Current Audio
Kanye West
Big Brother
I keep wondering why this single hasn't made the radio rounds yet. It's easilly one of the most real and complex stories I've heard from a hip hop bard recently, and the beat is cooler than a lot of the other Graduation singles that have been making it big. But I especially admire the story. Hip hop stories normally fall under either one of two templates: the "life in the ghetto" template - usually the more real of the two - or the "I got money/bling/bitches" template, of which the stock "I'm the best rapper in the game" boasts are a subcategory. The unique thing about "Big Brother" is that it follows template 2, but without sounding shallow and hackneyed. West frames his hip hop ego within a narrative of rivalry and mimetic desire, with the result that he still sounds like a rapper (I've heard a number of classicists make the hip hop/epic comparison, in that rappers and heroes are supposed to be consumed with the idea of self-aggrandizement through words and reputation), but at the same time, the song preserves some real emotion. As a classicist by training, I have a reverence for tradition (even if it's hip hop template 2), and hence a keen admiration for tradition-cum-innovation. And as a former poet-dilettante, I'm wholly won over by pieces with relatable emotion. Who of us doesn't have such a person in are lives, a person whom we idolize, but because he or she is a regular human with human fallibilities, sometimes acts like a jerk to us; and still, for all that we get angry, we can't take him or her off the pedestal? I like "Big Brother's" interpretation of that phenomenon: it's not that we're being moon-eyed and stupid, it's just another one of the wonderful things a hero can do: bring out the best in us.
Big Brother
I keep wondering why this single hasn't made the radio rounds yet. It's easilly one of the most real and complex stories I've heard from a hip hop bard recently, and the beat is cooler than a lot of the other Graduation singles that have been making it big. But I especially admire the story. Hip hop stories normally fall under either one of two templates: the "life in the ghetto" template - usually the more real of the two - or the "I got money/bling/bitches" template, of which the stock "I'm the best rapper in the game" boasts are a subcategory. The unique thing about "Big Brother" is that it follows template 2, but without sounding shallow and hackneyed. West frames his hip hop ego within a narrative of rivalry and mimetic desire, with the result that he still sounds like a rapper (I've heard a number of classicists make the hip hop/epic comparison, in that rappers and heroes are supposed to be consumed with the idea of self-aggrandizement through words and reputation), but at the same time, the song preserves some real emotion. As a classicist by training, I have a reverence for tradition (even if it's hip hop template 2), and hence a keen admiration for tradition-cum-innovation. And as a former poet-dilettante, I'm wholly won over by pieces with relatable emotion. Who of us doesn't have such a person in are lives, a person whom we idolize, but because he or she is a regular human with human fallibilities, sometimes acts like a jerk to us; and still, for all that we get angry, we can't take him or her off the pedestal? I like "Big Brother's" interpretation of that phenomenon: it's not that we're being moon-eyed and stupid, it's just another one of the wonderful things a hero can do: bring out the best in us.
posted by Rex at 2:09 PM
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