Sunday, January 17, 2010

Long Live the Kane

We think Big Daddy Kane is one of the best to ever do it. We couldn't be more thrilled to have him as one of our three judges for the Hip Hop Karaoke Championship. Check out this CLASSIC Kane moment to see why nobody will ever do it like Kane does it...

10 Comments:

Blogger Charlie said...

that was fucking sick. i just almost jumped out my 27th story window.

6:10 PM  
Anonymous Shawn J. said...

Ridiculous.

7:45 PM  
Blogger Charlie said...

yo. i just watched that again and almost jumped out my 27th story window.

10:38 PM  
Blogger rdj. also known as daniel. said...

Kane is truly untouchable. I don't love the fact that he dropped this particular nugget --

"the Big Daddy law is anti-faggot
That means no homosexuality" (Pimpin' Ain't Easy)

-- but I don't think I'll be asking him about it backstage. :)

Still, I always want to make sure my gay friends can attend HHK without adding to their feeling misunderstood and hated on every which where they go. So even songs like Scenario Remix get my back up, even if it's just one lyric in an otherwise dope song. It's not necessarily the word "faggot" that bothers me -- and I'll admit, as awful as it is, Jeru's line about turning MC's into "faggot flambé" at least has a nice lyrical ring to it -- it's the blatant and explicit spelling out of a world view that has zero room for gay people, that makes me uncomfortable. I'm still not sure how to relate to that aspect of hip hop.

12:58 AM  
Blogger Charlie said...

two comments:

first, prob not fair to kane (or jeru) to pick a song from that era when the entire country's thinking on this issue was radically different

second, also not fair to single out hip hop. hip hop is especially skewed toward less censorship b/c that helps record companies sell it and they therefore implicitly encourage it, so you may hear more of this in hip hop but that's not b/c hip hop is necessarily anymore biased than our country generally.

i'd be interested to hear your take on the whole eminem - elton john moment from years ago.

not excuses but just trying to inject some broader context.

7:30 AM  
Blogger rdj. also known as daniel. said...

Absolutely fair points Charlie. I certainly DON'T think hip hop is any worse than the mainstream culture at large, its explicitness notwithstanding. I guess because it has a revolutionary side to it, one that explicitly speaks about the plight of people with less power and is all about empowerment, I implicitly expect (in my dumb white liberal kind of way) that everything in it will line up with my point of view, and thereby we'll all be "in this together." That's obviously a pipe dream, and contains its own kind of cultural prejudice.

So it's not for me to condemn anything. I'm just talking about an emotional reaction I have when I hear rappers I genuinely like express an out-and-out rejection of a group I spend a lot of time with (remember, I'm in musical theatre. :) I just kind of wince sometimes. It's my own reaction, but part of what I love most about hip hop IS the full self-expression it makes available. Ah, the paradoxes.

7:47 AM  
Blogger rdj. also known as daniel. said...

As for the Elton-Em thing, I have no real take. It was cool. (If you mean John coming on stage with him, and defending his right to creative expression.)

7:50 AM  
Blogger rdj. also known as daniel. said...

In any case, I shouldn't single out Kane or anyone. Especially a week before he judges my ass.

7:52 AM  
Blogger Charlie said...

i'm addicted to this video.

6:44 PM  
Blogger Charlie said...

i just watched this again 25 times tonight.

10:48 PM  

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