Today, as he sways his cool arthritically bent hands to some heavy bass, AD declares with the air of a savant: "Indians are too stupid to understand rap music"
For a minute lets assume he didn't mean to be so blatantly stereotypical. What does one need to understand about rap music?
Is the highly misogynistic lyrics too difficult to figure out? Does it take a genius to figure out that Eminem is "singing" about killing his wife?
Is it the extreme fascination with sex coded into the lyrics not easy to understand? i mean, how obvious does 'I like big butts and I cannot lie' sound?
Don't get me wrong. i like certain rap artists, atleast the ones who have something useful to say. Like when Jay-Z makes '99 Problems', you know he's writing from the heart about being stereotyped. Or even some Dr. Dre and Coolio songs are really about what rap music set out to be: the voice for a minority community.
But what does one make out of 50 Cent and his glamourous tale of being shot 9 times and still living. Or Akon faking a prison term so he sounds cooler. Or Kanye West being made an outcast in the rap world just because he had middle class parents. Or the dumbification of people in an entire country and maybe even the world by people singing about 'Du-ing thaat thang' who can't even spell their names correctly. (Yung Joc? What grade did he dropout in?)
Does anyone else find extremely outsized clothes and pants that fall off on a single touch irritating? It was apparently started by some rap musicians from the Bronx who were so poor they couldn't afford to buy new clothes and mostly wore oversized hand-me-downs. So the attire became a part of their identity. But it looks really absurd to see a visibly well-to-do Bandra boy with pants that start at his knees and so loose that he's trying hard to hold it up. i wonder what will happen if someone tries to steal his "bling-blings". Will he run after the thief or stand back to protect his degraded sense of self?
Maybe what attracts people to rap music is the glamour factor of an adventurous life. For a white middle class guy or a bored spoilt townie, the life of a rap musician is exciting. A life marked by gang wars, drugs and loose women who want to drop their clothes at the snap of a finger.
So AD, i'm sorry i don't understand rap music. Maybe one day when i get into your position of protracted ennui, i would be a little more enlightened.
'If you're having girl problems i feel bad for you son, i got 99 problems but the bitch ain't one'
