you know it's hard out here for a simp

Mar 13, 2006

you know it's hard out here for a simp · by Rafi Kam

Last week my web host had a change of heart (like The Game or Robert Altman), I had to pack up my house and become a nomad (like dat okie-dokie oakie Tom Joad), and I was slinging schmattes (like Wu-Tang during the garment renaissance).

Clearly it was a busy and simile-filled week and I didn’t get to comment on some of the important things that happened. So we’ll play catch up a bit.

Like Oliver Wang, I didn’t get all the people pissed off about Three 6 Mafia’s Oscar win. Unlike Wang, I don’t think it’s as simple as putting people into camps based on whether they’re overly concerned with positive/negative images in the black community.

I say this because I saw some of the same people who rip apart Bill Cosby or Aaron McGruder for being too reactionary and critical out there calling Three 6 Mafia a coon show. Bloggers and hip-hop fans in general are just ready to hate on anything and everything. It makes people feel good to have something to kvetch about.

Yes, a song about being a pimp won an oscar. It’s from a movie (one I haven’t seen yet) about a pimp trying to get out of the biz, right? So it’s a song written to be subject appropriate. What’s with you damn literalists? When did hip-hop make the downward turn to people thinking that everything has to be taken at face value as the experiences of the artist? Why do the same people support Big Daddy Kane (pimpin’ ain’t easy)?

This brings me to the next point that Wang also touches on in his post. Do people realize the ludicrousness of this comment: How come a black guy/girl has to play a (insert character flaw here) to win an Oscar?

Has any serious student of film or drama phrased the problem of black representation in Hollywood in this way? I hope not because while the broader topic is a legitimate problem it makes no sense in this framing.

Flawed characters are the stuff notable performances and movies are made of. Outcasts, retards, villains… this is how an actor gets to show off their stuff!

This year the white characters corresponding to the nominees for best actor included: 1 repressed gay guy, 1 drug addict, 1 gay drug addict and Edward R. Murrow. Yet all you could hear on hip-hop blogs just before the Oscars were how come it has to be a black actor getting nominated for playing a pimp.

I don’t mean to sound like the white dad from Black. White. here. I’m not saying you just need a positive outlook and racism will go away. I’m just saying in this case… what the hell was the problem, really? And can someone explain how you can bash both Bill Cosby and Three 6 Mafia? Is it just a case of “leave the crotchetiness to us, old man”?

Comments for "you know it's hard out here for a simp"

Well said about the kvetching. And schmattes. My Jewish garment district fam would be proud.

To be fair, the academy has always been extremely uptight about just about everything despite their little feel-good montage segment on how their films solve the world’s problems (or something to that effect). I mean Goodfellas lost to “Dances with Wolves” of all films just because the voters had a weak stomach so I’m not surprised at the backlash from establishment types.

As for the Hiphop crowd, my theory is that it’s currently unsafe to like anything rap related and that every head online is actually a closet grunge fan.

— Sach Mar 13, 07:08 PM
i think the genesis of the oscar argument goes back to denzel washington getting snubbed for his portrayal of malcolm x in favor of al pacino winning for scent of a woman. pacino hardly put on a groundbreaking performance. yet denzel did not get recognized for his best actor turn until he was in training day. that’s the entire argument and that’s a valid one. malcolm x was a flawed character. a pimp who turned righteous. but one who was portrayed much more positively, and stands as more of a positive icon in the black community.

racism does exist. especially in the entertainment business. sure terrence howard played a flawed character. there are many flaws a person could have. yet there are about 4 stereotypes that black actors keep playing over and over again. why is it a pimp seeking redemption. why does it have to be a pimp? kevin bacon played a child molester.

do i believe that hollywood makes an effort to reinforce negative black stereotypes? yes i do.

it is evidenced by the movies that are made. the promotion behind them. and even the awards that are dealt out.

but i don’t get as much in arms about it because i take no stock in these awards. when missy elliot can get rap artist of the year. or the black eyed peas constantly win, award shows lose there meaning.

rap is a parody of itself now. that’s why everyone is against it. snl is making there living right now clowning it. i’ve been a fan since 83 but i will take my seattle flag out and fly it high.

