To the Editor:
On Saturday night, many Brown students witnessed murder in Meehan Auditorium. Diddy, one of the last living members of that early coalition of hip-hop revolutionaries, gave us all proof that the lyrical power, rebellious spirit and undefinable buzz of hip-hop has been finally lost to the "industry of cool," as the great Lester Bangs once wrote.
Let me give you some background to what I'm talking about. In the 1970s, rock ‘n' roll underwent an enormous transformation that commercialized much of the raw, underground sound that had finally triumphed in the cultural revolutions of the late 1950s and 1960s. This process was showcased in Cameron Crowe's film "Almost Famous," where the fictional band Stillwater struggles with an industry streamlining itself to maximize profits and not poetry. Much of the elation, the joy and the raw power of rock slipped away. Then, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, hip-hop emerged as the new musical medium that broke the rules, freaked out old people and made people thump their hands on their knees all over America.
The concert on Saturday was proof that hip-hop seems to have succumbed to that same sad, draining process that consumed the original greats of rock ‘n' roll. The show was all flash, lights and bass — no art was showcased other than that of the sound and light engineers, who did their jobs well under the circumstances. That white rapper who preceded Diddy — and who took off his shirt during his stage dive — possessed more heart than Diddy ever showed us. The very last of the best of hip-hop has officially sold out to glitzy, faux panache and entered the realm of absurdist mediocrity. Diddy, drunk and blustering around the stage, managed only to elevate the legacies of his dead comrades in arms, Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac. One only hopes that when a new musical medium appears, it will never descend into the living lyrical hell that is this concert.
Michael Tackeff '12
