White Fight

On Fri. Aug. 26, highly unusual story made it's way into the Washington Post's "A" section. It was about a Brooklyn based DJ, The Pumpsta, who throws a party called "Kill Whitie."

Stories like this are usually reserved for the Style section if they run at all and I was pretty suprised to pick up the paper and see something like this on page 3. Kind of like seeing Kanye West on the cover of Time.

Anyway, I'll sum up the article like this:
White DJ and his party attending buddies make fun of black culture in a racist manner.

The Pumpsta, aka 25 year old Jeremy Parker, issued this statement today.

New York, NY Aug 31, 2005 - A storm of controversy surrounds last Friday’s article in The Washington Post entitled Deejay's Appeal: 'Kill The Whiteness Inside.' The portrayal of Kill Whitie as an "all- white parody of black culture” has propelled racist threats against the party’s founders.

Throughout the article, the author depicts the party as an “all white” event. By focusing on only one of the event’s founders and promoters— a white male - the author characterizes the event as “a melanin-lacking hip-hop party.” Such a characterization does not reflect Kill Whitie's demographic. The other promoters and deejays are multi-racial women. The author interviewed DJ “Sha na na na,” an African-American woman, for nearly four hours, but did not quote her, let alone provide any mention of her participation. People of different races, ethnic backgrounds, and sexual orientations have frequented the party since it began in 2001 at a predominantly Black and Hispanic club.

Despite the polarization created by the Post, Kill Whitie actually serves as glue that bonds a diverse group of people. The recent article has fueled a forum of hate mail and racist propaganda perpetuated by the Post’s blatant misrepresentation. Despite pressure to abandon the party, Kill Whitie’s August 31st show is scheduled to occur.
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Parker contends that the author purposely slanted the piece and misrepresented the party. I'm not sure who to believe, but I've gotta say this - the Post article mentions that one of the party fliers offers " free admission to anyone with a bucket of fried chicken." Seems pretty classless, no matter the skin color of the party throwers.

Concert Cliches

David Segal delves deep into the concert cliche here. Mr. Segal (see--I can do NY Times style) is the former pop music critic at the Washington Post and a fantastically hilarious writer.

Full disclosure: I am biased because I freelance for the Post once in a blue moon. I freelance for their sister paper Express more regularly.

Anyway, check it out if you've got the site's free registration. Well worth your time. It reminds us there isn't much left in the way of Live Concert Moments. Set lists are planned, encores counted on even with a sub par crowd. Folks should be surprised to get anything more than a cookie cutter experience from most bands.

For something mos definitely non scripted, take rap freestyle legend Supernatural. Caught him a few times in concert and when folks would toss out words for him to rhyme to--like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious--it wasn't planned. He even had someone open random pages from the dictionary and pick a word to rhyme along with. Truly a Live Concert Moment.

Black and White and Dope All Over

Giant Panda's debut LP is in stores and I'm a huge fan of their throwback rap. Sort of like a modern version of A Tribe Called Quest--who they're undeniably influenced by.

Here's my take on it from URB Magazine. Enjoy and cop the record.