— kimani Mar 14, 08:40 AM
What? Pacino let out a mean Hoo-hah!

That was also the year they gave Marisa Tomei an Oscar. They did get best picture right (Unforgiven) but X should have at least been nominated.

Yes Denzel was robbed and it’s a shame that performance wasn’t recognized by the academy. I agree that if he was recognized we wouldn’t be hearing this fallout nearly 15 years later.

The thing is that the Oscars have a long history of bone-headed moves that had everything to do with lame Hollywood politics and nothing to do with race.

Picking the wrong winner or not even doling out the right nominations is something we see every year. Seniority, popularity, the message and style of your movie too often end up playing a huge part in what wins. That’s the name of the game and I agree with you, it’s part of why award shows are so lame.

Lol at flying your seattle flag. Wasn’t seattle a parody of itself too by the mid to late 90s?

— rafi Mar 14, 11:44 AM
I think an important point to remember here is that whether we’re talking Grunge or Hip-Hop or, hell, Country, if you were doing Hip-Hop in 83, you weren’t in in for the cash, ditto for Grunge in 92. Once the profit potential becomes enormous, the field is no longer limited to those who are in it for the love.

Now, I’m not trying to say Three 6 isn’t in it for the art, I really couldn’t say, but people respond to incentives and cash is a powerful one, so when something blows up, you have to be prepared to wade through the schlock.

Also, I think it’s worth noting (as someone did over in the Poplicks comments) that the Three 6 win is going over without much more than a shrug and perhaps some displeasure from the White Evangelist/Black academic communities (for very different reasons). Were mainstream America aware that the Three 6 was not a reference to 36 but to 666, he concerns about a pimping themed song winning would be blown away by the moral outrage of the Christian Right that a ‘satanic’ group could garner such mainstream support.

Kind of sad that three numbers would gain more outrage then the psuedo-slavery of disadvantaged women.

— Kerry Mar 14, 12:12 PM
Much as I love my flannel (it’s coming back in 5 years take that to the bank!), I didn’t mean the grunge comment to be taken seriously. It was mainly an indictment that there’s no music out today that’s hater proof. the internets is made for bitchin.

Honestly, I disagree that Hollywood has a whole lot of stock in negative gangsta stereotypes. Some stock yes but most of the shitty “gangsta movies” that are constantly rented out by the wannabee-thugs at the videostore I work at are produced by rappers outside of Hollywood.

They DO deserve a nice heaping of blame for stupid black comedies however. Soul Plane, Barbershop, Are we there yet…

bring back “Don’t be a Menace to South-Central while drinking your Juice in the Hood”.

— Sach Mar 14, 02:10 PM
Yes. I just watched ‘Don’t be a Menace’ for the first time in ages… Man does Soul Plane make me sad when I think about that.

Fuck it. Soul Plane just makes me sad, period.

— Kerry Mar 14, 04:44 PM
soul plane could quite possibly be the worst black movie ever made.

— kimani Mar 14, 05:54 PM
any conversation about black people and hollywood in general—and the oscars in particular—has to include hattie mcdaniel and ‘gone with the wind.’

and, no, i don’t think it is “ludicrous” to draw a line from ‘malcolm x’ to ‘training day’ to ‘monster’s ball’ to ‘hustle & flow.’

— wardell Mar 15, 03:58 PM
I stand by my statement about it being ludicrous for a few reasons…

That mentality views Hollywood as a monolithic single-minded entity from what movies get produced to the annual award show. What positive black roles had great performances this year that the Oscars should be recognizing? You can’t criticize the award show if they had no options. Also people realize the results of the Oscars come from a polling, right? It’s not like the Elders of Zion get together in their cabal headquarters to decide who is or isn’t allowed to win this year. Once the cabal does honor Denzel with a nomination for playing Malcolm it’s out of their hands.

And as I said it’s just a stupid comment to hear every year considering that retards, villains and outcasts are frequent fare for the characters played by non-black nominees as well.

