below the belt
Jason linked to a great Ben McGrath story in the New Yorker, but I was bit bothered by some of the flippantly dismissive stuff in the article. The piece is about Gravy getting shot in front of Hot 97, and about how the carpenters who own the Hot 97 building are fussing about it, even though they're mobbed up gangstas themselves.
But the parts that got me were the en-passant disses, like the description of Kevin Liles.
Two weeks had passed since the big night, and Gravy and I were sitting in a spacious thirty-second-floor office in Rockefeller Center belonging to Kevin Liles, the executive vice-president of the Warner Music Group. (Liles co-wrote the Milli Vanilli song “Girl You Know It’s True.”)
Okay, yeah, Liles co-wrote GYKIT. But the thing is, (1) that's a great song! It's just tainted by the Milli Vanilli association, and (2) Liles has done a *shitload* more than just writing that song. A quick glance at his biography yields stuff like "From an unpaid internship in 1991, Liles soared though the ranks to become President of Def Jam Music Group in 1998 at the tender age of 30." and he wrote a book on how the hip hop generation can succeed.
Now, to those who think I focus too much on race, I'm throwin' ya a bone: I don't think this is due to racism. I think it's due to lazy writing and a willingness to go for the easy joke at someone's expense. But how deeply can McGrath be living in hip hop culture if he writes an article about Hot 97, rappers getting shot, pointless beef, and Brooklyn, but misses the fact that the head of the carpenter's Local 20 is named Christopher Wallace?
Now that's the easy joke he should have gone for.
Comments
I read this article a few days ago (when kyu linked to it, I think) and that line didn't come off as a diss to me, although I can see how it could be construed as such. Nice work noticing "Christopher Wallace" -- I missed that. (Speaking of easy shots: you mean like dissing New Yorker writers for not being immersed in hip hop culture?)
I had to Google Christopher Wallace. So maybe the New Yorker knows its audience.
Also, having established Mr. Liles' business acumen by placing him in a spacious office in Rockefeller Center, perhaps McGrath was simply trying show that he also had music expertise.
I had to Google Christopher Wallace. So maybe the New Yorker knows its audience.
YOU ARE A RACIST!!!1!
Nah, I mean, that's fair... but it's an article about a brooklyn rapper being shot. Especially given that he's mentioned elsewhere in the article, Biggie's not that big a leap. I mean, they don't explain LeBron James or Puff Diddy [sic] in the article, surely they're assuming this is an audience that knows who Notorious B.I.G. is?
If they were going for music cred, they'd have mentioned him helping launch Jay-Z into being one of the most popular artists in hip hop. They mentioned GYKIT without mentioning that he co-wrote it for his own group, and MV's label had the playback artists cover it for the Milli Vanilli album. If McGrath had enough information to know that Liles co-wrote the track, he definitely knew who Liles wrote it for.
Ah, found a source:
"Numarx found modest success with a regional record label and recorded several songs including "Girl You Know It's True," written by Liles. The song caught the attention of major record label Chrysalis but due to contract restrictions Numarx was prevented from recording for Chrysalis. Instead the record giant remade the song and Milli Vanilli soared up the charts with it. It was frustrating for Liles, particularly when it was discovered that the duo had lip-synched the song. After that Liles veered towards the business side of music."