On Wednesday, Lupe Fiasco premiered his brand new video for the single “Bitch Bad” off of his highly anticipated Food & Liquor 2, due out September 25. HHSR found the video to be thought-provoking, however not everyone was impressed by the Chicago MC’s visual conception, created and directed by Gil Green.
Brandon Soderberg, a rap blogger for Spin Magazine was highly critical not only of the video, but of the song and Lupe Fiasco in general. In a scathing review of “Bitch Bad”, Soderberg said among other things, “It is the umpteenth example of so-called ‘conscious’ hip-hop replacing one type of misogyny with another.
“The video for ‘Bitch Bad’ adds another layer of reckless social commentary when it dramatizes footage from a fictional hip-hop video behind scenes of the kids encountering offensive hip-hop. The fake rap video that plays out behind the group of young girls seems almost exclusively aimed at 50 Cent. We see a guy in a wifebeater mean mugging as a typical “video hoe” writhes on him and his car, and signs for ‘Sugar Water’ engulf the street scene, undoubtedly a reference to 50’s involvement with Vitamin Water. Towards the end of the video, we witness the 50 stand-in and “video hoe” applying blackface, perpetuating the sounds-good-but-doesn’t-really-parse argument that male gangsta rappers and female models/video girls are the modern day equivalent of blackface performers.”
While he’s no stranger to controversy, Lupe, upon getting wind of the review, was both incredulous and infuriated. He’s even gone so far as to launch a #BoycottSpinMagazine campaign, even threatening to make t-shirts featuring that hashtag (a list of Lupe tweets can be seen here). Lupe has also already confronted Soderberg directly via twitter, as the two had this interesting exchange on Thursday. Lupe’s attempt at setting off a domino effect of backlash against Spin and Soderberg has worked tenfold, as the guy has essentially been fending off Lupe-heads on his twitter page for nearly two straight days.
The entire controversy has left me kind of vexted.
First off, I applaud Mr. Soderberg for expressing his opinion and Lupe for recognizing and respecting his freedom of speech. But Soderberg’s commentary, in the opinion of this blogger, is off base. He frequently uses words such as “muddled”, “moronic” and “outdated stereotypes” to describe the song and video. Soderberg says, “The use of a 50 Cent stand-in for the video also plays into a decade-old understanding of hip-hop as the world of endless thugging and violence, which as I’ve said time and time again lately, just does not represent what rap music actually looks like and sounds like in 2012.”
50 Cent stand-in? I personally did not get that vibe (the fake thug rapper in the video looked more like Plies to me than anyone, but that’s beside the point). Lupe and Green were not after capturing one rapper in particular with this video clone. To fixate on this aspect of the video is to miss the point entirely.
Perhaps no one rapper wears a grill, rocks gaudy jewelry (chains/bracelets/watches etc.) a wifebeater and a bandana, sags his pants, brandishes a gun and holds a stack of money in his hand at the same time. But the residue of each of these individual traits can still be found all over hip-hop in 2012, regardless of whether it manifests itself in the videos or in the actual music. Because, contrary to what Mr. Soderberg believes about the current state of hip-hop, this behavior still runs rampant.
What exactly is Soderberg driving at? Is he arguing that we no long see rappers in beaters that look like they’re down for random thuggery anymore? Is he implying that rappers no longer throw money stacks in the presence of scantily clad women in their videos anymore? Both of those popular videos came out within the last month by the way. And anyone who is familiar with Lupe’s work knows he is steadfastly against the unhealthy eating habits of Americans, particularly black Americans. This is how I interpreted the “Sugar Water” parody, rather than a direct dig at 50 Cent.
Moreover, the wannabe thugged out rapper isn’t even the matter at hand! Lupe explicitly says in the song, “Now let’s say that they (unsupervised young girls) less concerned with him (the rapper), and more with the video girl acquiescing to his whims.” I KNOW Soderberg wouldn’t want to contest the presence of video girls in hip-hop videos as Lupe and Green described it in 2012. He simply cannot win that battle.
Sidebar: Notice the first words you hear in the Pop That video are “Drop that pussy, bitch!” This was this #1 video on 106 & Park this week (without the explicit lyrics of course, but the visual remains unchanged). And have you seen the audience on 106? It looks exactly like this!
