#hot 97 interview

[photoshopwithmaurice]

[tiatalksweekly]

R.I.P. Chinx

Ebro talks about the passing of Chinx: "This is someone's father; this is someone's son"

Hot 97 5/19/15

[zamellow-rhymes]

Azealia Azealia

Only halfway through this interview and my consciousness is bursting over with things to say. So many thoughts springing to my head and since so much of my day is spent editing myself and this is the only place I am free to let stream of absolute consciousness pour out, I will do just that. Plus, the year is about to end and who cares, right? About to open a new chapter. So let's wrap this year up with some truth on zamellow-rhymes. Okay...by the way this is about the Hot 97 Interview embedded. Firstly, her claims of cultural appropriation are completely founded. It's been going on for decades - from Elvis to Macklemore to the same Iggy that this culture hails as the reigning rap princess. She's right - the white audience and white record labels and white boards that vote for Grammy winners are biased as we all are toward favouring their own.

But the issue with this sentiment coming from the potty-mouth of a Brooklyn-born girl who appears not to care much about being prudent, or maintaining a level of reserve is that she will not be taken as seriously as she should. Also, given the level of sensitivity and emotion she has coupled with the naivety of youth (which is totally understandable at 23), instead of coming across as a truthful statement of the ugly realities of the music industry today, it is seen as erratic, "crazy" and "bitter" - as is stated by her and the host during dialogue.

I cannot ignore the double-standard either. That if similar words were emanating from the mouth of someone considered more sensible, worthy of an opinion (read: white individual in America), this interview would not be observed as a display of emotional discord from a frustrated musician but rather something to be carefully listened to.

Azealia is to me, am exceptional artist, a beautiful young creative with so much to offer this world with her ideas, thoughts, talent and creation but also someone who could learn a great deal from a) knowing when silence is golden b) heeding advice from those that are older (i.e. the 40-year old Hot 97 host) and c) channeling the energy from her rage into her music instead of taking it to twitter. I understand this and I understand the source of her anger - totally. She just needs to learn to put it in the right place like the interviewer advises her to. Hopefully, with time she will grow to do just that and her passionate pleas for change in a messed up situation will be more controlled and therefore stronger.

This is what so many of us - those who feel - like the Hot 97 Host states, we are outnumbered in a word full of cold, unfeeling, selfish, technology-obsessed, self-obsessed cyborgs. Her emotions are raw and hit home to me because I too know about being young and sentient, more sensitive than most and coming to discover how hideous and ugly human beings can be. The disillusionment comes swift and knocks you off your feet.

I remember feeling that hard knock earlier this year at church. An experience I have had some difficulty getting over because in many ways I had set up an expectation in mind of what individuals who have pledged their lives to follow God, namely Christians, are and was appalled to have to deal with gossip, slander, micro-aggressive racism and other manifestations of how messed up people are in this place I had idealized. Much of the problem of course was naivety - forgetting that people are just people wherever you go - and that simply people are hateful, self-seeking and just damn ugly no matter where you are. I forgive myself of course, I was young and didn't know better and as the great Angelou once said, "When you know better, you do better".

What I do know for sure, is that with disillusionment comes feelings, feelings of disappointment - realizing that the world as you imagined it, is not so. Awakening to realities is a normal part of this journey called life and for those of us that are sensitive - it can shake the foundations of your life in a dramatic way, paving the way for rage. The wisdom to know how to temper these emotions - these fires that when uncontrolled cause great destruction but when allowed to burn within well-defined limits do what they are purposed to - comes with age.

Note: The Hot 97 Host I refer to numerous times here is Ebro.

[niecealicious]

AZEALIA BANKS BREAKS DOWN DURING AN INTERVIEW ON HOT 97 AFTER EXPLAINING THE ROBBING OF BLACK CULTURE

From one beef to the next, Azealia Banks does not care!!! While she may throw individuals she's worked with under the bus, she outlines her issue with Iggy Azealia and the Grand Hustle family and discusses the current state of music and cultural appropriation. Check out her explosive HOT 97 interview. 

[staceash-1x1]

"I'm just in the studio, I don't got time to look cute" - Kendrick

[austinbreeze]

People call it whatever, but I don’t want to name it cause it’s bs to name it. As soon as it gets named that’s when you start marketing it. And it’s like ‘Ah, this is hipster.’ Cause hipster was cool until it became hipster...

Childish Gambino