Open Letter to will.i.am
Dear will.i.am
Congratulations. The "Yes We Can" video you made featuring Senator Obama is amazing. It is the single best piece of political propoganda I have ever seen. As a person who has been luke-warm about Sen. Obama's Presidential aspirations, I was ready to go out and vote for him after I watched that video. I've probably watched it 20 times since it dropped on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. Which raises an obvious question.
Where in the heck has this been the last five years?
Before you guys made it big, I thought you would change hip hop. You were revolutionary. You were different. There was a social conscious to your music. Then, you brought on Fergie, dropped the Elephunk record and sold out to pop rap's tired conventions of sexism and appetite for a good party.
Then Fergie spun off into her solo career, and things got worse. You produced an album that had her asking
What depth. I was glad to see her living up to her lyrics in the music video for said song by doing a strip tease on a table while wearing underwear emblazoned with a British Flag on the butt.
To be honest, I'd given up hope. I had written you off as a guy who went for the money grab and was not willing to follow in the footsteps of Talib Kwali, The Roots and Common. I figured you were so happy with commercial success that you would not dare drop anything that would let people think that you had a depth and a social conscious. Those attributes don't sell records.
But then you surprised me with this piece of musical wizardry. Strong work. I hope it becomes the norm and not the exception.
Fair Dinkum
Congratulations. The "Yes We Can" video you made featuring Senator Obama is amazing. It is the single best piece of political propoganda I have ever seen. As a person who has been luke-warm about Sen. Obama's Presidential aspirations, I was ready to go out and vote for him after I watched that video. I've probably watched it 20 times since it dropped on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. Which raises an obvious question.
Where in the heck has this been the last five years?
Before you guys made it big, I thought you would change hip hop. You were revolutionary. You were different. There was a social conscious to your music. Then, you brought on Fergie, dropped the Elephunk record and sold out to pop rap's tired conventions of sexism and appetite for a good party.
Then Fergie spun off into her solo career, and things got worse. You produced an album that had her asking
How come everytime you come around,
My London, London bridge, wanna go down like,
London, London, London, wanna go down like,
London, London, London, we goin’ down like…
What depth. I was glad to see her living up to her lyrics in the music video for said song by doing a strip tease on a table while wearing underwear emblazoned with a British Flag on the butt.
To be honest, I'd given up hope. I had written you off as a guy who went for the money grab and was not willing to follow in the footsteps of Talib Kwali, The Roots and Common. I figured you were so happy with commercial success that you would not dare drop anything that would let people think that you had a depth and a social conscious. Those attributes don't sell records.
But then you surprised me with this piece of musical wizardry. Strong work. I hope it becomes the norm and not the exception.
Fair Dinkum
i'll agree with the catholic population in kc - but BV is a different story. though i'll concede that it may just seem that way since the largest catholic church in BV is a part of my neighborhood there.
and i completely agree with your point about catholics making the same point as protestants. i'm presonally frustrated about an incident that happened to me the otehr day involving many individuals i knew leaving ash wednesday mass and heading straight to the bars that night.
i dunno. thats what irks me about it. for me right now on a college campus - giving things up for lent associates me with that.
but i agree with the rest of your comment basically.