The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

the b-side Thursday, March 29, 2007 - 3B

. Misunderstanding
the hip hop of today

Growing up,
at least for now
KAL PENN, KNOWN TO YOU AS
KUMAR, FINALLY GET SERIOUS

By CHRIS GAERIG
Daily Arts Writer
From Public Enemy to G-Unit,
Mike Jones to Kanye West, hip
hop has become the most vitri-
olic and controversial form of
contemporary music. The criti-
cism is familiar: vulgar lyrics and
outlandish lifestyles are seen as
inappropriate by many, while its
prevalence on the radio and tele-
vision are thought to be brain-
washing and influencing today's
youth. The music is generally per-
ceived as an inner-city, impover-
ished art form, but a recent surge
in suburban interest is bringing
the once-shunned genre around
to complete musical dominance.
And it's this surge that has caused
an outcry of middle-aged citizens
to clean up or banish hip hop.
It's argued that hip hop is push-
ing children toward debauch-
ery through its discussion of the
thug lifestyle, money and women,
but what these protestors fail to
acknowledge is the sheer bril-
liance of many of the rappers -
nay, poets - of current rap.
The basic argument against
most hip-hop artists is they are
untalented, formulaic thugs, capi-
talizing on the ignorance of the
consuming public. This can be
argued for a number of the artists,
but not all of them. Recent rap-
pers like Lil' Wayne and T.I. have
battled through this image to pro-
duce some of the best hip hop and
poetry in recent memory.
But before we can discuss these
artists' lyrical genius and hip
hop's true value, there remains
the problem ofthethugimagethat
so many people object to. Simply
put, the thug image sells. There's
a reason "conscious rappers"
like Common and Talib Kweli
will never sell as many records
as Mike Jones: Their image isn't
marketable.
Essentially, no one wants to
hear these "conscious rappers"
sing about what they're singing
about. No one cares about the
lives of these men in the suburbs.
People want to hear about things
they know nothing about, and for
many that's the thug lifestyle. And
since rappers (and all musicians)
sing solely about the things they
know personally, these rappers
write about their past and grow-
ing up as poor gangsters.
What casual listeners need to
do, then, is listen past this image
to truly uncover why these rap-
pers are so great. Musicians like
Bob Dylan and Bruce Springs-
teen have made their careers of
being blue-collar everymen. We
all know that Dylan hasn't lived
on the streets and Springsteen
hasn't worn those flannel shirts
for anything other than an album
cover in the past 10 years. Every-
one in contemporarymusic has an
image. Unfortunately, most don't
appreciate the hip-hop image and
therefore disregard the entire
genre.
Many will also say that the rap
model is simply inappropriate and
that they don't take objection to
artists conveying an image. This
seems valid until one realizes that
rappers are entertainers. They've
never claimed to present a real-

