SX$Worth

Welp. SXSW 2013 has officially come to a close. Geeks, entrepreneurs, artists, and creatives alike managed to take over (overcrowd I-35, consume excessive amounts of beer and brisket, and party with whatever celebrities they could find in) the city of Austin, TX for nearly 2 weeks in hopes of showcasing their work to the world…or just for the sake of going back home with a good story. Whether they actually had a creative outlet to contribute to the SX experience or not wasn’t too much of a big deal; fact: Austin is simply winning due to the shear numbers of people that SXSW attracts with each new year.

The festival originated in 1987 solely as a musical event with a mere 700 registered attendees. Fast forward to 2012, SX’s 26^th year of operation, and it accumulated approximately 147,000 SXSW Conference and Festival (Music, Film, and Interactive) participants; a 300,000+ attendee turnout at free-to-the-public functions. This kind of traction is almost unbelievable; and yet, it undoubtedly proves that the impact of SXSW is both economically and culturally important to the city of Austin, TX.

According to a SXSW economic impact analysis from Greyhill Advisors:

“SXSW continues to be the single most profitable event for the City of Austin’s hospitality industry, having been responsible for injecting more than $190.3 million into the Austin economy in 2012.  SXSW attendance expenditures (from badge‐holders, industry professionals, wristband holders, festival exhibitors, and single visitors of events as film screenings and music concerts) totaled more than $116.6 million. Additionally, year-round SXSW operations (marketing, branding, promotions, etc.) and event-specific expenditures exceeded $73.7 million…The conference directly booked nearly 11,000 individual hotel reservations, totaling 50,000‐plus room nights—an increase of more than 13 percent over the previous year.”

The numbers for 2013 have not been released as of yet, but I would imagine that they have only increased in correlation with the popularity of the festival itself. With that being said, I think that the perception of what SXSW is today versus what is used to be is also becoming increasingly misconstrued.

It is no longer about finding what is new, different and exciting. The futuristic spirit that once inhabited SXSW unfortunately seems to have been tarnished by corporate dollars.

There is of course something admirable to be said about allowing the public to decide upon the content of next year’s festival; however the “public” has shifted from this group of connected people..to a network of agencies, corporations, top-tier brands, and holding corps. This without doubt, was going to impact the tone of the festival. And it did. – Tim Nolan, Head of BBH Labs

I think that SXSW will continue to act as an economic dependence for the city of Austin, but it’s dwindling exclusivity – for new talents, discoveries, and developments – will at the very least change if not detrimentally impact the nature and growth of the city. At this rate, Austin won’t be weird/indie for much longer.

Til next time Austin…

 

Robert Glasper’s “Black Radio”

Robert Glasper is one of the most praised jazz pianists today, having worked with many notable artists and transcending across other various genres of music, including Q-tip and Norah Jones. Drawing largely from jazz, hip-hop, R&B and rock, Glasper does not limit himself by setting boundaries. As stated by the Los Angeles Times,

“It’s a short list of jazz pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper…He’s equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz, thereby building a bridge between his musical touchstones.”

Glasper just dropped his fourth album, titled Black Radio, on February 24, 2012 with his band, the Robert Glasper Experiment. The meaning behind this project name derives from the use of the black box, which is the only piece of material or evidence that typically survives a plane crash. Glasper says, “When music is crashing around us, when you hear the same five songs on the radio that aren’t really saying much, we can always go back to great music. Great music always lives on.”

Black Radio features artists such as Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Shafiq Husayn (Sa-Ra), KING, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Musiq Soulchild, Meshell Ndegeocello, Stokley Williams ( of Mint Condition), and yasiin bey (formerly Mos Def). One of the great things about Glasper’s album is its cohesiveness. From the beginning, he sought musical genius from artists that are more than just commercially marketable; these are artists that have become very close friends of his, and that have an eclectic range of music influence to share.

Glasper proclaims, “You can’t pigeonhole what we’re going to do or how we’re going to do it..I wanted to do a project that showcased the fact that we play with artists in other genres; so, it has an urban, hip-hop, soul kind of vibe, but the spine of it all is still a jazz spine.”

Check out the video for “Black Radio” featuring yasiin bey here.

