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blame Nas · by Rafi Kam
R.H.S.: rap was MUCH better when i was afraid it might spark civic unrest
Rafi: yeah likewise… now these young kids cant even relate to the idea
R.H.S.: these kids can’t even bully a classmate for milk money without the 101st Airborn being summoned
Rafi: hey teacher, leave them kids alone
R.H.S.: they sure as hell can’t affect an adversarial stance against the establishment
R.H.S.: you can’t throw a molotov cocktail and operate an ipod jog wheel at the same time
R.H.S.: and it’d be a little difficult to hide from paramilitary goons in Joseph’s technicolor dream-hoodie
Rafi: depressing moment during rock the bells… as rage against the machine began their set this guy directly in front of me started doing this ecstatic metalhead slamdancing head-flipping hair tossing back thing, repeatedly hitting me with his waist-length hair. meanwhile tens of thousands of kids cheered for rage while zach did that radio song… “it has to start somewhere. it has to start sometime. what better place than now? what better place than here?”
R.H.S.: does this generation of youth even have a signature hairstyle?
Rafi: and of course you realize that as these kids get all pumped up for their reunited rage they actually possess zero of the rage that zach claims to… like he’s talking about how it’s time for revolution right here, right now
R.H.S.: seems to me that you can rock anything from a Feaux Hawk to an Afro Mullet and still be considered safely normal and assimilated
Rafi: and there’s tens of thousands of kids who are just super happy and super high right now
Rafi: like what possible reason would they have for a revolution
Rafi: yeah we hate bush, we’re being lied to… life sucks, capitalism sucks, the system sucks
Rafi: here’s our $100
Rafi: sing it zach.. so awesome to have you guys back!
Rafi: woohoo!
R.H.S.: and at such a convenient time? go and pluck the lame duck, guys!
Rafi: yay democrats in 08!
R.H.S.: never mind that the dixie chicks have been nailed to a cross for half a decade1
R.H.S.: when their manager told them to take a hiatus and lets things simmer over, they shouldn’t have did what he told them
R.H.S.: so now we’ve got Katrina-fugees rooting in the muck trying to dodge Fema-Copters and people getting hacked to bits in the Sudan and every day sixty Iraqis are liberated from terra firma…
R.H.S.: but… lo and behold…
R.H.S.: .. in the distance….
R.H.S.: ZACH
Rafi: remember when rage put out an album of all covers 3 weeks before christmas? that was really showing up the capitalist system
R.H.S.: How I Could Just Kill A Man … Who Bought the Last Tickle-Me Elmo was a great song, dude
Rafi: the timing is retarded.. also true of some of monch’s sentiment
Rafi: have you heard his last album?
R.H.S.: Monch? That black puerto rican, err panamanian, err whatever guy from organized konfusion?
R.H.S.: who predicted all this chaos in rhyme form in an introductory piece on some mid-90s Source issue?
R.H.S.: he has a fucking album out?
R.H.S.: I thought he had a bit part on the Wire or something?
Rafi: this song at the album’s end where he tries to sound like rage or mos def or whatever fucking pseudeo-punk/funk bullshit… infectious grooves are turning over in their graves and they’re not even dead
Rafi: http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/pharoahe_monch_lyrics_14985/lyrics_44258/book_of_judges_lyrics_497024.html
Rafi: [Chorus:]
All I know is what I feel
Deceive my eyes and distort what’s real
All truth will set you free
I rather die on my feet than delivery my knees
R.H.S.: hip hop transcription never had a golden age
Rafi: but come on.. all the bush bashing, political revolutionary talk.. it’s all nice but where the fuck have you been monch?
R.H.S.: jogging? by the looks of it
Rafi: and
R.H.S.: very Clintonesque of him
Rafi: this is the guy who did the ass / the dick right?
R.H.S.: he’s also been cultivating a curly Special Ed-like blowout
R.H.S.: yeah that was a transcendent political anthem right there
Rafi: and on his new album “it’s hot in hurrrr, i’m not from hurrrr” etc etc pointless club jokes song
R.H.S.: with Jean Grae, right? or some rapptress who sounds exactly like her?
Rafi: apani or some shit
R.H.S.: something like that
R.H.S.: dissing club music is the new wearing an africa medallion apparently
R.H.S.: As always, I blame Nas
R.H.S.: these artists take their cues from that misguided shmuck everytime
Rafi: when in doubt, blame nas
R.H.S.: Every time he raps about creative rhymes giving way to criminal tales on that last album, a Mobb Deep sub-affiliate dies of starvation
R.H.S.: I’m really glad that everyone turned 30 and decided to reassess their life course while huffing and puffing over the trick candles and all
R.H.S.: but this pseudo-political gimmickry is borderline absurd. Isn’t the point of a platform to suggest realistic reforms within systemic structures that have measurable impacts on improving the lives of those vulnerable to economic and political shifts?
R.H.S.: and isn’t that effort entirely undermined by adolescent generalizations about a system that are constructed without any mature recognition of the inherent irony of such an oversimplified protest?
