Call It Ludacris: The Kinship Between Talk Radio and Rap

NY Times Week in Review ^ | September 20, 2009 | DAVID SEGAL

[Pharmboy]

Jason Decrow/Associated Press, left; Nicholas Roberts for The New York Times
BELIEVERS Rappers like Ludacris and hosts like Glenn Beck are strict capitalists.

snip...

I’ll admit that the parallels between Jay-Z and Rush Limbaugh do not seem obvious, snip...But as soon as you dig beneath the surface, the similarities between talk radio and gangsta rap are nothing short of uncanny. And these similarities are revealing, too.

snip...

EGO Extolling your greatness is nearly as crucial to rap as it is to talk radio.

HATERS You’re nobody in hip-hop until you claim to have hordes of detractors. snip... Ask Michael Savage, who is forever describing himself as an underdog, marginalized by the media — on the more than 300 stations that carry his show.

FEUDS 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule. Lil’ Kim vs. Foxy Brown. Jay-Z vs. Nas. snip...Bill O’Reilly’s broadsides at Mr. Limbaugh (“Walk away from these right-wing liars!” Mr. O’Reilly said of an unnamed rival, described as someone who smokes a cigar and owns a private jet) or Mark Levin’s attack on Mr. O’Reilly. snip..

VERBAL SKILLS Without them, you can’t rap and you’ll never make it as a talk radio opinion-machine.

If Mr. Limbaugh is conservative talk radio’s answer to Jay-Z, Mr. Savage is its Eminem — a man whose own neuroses are one of his favorite topics.

Even beyond simple matters of style, rap and conservative talk radio share some DNA. ...rap is among the most conservative genres of pop music. It exalts capitalism snip...Rappers tend to be fans of the Second Amendment, though they rarely frame their affection for guns in constitutional terms. And rap has an opinion about human nature that is deeply conservative — namely, that criminals cannot be reformed.

[Pharmboy]

Some interesting parallels...

[Pharmboy]

What the dilly, yo? ping...

[FrankR]

Silliness abounds in the state run media....

[Steely Tom]

As far as I can see, each of his “arguments” can be used to prove a kinship between rap and the New York Times.

[STONEWALLS]

....”It’s because I listen to a lot of rap. Gangsta rap, in particular.”

.....just a white boy lost in the rap....ever been to an academic conference of Humanities professors?....they actually give papers on stuff this banal....people write Master’s dissertations on the cultural meaning of Madonna grabbing her crotch while performing....that’s what this story reminds me of....a 22 y.o. grad student writing boring, irrelevant b.s.....no wonder the NY Times is bleeding out now.

[Thommas]

Yo, man, check out these interesting parallels; they are uncanny in that no smart dude like me hasn't seen them before:

Nazism and the Boy Scouts..whoa!

Mafia and the Mormons..oh, yeah!

La Raza and the Sisters of Charity..too close, man!

Serial killers and the NRA..you just gotta believe!

Let me take another bong hit and I'll reveal even more uncanny parallels..

[dannyboy72a]

How much do the New York Times’ readership hate the young black man? They just compared their preferred music to right-wing radio - the most hated thing on the planet for the Times.

BTW, if Talk Radio is the rap industry, the NY Times is the coward behind the wheel on the drive-by that killed Biggy.

[Crooked Constituent]

From hardcore rapper Bushwick Bill, a little person (dwarf), song title Copper to Cash:

I’m educated, in a robbery, bit***, i’m the boss
Mr. lawman is quick to call this action a crime
Because they can’t tax robbery, they don’t get a dime
Everything’d be fine if i was working 9 to 5
But i can’t get that kinda job, i ain’t 5 ft. high
Since they don’t realize that my size ain’t sh**
I’m gonna gaffle em and baffle em until my bank gets
To the maximum, i get the gat then i’m after them fast
Goin for bad, goin from copper to cash

[driftless2]

Segal might as well have made the analogy that since rappers like liquor and some conservatives like liquor, well the comparison is unavoidable. Or Doritos, or toilet paper, etc. What likenesses Segal found could be found in a host of dissimilar groups around the country. As if Democrats don’t feud, or like guns, or many other things Segal found as legitimate likenesses between rappers and conservative talk show hosts. A truly worthless column...like most lib columns.

[Raymann]

Wow people!

You know, I like them as much as you do but this piece was supposed to be mildly humorous and taken in jest.

[driftless2]

Sorry, ddin’t read the whole column. I usually avoid going to the Times for any of their stories. I assume it will be anti-conservative. Who knew some Times’s writers had a sense of humor?

[mjp]

gangsta rap’s enthusiasm for lawlessness

being pro capitalism means being for a free society and a just government where individual rights are protected not violated and the initiation of force against the innocent is banned.Only a liberal mentality like the NY Times could think that capitalism and rap are similar in essence.

[aculeus]

bttt

[dbehsman]

Thanks for posting that. It certainly is food for thought.