Hot Takes: Thoughts on the 

2017 Oscar nominations

It’s “La La Land” ’s world 

and we’re all just living in it.

Early yesterday morning, 

while 
you 
were 
sleeping 

through your 8 A.M., the 
Academy of Motion Picture 
Arts and Sciences released 
their nominations for the 89th 
Oscars, including 
14 
nominations 

for 
Damien 

Chazelle’s 
“millennial 
musical.” 
The 

only other films 
to land that many 
nominations are 
“All About Eve” 
and 
“Titanic,” 

both 
of 
which 

took 
home 
the 

centerpiece Best 
Picture award in 
their 
respective 

years.

So, 
“La 
La 

Land” 
is 
good. 

After the film cleaned up at 
the Golden Globes earlier this 
month (walking away with 
the award in each category 
for which it was nominated), 
it wasn’t a surprise to see its 
name all over the Oscar list.

There were some nice little 

surprises. 
Lucas 
Hedge’s 

Supporting Actor nomination 
for his role in “Manchester 
by the Sea” comes to mind, 
as does the screenplay for 
“The 
Lobster” 
by 
Yorgos 

Lanthimos. Both are unlikely 
to take home a statue, but 
deserve to keep company with 
the other nominees.

There were some bizarre 

surprises 
like 
Hollywood 

pariah 
Mel 
Gibson 
being 

brought back into the light 
with a Best Director nom and 
the complete vacancy of the 
controversial “The Birth of 
a Nation,” a film which, this 
time last year, was already 
being praised as a Best Picture 
frontrunner. In other odd, 
record-breaking news, “OJ: 
Made in America” became the 
longest film ever nominated, 
at a whopping 467 minutes.

Similarly, some expected 

names were missing from the 

list. Amy Adams and Ralph 
Fiennes (for “Arrival” and “A 
Bigger Splash” respectively) 
both 
gave 
performances 

I 
thought 
deserving 
of 

nomination. Especially since 
both have climbed to the top 
of the Hollywood without 

picking up a golden 
statue along the way.

What 
was 
really 

surprising 
though 

— a rather relieving 
surprise — was how 
diverse the top of the 
ballot was. After last 
year’s 
Oscars 
were 

strikingly white, there 
was worry in the film 
community (or at least 
people on twitter) that 
this 
year’s 
awards 

would similarly ignore 
the contributions of 
actors and filmmakers 
of color. 

It would be easy 

(and I’ve heard it said already) 
to say that the Oscars are no 
longer “so White.” They’re 
noticeably 
less 
White, 

especially 
in 
the 
acting 

categories. Six Black actors are 
nominated this year—setting a 
record. Mahershala Ali seems 
to be the frontrunner in the 
Supporting 
Actor 
category 

and Viola Davis is a lock-
in for Supporting Actress. 
Additionally, three of the films 
nominated for Best Picture 
(“Moonlight,” “Fences,” and 
“Hidden 
Figures”) 
center 

around a predominantly Black 
cast. However, while Black 
actors stepped further into the 
spotlight, Asian and Latinx 
performances were noticably 
missing, 
with 
Dev 
Patel 

picking up the only nomination 
for an Asian performer for his 
role in “Lion.”

But there’s still a huge race 

disparity 
in 
the 
technical 

categories. 
Bradford 

Young, 
who 
is 
nominated 

for the cinematography in 
“Arrival” is the first Black 
cinematographer 
ever 

nominated for the award—a 
tragedy 
intensified 
when 

you realize he’s the same 

guy 
responsible 
for 
the 

stunning 
cinematography 

in “Selma,” for which he 
was snubbed a nomination. 
In an interview with Ava 
DuVernay, who he worked 
with on “Selma,” he notes that 
he is only the seventh Black 
cinematographer 
inducted 

into the American Society of 
Cinematographers.

One 
exception 
is 
the 

Documentary 
Feature 

category—four 
out 
of 
the 

five directors of the films 
nominated are Black. And, 
even better, these directors 
are all also producers on their 
films, meaning they’ll get to 
walk away with a statuette if 
their film’s win.

So the Oscars are still pretty 

White and, more specifically, 
dominated by White men. 
Unfortunately, 
the 
only 

categories in which we can see 
women regularly nominated 
are Best Actress and Best 
Supporting Actress.

There are, yet again, no 

women nominated for the 
award for Best Directing. Only 
one woman, Allison Schroeder 
who 
co-wrote 
“Hidden 

Figures” 
with 
Theodore 

Melfi, was nominated in the 
writing categories (for which 
there are ten nominees). The 
only woman nominated in 
the editing category is Joi 
McMillon, who is nominated 
alongside her partner Nat 
Sanders for their work on 
“Moonlight.” 
McMillon 
is 

also the first Black woman 
nominated in this category.