world view or the archetype of
morality. To hold these artists to
a higher standard than you would
any other aspect of the media is
narrow-minded and an attempt
to find faults in an art form you
simply don't understand. Others
may continue that these rappers
still have an obligation to pres-
ent a positive attitude and morals
as media personalities. This once
again is elevating these rappers to
a higher standard than entertain-
ers.
That statement is rather igno-
rant in itself. As one quickly dis-
covers, most rappers truly hated
the way they were raised but have
to sing about it because that's
what they've experienced. As
Lii' Wayne says on a recent mix
tape, "Goddamn the game sucks
/ Thank God I'm famous." Most
rappers share this same senti-
ment and explicitly sing it while
the casual listener in unable to see
through the image to get to lines
like these.
Drop preconceptions and own
up: Rappers are amazing lyricists.
Defending
the best poets
of hip hop.
Their use of alliteration, rhyme,
allusions, metaphors and cadence
are unmatched by any other
genre. Snoop Dogg and Ludacris
take typical lines and make them
seem more malleable than silly
putty. Both have an uncanny abil-
ity to shorten lines and hammer
accents on the most syncopated
beats. So an artist like Snoop
Dogg, who many feel is just a
womanizing thug, is actually one
of the most accomplished techni-
cal rappers.
Lil' Wayne is currently the
most impressive rapper (and by
his own admission the "greatest
rapper alive"). His ability to string
together metaphors amid the
most astonishing sonics you've
ever heard is amazing. Lines like
"Red beam safety off / Murder
scene tape it off/ Red rum tomato
sauce" continue to impress. The
repetition of "red," the partial
rhyme of "off" and "sauce" and
the four beat lines with strict cae-
suras are all indicative of stellar
poetry, something many wouldn't
be able to appreciate because of
the subject matter. Similarly, one
of Wayne's latest singles "Fire-
man" has one of the most impres-
sive moments of alliteration,
carrying one specific vowel sound
throughout each verse.
Wayne isn't the only rapper
you can study like this but stands
are the most impressive. Sim-
ply, though, these artists have an
incredible amount of talent that a
majority of the public is unable to
appreciate because of their own
ignorance and objections to the
art form. My own mother warns
me against hip hop and always
says, "I don't want to have to work
through the image to get to' the
good stuff." Maybe she should.
She's missing the best there is.

By JEFFREY BLOOMER
ManagingEditor
For mostactors, aco-starringstint
in "Harold and Kumar Go to White
Castle" is not the way to get the
lead ina major drama. What proven
director makinga low-budget movie
is going to cast an actor who has
spent his career training audiences
to think of him as the Cheetah-rid-
ing hero of a stoner road movie?
Yes, but we're forgetting some-
thing. Hollywood filmmakers have
kids, too, and they see the same
movies as everyone else. When Kal
Penn was throwing everything he
had into getting an audition for the
lead in Mira Nair's "The Namesake,"
which opens at The Michigan The-
ater tomorrow, he didn't count on
having an insider who was already
doing most of his work for him.
"Mira's son loved 'Harold and
Kumar,' " Penn said, "and he kept
telling her to she had to audition me.
... Eventually she listened."
It was a fortunate break for Penn,
who had read the Jhumpa Lahiri
novel on which the film is based and
tried to buy to rights so he could
develop it himself. He was told soon

after that Nair, the director of "Van-
ity Fair" and "Monsoon Wedding,"
had beat him to it.
Penn said he tried to contact the
well-liked director repeatedly but
didn't get anywhere until her son
intervened.
"After that, we met, and it went
from there," he said.
In the film Penn plays Gogol, the
American-born son of Indian immi-
grants who grows apart from his par-
ents as he ages. It opens years before
Gogol's birth and continues into his
mid-20s, focusing most prominently
on his post-high school, early adult
years. The film has opened to ador-
ing reviews and strong numbers in
its platform release.
Amid the movie's heavy press
attention that has championed it as
an affecting portrait of the immi-
grant experience, Penn cautioned
against letting this broad and large-
scale story of cross-generational
cultures cloud perception of Gogol,
who Penn said never shares his par-
ents' struggles.
"Gogol always knows who he is,"
Penn said."He doesn't have the same
identity struggles as his parents. He
doesn't change the way they do; he

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight
As a boy he smoked pot and wanted White Castle; as a man, he's looking for love.

struggles with his parents and other
people who don't understand him."
Penn said the key to Gogol's tran-
sition is the time just before and
after his college years. Although the
film largely imagines Gogol's time at
Yale off screen (one of the heftiest
sections of the novel), Penn said he
found other ways to reflect his tran-
sition from a teen to a Yale graduate.
"People at Yale know they're
among the leaders of their gen-
eration. There's a real sense of that
there," Penn said. "Gogol is a nice
guy, but he also changes there, and I
visited New Haven and got a sense of

how that changes him."
Though Penn is now at work on
the sequel "Harold and Kumar Go
to Amsterdam," he said after his
experience on "The Namesake" he
will continue to seek more complex
characters.
"A movie like 'Epic Movie,' that's
fun, but 'The Namesake' is the most
rewarding thing I've done," he said.
"It's definitely the best movie I've
done."
The film's brewing success can't
hurt, but fate seems to be on Penn's
side. Mira Nair's kids must play with
Steven Spielberg's kids, right?

