cont..URBAN & POPULAR Aesthetics

…urban aesthetics or popular aesthetics explains the kind of relationship dynamic between image/sound and the individual—that is, the reception of the image/sound and its outward expressions as projected from the individual as he or she may personally interpret its significance to him/herself in the act of self-re-presentation—but is not the image/sound the very space towards which this process proceeds? To whom does the self re-present him/herself? Is it not the very image/sound from which this self acquires the means through and elements with which to re-present oneself that the self appeals to? Some refer to such processes as a kind of identity formation through negotiating oneself in terms of the social conditions within which that person finds him/herself, yet here, there seems to be an absence of any elements of negotiation—especially as the idea of negotiation implies a critical or active dialogue between two or more parties—here, it lacks the active sense of involvement on the self’s behalf. Rather, what is given musically and visually in this face to face encounter possesses a higher or authoritative ground in relation to its external receptive elements—the self to which such elements are visually as well as musically striking.

I cannot violate the importance of context and history in regards to these phenomena but is it merely a concern of the academic? It may come as a surprise that the ways in which we re-present ourselves to the world in which we dwell as well as unto ourselves lies somewhere other than our cultural knowledge and experience—it originates somewhere other than the implicit elements which we allegedly tap for inspirations and influence in our own process of making sense of ourselves culturally as well as human beings. I refer here not just within popular music and the visual culture connected to it but more towards New Zealand television in general—especially here in New Zealand the news media. We accept certain images of violence about ourselves not because it is true but because we have been re-re-presented as such unto ourselves through the media—quite recently the killing of the liquor-store owner in Manurewa, the hit and run incident in Manukau City parking lot, and another violent story all featured in the six o’clock news one after the other and the overall conclusion the average viewer might draw from this is obvious. Not that such incidence shouldn’t be portrayed but it is quite odd that most if not all stories connected with South Auckland in the news media is negative—which inevitably serves as a label of such place within New Zealand society; at least as we might understand our own country and therefore ourselves through the news media. Its an election year and everything on the news media seem to be intense, every story has its own political view and every story is connected one way or another to this important political event in our country don’t you think?

The juxtaposition of rap-hip-hop artist ‘Savage’ and ‘Scribe’ on the remix version to the track (Not Many) is very interesting in that the two are originally from different cities-Savage from ‘South’ Auckland and Scribe from Christchurch Canterbury. Both have different styles and approach to their EMCEEING—Savage is a much more aggressive rapper which goes well with his deep husky voice while Scribe adopts more emphasis on the necessary skills of rhyming and emceeing. Scribe is all about skills with words and the mic while Savage is mostly about issues allegedly concerning life as youths—girls, alcohol, struggle, poverty, and violence. Both are probably two of the most successful artists today in New Zealand hip hop—Scribe having a huge community of fan across the ditch in Oz while Savage just signed a deal with an U.S-based record label. Scribe featured live in Australian reality TV show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ amongst other international names such as Sean Kingston while Savage performed live in the Australian MTV awards alongside international rap legends such as Snoop amongst others. I don’t know much about Scribe’s personal life prior to being a successful hopper other than what he says in the track ‘Dreaming’ on the first album ‘The Crusader’ but I know a little about Savage’s life prior to superstardom—we attended the same high-school for a year and met various times prior to the D-Konz and he was always a fan of hip hop and was free-styling from the first day I met him to now. I even have a home video of him free styling when we were at high school, it was one of those days I happened to have a video camera and him and few other mates were trying to make a video clip. I wonder how many hits this would get on youtube.

I think what I am trying to get to here is the difference in how each of these artists portray themselves through their music—quite specifically in the aforementioned remix version to Scribe’s ‘Not Many’ single in the first album ‘The Crusader’.

2bcont..