The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 — 5A
DOGGYSTYLE RECORDS
I want a Martha Stewart feature on the next one
What happened, Snoop?
We want the old Snoop back on ‘Make America Crip Again’
Snoooooooop (cue “Drop It
Like It’s Hot” background vocals)!
Snoooooooop! Snoop? Snoop?!
If you’re looking for Snoop Dogg,
Snoop Doggy Dogg, The D-O-
double-G or any classic incarnation
of the legendary G-Funk rapper
who ignited the hip-hop world with
his sly voice and swagger-oozing
flow, you will not find him on Make
America Crip Again. Instead, you’ll
find an artist in the midst of an
identity crisis, so torn between the
worlds of old and new hip hop that
he was forced to release a project
full of contradictions, as undefined
and insecure as 2017 Snoop himself.
In general, Make America Crip
Again is an EP meant to embrace
and
celebrate
Black
culture
in the midst of racial struggle
under controversial leadership.
Lines like, “Them black boys is
balling out, the whole block been
eating,” and, “The world is yours
nigga, so go and see that bitch,”
certainly elicit a positive message
meant to encourage and celebrate
Black Americans, and Snoop’s
motivation behind the album is
certainly commendable. However,
as an artistic project, the laudable
characteristics of Make America
Crip Again do not extend further
than intention, and listeners are left
with an outdated and insubstantial
collection of songs under the name
of one of rap’s former greats.
Snoop’s Make America Crip
Again lacks in two major areas:
Message and music — two of the
most basic categories regarding
album quality.
Given that the EP’s title is
a play on President Trump’s
fabled slogan, “Make America
Great Again,” one would think
the album tends towards the
political; it does, but in ways that
are at times contradictory. On the
album’s opener, “M.A.C.A.,” Snoop
preaches
about
uniting
Black
communities across boundaries of
color and creed with the lines, “Now
just imagine if we stop shooting our
own kind / I’m a Crip with no color
lines, that mean I’m colorblind.” At
face value, there is nothing wrong
with these lines — an end to futile
intraracial crime is an important
emphasis in socially conscious hip
hop. However, this message hits
a wall when met with lines like,
“Me and my homies gangbang on
the field,” and, “Locked in, locked
out / Talk shit, get socked out,”
that only seem to emphasize and
encourage the senseless violence
and prideful disputes within Black
communities that Snoop originally
derode. This contradiction, though
sometimes common in rap, feels
particularly odd here. His assertion
of dominance and competition
seems counterintuitive to Snoop’s
moral of solidarity.
Even the title, Make America Crip
Again, lends itself to a contradiction
with
the
rapper’s
supposed
message of unity — can Snoop
preach togetherness with an album
title built on the inherently violent
bipolarity of gang violence and
drug wars within urban centers?
The album cover is also entirely
blue, only further muddying the
waters of Snoop’s claims. Though
many argue that the prevalence
of gangs in urban centers may
provide a sense of community for
Black Americans who need it most,
the support of such inherently
competitive organizations does
not quite align with Snoop’s
initial
“drop
your
weapons”
message — even the most inclusive
gangs still battle rival gangs; the
rapper’s “colorblindness” is only
superficially encouraged. If Snoop
really wanted to profess solidarity
within
Black
communities,
perhaps ditching the Crip support
in favor of a more unified and
consistent theme would have been
more effective.
Musically,
Make
America
Crip Again is forced and simply
misses the mark. Snoop, who
made headlines a few months
ago for hilariously impersonating
trap rappers and exposing the
lack of originality in today’s rap
surprisingly became exactly what
he spoke out against. The music
is just not suited for the Snoop we
know and love; the straightforward,
booming beats dilute the rapper’s
charming tendency to sit back on
the beat and swing his rhymes.
Instead, listeners are jarred with
far too simple and concise lines
hidden behind slight autotune that
lack wordplay and mirror the likes
of Future and Playboi Carti.
Snoop obviously pigeon-holed
himself with his latest project,
and in doing so he became
something we never wanted him
to be. With an unclear message
and an unappealing music array,
Make America Crip Again is a
failed project, and Snoop is clearly
struggling to keep up with the
rapidly evolving hip hop world.
Instead of grasping at straws to
become the next Future, Snoop
should take a step back and
embrace his role as The D-O-
double-G, the funky and spunky
Long Beach rapper who developed
G-Funk and famously encouraged
us to stay “laid back.” We’ve seen
flashes of classic Snoop Doggy
Dogg in recent years — just listen
to his verse on “Institutionalized”
by Kendrick Lamar and you’ll be
sucked back into the height of West
Coast rap in the ’90s. The sooner
Snoop returns to this form with his
solo projects, the better.
