Illinois Senate Republican leader Christine Radgono reads a letter from Raekwon out loud in the Illinois state house.  The way she so fluently pronounces Raekwon and Wu Tang Clan tells me that Senator Radgono is a lifetime hip hop fan.

Have to applaud her sense of humor.  It’s actually interesting to me that some Republicans on the national stage have attempted to create the impression that they embrace rap, too.  I’m thinking specifically of that creepy Eric Cantor interview on 60 Minutes in which his kids reveal that their dad is super-cool and listens to rap.  Cantor himself, equally fluent in hip hop speak, said “I do the Wiz Khalifa stuff and Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne.”  The image of Cantor bobbing his head to Lil Wayne is both funny and disturbing since Lil Wayne is one of the grossest, raunchiest rappers out there.  Wrap your head around Cantor listening to “Gonorrhea,” for example.

Thanks to Rene Bryce-Laporte for the heads up on the Wu Tang letter.

15 years to the day since Notorious BIG was killed (and apropos of my post last night), this is the question Nesnga Burton asks in today’s The Root.  I think it’s a question lots of hip hop fans have asked at some point–and the same could certainly be extended to 2Pac.  The two MCs had very different styles, but their impact on the genre was profound.

So this article certainly asks an important and timely question, but I don’t think Burton’s answers make much sense.  She says that if Biggie were around, rappers wouldn’t get away with using Auto-Tune or making the same song over and over.  I’m not sure how you’d support an argument like that, but it’s unlikely that Biggie alone would’ve single-handedly saved rap from redundancy or technological experimentation done badly.  She goes on to assert that “Today’s rappers could learn a lot from Biggie, like increasing their vocabulary, painting pictures through words, [and] having complex lyrics that actually make sense…”  OK, now I am wondering if the author is actually a fan of rap music.  Rappers like Nas, Andre 3000, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Eminem could teach courses on word play.  I’m not sure what “painting pictures through words” is supposed to mean, but I am pretty sure most (all?) rappers do that.

And the last bit I will comment on is this piece of speculation:  “I don’t know if Jay-Z would be the reigning King of Hip-Hop…”  I know this has become the new orthodoxy, but Jay-Z is not the reigning king of hip hop.  No disrespect intended—I loved Decoded–but I can think of more innovative and/or influential rappers.  See my list in the previous paragraph for examples.

The Washington Times today includes a list of 20 rappers who were killed at a young age.  There’s no real argument or stated purpose to this piece, but it does serve as a reminder of the violence that has sometimes followed rap music.  (Though, it’s worth noting that hip hop actually evolved, in part, through a desire to end street violence, and it still serves that function in many ways.)

Globally speaking, however, rap is not the only music genre that has seen its rising stars killed off; in fact, the Mexican narcocorrido (a folk genre that often mythologizes drug kingpins and their violent lifestyles) has witnessed a truly shocking number of murders.   More than a dozen performers were murdered in just over a year (between 2006 and 2008), and just a few months ago, Diego Rivas was added to the list of slain Mexican musicians. With this disturbing context in mind, rap doesn’t seem so hazardous after all…

Apparently Rush Limbaugh has decided it’s unfair that he is getting in hot water for calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute” since rappers say similar things about women in their lyrics and, according to Rush, don’t get in trouble for it.  Of course the problem is that rappers regularly get called out for it.  The other problem is that while rappers usually degrade fictionalized women or women in the abstract (which is still not OK, mind you), Rush trained his sights on an actual woman who dared speak her mind in a public venue and launched a deeply personal attack on her character.

In any case, it’s good to see that Rush is taking responsibility for his actions.  I felt that his apology was genuine, and this pretty much confirms it.

Arguably the harshest rebuke of the Obama administration from within the hip hop community, “Obama Nation Part II” takes some pretty surprising shots Obama, including M1’s claim that he’s “a master of disguise, expert at telling lies.”  British grime artist Black the Ripper’s argument–“He’s sittin’ in the White House, so who cares if he’s black”–has been articulated before by groups like deap prez and Immortal Technique, suggesting that anyone occupying the American presidency is a tool for larger white interests.  But this song takes things further, asserting that Obama himself is a more-than-willing participant in the epic trick being pulled on America.  Some tough stuff here.

A nod to Travis Gosa, who brought this one to my attention.

It’s not news, but I couldn’t resist posting this review of a Mac Miller concert from a couple of months ago.  Funny stuff.  In it, Chris Richards (the astute music critic at the Washington Post) proclaims Miller’s Silver Spring concert the worst of the year.  I wrote to Richards thanking him for the review the day it came out.

Now it’s true that Mac Miller is only 19, so perhaps I should give him a break, but think about what other rappers have managed to do at that age.  Richards points to Outkast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, and I would add Mobb Deep, particularly “Shook Ones.”  Mac Miller isn’t in the same league–I’d put him in Kris Kross territory, maybe.

It’s not as if we should have ultra-high expectations for a Too Short advice column in XXL, but his comments are shocking even for people who are familiar with his lyrics.  Check this out.

That’s right.  Now Snoop has joined Speech in endorsing, or at least supporting, Ron Paul (click picture to follow link).  He’s made it no secret that Paul’s support for legalizing marijuana is what’s motivating the endorsement.

Again, no problems with Paul’s blatantly racist newsletters?  And it’s not like Snoop has trouble getting his hands on weed anyway…

Touré has an excellent piece in Time about the life of a contemporary musician.  Using Whitney Houston’s death as his point of departure, he looks at how the physical demands of fame are taking their toll on performers.  Rick Ross and Questlove are his central examples, but their grueling routines (and the health consequences) are becoming the norm for artists throughout the music industry.  As Questlove puts it, “I’m not worried about bullets, I’m worried about strokes. Strokes are the new bullets.”

This is the side of the industry that people don’t fully appreciate. The Teflon Don might make it look easy, but it definitely isn’t.