Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: A Blipster’s Guide to Hipster-Hop
Douglas Martin normally blogs at Fresh Cherries from Yakima. He has never been to Yakima, but he can do the Watusi.
Being the world’s foremost blipster sure is a thankless job. Ever since I was given the opening quote in that infamous January 2007 feature in the New York Times about that new, cutting-edge subculture that long before had merely been known as “Afropunk” or “Tight Pants Wearin’-Ass Negroes” or whatever, my life’s been a whirlwind of dust, from being a public representative of Pacific-Northwestern black kids who listen primarily to art-punk, to receiving potshots on Gawker about being 23 and recording a folk-rock album. Now, I’m 25, have graduated from “folk-rock” (which was erroneous even as it was being printed) to “avant folk-pop” (hipsters are nothing if not arty individuals, right?), and am still unsigned. Thanks for nothing, Gawker.
In the two years since I became a footnote in the bowels of American popular culture, there has been a wellspring of blipsters springing up all over the place, as well as one of the most divisive scenes in rap history, “Hipster-Hop,” which comes across as some sort of backwards-reverse-racism sort of thing, where rappers do crazy, unprecedented things like not wear baggy jeans and chains, essentially discounting the “blackness” of these groups for not adhering to racial stereotypes. As I’ve learned from the four sentences written about me in The New York Times which quickly read like a pitch for an ABC Afterschool Special, the basis of the term “Hipster-Hop,” just like the term “blipster,” proves that some journalists are so silly.
So, for my first of my (hopefully many) columns for Passion, I thought I’d do a service for the blogging community by comparing and contrasting the blipsterness of the leading artists in the Hipster-Hop scene. Lace up those dingy Chuck Taylor’s people. It’s go time:
EXHIBIT A: KIDZ IN THE HALL
PROS: Double-O and Naledge apparently met at the University of Pennsylvania after a talent show, forming Kidz in the Hall and recording an album called School Was My Hustle. The irony of being college-educated and having a phonetically-spelled group name has “hipster” written all over it. They released an album called The In Crowd, which has a bevy of early-90’s hip-hop nostalgia. No wonder critics latched these guys onto the Hipster-Hop scene; some things are just too calculated to make up.
CONS: School Was My Hustle was co-signed by Just Blaze and released by Rawkus Records. The In Crowd was released by Duck Down Records, founded by Boot Camp Clik. Hipsters may know of Just Blaze, from their rarely-listened-to copy of The Blueprint to prove that they do actually enjoy rap. There’s no way a hipster has heard of Boot Camp Clik, no matter how many ironic hip-hop-themed parties they’ve gone to. Plus, Kidz in the Hall’s style is more “Baby Boomer Douchebag Chic” than anything that resembles a hipster these days, but perhaps someone will take a wrong left turn towards Pitchfork and stumble on this post, and adopt this look at their next Williamsburg costume party appearance, in which the guys will get extra points for being ahead of their time.
HIPSTER SCORE: 7.2. The whole “hipster” angle they’re going for is sort of contrived, but being as though contrivance is sort of what the movement is based on, it comes across as weirdly well-played.
EXHIBIT B: THE COOL KIDS
PROS: In addition to opening for hipster icon M.I.A., Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks have been playing the retro-angle hard, sampling drums, melodies, and even vocals from golden-era hip-hop hits such as “My Posse’s on Broadway” (Seattle, stand up!), all while wearing acid-washed skinny jeans and retro sports gear and shouting out Starter jackets in their rhymes. Genius! Way to bring back Starter like the ill-fated Members Only craze of 2006!
CONS: You get the feeling that if The Cool Kids were an all-white rock band, they’d be touted as “saviors of rock ‘n roll” and all that jazz. But, because they’re a revivalist hip-hop group? Hipsters they are. Plus, they hopped on a track with Lil’ Wayne, and everyone knows that makes you REAL hip-hop!
HIPSTER SCORE: 3.9. However, if they were being solely judged on their fashion choices, they’d get an 8.8 and be inducted into the “Best New Hipster-Hop Music” category.
EXHIBIT C: THE KNUX.
PROS: A pair of Los Angeles-via-New Orleans brothers, Krispy Kream and Rah Al Millio play their own instruments (which includes guitars, people!), wear tight jackets and jeans proudly (namedropping American Apparel in their Passion of the Weiss interview, even), and, by their own admission, have been listening to TV on the Radio since the release of their Young Liars EP. And they have connections to hipster-dance scene demigod Steve Aoki! They have a background in jazz, played in their school’s marching band, and still managed to not get beaten up when they were kids. Their very promising debut, Remind Me in Three Days, is a genre-defying excursion into the world of scenester L.A., with guitars blaring over drum machines as girls snort lines like hypochondriacs drop Airborne in their water. Although they’ve vehemently denounced the term, this is the type of group hipsters could really get behind.
