Here is my latest piece, this time for The Atlantic, on the persecution of rappers in the Arab world.  My point here is that although we tend to view this kind of government suppression of art and political speech as foreign, it’s actually quite common here in the USA as well.  In fact, we have a long tradition of it, especially when it comes to hip hop.

Here is the third in my trilogy of hip hop/Obama articles, titled “How Obama Played the Hip Hop Community,” now up at Huffington Post.  In the wake of the recent revelations that the NSA and other intelligence agencies are actively spying on American citizens, I decided to revisit the idea of Obama as a “hip hop president.”  Here I argue that Obama essentially used hip hop to get elected so that he could pursue an agenda that is far from what the movement stands for.

Update: According to William F. Buckley’s nephew, Brent Bozell, I am a “real radical.” Of course, this is coming from a guy who said on Fox that Obama looked like a “skinny ghetto crackhead.”  To see the kind of audience he speaks to, just have a look at the comments below his article.  In-your-face, not-trying-to-hide-it racism.

Here is my latest at Huffington Post, a piece titled “Targets in the New Security Economy.”  Using the NYPD’s appalling stop-and-frisk procedures as a starting point, I look at the way our booming security economy is based upon (irrational) white fears about people of color.  I include some pretty surprising information about the rise of for-profit prisons and then extend that discussion to our bloated homeland security budget.

In my latest piece for the Huffington Post, I look at the role of colleges and universities in the formation and evolution of hip hop, especially rap music.  As it turns out, many influential performers have gone to college themselves, and the college/university scene has always been important in disseminating rap music, either through radio stations or by providing an alternative touring circuit.

As the mainstream industry increasingly discourages innovation in favor of money-making hits, colleges and universities could play an even more important role in rap’s future as well.

Every once in a while I deviate from hip hop here, and this is one of those moments.  Last week, I wrote this piece for the Huffington Post on the pledge of allegiance–a ritual that I really wish would go away.  I think if more people knew the history and motivations behind the pledge, they’d think twice about letting their kids recite it in school, so my goal here is to provide that history–and of course a little commentary along the way.

The readers at Huff Post were largely supportive in their comments, but as I expected, I got some of the angry stuff too.  I also got a couple of really angry emails after I appeared on the Michael Medved show to discuss this issue…

I just wrote this piece–“Obama’s Honeymoon with Hip-Hop is Over“–for The New Republic.  It is an extension of an article I wrote for The Guardian over the summer, which traced the deteriorating relationship between the President and hip hop performers between 2008 and just before the 2012 election.  In this more recent article, I use the Lupe fiasco from a couple of days ago to consider the frayed relationship that persists–and will probably continue to as long as Obama avoids the pressing issues facing African Americans and other people of color in the U.S.  A special thanks to author, activist, and Rap Sessions CEO Bakari Kitwana for the last-minute interview.

Update: I stumbled across some really thought-provoking commentary on this piece.  On Free Republic, which bills itself as a conservative site for “freedom loving people,” I found this insightful critique of hip hop music from someone with the handle patriotsblood: “Hip-hop and rap, in my opinion, don’t rise to the level of music, and are on the same level as other bodily sounds that do not emanate from the mouth.” I’ll keep reading more responses, but this is probably going to be my favorite.

In the past several months, a few albums have really caught my attention.  I’ve already lavished enough praise on Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music, so let me give a brief shout out to Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore/Ryan Lewis, and Big Boi.  Then I will deviate from hip hop, just for a moment, to acknowledge Shiny Toy Guns:

Declared a classic before it was even released, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City definitely delivers.  It pays tribute to west coast gangsta rap in innovative ways–the twist in “M.A.A.D. City” on Ice Cube’s classic “Bird in the Hand” is just one example.  The executive producer on this was Dr. Dre, so as we wait on Detox, we can enjoy this.  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think this album is really good…

The considerable press on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is only going to increase in the coming months.  The Heist is excellent, not only on its own merits, but because it challenges the mainstream rap orthodoxy.  While clowns like Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West wear out the tired aesthetics of excess, for example, Macklemore’s and Lewis’s (recently certified platinum) track “Thrift Shop” celebrates bargain hunting at the local Goodwill.  Their two self-produced videos–for “Thrift Shop” and the refreshing “Same Love”–have nearly 50 million YouTube hits between them, and their 70-city world tour is sold out.  Not bad for a couple of white guys from Seattle.

Check out their music videos on YouTube, but go to last month’s NPR Tiny Desk “concert” to really get a sense of why they’re catching fire.

I am still working my way through Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, but so far I am impressed (even though it’s probably not quite at the level of the other two albums here).  I am admittedly partial to slick production and heavily synthed dance music, so the rap/electronic hybrid in some songs works for me.  This definitely isn’t ATLiens, but it’s still very much hip hop–maybe a modern take on Planet Rock?  In any case, for me Big Boi was always the “other guy” in Outkast, which is pretty much the default role for anyone next to Andre 3000.  But since his effort on Speakerboxxx, I’ve been paying attention to Big Boi, and Vicious Lies is another solid testament to his talents.

I like several songs here, but I keep going back to “Cpu” and “Apple of My Eye.”  If you’re planning on listening with the headphones that came free with ________, don’t bother.

I don’t just listen to hip hop–I often let my MOG radio or Pandora go for hours at a time so that I can find stuff I wouldn’t ordinarily seek out.  One example is Shiny Tony Guns.  After MOG served up their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Stripped,” I started checking them out, and their latest album, III, is really good.  An AP music writer called it “The year’s best dance and electronic-based album,” which is hilarious because that’s not at all what it is.  Don’t think David Guetta or Tiesto; there are no club hits here.  Think more like an updated, more electronic Fleetwood Mac.  This is the rare album that has several repeat-worthy songs, including “Fading Listening,” “Carrie,” “Waiting Alone,” and “I Lost You.”  I actually paid for those songs.

In any case, my wife and I frequently disagree on music, but on III we definitely agree.  This is good stuff, and further evidence that the Top 40 has nothing to do with the top 40.

Yesterday, the radio show Q (on Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) did a U.S. election special, and I gave an interview on the changing relationship between hip hop and Obama over the last four years.  This was an extension of the piece I wrote for the Guardian a few months back.  The interview (about 35 minutes in) was live to air, and thankfully I didn’t say anything especially stupid.

Q is broadcast across the U.S. by Public Radio International, but unfortunately not in Richmond.

I’m very pleased to be a part of this newly-released collection from Demeter Press entitled Mothering in Hip Hop Culture: Representation and Experience.  My essay within it focuses on depictions of mothers in rap music and the broader significance of these depictions for rap as a genre, but the collection as a whole offers a wide range of perspectives that are, as Rachel Raimist notes, “deeply theorized through a lens of feminist praxis.”  There’s some very interesting and important material here, so even if I weren’t involved I’d recommend it!

This article just went live at The Guardian website and was the cover feature (in print) for G2, the arts supplement.  In it, I look at the changing relationship between Obama and hip hop.  I don’t expect everyone to agree with it, but there’s really no denying that hip hop is nowhere near as central to the 2012 campaign.  I try to figure out why.