Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Musonda,
That's correct. Hip hop started as an expression of an oppressed urban minority, sometimes manifesting as rebellious partying - but also at times as militant and aggressive resistance to the political and cultural status quote. Run DMC, PE, NWA are just a few examples, and the reason why hip hop resonates in Maori culture.
The first wave of hop hop – Kool Herc, Kurtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang – was mostly innocuous party rhymes. It wasn't until the 1980s that it really took on a resistance voice. I have mixed feelings about commercial hip hop from the 90s on. But when you look at the sparse crowd Public Enemy drew last time through – mostly white dudes my age – it's pretty clear that the culture moved on.
Turia's support is reflexive because there is undoubtedly a racial element here. There is just never this level of vitriol when a white person with priors tries to visit (that I recall anyway).
Yeah ... but. It only really became an issue because Chris Brown had already been refused entry to other countries, which is the trigger under our law.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Danielle,
I don't think it's hugely helpful to use lyrics as a signifier of anything in particular, which is why I was rather less supportive of Odd Future being refused a visa. Lyrics can often be the sentiments of an adopted persona, or an expression of chutzpah or humour or a bunch of other things. His actions are what matters here.
Been watching a stay-10-miles-away-from-this argument raging onTwitter and thinking about it.
The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' is an interesting example. If you saw the play the Big Day Out you may recall that when those lines came up in the chorus you could barely hear yourself think for teenage girls screaming them back. The words very clearly did not mean to them what they meant to outsiders.
And there are tons of of examples of dodgy lyrics that aren't meant to be taken seriously or literally or are in character. There's a tradition of aggressively sexual acting-out that goes back to the blues, and it's not only men what invoke it. Check out Betty Davis sometime.
But Chris Brown's do seem a little different. They are clearly more directly autobiographical (I don't think he's bright enough to create characters) and he's such a shit lyricist that it's hard to divine any wit or literary merit in them. They tend to just enforce the widespread impression that he's an awful person.
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Mel Parsons in session at Radio NZ in Welington. Nice.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The next Soundcloud?, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Epic Post Russell, must have taken you all week ;-)
Last night and a bit of this morning :-)
But yeah, it's like a bloody online magazine this week.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The next Soundcloud?, in reply to Simon Grigg,
I get an email a week asking about Mysterex - it's there in all its post-punk glory (although large parts of it are on AudioCulture now).
I recall the sense of shock when Andrew suddenly shut it down ...
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Hard News: Friday Music: The next Soundcloud?, in reply to Vivid,
The big problem with the BPRS and soundcloud is that they are after royalties for their artists, but the way soundcloud works is that the artists post their own music and collect their own revenue.
Only a very few artists directly derive revenue from Soundcloud – only those invited to the "Premier" tier and the money comes from ghastly-sounding pre-roll ads that only appear in the US.
Most artists either use Soundcloud for free, or pay for a pro account. Which would raise the truly odd spectre of PRS taking rights fees from a pool largely composed of fees paid by artists in order to return them to ... artists. (Well, okay, composers, who aren't always the same people.)
So if this lawsuit is successful a collection agency like APRA will start taking a percentage of the revenue that was going directly to the artist and, instead, place it into their 'pool' where it will get distributed based on radio plays as it does now and money that I used to get will now go to Neil Finn and Lorde.
No, it wouldn't be based on radioplay, because it's easy enough to count plays on a website. But most streaming services do pool and redistribute, and that sucks for niche artists. The fact that Apra was willing to do the first deal of its kind (anywhere) with Baboom, so that a user's subscription fee only goes to artists that user has streamed is promising.
Radioplay is is paid out on actual plays and the performing rights structures favour composers over mechanical copyright owners (ie: the labels). Compared to the Spotify black box, which is tilted heavily towards the Big Three record companies, it stacks up well. So that's why collection agencies shouldn't go away.
Now we just need Shazam installed in every gym, shop and cafe ...
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Danielle,
I don't think it's hugely helpful to use lyrics as a signifier of anything in particular, which is why I was rather less supportive of Odd Future being refused a visa. Lyrics can often be the sentiments of an adopted persona, or an expression of chutzpah or humour or a bunch of other things. His actions are what matters here.
Yeah, art (in the broadest sense) shouldn't generally constitute grounds for an immigration refusal.
But I think it's reasonable to suggest that the lyrics to this year's 'She Goin' Up' rather undermine the whole "role model for the youth" argument.
Also, what a shit tune.
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So yeah, the NUMA women all spoke in support of welcoming Chris Brown today.
Maori dames have spoken out in favour of rapper Chris Brown's visit to New Zealand in spite of his assault convictions.
Dame June Mariu, Dame June Jackson, Dame Iritana Tawhiwhirangi, Lady Tureiti-Moxon, and former New Zealand's Woman's Refuge chief executive Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said it was important Brown was allowed to perform in New Zealand.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to Steve Barnes,
"Promoters for Brown have sent an invitation to a press conference today, saying it would see the "National Urban Maori Authority speak out in the wake of Dame Tariana Turia's strong support of Chris Brown."
NUMA's chair is Willie Jackson, who also supported the entry of Mike Tyson on the grounds that he was a "role model". He even wrote a Herald column about it:
The hypocrisy of this matter raises several questions. Why is it No to Tyson, but Yes to so many other criminals who have come to this country?
Australia's most notorious criminal, Chopper Read, and the triple murderers the West Memphis Three are recent examples of that.
Far out. The Chopper Read who visited New Zealand was comedian Heath Franklin playing the part of Chopper Read.
And the West Memphis Three were, y'know, innocent.
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Hard News: About Chris Brown, in reply to linger,
it doesn’t help in other Countries. I’m surprised.
In that many countries have an immigration declaration question along the lines of, “Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence?”, and other countries’ clean-slate laws are irrelevant to making such a declaration.
But as far as you're concerned, you're allowed to say no with a clear conscience under our law. And the other country couldn't find you out if it tried.
Dirty little secret: they basically couldn't really find out before.
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