Flatteringly enough, last Friday I received my first unsolicited email to this shiny new column’s Gmail inbox, and it came from a reporter at the Toronto desk of a major national broadcast media outlet. She wanted my two cents on guns, gangs and hip hop music in the wake of the Scarborough shootings and the apparent upswing of firearm violence in the GTA.
Referred by a mutual friend, and on short deadline to produce a piece for their website, she had no way of knowing I wouldn’t just co-sign whatever bullshit quote her editor sent her to look for. I say that with no disrespect to her professional etiquette. I know she was doing her job, and damn lucky to be. She just didn’t know what she was in for, and unsurprisingly produced nothing from our talk.
The thing that honestly hooked me in her initial interview request was that otherwise undefined “community leaders” are once again scratching their thick skulls over why the kids love the rap videos with the guns ’n’ the gangs. “So why does hip hop glorify violence, and why do kids glorify hip hop?” she asked me, putting “these rap videos” (couldn’t name one) and “social networks” under the microscope.
In fact, I had to throw overly discussed topics like gang membership, weapon ownership, social conditions and questions of money and power under the shortbus to pry open a broader dialogue about this term “hip hop” and how mainstream media butcher it with their misinterpretations.
It’s a story way older than rap: Ozzy records made people commit suicide. Elvis made my son gay. Marilyn Manson sold weapons to Iran. Video games took my lunch money. Like, if hip hop was just a useless app invented last year, everyone would fuckin’ understand it, simple as that.
But here is what frustrates me more than those sad hooks.
I wanna know how many “community leaders” at odds with a culture they don’t understand have ever discussed art, imitation and life, or pondered the chicken vs. egg conundrum. To be clear, I refer to the type of “community leaders” who command national news attention daily, not the trench fighters and underdogs. The type that’s quick to turn horrific human tragedies with no simple explanations into headlines by exploiting a situation to bury its true significance.
Hip hop values truth, just like the average person. If that is glorification, lemme testify.
Here’s what I can testify to this week.
Thursday: Club MEG places the hands of Lyon-to-MTL transplant and decorated turntable connoisseur NOYL, the eyes of self-sampling VJ Push 1 Stop and the ears of “jeune producteur” Archibald Singleton on the groove bible. And not too deep in your pocket, for a square fin. Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent), midnight, $5
Friday: What’s the difference between a con man and a con artist? That’d be the Shawnery – Conn Shawnery, both shaken and stirred, with a second release in less than twice as many seasons. He’s prepared a fully live launch of his hard-stepping, brand-new-second-hand remix LP, CS02, with collaborators BluRum13 and Wayne Tennant. Kalmunity leader Jahsun, Mark Haynes, Sarak MK, Sam-I-Am and many more of the Collective will see Conn off on this moon rake. O Patro Vys (356 Mont-Royal E.), 9 p.m.
Saturday: Jonathan Emile is a true-school MC and singer, in that he truly goes into schools, and truly schools minds with hip hop, for hip hop. With his new quartet, Emile hits the Burgungy stage, raising funds with the venue to rejuvenate the Rockhead-era roots of the ’hood. BBAM! Gallery (3255 St-Jacques), 3-6 p.m., free/$10 suggested donation
