When asked about what kind of music I care for, these are the words that tend to leave my lips. Bring on the Jazz, Hip-Hop, Classical, and while not my first choice even Country. To me rap was always a just a way for musicians to sing about sex, violence, swear, and just be angry at everything. I never got a message, and to speak the whole and honest truth most of the rap that I heard I couldn’t decipher except for a few swear words and obscene comments about a woman’s body and what they wanted to do to it. So to say that I wasn’t the target audience for Dave Chappelle's Block Party would be a fair assumption.
However while watching this I came to realize something about rap music, I will never like it. This statement, however, is just because of how rap music is played not what it stands for. I do not like the words that are used in rap or the way women are portrayed. What I do like, and what I’ve come to understand about it, is the reasons rap music is made. The people who rap have a lot of anger and frustration in their lives. They see wrongs being done and they are trying to raise awareness to them through their music. They realize that they alone can’t fix the problem so they try to show the problem to as many people as possible in the hopes that a group of people will be moved to act.
And it was not only the rap music that made me think when watching this movie. Dave Chappelle is famous for not only being a top-notch comedian, but also for his famous disappearance. For those unaware Dave Chappelle did a shocking move by leaving during the production of the third season of the Chappelle’s Show. In this absence he took a trip to South Africa to get away from all of the fame and the craziness that came with it. He stated that the reason he left was that he was not happy doing what he did anymore. Singling out one incidence, when recording a pixie sketch, he saw that a crew member was laughing in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. He said that “it was the first time I felt that someone was not laughing with me but laughing at me.” This is very important information, in that these are the incidence that lead up to his block party.
The block party is a place where fellow artist can come together and have fun doing what they love. All of this was inspired because of Chappelle wanting to get back to what he loved to do, make people laugh. He seemed to want to have a small moment where he and other artist could get back to the reason they were doing this and be themselves, not the people they are when in the public’s eye. After all everyone, not just superstars, have a personal and a public face. The block party was a way of merging the two. A sort of celebration of being able to do what you love with other people who are just like you.
Another thing that is interesting about this movie is what’s not in it. Dave Chappelle wanted to get away from all of the fame and the fifty million dollar deals. They did not make him happy. Many people would praise him for this, saying that that he tossed away the chance to have everything money can buy and chose instead to live a simpler life. We should all strive for that to love what we have to reject these things that corrupt us. These same people would turn around and then reprimand the other performers at his block party and say that Jill Scott sold out because she’s acting now or that Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., a.k.a Common, is only in it for the money now that he’s modeling for Gap’s fall line.
My question is, are any of these people artist? If they aren’t then allow me to shed a little light on this subject from an artist point of view. From personal experience, and through interacting with other artist, I can say with confidence that artist love to explore. I’m not talking hiking in the mountains or anything. I mean they love trying new mediums and seeing what it’s like. Because I can’t speak for another person on their personal feelings on this subject allow me this brief moment to tell how I am when it comes to other art forms. I am an animation major and thus my focus is not only in drawing but also in studying every movement ever done and trying to recreate it. However in the past I played the clarinet, I took two years of singing, I made pottery for a year and a half, I’ve taken acting classes, I’ve been learning how to sew for the last two years, I can create special effects on the computer, I hope to learn to carve wood, also how to make little glass figurines, I want to take a class on making shoes, I have written over twenty poems, and hope to one day learn calligraphy. These are outside my field of study, but because I want to create I have a need to expose myself to different mediums. So when I see Jill Scott on The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency or Common in a magazine wearing Gap I merely see an artist looking at another medium and seeing what they can do with it. Though what artistic value to reality tv Keyshia Cole sees I’ll never know.
No comments:
Post a Comment