CONS: Not only do they rap very well (name one hipster than can even sorta rap, and Kanye West doesn’t count), but they play their instruments with a high level of technical proficiency. Hipsters that play music value amateurishness and obscure that behind the fact that you’re not “advanced enough” to engage in their art. Not only that, but they are from New Orleans, and both carry the main trait of the city’s natives: they don’t pull punches (once again, see their Passion of the Weiss interview).
HIPSTER SCORE: 7.8. Hipsters love things that are sonically progressive. And they love dudes who wear tight jeans, take it from me.
Download:
MP3: The Cool Kids- Oscar the Grouch (Left-Click)
MP3: Fresh Cherries from Yakima: Flood Party
MP3: The Knux-”Fire”
MP3: The Knux-”Bang Bang”
MP3: The Kidz in the Hall-”Drivin’ Down the Block Remix ft. Pusha-T, The Cool Kids & Bun B
Stumble It!
November 10th, 2008 at 4:37 am
[…] READ: douglas martin’s dirty shoes: a blipster’s guide to hipster-hop. […]
November 10th, 2008 at 4:37 am
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November 10th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I still think these groups need to stop frontin’ and just go with the damn hipster rap label. You don’t see 50 Cent running around saying he’s not a gangsta rapper.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I still think that all of these groups, sans the Cool Kids, should retire.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:45 am
“I still think these groups need to stop frontin’ and just go with the damn hipster rap label. You don’t see 50 Cent running around saying he’s not a gangsta rapper.”
Cats are too slow to brand themselves. As stupid as all of that “movement” talk was a few years ago, it’s important to be able to control stuff like that before your subgenre gets blind-sided with a stupid name like Trip-Hop or Hipster rap.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
i don’t understand why these guys don’t band together. they’ll only blow once people recognize a collective working together, not people doing almost similar things at the same time.
but like tray, besides “F!RE,” i only care about the cool kids.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Whenever “journalists” rush to find a new fledgling trend or genre in hopes of getting a phrased coined it annoys me. If you make Hip Hop, you’re a Hip Hopper…period. Fuck labels and being genre specific, it’s all divisive. Did we all learn nothing from Willie Lynch?
As far as whatever type of music some one makes as long as it’s GOOD or well made I could give a damn what “genre” it is. If I did, I would miss out on hearing a lot of great music over the years.
Nice article.
One.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Whenever “journalists” rush to find a new fledgling trend or genre in hopes of getting a phrased coined it annoys me. If you make Hip Hop, you’re a Hip Hopper…period.
Thank you for summing up my post, Dart. This is exactly– via the left turn I like to call “satire”– the point I’m trying to make here.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
“I still think that all of these groups, sans the Cool Kids, should retire.”
When you have something to contribute other than “This group sucks” you can start giving your recommendations about who and who shouldn’t retire.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
While I’m always happy to see black artists redefine themselves and do something ‘different,’ I can’t help but get skittish at the mention of a ‘movement.’
This fear was only heightened after reading the Oral History of the ‘Black Rock’ movement of the early ’90s in Spin mag:
http://www.spin.com/articles/black-rock-oral-history
Such movements only lead labels to sign acts that look and ‘feel’ like whichever one ‘breaks out’–and we all know that simply adopting a current trend (in this case, dressing like Urkel and rapping about ’80s culture) does not necessarily equal anything worth listening to, and more often than not pretty much sucks…
November 10th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Doc, we’ve been over this. They’re Outkast ripoffs without Organized Noise. The world doesn’t need another Outkast, we already have the original one. Now, you’re gonna say that the same argument could be made about the Cool Kids, that the world doesn’t need more 80s rap, we already have the old stuff. Well first of all, a lot of it doesn’t hold up, as you well know; so few albums from that era can be listened to without liberal use of your skip button. So we’re basically left to do a lot of work rummaging through out of print shit on ebay ourselves, or rely on random rap purveyors like noz or Sloppy White or Robbie. Besides that, though, it’s not like the Cool Kids are just rehashing ‘88 shit. It’s been updated for the times, and updated in ways that make musical sense. As for your beloved Kidz In The Hall, the Kid who raps isn’t very good, and I have no patience for his “am I a materialist, am I a backpacker, how do I reconcile my Ivy League degree with the fact that I’m in a profession that historically doesn’t care for higher education” musings. I have an idea for how you reconcile it - quit rapping and go to law school like me. That shit just isn’t interesting. And when they did go the “hey, we’re people too, we care about what kind of car we drive too” route, it was so apologetic and half-assed. Whole thing just served as an opportunity for Kid One to get stampeded by a bunch of rappers way better than he is. If I want car raps, I’ll go to Young Dro, or Hood Headlinaz, or “Sittin On Chrome.”