MIKE WATKINS
For the Daily
Make America
Crip Again
Snoop Dogg
Doggystyle
Records
HBO
Danny McBride stars in HBO’s “Vice Principals”
Danny McBride & David
Gordon Green of ‘Vice
Principals’ chat with us
“We like to design our projects
to be able to be consumed in one
hungover afternoon.”
This is the opinion of Danny
McBride, the creator and star of
HBO’s “Vice Principals.” Now
in its second and final season,
the black comedy continues the
saga of Neal Gamby (McBride),
a man determined to become
the Principal of North Jackson
High
School
by
whatever
means necessary. He competes
mercilessly
with
his
rivals
— namely, his more popular
Co-Vice Principal Lee Russell.
At the end of season one, Gamby
is shot by a faceless villain in a
mysterious mask.
Season two picks up the pieces,
and then tears them apart. It’s
uncomfortable, outrageous and
very funny.
The Michigan Daily spoke
with McBride and David Gordon
Green, a frequent director on the
show and an executive producer.
McBride and Gordon Green
shared insight into the process,
the current season and how they
got where they are today.
This
isn’t
their
first
collaboration.
The
pair
also
worked on “Eastbound & Down,”
a comedy about a failed pro-
baseball player turned substitute
gym teacher. Clearly, something
about small-town high school
administrators
and
teachers
inspires
both
McBride
and
Gordon Green.
“I was a substitute teacher for a
little bit,” McBride said. “I always
thought it was so fascinating how
there’s one world going on with
the students and then there’s
a completely different world
going on with the teachers and
administrators … rarely did those
two sides get a full understanding
of the other one.”
The duality of these worlds
is
very
prevalent
in
“Vice
Principals.” Choosing to set a
story in a setting as specific as
North Jackson High School and
to center the plot line on two
men “jockeying for the head of
that world” is a tried and true
storytelling
device.
McBride
himself admits that it’s a “classic
quest for the crown story.” For
Neal Gamby and Lee Russell,
the fight for Principal of North
Jackson is akin to Macbeth’s
bloodthirsty quest to be King.
These
characters,
though
ambitious in their own rights, are
incredibly flawed protagonists.
Neal Gamby, for example, is ill-
tempered,
short-sighted
and
dictatorial in nearly all aspects of
his life. Yet somehow a successful
two-season, 18-episode story has
been created around Gamby and
his cohorts. How? McBride feels
like “it has to do a lot with being
able to understand them. And
understand them doesn’t mean
making excuses for them, I think
it means you can understand that
someone is a terrible person and
still not be endorsing them.”
Grounding
his
fictional
character in reality is easy, he
explains, because, “that’s how
people are in life anyways. It’s
very easy to write people off or
have people be defined by their
worst attributes.”
Creating a balance between
a
flawed
and
sympathetic
protagonist is what they worked
hardest on in the writing. Citing
both Gamby and Russell, McBride
notes, “we’re always trying to
do is make these characters
feel like they’re real, for better
or for worse.” And with a show
like “Vice Principals,” where for
worse is taken hyper-literally,
this is incredibly important.
The ability to successfully
pull off a character like Gamby
is a sign of good writing and
great
collaboration.
Evident
in the interview is the healthy
balance in McBride and Gordon
Green’s working relationship —
as collaborators, peers, friends.
The pair, plus Jody Hill, who
co-created both “Eastbound &
Down” and “Vice Principals,”
have been working together since
first meeting in the dorms of the
University of North Carolina
School of the Arts.
McBride reminisced on what
inspired the partnership.
“I saw David’s short film.
He was a year ahead of me,
and it was a first-year student
film,” McBride said. “It was
called, ‘Will You Lather Up My
Roughhouse’ and it ended with
two men … taking a bath together
and singing. I saw it and I said, I
want to make stuff with this guy.”
They’ve made quite a few
things
together
—
usually
comedies.
Recently,
however,
Gordon Green and McBride have
forayed into a new genre: horror.
“The world is such a strange
and evolving — often off-putting
— place that I think if I was just
trying to live in the melancholy
side of my interests, it wouldn’t be
healthy,” Gordon Green said. He
counters, however, adding that
he and Danny are “working on a
horror film [“Halloween”] trying
to step in a new direction. It’s
important to always be evolving
and trying something new.”
The
opportunity
to
experiment and try new genres
is facilitated by a strong team of
creative partners. What makes
“Vice Principals” unique and
likeable is the unified vision
for the piece, and the cohesive
understanding of each uniquely
flawed character. The strength
of the show comes through in the
direction and execution of darkly
funny plotlines. At the end of the
day, however, it works because
it’s created by a group of friends
doing what inspires them, and
working to inspire each other.
Gordon
Green
emphasizes
how special it is to work with
close friends.