Black Radio is now available on iTunes.

N**** in Northface

Chicago rapper, Legit (@ChicagoLives), brings to you “N**** in Northface” off of his Coloring Outside the Lines mixtape. The track is honest, political, and dauntless, taking a deeper look at the social issue of interracial relationships. The director of the visuals for this track, Young Wonder (@_youngwonder), describes the video concept as a “modern day take on Romeo and Juliet” as it highlights the racial tensions and obstacles that a young black and white couple experience within society.

When I originally read the title of this song in my head I thought that it was someone just trying to be funny on Youtube to get a high number of views. Then I listened to the track and understood that to many, this phrase may seem oxymoronic based on racial and economic assumptions that have plagued society for too long. But this key phrase is a reality that we must come to embrace let alone accept (if you, he, she, or they, haven’t already).

In the first scene of the video, Legit brings home his romantic interest to meet his mother, thinking that it would be great to introduce the two most important women in his life to one another. But his mother is far from amused when she sees a tall blue eyed, blonde haired Barbie doll standing in her kitchen. She says, “How you come here with a chick the same color our masters are,” indicating that her perception of white people is strictly that of one entire entity; all white people are the same, the younger generations are reflections of the enemy that enslaved and oppressed African Americans for centuries.

I found myself able to immediately identify with this scene because I have been involved in this very type of situation, where the family members of the person whom I was dating were not supportive of our union due to image of my porcelain skin against his ebony complexion. I personally was raised not to see color, or lack thereof, as a vice; to me, a person’s character is what makes him or her beautiful. As Legit puts it:

 

Just ‘cause love is complex, doesn’t mean it has complexion

If we assume it does, then how can we have progression?

It’s ass backwards, moving in the wrong direction

I don’t get it, and I probably never will

All they see is black & white, welcome to Pleasantville.

 

In the video, Legit explains that he keeps getting the cold shoulder because he is dating outside of his race. On one level, white members of society, including his girlfriend’s parents, look down upon him as if he simply isn’t good enough to date a white woman. Other white kids just look and stare at him because they don’t understand what he’s doing outside of his proclaimed environment amongst other blacks; they feel uncomfortable because they don’t know what to make of his composed nature and apparent etiquette as it compares to their barbaric image of the typical black man. On another level, black people look at him as though he is a sellout because he acts as though he is too good to date a black woman. Wearing a Northface is something that rich suburban white kids do; it signifies wealth and status that would likely be unattainable in their eyes for an average black person.

By the end of the video, frustration has Legit and his girlfriend ready to escape from everyone and everything that are working to keep them from being together. The rapper says:

 

This whole time my feelings have grown deep-er

Pouring emotions out by the liter

Spike Lee called it Jungle Fever

Don’t give a fuck what you label it, I’m never gonna leave her

I’ve grown too used to her laugh and the smile her face produces to ever turn my back

So they tell our parents that

But they don’t get it, they probably never will

All they see is black & white, welcome to Pleasantville.

 

In the final seconds, you see the girlfriend as she watches her father attempt to shoot Legit with a handgun. Fortunately, the weapon draws a blank, and Legit’s body is left un-pierced. Unfortunately, his girlfriend assumes the worst…and by the time he gathers himself off of the ground, she takes her last breath before literally drowning in her sorrows in her bathtub.

This track is powerful because it really takes a stab at trying to break traditional racial stereotypes, and it shows that love itself has no complexion. Love is something that you embody from within because you grow to care so strongly for someone, rather than something that is based solely on physical appearance. The visuals, in my opinion, truly enhance this message because it showcases an extremely realistic scenario between young and older generations on the issue of interracial relationships. It shows that there is a glimmer of hope that things will change for the better, and people can learn to accept and love one another for who they are as opposed to what society says they are or aren’t; and yet, there are obviously still many hurdles and prejudicial tensions that we must recognize and overcome before we get to that point.

I’d like to know what my readers think…How do you feel about interracial relationships? Also, make sure you check out Legit’s video for “N**** in Northface” by clicking the link below:

http://young-wonder.com/portfolio/a-nigger-in-northface/

Love exists outside Pleasantville. All love everything.

-M.S.