A couple of days ago I wrote about my disgust for Glenn Reynolds' lame attempt at Rap commentary. What I didn't do - and feel kinda guilty about - is offer an alternative. What could, or should, Reynolds have been covering - as a conservative?
Well, remember a while back I told you about a great Rap album, by a Christian from Compton, Kendrick Lamar? Since then, not only has Good Kid/M.A.A.D. City sold a million copies (Capitalism!) but Kendrick did something else that's set the Rap world on fire - he did exactly what I would do and publicly challenged everybody else to raise their game:
Something happened around the three-minute mark of [Funkmaster Flex's] first airing of [Rapper Big Sean's] "Control," as Los Angeles' Lamar introduced himself,...The song began to feel alive, and midway through his verse, Lamar challenged just shy of a dozen of his rap peers (including the two on the song with him) by name: "I got love for you all but I'm tryna murder you niggas / Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you niggas / They don't want to hear not one more noun or verb from you niggas." He didn't just rap this; he throttled the words out as if he meant it more than anything else he's ever said. It was a spellbinding invocation as much as it was a wake-up call to arms.
Kendrick is that rare breed of rapper who simultaneously comes off as fan and student and practitioner,...That Lamar swims this deeply amongst pop culture flotsam lets listeners know: he's one of us. As one of us, he said what we've all been saying: rappers need to try harder.
Now think about that. A Rapper invokes competition, tells the others to be the best, that they've lost their way - American Values to the Nth degree - AND EVERYBODY AGREES! (When my time comes again I'm going to crush these fools.) I don't feel like analyzing Kendrick's lyrics right now, for why they were so powerful, but trust me:
Using just words (the music is forgettable) an extremely positive cultural earthquake occurred - literally - amongst the very people conservatives say they wish would adopt their (or another) outlook, and what is Reynolds doing? Spending his time stirring up race trouble, based on somebody's confused ramblings who, clearly, didn't even understand the topic.
Helpful? Inspiring? Anything? Nothing but damning.
But that's all I see Instapundit being capable of doing, with Rap, race, politics - you name it. The man has no clue where or what the news is. He's a Pied Piper of trouble, and nonsense, all given a sophisticated, supposedly-educated glow. As I said yesterday, he's an unstylish pimp, drug dealer, or gangster, given respectability for something beyond my comprehension because - after watching him blow election coverage after election coverage, amongst other things - I don't understand the attraction.
Trust him to analyze the news? Please. He fancied himself once owning a record label, which he never shuts up about despite failing, but can't even accurately interpret music (His brother's band is so weak I wonder how they have the strength to walk on stage,...) He openly disses the most popular art form in the entire world - and it's practitioners - who he was never onboard with because he's A) white and arrogant B) white and in opposition to what he doesn't understand, and C) white and clueless.
And I'm the only conservative commentator that'll say so:
Up your game, Glenn,...
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