A White Boy Explains His Hip-Hop Fetish
Richard Cortazar of the Yale Daily News shared his thoughts on the state of music today, and his frustration about cerebral music being unable to top the charts. “Someone, anyone, PLEASE explain to me why the Roots are not more popular,” Cortazar asks. “Okay, I’ll admit that this is one of those venerable hip-hop acts that white people cite as a testament to their open-mindedness and willingness to move behind the confines of rock or country, along with Outkast, Public Enemy, and Run-DMC. And, okay, I’ll admit that I am white, very white. Pale, in fact. My complexion has been described as ‘translucent’ or even ‘sickly,’ but it’s only due to the fact that I don’t like the sun very much, and with my Spanish blood I think I’d tan reasonably well if I actually cared enough to try. So there you go. Still, I am, inescapably, a white boy from Indiana, nonetheless. Here’s the kicker, though: I spent the first four years of my life in the middle of the ghetto in Gary. G.I., as we call it back home, used to be the murder capital of the country, per capita, so this makes me a proud son, along with Michael Jackson (who’s now whiter than me), of the most bad-ass city in the Midwest. So I believe I’m more than qualified to debate the virtues of the Roots against those of resident numbskulls G-Unit, even if I prefer the interpretive, and roundly unhip, dancing of Michael Stipe to the agile, flawless timing of Usher.” Read more.
