Friday, April 10, 2009
Is Mos Def a babbling idiot?, part deux
The question was posed here 10 days ago, and now Stanley Crouch weighs in at The Daily Beast with significantly more insight and not a great deal of sympathy. Referring to Mr. Def by his given name (Smith), and also including Cornel West (who appeared with Mos Def on Maher's show last year) in his sights, Crouch concludes:
"Michelle Obama is right and that is why we would all do well to expect, even demand, more from people like Dante Terrell Smith and Cornel West. Stop buck dancing for dummies. Remember: A mind is a terrible thing to waste—especially on pop superficiality and academic blather sticky with an irresponsible eloquence. That educated lingo is used to sweeten biscuits so moldy no one should be expected to swallow them. As one history teacher wrote me about West, 'Things start to go downhill for intellectuals after they release their first rap album.'"I did not realize that Stanley Crouch and Cornel West exchanged barbs. That one stung.
Crouch's point is that the answer to the question above is "no," and that Def/Smith should comport himself in public in a manner that is consistent with his awareness of the world around him and not seek to up his street cred.
Read the whole thing.
CWCID: Ace
6 Comments:
By 
AmPowerBlog, at
Fri Apr 10, 08:00:00 PM:
By Gary Rosen, at
Sat Apr 11, 05:48:00 AM:
That comment on West is devastating, and well-deserved. But "blather sticky with an irresponsible eloquence" could apply to another African-American who has been in the news a lot lately.
By 
, at
Sat Apr 11, 09:31:00 AM:
" and that Def/Smith should comport himself in public in a manner that is consistent with his awareness of the world around him and not seek to up his street cred. "....Unfortunately that would require that Smith would have to be honest both with and about himself. In fact the honesty would, and should, apply to most of those like Smith, West et al, whom repeat the victim meme incessantly with regard to the position and place of minority groups in America today. That would, unfortunately for them,
put the lie to their very reason for being. It would be the end, in large part, of their notoriety and fame and ultimately it would end their relevence in the world. It would be the end of the Sharptons, the Jacksons, the Wrights and so much other dross that has held back an entire community of people to their and the country's detriment.
By SR, at
Sat Apr 11, 01:15:00 PM:
Crouch hits a home run on a pitch most of us meager TH commenters woul not dare to swing at.
Over to you Chambers.
By , at
Sat Apr 11, 02:08:00 PM:
Let's be honest. Crouch pulled his punches.
Why is it that "street cred" requires you to be stupid, moronic, "anti-Whitey," conspiracy monger, sympathetic to Al Qaeda (because that terror organization is anti-American) and anti-American, anti-White, and filled with general idiocy?
Because Black Culture fell from dizzying heights of musical mastery (rivaling Beethoven and Mozart) and solid achievement in literature, to abject nothingness in the space of two generations, starting around 1965.
In short, Mos Def is stupid and a moron and a racist conspiracy monger lunatic because that is where Black Culture is. And Black Culture is that way because most Black people are that way.
MOST Black people celebrate stupidity at every turn. Example: Chris Brown.
MOST Black people celebrate anti-intellectualism at every turn. Witness: Black vernacular.
MOST Black people embrace anti-American reflexively, witness: Will Smith's comments on 9/11 that he felt "nothing, because no Black people died in the towers."
MOST Black people, including the President, blame Whites for Black ignorance, poverty, violence, gang warfare, and everything else. Witness: "White Folks Greed creates a World in Need."
The overwhelming majority of Black Men and Women have the same attitudes, beliefs, ignorance, stupidity, and moronic conspiracy mongering views as the average Klan member circa 1925.
This truth is blunt, ugly, and not very PC. It is nevertheless observably true.
It is NOT of course genetically based, but rather culturally based. You could indeed say the same things about the White British Underclass, and the Black men of Yesteryear who suffered under REAL and actual White Racism had radically different views of America, Americans, Whites, Blacks, Education, comportment, patriotism, and so on.
Anyone who has read the autobiographies of musicians Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, in their own words, or listened to their audio histories on CD (Morton) knows what I am talking about.
Neither musician was a man of accomplished letters, but both exhibited an intellectual curiosity, serious thought, and a rejection of conspiracy theories, coupled with solid, down to earth views of Black's place in America (pro-Assimilation) that are light years away from "musician" (I use the word charitably) Mos Def.
By , at
Tue Apr 14, 04:06:00 PM:
such strong words for an anonymous person...