That there are women and 

people of color nominated 
in these categories is an 
improvement from past award 
shows, 
but 
their 
limited 

numbers seems to hint to a 
larger deficit in Hollywood 
on 
non-White, 
non-male 

filmmakers. Hollywood has 
gotten better—at least a little 
better—at 
making 
movies 

about women and people of 
color, but fares less well when 
it comes to the other side of 
the camera. 

MADELEINE 

GAUDIN 

Senior Arts Editor

FILM COLUMN

Despite progress, Academy Awards still noticeably White 

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On Sunday night, the sight at 

Detroit’s El Club is impossible 
to miss: At 8:00 PM, hundreds 
of 
twenty-somethings 
lined 

up for blocks, eagerly awaiting 
Isaiah 
Rashad, 
Top 
Dawg 

Entertainment’s 
young 
rap 

prodigy. The changeable letters 
on the announcement board 
show two words beneath the 
Tennessee-raised 
rapper’s 

name: SOLD OUT.

For fans standing in line, 

the words are unsurprising: 
Isaiah Rashad is a technically-
profound, critically-acclaimed 
emcee with a cultish following, 
and 2016 was his biggest year 
yet. Rashad released his second 
album, The Sun’s Tirade, in 
September, and due to the 
massive success of his debut 
LP, Cilvia Demo, which came 
out in 2014, his fanbase and 
creative space were already 
well-established.

At the meet and greet, where 

I had a chance to stop by, 
about 100 people were lined 
up, and the rapper received 
each one with a smile, an 
organic embrace and warmth, 
so much so that it was easy to 
forget they were his paying 
customers. Standing aside the 
merchandise table — because 
that’s where the best lighting 
is — he poses for photo after 
photo while his peer acts as a 
cameraman, shuffling through 
endless fans’ iPhones as each 
one stands with the star.

For the most genuine fans, 

the real-life interactions looked 
emotional, moving and, above 
all else, memorable. Rashad’s 
followers 
feel 
personally 

connected 
to 
him 
because 

he offers himself wholly and 
unashamedly in his lyrics. He 
publicly wrestles with drug-
dependency 
and 
depression 

in some songs but, even then, 
there’s no embarrassment in 
his inflection: He is a confident, 
hyper-aware 
storyteller 

spitting parables for people to 
struggle with and learn from. 
Life is often troublesome but, 
in 
Isaiah 
Rashad’s 
music, 

forward-movement is the end 
goal. So, for his most dedicated 
fans, meeting him is something 
like meeting Superman.

Among the crowd of early-

enterers is LSA junior Vincent 
Haze, wearing a University of 
Michigan long-sleeve t-shirt 
and waiting to meet with the 
rapper. Haze is at the show 
with Anthony Ellis, a friend 
he grew up with in Ann Arbor, 
and though the two of them 
have been listening to Isaiah 
Rashad’s music since 2013, 
neither has seen him perform 
live. When I ask if they’re fans 
of Top Dawg Entertainment 
— the record label that hosts 
Rashad, 
Kendrick 
Lamar, 

Schoolboy Q, SZA and others 
— they confirm my suspicion. 
“That would be putting it 
lightly,” one says. TDE loyalty 
is common in this crowd.

Some time around 10:00 

P.M., Jay IDK — a Maryland-
raised newcomer with a lot of 

grit and energy — popped on 
stage to open the show, but 
not before his DJ turned the 
standing room into a mosh pit 
by asking, “D-town, what the 
fuck is up?” and leading off 
with the Migos’ party catalyst, 
“Bad and Boujee.”

Jay IDK walked out wearing 

a rubber Ronald Reagan mask 
for a creative skit built on one 
of his most defining lyrics: 
“The Reagan Era put a fucking 
voice in my head,” he raps 
on the crack-thrilled song, 
“The Plug (King Trappy III).” 
Though he goes on to glorify 
the salesmanship and slyness 
of successful drug dealers, the 
introductory line remains the 
root of the story: The Reagan 
Era turned naive kids into 
criminals. Or, at least, it did 
according to Jay IDK. But 
that’s his whole shtick: The 
IDK stands for “Ignorantly 
Delivering Knowledge,” so you 
should expect him to rap with 
thorough theses and to deliver 
hot takes.