It was said above by Kimani that flawed characters are ok but why does it have to be a pimp because thats one of the few types we get to see black males in. Well one of the other 4 types definitely isn’t a crooked cop but we still heard the same complaint when Denzel won.

And just last year Jamie Foxx (Ray) and Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) either won or were nominated without playing negative “typed” roles at all.

— rafi Mar 15, 09:15 PM
rafi one minor correction – the oscar results aren’t tabulated by poll. only members of the “academy” hence “academy awards” can vote on who wins. so in this sense there is a cabal of sorts – Hollywood “elite” and actors from all over, folks already in the biz, who can vote.

i have no issue with 36 – i like their music. my only issue is the lack of balance in funding for Black films, largely for political reasons and “marketability” issues. peace.

— cherryl Mar 16, 08:59 AM
cherryl, i appreciate your last point and i agree that is the real issue. although, as i’ve said before, you can usually do more interesting things outside of the system than within it. the cost of movie production and barriers of independent movie marketing will continue to drop in the digital age. but that is another topic altogether…

if the members of the academy vote then how is it not a poll? yes, it’s a group of insiders (not “we the people”) being polled but presumably they all vote independently. people speak of the academy’s picks as if there is a conspiring together on who will win each award.

from m-w.com… cabal: a group of persons secretly united to bring about an overturn or usurpation especially in public affairs

— rafi Mar 16, 10:31 AM
Accusing Hollywood of making films for political and marketting purposes is somewhat like accusing a fish of swimming. (no diss, just a colorful comparison). Hollywood is solely in it for the money, for better or for worse. Has been since it’s inception.

I hate to say it, but as someone who lives ina a country who’s government sponsors a lot of “cultural” cinema, you don’t want to see what the results are. 90% of the time you end up with the exact same kind of middle of the road high horse movie you’d get at the Oscars only without the alternative to go see a home made “Kill Bill” or “Sin City”. Well, that’s a generalization but it stems from truth.

— Sach Mar 16, 11:43 AM
“people speak of the academy’s picks as if there is a conspiring together on who will win each award.

from m-w.com… cabal: a group of persons secretly united to bring about an overturn or usurpation especially in public affairs”

rafi, how do you know that there is no conspiring among certain producers, directors, film financiers, etc. as to who will win?

I’m not in the Academy – yet – but I know folks who are…There is a lot of “influencing” that goes on in that circle on occasion, in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways concerning these “awards”. I’m not saying it happened in the 36 case…just saying keep an open mind about that.

Also, I don’t think the Acadmey is literally trying to “overturn” anything, that’s why I said it’s “a cabal of sorts.” The word “cabal” is also used by Blogcritics.org – “a cabal of superior bloggers” but believe me we’re not trying to “overturn” anything over there either!

And i’m not “accusing” hollywood of making films for money. Everyone does everything they do for money, don’t they? Or else they starve.

I’m just stating, again, that the balance in funding or national distribution for more “diverse” types of Black films/music/books/etc. is off. Also, many Black artist’s work is censored for the same “marketability” reasons. I’m sure this happens to white folks too, I just know more Black creatives who I’ve heard complain of this too many times to count. I’m also sure this will change slowly, with the “Browning” of America.

Read “Knock the Hustle” by Hadji Williams if you haven’t already. He breaks down a lot of these “marketability” issues in that book.

Anyway, my primary issue surrounding this 36 thing is this: I have no problem with the win,as any country that would allow a show on national TV called “Pimp My Ride” etc with no one getting their draws in a bunch…is already in love with the “pimp” concept and to me that is the greater issue – people always reacting to things in “Black” culture that are all around us in American culture at large.

BTW, Rafi are you Black? I’m just curious.

— cherryl Mar 16, 01:23 PM
No doubt there is plenty of influencing and Machiavellian crap going on in Hollywood all the time especially where the Oscars is concerned. I’m just saying I’m skeptical of comments regarding the unseen ‘they’ with the means and the ideological motives for controlling the Best Actor award.

And to answer your curiosity.. I’m a caucasoid.

— rafi Mar 16, 02:01 PM
IWI9hA hi great site thx http://peace.com

— bob Jan 20, 05:50 AM