Playa Hata

The end of hip-hop? Useful article from Nick Crowe (ex-drummer from Gay Dad) on the exhaustion of an artform - and the paucity of its ambition to transform lives:

For many boys, the intended consequences of rap's playful fantasies are cruelly reversed - resulting in disempowerment rather than opportunity. While life isn't easy for many young black people, you have to ask if rap music and the lifestyle it preaches are the best expression of protest they have.

Meantime, I'm glad my girls have moved on from Nelly to N.E.R.D. Though the lyrics are still father-frightening ('her ass is a spaceship I want to ride', etc), the music is utterly thrilling. And I love the street philosophy (from Pharrell Williams):

What is a N.E.R.D? N.E.R.D stands for No One Ever Really Dies. The Neptunes are who we are and N.E.R.D is what we do. It's our life. N.E.R.D is just a basic belief, man. People's energies are made of their souls. When you die, that energy may disperse but it isn't destroyed. Energy cannot be destroyed. It can manifest in a different way but even then it's like their souls are going somewhere. If it's going to heaven or hell or even if it's going into a fog or somewhere in the atmosphere to lurk unbeknownst to itself, it's going somewhere.