This may seem like an odd commentary topic coming from a geeky white guy, but I was checking news headlines today and was amused by a popular magazine’s description of a rapper, which got me thinking about another “urban” artist and how labels can help create an identity.
In this article, posted today on Entertainment Weekly’s website, prominent entertainment gossip writer, Michael Aussiello breaks the news that “R&B superstar Eve” has signed on for two episodes of Fox’s new family musical show “Glee”. That’s great news! Eve was the star of her own sitcom on UPN, she’s starred in several big screen features, and she’s won a Grammy for her song “Let Me Blow Ya Mind”… a rap song. Which isn’t too unsual or groundbreaking because Eve is a rapper. She’s a rapper from Philadelphia who’s a self-proclaimed “pitbull in a skirt”. So why did EW refer to her as an “R&B Superstar”? To play devil’s advocate, how would white America…who it doesn’t take a team of TV ratings analysts to figure out would be the target audience for a family musical program in which the WASP-y teen stars break into songs by Journey and Amy Winehouse… react to “rap superstar Eve”? Odds are their going to think explicit sex, drugs, and guns. This simply does not mesh.
The flip side of this argument would be the Chris Brown fiasco. This scum bag physically beat his girlfriend (actual R&B superstar) Rihanna, until she looked like this. He was then spotted frolicking on jet skis in Florida and hanging out at nightclubs with his pals, looking as if he had absolutely no remorse. To label him a monster would not be too far off base. However, to label him as “rapper Chris Brown” as Good Morning America, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Insider have all done post-incident, would be. Brown is a 5-time Grammy nominee (I suppose winning is out of the question now, if karma has anything to do with it). His nominations are “Best Contemporary R&B Album”, “Best New Artist”, “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration” (in which he was the singing half, and rapper T-Pain did the rhyming), “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals”, and “Best Male R&B Vocal Performance”. Brown is unabashedly a Pop-R&B singer. He sings the same style of music as his caucasian contemporaries, Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke, who I highly doubt anyone would ever apply the word “rapper” to.
I know this isn’t exceptionally news-worthy, I just find it interesting that the media can now deems who’s a rapper and who’s a singer with this basic scale:
1) Are you a disgusting, violent low-life? Do you beat women or act like a piece of human excrement? Congratulations! You’re a rapper! Make it rain on dem hoes, dawg!
2) Did you just get a job? Are you involved with something white-America might be interested in, such as musical theater or a clothing line on QVC? Congratulations! You’re an R&B Superstar…like Aretha or Diana Ross!
Somehow, Mike Tyson fits into both of these categories and he isn’t even musical. Such an anomaly, how on Earth will Time-Warner define him?? Oh right, “athlete”.
Zing.