SNL's Poehier gets
down to business

ByPUNIT MATTOO
DailyArts Writer
If there's such a thing as a bound-
ary of good taste in figure skat-
ing, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett
("Arrested Development") com-
pletely ignore it in the new com-
edy "Blades of Glory," which opens
nationwide tomorrow. Sporting
denim Louis Vuitton-print out-
fits with Timbaland and Converse
skates, the duo manage to make
figure skating look even tackier
than the feathered spectacles we're
forced to endure every four years.
Poehler touched upon the glit-
tery topic in a conference call: "We
had tons and tons of fittings and we
would like just go crazy and then
we would watch the actual Olym-
pics and we'd be like, 'Oh, no, we
need to go crazier. We need to go
bigger.' " She added that the hip-
hop Louis Vuitton outfit was "for
all the inner city kids that are ice
skating."
Outside of the opportunity to
wear spandex for extended periods
of time, the film allowed Poehler
to work with husband Will Arnett.
Both have developed cult followings
- Poehler with her work in improv
and on "SNL," and Arnett with his
career-defining role of GOB Bluth
on "Arrested." After a childhood of
hockey in his native Canada, Arnett
also provided the novice Poehler
with some skating lessons to help
them outshine the film's other leads,
Will Ferrell ("Old School") and Jon
Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite").

A set filled with accomplished
comedians and the auraofcutthroat
skatinginevitablyled to adrenaline-
fueled insults between cast mem-
bers.
"There would be a lot of fierce
trash talking on the ice about us
like kind of taking each other out
and ending each other's careers,"
Poehler said. "What I lack in size,
I make up for in a fresh mouth, so
I would kind of yell my stuff and

Nothing's hotter than a blonde meth addict.

then I would skate away and go hide method of throwing scripts into the
under a chair where no one would air and picking.
find me." "So right now I'm in real trouble
because I have to play like a 45-
year-old black janitor and I don't
A meth lab? No. think I can pull it off, but that's what
landed so that's where I'm going to
A 'synthetic go next," Poehler said.
Balancing the hectic schedule
house of hope.' on "SNL" with weekly appearances
alongside the Upright Citizens Bri-
gade improv troupe, a growing film
Barring any mishaps during the career and a sometimes-bicoastal
press tour, Poehler is expected to marriage would seemto tire or even
maintain the busy schedule that's burn out most actors. Poehler, how-
made her an almost ubiquitous fig- ever, has her own solution.
ure in comedy. Her co-hosting job
of "Weekend Update" on "Saturday university unions-
Night Live," along with the mul- almost as good as
titude of characters she's played
on the show have led to roles such
as the "cool mom" in "Mean Girls"
and a voice in the upcoming "Shrek
the Third." She's also reuniting
with former "SNL" writer Tina Fey
for this summer's "Baby Mama."
The decision-making process has
become harder as the number of
roles offered increases, but Poehler Mr" University
joked that she sticks to atime-tested Unions

"You know, I don't like to call it a
meth lab. I like to call it a house of
hope - a synthetic house of hope,"
she joked. "So yeah, do I grow, pro-
duce and take my own meth? Yes.
Do I think it's a problem? No. Am
I sick of people talking to me about
it? Yes. Does my family want to go
and give me treatments? Yes. Do I
think my family is wrong? Yes. So
I don't need people coming down
on me about howI handle my busi-
ness. So yes, once again, I take meth
every day in order to maintain the
schedule. Do I think it's a problem?
No."

[study hard. we're wi-fi.]

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