November 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Tray: I was 21 once too. I thought I knew everything. Turns out I was wrong. Listen to Zeus and Zilla. You kill your cause every time you open your mouth.
November 10th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
But I don’t have a “cause” (and I do know everything I need to know in this regard, and I’m not 21). So I don’t really care if I do the “cause” harm. These guys aren’t good. I’m not trying to drive them out of rap, or even trying to convince you to not like them, no more than you seek to convince me to like them. I’m just saying that, as a matter of objective fact, they aren’t any good. You all can and should feel free to continue listening to them; I don’t mind, so long as you’re not playing the crap loudly, in my residential neighborhood - this isn’t like politics where your voting for the wrong guy does me some harm. There I do have a cause. Here, not at all. It’s only you who’s worse off for listening to these folks. I merely seek to vent my displeasure with the progressive hip-hop movement, and to insist, against its defenders, that underground rap is dead.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
how are the knux or kidz in the hall underground? the knux are on interscope, it’s just they don’t have the same promotional push as the big name acts on that label. KITH were part of the reinvigorated Rawkus and are now on BCC, as well as being affiliated with Just Blaze (before he sampled “numa numa”). i don’t know if underground rap is dead, but some of these guys are very well-connected and can’t make moves.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Scott: I read this article the other day, and I have to say I feel the same way as you. I felt like the BRC was counterproductive to having culture as a whole accepting these guys as merely “black dudes that happen to be in rock bands.” By setting themselves apart and naming themselves the Black Rock Coalition, they immediately unnecessarily cast a light on their race. That’s one of the reasons why TV on the Radio is so respected, because although they sometimes write songs about being black (”The Wrong Way”), they never overstated their case, thus being respected by both black and white people all over.
Which brings up Dart’s point again: If you do hip-hop, you’re a Hip-Hopper.
Tray: I don’t think Kidz in the Hall is “beloved” by anyone on this thread. If you read my post correctly, I used the words “calculated” and “contrived” within two-hundred words of each other. It’s safe to say that if I use EITHER word, let alone both, I’m not a fan of the artist/group in question.
Secondly, your point about The Cool Kids could also be said about The Knux: They’re not outright Outkast rips, being as though the groups rhyme about fairly different topics, and the guys in The Knux play their own instruments. Until you show me a Youtube of Big Boi shredding the shit out of a Fender, then this point is invalid.
Lastly, you can’t say the exact same thing about two different groups, and justify one of them while skewering the other. I personally don’t have a problem with you, but in the future, if you’re going to argue against something, please make sure your arguments are thought out better.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:17 am
“I’m just saying that, as a matter of objective fact, they aren’t any good.”
*”objective fact”* (!)
hasn’t this shit about objectivity in a necessarily subjective experience been hashed out a million times before? or are you just saying that you have better taste than all those who dig this (sonically-innovative, fresh, fun as fuck) music?
November 11th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Tray-
I didn’t realize the Kidz in The Hall were “beloved” to me. I liked their album, loved the single, and thought the three remixes were fantastic (especially El-P’s and the West Coast Remix). Giving an album a positive review does not equate to unequivocal worship. I share a lot of your same concerns with a lot of these groups but they also make music I happen to enjoy and like. I’m not equating these guys with the creme de la creme of the genre.
And reducing the Knux to Outkast rip-offs is unbelievably simplistic and just shows a lack of critical thinking. I mean sure Rah Almillio’s voice sounds like Big Boi’s but he’s hardly the first artist to have a voice similar to another. People used to accuse Guru and Parrish Smith of sounding like Rakim but that doesn’t inherently invalidate EPMD and Gang Starr as Eric B. & Rakim rip-offs. As Douglas pointed out, Outkast doesn’t play their instruments and while Big Boi & Andre are clearly influences on the group the Knux are far more indie rock-ish than Outkast ever dared to be even at their most Love Belowy. These guys aren’t Guerrilla Black.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
And as for any level of “objectivity” in music criticism, that’s beyond absurd. It’s inherently subjective. You can’t objectively prove that one style of music is better than another. It comes down to a matter of taste.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
It sounds like the Q-Tip/Knux/PacDiv/Cool Kids show at HOB on Saturday is gonna be a DOOZY.
November 13th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Yeah, I’ll be there for sure. Should be a great one.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:03 am
that “fire” is definetenly one of my fave’s for 2008..i just cant believe more hippie raps could come from the west hippie is the new gangsta..u cant help but notice the swag as well - shout out to Jeff for posting these jems..keep up the good work fam..
One!