“It’s cool to think of these
relationships as family, as we’ve
grown and learned and tried to
challenge each other in lot of
ways,” he said. “You always know
with this group of collaborators
that you could walk out on a limb
… the world could reject you but
your friends will always be there
pushing you to be creative, and
pushing you to enjoy what you do
for a living.”
Vice
Principals
currently
airs on HBO. The series finale is
November 12th, 2017.
EMILY BICE
Daily Arts Writer
A Thanksgiving narrative
finds new footing in gloom
Feldman’s latest novel challenges its characters and the genre
BOOK REVIEW
It would be quite an endeavor
to find a piece of literature to
which the descriptor “Great
American
Thanksgiving
Novel”
could
be
applied.
Thanksgiving narratives are
usually reserved for television
or the silver screen; most
often, they either boil down
to
tales
of
dysfunctional
families and their bumbling
misadventures (think “Planes,
Trains & Automobiles”) or
heartwarming
reflections
(more
“A
Charlie
Brown
Thanksgiving”) on the “true
meaning” of a holiday where
actually
giving
thanks
is
quickly
overshadowed
by
overeating and then passing
out while watching the annual
Macy’s parade or Lions game.
With his sophomore novel
“Start Without Me,” however,
author Joshua Max Feldman
aims to translate the classic
Thanksgiving
story
to
the
page
while
simultaneously
abandoning
all
of
its
conventional hallmarks.
The unfamiliar lens through
which “Start Without Me”
explores
the
traditional
Thanksgiving
familial
gathering
is
immediately
made evident by its main
characters.
Adam
is
a
recovering
alcoholic
whose
bygone career as a bandmate
and its accompanying rockstar
lifestyle left him a shell of the
vivacious musical prodigy he
once was, and Marissa is an
overworked flight attendant
whose
troubled
marriage
hangs by a very flimsy thread.
On one cold Thanksgiving Day,
Adam has already abandoned
yet another family get-together
that he was invited to after
sobering up and convincing
them
he’d
changed,
and
Marissa is distraught by the
knowledge that she is pregnant
from
an
impetuous
one-
night stand with
her
high-school
boyfriend. In spite
of all that, a chance
meeting of these
two
imperfect
strangers
at
an
airport
hotel
restaurant is the
beginning of their
unlikely
odyssey
across
New
England
as
they
both
attempt
to
come to terms with
their past and make sense of
the future that lies ahead of
them.
Marissa’s
attempt
to
chauffeur Adam back to his
family is quickly thrown off
course by a confrontational
run-in with Adam’s sister at
a gas station, where Adam is
directly convinced that no one
in his family was ready for him
to appear in their lives again. So,
the pair decide to try their luck
with the Thanksgiving meal
that Marissa has been dreading
to
attend.
The
following
extended
scene
at the Russells’
(Marissa’s
husband’s family)
progressively
ramps
up
in
tension,
yet
feels
somewhat
contrived
just
for
the
sake
of
discussing
complex subjects
like race, gender,
sexuality and class. Marissa’s
in-laws are quite a unique couple
(a Black man and a Jewish
woman firmly ensconced in
the upper class), but it appears
that Feldman only writes in
these diverse characters and
their interactions with Marissa
and Adam to shoehorn in
dialogue that addresses the
aforementioned
contentious
topics.
Although
the
novel
falters at points like those, it
shines when it shifts its focus
toward Adam and Marissa’s
attempts to deal with questions
of love and choice while they
are both at rock bottom.
The
best
scenes
in
“Start
Without
Me”
highlight
characters
whose
Thanksgivings are as glum
as those of he two main
characters:
a
disgruntled
waitress whose mother just
passed away, a husband who
would rather spend his holiday
camped out in front of Walmart,
Marissa’s deadbeat mom and
her new pothead boyfriend.
Even the Russells barely act
like a family, as they would
rather find a random man on
Craigslist
to
prepare
their
meal and have a photographer
take faux candids instead of
actually loving each other and
coming to terms with what it
truly means to be a family. By
concentrating on these flawed
characters instead of the cheery
and happy people that normally
populate Thanksgiving stories,
Feldman is able to nail themes
of loneliness and depression by
juxtaposing them with a holiday
centered around togetherness.
The dichotomy between two
of
the
Thanksgiving
meals
consumed during the novel —
an
undercooked,
pre-made,
so-called feast and a cold bucket
of KFC — are illustrative.
People can either maintain an
insecure façade while brushing
their problems under the rug,
or they can embrace who they
really are and proudly display
that person to others, especially
their family members. While
“Start Without Me” wraps up
a little too quickly and neatly
without fully developing its
ideas, it is an introspective read
that explores the struggles to
know and to accept one’s true
self.
ROBERT MANSUETTI
For the Daily
“Start Without
Me”
Joshua Max
Feldman
William
Morrow
October 17
ARTISTS IN PROFILE
ALBUM REVIEW