Hip Hop Comics on the Come Up

Vanessa E. Jones has an excellent piece on hip hop comics that discusses both American and Japanese comics that feature or include hip hop related themes.  I had not even heard of most of these comics, even though some of them are on track to do serious business, including development as film properties.

Special attention is given to Blokhedz and a familiar theme regarding hip hop enterprises arises, this time from a handful of hardcore comic book fans who responded to an interview with the twins who created Blokhedz:

"But 20 were, like, they were so disgusting," Davis says. "They said, 'Black people don't read; they watch BET.' 'This is never going to work.' It was just straight ignorance. A lot of the diehard comic-book fans, traditionally they like their white hero and they think that [a black superhero] poses a threat to them. What made me feel better was a lot of my peers, a lot of artists I know from just seeing their work and stuff, they replied [to the critics], 'You guys are ignorant.' 'It's time to make this industry change; that's why it's not making any money.' "

Let me repeat that last line in bold print:
That's why it's not making any money.

Comics name checked include: 
Afro Samurai
@Large
Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Worst
Tokyo Tribes

Not mentioned in the article but discovered while I was checking out the websites, is a guide to creating hip hop manga called Let's Draw Manga: Tokyo Urban Hip Hop Culture from Digital Manga Publishing, publisher of Ikebukuro West Gate Park and Worst.

Actually these Japanese comics have very little to do with hip hop culture or rap music.  Gangs, guns and violent sex have a long world history that precedes hip hop music.  And the kind of sadomasochistic sex and rape fantasies portrayed in quite popular Japanese comics, that would be unacceptable on such a widespread basis in American culture, can usually only be found in the more extreme forms of gangsta and necro rap.

The Media Bloggers Association

After some thought and discussion, I've decided to apply to join the Media Bloggers Association.  I'd gone back and forth on the issue and finally discovered, after talking to Bob Cox who's largely responsible for making the Association happen, that I had a misperception of what the Association's about.  Let's just say it's a little more ad hoc than I first thought, but in a good way, and it's also not a professional organization per se, though it clearly offers a lot to media bloggers with professional interests or ambitions.

Even if you're not into blogging, the MBA's unique initiatives are worth hearing about.  For example, they helped set up hosting for videos of the tsunami disaster in order to save the bandwidth usage of bloggers, which can go nuts when people post material that lots of folks want to check out.  They're also setting up a Legal Defense Project and related educational initiatives so that MBA members can not only get legal aid when corporations attempt to silence them but can also understand how not to set themselves up for legal problems in the first place.

You know, whether it works out or not, I'm glad to have a better sense of what these folks are up to.  Bob mentioned some future initiatives that I think are really important but it would be premature for me to comment at this time.  Further announcements and additional coverage can be found at the MBA News Archives.

P. Diddy & Cat Killer Tie, MC Hammer Rejected

Not only did P. Diddy appear in a Super Bowl Diet Pepsi ad, but so did MC Hammer in an ad in which he was one of a group of prizes. Sadly Mr. Hammer was rejected by the young folks in the ad. At the end of the article, the Detroit News includes a list of ads with one line descriptions that were intended to run during the Super Bowl.

The youth research branch of Bolt Media announced today that, according to their survey, the P. Diddy Diet Pepsi ad and the Ameriquest Cat Killer ad tied for popularity among 14 to 24 year-olds. Hmm, wonder which cost the most?

DMX's "Relatives" Stage Elaborate Scam

Two men claiming to be DMX's brother and cousin are reported to have booked a concert in Illinois for last Saturday, even buying advertising and doing a sound check, before splitting with the ticket money. A third man was thought to be involved with setting up the scam. The Springfield State Journal Register has further details.

RZA Discusses ODB Album, Promotes Book

RZA talks about an in-progress Wu-Tang track to commemorate ODB that, if completed as planned, will be the first to bring the Clan back together on a single song. He hopes it will be on the ODB album that he is now overseeing to be released Mar. 22nd as a joint venture between the Wu-Tang Clan and the recently formed Damon Dash Music Group.

A possible first single, Intoxicated, features Method Man, Raekwon and Macy Gray. Additional producers on the album include the Neptunes, Just Blaze and DJ Premier. RZA also briefly discusses his last conversation with ODB that occurred the night he passed.

RZA is currently promoting The Wu-Tang Manual, which I will be reviewing soon over at Hip Hop Logic. Originally planned to be released during a series of performances in 1997, the inability of Wu-Tang to come together delayed the book quite dramatically and also aborted the tour. RZA seems hopeful that Wu-Tang can tour together again as part of a legacy project, although he makes it quite clear that money is an issue because members can make more on their own.

Quick Takes

The New York Daily News profiles Mos Def who continues to rise as both an mc and an actor.

Three albums with Ghanaian producer Way Deep will be released April 1st from Sacramento-based Motherland Entertainment Group.

The Hip-Hop Reader project is "designed to engage New York City public high school students in reading and discussing books, poetry, lyrics and issues important to their lives." Funding is provided by the Verizon Foundation and involves a "partnership between the National Urban League (NUL) and Hip-Hop Summit Action Network."

P. Diddy and Warner May Bed Down Together

According to the New York Daily News, it looks like P. Diddy and Warner Music Group may do a deal after all. So far it's all insider sources so there's plenty of room for things to go wrong. But they're saying that P. Diddy's reconsidering the $30 mil offer for 50% of Bad Boy Entertainment. Earlier reports emphasized that P. Diddy initially rejected this offer due to disagreements over valuation, but it sounds like he's got a visibly weak hand right now, with so so album sales and the loss of key execs in addition to Diddy's own neglect of the label. If he wanted a better valuation, he should have built things back up first or, at the very least, found a way to make it all look stronger. Although I'd hate to be trying to bluff Lyor Cohen.

Miri Ben-Ari Brings the Next Phase

The Associated Press has a nice interview with Miri Ben-Ari who is working on her most recent album, The Hip-Hop Violinist. This album will capitalize on her emerging status as the go-to violinist for hip hop artists that want something special and will include such guests as Kanye West, Fabolous and Twista. The big revelation for me, in this interview, is that she does her own production.

But Ben-Ari isn't the only classically trained violinist involved with hip hop, as noted in this article from Strings magazine. One of the nice things about the article is that the violinists confirm the complexity of hip hop production that often escapes musicians fixated on traditional instruments as the baseline for artistic actvity.

I think that her rise is an important stage for hip hop. Although groups like The Roots have live musicians and jazz related project like the Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra are combining genres while using live instrumentation, Miri Ben-Ari is the first high profile classically trained musician to produce hip hop related music that features such an instrument. Which means it's going to help remove the base for the old claim that still staggers around like the living dead, that hip hop music isn't really music after all, when such critics can't be satisfied with the fact that they just don't like it.

PS - On the "hip hop is not music" tip. You're just not educated, yo. If you knew your history, you'd know that such a claim is elitist nonsense that ignores most of the important developments across art forms in the 20th Century.

Official website for Miri Ben-Ari.