Obviously 2 Chainz, Rick Ross and French Montana don’t make up the entire hip-hop community, but these artists are hot right now and their voices and visuals are a large reflection of what hip-hop looks and sounds like today.
I do agree with Mr. Soderberg when he references Lupe’s explanation behind the song and video as an attempt at “starting a conversation,” when others have clearly done this before him.
Soderberg wrote, “‘Bitch Bad’ is, to play Lupe’s game and get histrionic, how you ‘debase’ a ‘culture.’ You twist a rap song into poorly thought-out grab for attention, and give it a muddled video, all under the guise of ‘starting a conversation,’ which implicitly suggests that rap music isn’t having these conversations already. The use of the word ‘bitch,’ sensitively deconstructed by Jay-Z on ’99 Problems,’ and currently being twisted and challenged by Azealia Banks, Nicki Minaj, and many more female MCs, proves that the discussion doesn’t need a backpack rap hustler selling cynicism.”
While Soderberg is right in that this conversation is already being had by some, his rationale for ripping Lupe doesn’t add up. So because other MCs have tackled this subject before, Lupe is not allowed to take a crack at it? Can you imagine what rap would sound like if artists were not allowed to recycle content? God only knows what they would be talking about now. The genre probably wouldn’t even exist as we know it. And despite the Jay-Z’s, the Nicki’s, the Azealia’s and the Queen Latifah’s of the world, this issue is still alive and well, so why is Lupe wrong for broaching a subject that still remains unchanged 20 years after “U.N.I.T.Y.”?
Myself and others believe many rappers today are caricatures of themselves at least on some level, but they do this to satisfy the demands of the public. This is where the blackface analogy comes into play, one that I thought was apt, but Soderberg called it a, “sounds-good-but-doesn’t-really-parse argument that male gangsta rappers and female models/video girls are the modern day equivalent of blackface performers.”
Gil Green and Lupe Fiasco only had five minutes to work with. Perhaps Lupe goes into more detail on the album. I hope he does, but I also wish Mr. Soderberg went into more detail to explain why exactly this comparison is erroneous and offer some other suggestions as to what the video should have looked like. Brandon Soderberg is not a video director, but for someone who so viciously attacked the artist and the illustration, it seems as though he could have been more solutions oriented.
Maybe Lupe is simply pandering to the “converted” with “Bitch Bad” in an effort to drum up more publicity for his album. Maybe Soderberg’s evisceration of “Bitch Bad” is simply designed to get people fired up to read his work and that of Spin Magazine.
There’s probably shards of truth in both.
The defiance Lupe has exhibited against Spin Magazine, though, has been a bit alarming. On his twitter page, Fiasco can recently be found referring to Spin as “bullying in the media”. The fact that he is now actively trying to mobilize people against Spin has opened himself up for more criticism from those who cannot understand why he would want to use his power and influence to take down one random blogger and one music publication. I’m sure Lupe views it as a larger cause than this (and maybe there’s more to the story than just this one incident), but I tend to agree with that stance.
Why Lupe? This whole debate seems to be almost beneath him.
You knew you would receive some criticism when you made this song and video. Hell, you know you will receive some criticism when you make every song and video. It comes with the territory of being an artist. Not everybody is going to like HHSR, and while I’ll always defend it, I understand it is what you sign up for. While I believe Lupe Fiasco cleverly used the art of storytell rap to create “Bitch Bad”, I’d be lying if I said he does not come off as holier than thou from time to time in his raps.
However this is not necessarily his fault. It’s easy for him to appear this way when you consider his competition in hip-hop.
Until we see the necessary growth and maturity from hip-hop on the whole, people like Lupe will and should continue to make records like “Bitch Bad” and people like Brandon Soderberg can continue to chastise it. And while I respect Soderberg for standing up for his views (and I am extremely disappointed by the Lupe fans who have attacked him using derogatory words like “faggot”, thus giving credence to Soderberg’s claim that Lupe’s message is hollow), it won’t change my opinion that his commentary on this particular video is largely disingenuous and misguided.