Following a quick glance at the cover of XXL recently, like many Hip-Hop heads that are undecided about our feelings toward Kanye West I was certainly intruiged. Whilst part of me did want to see exactly what "the man himself" had to say, especially as interviews and therefore insights into his thought processes - heated rants aside of course - are generally few, I couldn't help but feel conflicted about the piece itself and its journalistic merit.
Whilst it is one thing to provide an in-depth and insightful feature interview with 'Ye, it is another entirely to just let him provide any editorially undestilled features himself, no matter how interesting or articulate. First we let the artists dictate what we write by way of press releases and the promise of 'no-go' topics and then we just let them write it themselves first as last? Now if that does not constitute journalistic laziness, I do not know what does.
As writers, surely we should be able to make our own statements, provide our own commentaries on the culture and cause a stir in our own right, rather than merely taking the proverbial leap onto the Kanye controversy bandwagon. That is not to say, however, that the XXL piece was uninteresting or unispiring but rather that Mr West already lays claim to several job-titles - producer, rapper, blogger, Fendi intern, award show MC...albeit unofficially - does he really need mine as well?
No comments:
Post a Comment