Gold Digger

I first learned who Kanye West was as a result of Hurricane Katrina.  (Unless you're a rap fan [in which case you already knew who he was] or were living under a rock in September [in which case your TV reception wasn't too good], the same may well be true for you--West made waves when he called out President Bush on a telethon for Katrina relief, his candor apparently making his co-presenter Mike Myers fairly uncomfortable:

West: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

Myers: And subtle, but in many ways even more profoundly devastating, is the lasting damage to the survivors' will to rebuild and remain in the area. The destruction of the spirit of the people of southern Louisiana and Mississippi may end up being the most tragic loss of all.

West: George Bush doesn't care about black people!

Myers: Please call . . .

I had mixed feelings when I heard about this (I didn't see it on TV.)  OTOH, even as I blamed the entrenched corruption, ineffective leadership, and general lassitude in New Orleans and Louisiana for contributing to the disaster, it was hard not to feel that the Federal relief effort would have been more effective had the victims been, say, wealthy, white Republicans.  But OTOH, I think it's absurd to accuse Bush of personally dragging his feet because Katrina's victims were black.  I ultimately just got sick of the opportunistic finger-pointing and didn't pay any attention to West after the controversy played itself out, because I'm not I wasn't a rap fan.

It's not that I didn't appreciate rap as a genre--guitars, turntables; strokes, folks--but I'd just never heard a rap song that made me want to play it again.  Until West turned up on last week's rerun of an October episode of Saturday Night Live and performed his hit "Gold Digger."

Odd enough that I happened to catch SNL--I haven't watched that show regularly for 10 years or more, and that rerun was the first one I've seen in a year or two.  But even odder (to me, anyway) was that I loved "Gold Digger."  It just grabbed me, and I had to hear it again.  (Of course, since the song's been on the charts for months now, it's clear that I've spent much of 2005 under a rock myself.)

Listen for yourself: Here's the clean, radio-friendly version, and here's the video.  You can get the unexpurgated version at the iTunes store, but I'm sort of partial to the radio version--something about the syncopation of the "broke...broke" euphemism in the refrain.

(Which raises an interesting issue: The original refrain is "Now I ain't sayin' she a gold digger, but she ain't messin' wit' no broke niggaz."  The radio version substitutes "broke...broke" because apparently rappers aren't allowed to say "niggaz" on the airwaves.  A major step forward in race relations; thank you, FCC.)

So now I'm a rap fan.  Should be interesting to see how this affects my Last.fm charts.

Comments

[Amy]

All I have to say is thank God for iPods. You can keep your potty-mouth rap to yourself, mister!

Of course, given my last post on viva, that statement does strike me as a bit hypocritical, but hey, that's not going to stop me.)

[AG]

Welcome to the world of hip-hop !
It really is a very different place than it was 30yrs ago. Perhaps you prefer 'conscious' hip-hop. Check out KRS1.

[Matt]

You might actually want to check out OutKast and their Speakerboxxx album. I'm not a real fan of rap. Though I've heard a few that made my shoes move. But I'm mostly a fan of less jangly music -- more melody, less synchopation. OutKast, though, fall in the Kanye West realm for me in that they really think about their music. It's intelligent (which is not to say that the rest isn't -- God, I'm trying to be all politicially correct and careful and I'm black!) in the same vein as Kate Bush, Sting and Peter Gabriel are what I've often termed as intelligent rock/pop. OutKast does a duet with Nora Jones on that album!

[Ruby Sinreich]

If you like "Gold Digger" you will love this remix by The Legendary K.O. that samples Kanye's music and his sentiment: "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People."

See my blog for more background about the song.

[Ed]

Hey Matt! I've heard a little Outkast from my brothers, but I don't remember it all that well--sounds like it'd be worth revisiting.

Hi Ruby--very funny remix. It's a cheap shot, IMO, but I still laughed. Rappers I Know looks like a good place to explore the field.

Thanks for the tips. I don't see hip-hop displacing 40-year-old hard bop or contemporary emo (do the kids still call it emo, or just old guys like me?) as my sounds of choice, but it's nice to know there are always new worlds to explore.