in the
> last half-
> century, the term has been appropriated by blacks as
> a term of
> endearment among themselves. The 2007 version of
> "The N Word"
> continues the debate as a flautist ("an Italian
> brother, Brother
> Dino") darts in and out of West and Dyson's
> statements over a James
> Brown–ish vamp, just as Brian Jackson would with Gil
> Scott-Heron.
>
> Dyson: We have to use the n-word, even if we agree
> ultimately in it
> being retired. There is not yet the point in our
> culture when we can
> afford to surrender that word. One of the reasons I
> deploy that term
> is because I wanna remind white folk and other
> bourgeoisie negroes
> who have looked upon me . . . as "that n-word," but
> refuse to say it
> to my face: "I know [what] you're saying about me,
> so I'm gonna put
> it on front street." We may be using the same term,
> but we're not
> using it the same way. We're not giving it the same
> meaning.
>
> West's response: Take a text like Huckleberry Finn.
> The word "n-word"
> is used over 100 times. It's a work of art. The work
> wouldn't be the
> same without that word. You could make the same case
> for Tupac's art
> and the use of that word . . .
>
> West believes that the pejorative "n-word" can't
> ever be completely
> separated from the hip-hop-friendly "nigga." But if
> he can't get
> people to stop using it, he hopes they at least
> become more aware of
> how, even with the best intentions, the word can
> become dangerous or
>
=== message truncated ===
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