That's What He Said

THESE ARE ALL MY REACTIONS TO THE DONALD GLOVER “I’M A RAPIST” LINE. BY DONALD GLOVER.

whiteapricorn:

I mean, upon close (CLOSE; I JUST THINK A LOT ABOUT DONALD GLOVER, you guys) consideration, I could find a few different ways to spin that line:

The fact that black men’s sexuality is always perceived as threatening and dangerous; the “black male rapist” stereotype was always (and still is) a major figure in white American fantasy landscape. And black men have taken that character on before, just out of anger or to undermine it or whatever: Amiri Baraka, for one, with his ruminating on how white America fears being robbed of its supremacy by black men, and how the figure of the “black rapist” is the easiest way to concretize that fear, with white women concordantly fetishizing the imagined violent sexual power of black men. (I mean, that was Amiri’s take. In my personal experience, white men? Fetishize that too.) So maybe there’s that.

Donald Glover writes a lot, on this EP, about the speculation surrounding his sexuality — he says that he hears a lot of it, and a lot of homophobic slurs, so that line about raping all the other MCs is maybe a way to claim that slur and make it scary and tough-sounding. Ill-judged, maybe, but I could see that.

And there’s the take I wrote about before, with SO MUCH of the album being devoted to talking about how people impugn his masculinity, and maybe imagining himself as “a rapist” is (a) an ironic commentary on the idea that violence, sex, and sexual violence are what defines a man, in which case a rapist is THE MANLIEST, or (b) a kind of pathetic attempt to seem manly.

Also, the verse in which it occurs just seems important, for some reason I can’t figure out: “I’m the boss, Michael Scott, y’all bitches is just Phyllis / Set the world on fire, y’all motherfuckers is chillin’, what is this? / That’s why these fuckin’ MCs want their asses back / Don’t you know that I’m a rapist? Ask a track / Whiskey-sippin’, wanna drink the whole bottle / But these smart middle-class black kids need a role model.”

Oh, Donald. I like you so much. This was such an easy pitfall to avoid. PLEASE SEE ABOVE GIFS.

I think it was a great move, and the reasons are all illuminated above. Especially the point about the verse where the lyric is found. Glover is always playing around with the idea that while the mainstream industry has laughed at his work for years, they have gotten lazy and complacent. I think more than anything Glover is frustrated with the lack of momentum and artistry in hip hop today. Glover believes we are entering an era where an artist can push the form forward as long as he is being genuine.

He could never live up to hip hop’s idea of a gangsta role model, bred on the streets. But there are more and more hip hop listeners, and artists like Glover, who have no way to relate to that world, and if they were rapping about bullets and crack it would come off as pandering garbage. Glover is being honest with himself and therefore with the audience.

I think the lines about drugs and partying always have this false exterior to them. As if Glover is wary about indulging in this lifestyle. In the above verse he claims to be considerate of his fans, but in my opinion, he in concerned with himself. If he falls too far from the roots that ground him and have made him such a unique entitiy in hip hop culture, he would come out overprocessed and mass-produced (something Glover has hinted at about Drake, and I would tend to agree). Glover fears acceptance by the same people who have slandered him, questioned his sexuality and his masculinity, just because he was rapping about something they couldn’t relate to, being middle class and really caring about his craft. One can understand his need to assert himself, and the lyrics are the form his assertion takes. I could water down the argument and say of course he should have picked different words, but I don’t feel that way. It felt genuine. How often do you get to say that about anything?

(via sadydoyle-deactivated20110608)

Source: aparticularmarv