R.H.S.: is Pharohe Monch’s broke-ass not significantly better off than some Salvadoran kid who will spend years 8-50 with an Ak-47 close at hand?
R.H.S.: Are we to believe that Common’s Baldwinian psychodrama is a more compelling thing to pay attention to than the plight of the medically uninsured?
R.H.S.: and does it make any sense for the college-educated class of this country to be so overly preoccupied with these headwrapped ne’er do wells and their amicable protest jamborees, while decrying and dissing every and any thing that jo six-pack or Shawanda Horsehair Weave finds mildly stimulating?
R.H.S.: and most importantly, what is a black nation without black unity? a child who doesn’t know puberty?
R.H.S.: okay i’m done now
R.H.S.: you should blog the convo
Rafi: man, you think every im convo is postable
Comments for "blame Nas"
Good point at the end about the revolutionary rhetoric…
— Colin C. Aug 1, 04:53 AM
brilliant rant. LMAO @ Jawanda… BTW, Tom Morello is now trying to be Steve Earle or Woody Guthrie. He calls himself The Nightwatchman and sings about being a One Man Revolution. The whole album is acoustic. He also described his voice (I saw him play the album) as a milk chocolate baritone.
— Ream_Team Aug 1, 05:58 AM
What Nas did was make political rap introspective and local, and actually more relevant but less powerful
— Hashim Aug 1, 10:06 AM
“when in doubt, blame Nas”.
sounds about right.
— khal Aug 1, 11:15 AM
I agree, rappers should just give up and start writing stream of conscious rhymes about diamonds and being King of the South. Wait a sec….........
— Abe Beame Aug 1, 01:01 PM
I do not know what is more infuriating you two thinking this conversation was profound or that I read it. Please stop pounding the concrete for the days of reasonable doubt and illmatic, the Revolution will never start again, give it up. It’s a new day you want a revolution find an innovative way to free minds and stop writing about it.
— Mr.O Aug 2, 01:50 AM
I think you’re missing the point entirely Mr. O… if that is your real name!
— Rafi Aug 2, 02:16 AM
While we’re on the subject of foolishness and the WSJ:
http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2007/07/a_laughable_laffer_curve_from.php
— eauhellzgnaw Aug 2, 04:41 AM
Fuck whatever Mr. O said…This is exactly why I read Oh Word. Someone needs to put the artistic expression of hip-hop in the context of the everyday life without the grandstanding of commercial interest. There are multitudes of ways to look at a situation. It’s good to hear a side not normally represented regardless if I agree or not.
— coolout Aug 2, 06:46 AM
Last part of that convo sounds like so called backpacker rap. No thanks. (proceeds to Crank Dat Ryu)
— Kin Corn Karn Aug 2, 05:20 PM
..saart putting your resume out fellas unless you have that lucky sperm money.
— Mr.O Aug 2, 06:17 PM
I’m pissed I spelled Start wrong, that shit bugs me.
— Mr.O Aug 2, 06:30 PM
I’m back and killing shit. Watch me duke!
http://poisonousparagraphs.blogspot.com/
One.
— Dart Adams Aug 2, 07:03 PM
“I do not know what is more infuriating you two thinking this conversation was profound or that I read it.”
...word. As if any of this is actually going to inspire civil unrest to the point of a revolution… I dare anyone to start a revolution and watch how fast the government fucks your life up… so unless your a martyr…
fuck your talk… your criticism… your casual dismissal of everyday people who really would like to see things change… your just as ignorant… fuck blaming nas… like he’s raps problem. jimmy iovine is raps problem… no… rap is raps problem… if you dont like the fact that your golden era is over, why dont you send rakim some fucking roses and a bottle of lube you fuckin geeks.
— mr. fuck this Aug 3, 07:42 PM
Okay, from now on, I have to make sure to put all IRONIC STATEMENTS IN CAPS so the barbarous hordes don’t misinterpret half-serious AIM convos. Jeez.
— R.H.S. Aug 3, 11:41 PM
alright then… thats more like it… just tell us where you really stand to avoid getting it mixed up.
thank you.
— mr. fuck this Aug 4, 03:08 AM
The fuck album is Book of Judges from? How do we know that’s even a real song?
(How ironic that lyricsmania inserts even more anti-jacking shit than I do.)
— DJ Flash Aug 4, 07:47 AM
it’s the last song on desire
— rafi Aug 4, 03:18 PM
first aim convo i’ve ever read all the way through.
really like the line about “it’s hard to throw a molitov and control your jog wheel on the ipod.”
— lee Aug 4, 04:20 PM
“Can U Werk wit Dat” > “The People”
discuss.
— T.R.E.Y. Aug 6, 04:24 AM
“it’s the last song on desire”
— rafi
God damned bonus track bullshit. Why don’t they put every song on every album. So I take it you don’t have the version with “Agent Orange” then?
— DJ Flash Aug 8, 04:13 AM