“Mentality” was next on 

the setlist, but it wouldn’t 
arrive 
without 
another 

clever 
performance: 
First 

the DJ shocked the crowd by 
playing “Bye, Bye, Bye” by 
N’Sync, setting Jay IDK up 

to explain that he can’t bring 
his DJ anywhere because he 
always “fucks it up.” Jay then 
played “Mentality,” on which 
“fucking things up” is an 
ongoing theme, and the whole 
thing proved to be a bit. “She 
Blocked Me” and “I Picture” 
came next, followed by a 
heartfelt accapella verse on 
which Jay IDK found himself 
watching “The Breakfast Club” 
and wondering, “How can I 
get in the conversation?” He 
closed with “God Said Trap,” 
two performances of “Boy’s 
Innocence” and a wild leap into 
the crowd, where he turned up 
with the rowdiest attendees. 
By the time Jay IDK walked off 
stage, the venue’s volume was 
at its maximum and a handful 
of unsure attendees had surely 
been converted into fans.

11 
P.M. 
rolls 
around, 

and 
a 
“T-T-T-T-Top 
Dawg 

Entertainment” 
soundbite 

comes erupting through the 
speakers as DJ Chris Calor 
emerges to ask the packed, 
excited room, “Do y’all fuck 
with 
TDE?” 
After 
playing 

Kendrick’s 
“M.A.A.D. 
City” 

and A$AP Ferg’s “New Level,” 
with the energy peaking, Isaiah 
Rashad emerged. In-person, 
he’s shorter than expected 
(shorter than me, and I am only 
5’9”), but on stage he’s larger 
than life and able to command 
the crowd like a legendary 
figure. A huge chunk of the 
audience knew every word to 
every song (though his music is 

seldom played on the radio) and 
the small club felt just enough 
like a basement to create a real 
hip-hop illusion (think the last 
scene in “8 Mile”).

Isaiah Rashad thrived off 

of the energy. He opened with 
“Smile,” a single from 2016, 
then tore through “Brenda,” 
“Soliloquy,” and “Dressed Like 
Rappers” before sandwiching a 
seemingly improvised singsong 
about hydrating via drinking 
water in between “R.I.P. Kevin 
Miller” and “Tity and Dolla.” 
His songs range from chilled-
out, flowing rap to angsty, 
aggressive gangster music, but 
it’s his conscious which creates 
the cohesion.

By the end of “Heavenly 

Father” 
and 
“Rosegold,” 

Rashad was so worked up that 
he had to change his sweat-
soaked 
shirt. 
“Menthol,” 

“Stuck In The Mud” and “4r 
Da Squaw” came next, with 
the rapper pushing forward at 
a rapid pace that demonstrated 
both immense professionalism 
and 
and 
an 
eagerness 
to 

appease every type of fan. 
He jumped back into older 
hits, playing “Ronnie Drake,” 
“Webbie Flow,” “Banana” and 
even “Shout You Down” and 
then closed with a string from 
his The Sun’s Tirade.

Considering 
the 
concert 

kicked 
off 
with 
an 
artist 

wearing 
a 
Ronald 
Reagan 

mask, 
the 
night 
unraveled 

rather apolitically, especially 
for a conscious rap show that 
occurred 
on 
the 
weekend 

of 
Donald 
J. 
Trump’s 

inauguration. 
Early 
in 
the 

night, between the sets of Jay 
IDK and Isaiah Rashad, a DJ 
onstage claimed to be curious 
if the crowd “felt the same 
way” as him about a current 
issue, then proceeded to play 
“F*ck Donald Trump” by YG, a 
protest rap that’s been earning 
a lot of attention recently. For a 
while, it seemed like that might 
have been the most pointed 
commentary of the night.

But at the close of his 

set, after he had finished 
performing all of his own songs 
and was simply thanking the 
crowd for coming out, Isaiah 
Rashad bopped and moved 
with the attendees as Kendrick 
Lamar’s “Alright,” an anthem 
of empowerment that seeks out 
positivity in darkness, blasted 
through the venue’s amplifiers. 
In that moment, his genuine 
engagement spoke louder than 
any prepared statement could 
have.

Isaiah 
Rashad 
is 
an 

evolutionary figure, a human 
who has struggled (like all do), 
both privately and in lyric, yet 
has 
remained 
unswervingly 

focused 
on 
continuing 
to 

grow, 
both 
personally 
and 

artistically. The Lil Sunny Tour 
is his largest headlining effort 
yet, and he’s fought for this 
moment his entire life. No one 
can take it away from him — 
not even the president. Isaiah 
Rashad is “gon’ be alright.” As 
a matter of fact, he’s going to be 
more than that.

Isaiah Rashad hype and 
hopeful concert at El Club

SAL DIGIOIA
Daily Arts Writer

TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT

Isaiah Rashad at a recent performance.

Isaiah Rashad is 
an evolutionary 
figure, a human 

who has struggled

Rashad’s Lil Sunny Tour is his most earnest headlining effort

CONCERT REVIEW

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, January 25, 2017 — 5A

