{"id":1301,"date":"2013-12-09T01:19:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T09:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2013-12-09T20:59:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T04:59:08","slug":"kanye-and-old-glory-a-confrontational-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301","title":{"rendered":"Kanye and Old Glory: A Confrontational Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M17XewSVeUo\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I was sitting on the deck of a pirate ship in a non-descript office building in San Francisco celebrating the nuptials of my close friends from earlier in the day when a voice next to me said, \u201cI heard you like Kanye West.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I knew it was bait. And I took it.<\/p>\n<p>An hour later and my voice is straining above the usual din of pirate ship-themed bars in non-descript buildings and I\u2019m on my second tropical drink and haven\u2019t even really gotten past the most recent album and the whole \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/angelamv\/kanye-west-claims-the-leather-jogging-pant-was-his-thing\" target=\"_blank\">leather jogging pants<\/a>\u201d thing.<\/p>\n<p>A week later my friend Cliff posts this article about <a href=\"http:\/\/ourlegaci.com\/2013\/12\/02\/kanyes-frantz-fanon-complex\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kanye West, Frantz Fanon &amp; Double Consciousness<\/a> by Jessica Ann Mitchell. I shared the article on my own Facebook page with the amendment, \u201cI am preparing a Kanye-like rant on why Kanye is the most important cultural figure&#8230;. ever (Kanye was not above hyperbole).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And so, agreeing with one of my good friend\u2019s brother, I want to tell you why \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailycal.org\/2013\/10\/15\/everyone-like-kanye\/\" target=\"_blank\">Everyone should want to be like Kanye<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>On Not Burying the Lede <\/b><\/p>\n<p>There are two things I learned back when I was doing a lot more music journalism that are appropriate for this post:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Don\u2019t bury the lede. As rant-heavy as this post will be, here\u2019s what you need to know: the very things that make Kanye reviled today are exactly what we need more of. In particular, I want to focus here on why we need more men of color being indignant and not settling for labels like \u201cbrash,\u201d \u201cpetulant,\u201d or \u201cpompous.\u201d I am not being ironic when I say that Kanye\u2019s \u00a0actions \u00a0are revolutionary in intent and execution. And while I agree with the thesis of Jessica Ann Mitchell\u2019s article, I also believe that Kanye\u2019s confrontational behavior is not simply Dubois-like \u201cdouble consciousness\u201d but as distanced a move as Kanye can make within the capitalist mechanisms his profession has entrenched him in.<\/li>\n<li>The second thing I learned as a writer was to not pull the hipser-y card and describe music by just name dropping other artists. For example, for <i>Yeezus<\/i> I wouldn\u2019t want to say, \u201cImagine Metal Machine Music for the millennial hip-hop generation.\u201d You\u2019ll see this move from music journalists a lot and it\u2019s a lazy one. Name dropping and using the \u201cit sounds like\u201d are a big no-no: \u201c<i>yeah man, <\/i><em>imagine if Rick Rubin produced Johnny Cash\u2019s Folsom Prison live album and told him to only cover Hall and Oates songs but in the style of Philip Glass<\/em>.\u201d [Aside: but seriously, imagine how awesome that album would be.] While it would be convenient to throw in a litany of other artists and activists that help define Kanye\u2019s actions I want to follow in the footsteps of his ego and focus on Kanye. As an individual in America. Today.<\/li>\n<li>(Okay I said only two things but \u2026) I\u2019ve written at length on this blog about how we can extend critical pedagogy vis-\u00e0-vis Kanye\u2019s work. I would encourage educators to look <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1273\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> for less rant-y thoughts with clearer theoretical and pedagogical ramifications.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Since this post spilled beyond the 2k word count, the rest is below the jump.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b>More Preamble: I\u2019m Getting Old<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I want to start by acknowledging the fact that I\u2019m getting old. I don\u2019t know what the kids are listening to today. My TA taught me how to use Snapchat earlier this week (to talk about books like <em>Gossip Girl<\/em> and <em>TTYL<\/em> no less). I regularly hear the names of bands that sound foreign to me. And so when I discuss Kanye below it isn\u2019t under the assumption that he is the apotheosis of \u201ccool\u201d for today\u2019s youth culture; I think he\u2019s actively pushing against being for the cool kids at this point.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll also offer the amendment that I don\u2019t \u201cget\u201d a lot of high fashion. That whole leather jogging pants thing? No clue. [As an aside\u2013there will be a hefty amount of asides throughout this, it\u2019s Kanye-like\u2013I did just watch an incredible <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bill-Cunningham-York-Anna-Wintour\/dp\/B0050I975Q\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1386578603&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=bill+cunningham\" target=\"_blank\">documentary on photographer Bill Cunningham<\/a> and love how he is able to weave this narrative between the lives and clothes of \u201creal\u201d women and the work on runways and the history of high-fashion over decades.]<\/p>\n<p>That being said, the glory of Kanye West, for me, comes full circle to a moment long before his first album was even released.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>A Stereotype in the Making<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s revisit that time in the early \u201800s when it didn\u2019t get bigger than the <em>Black Album<\/em> and Clipse were still making the kind of minimalist trap beats that make me feel nostalgic when listening to the Lorde album that&#8217;s currently playing on my laptop. [Aside: I totally missed the Lorde thing when the whole discussion of racial politics was coming about. I heard the song (you know, <i>that<\/i> song) on the radio and told Ally how catchy I thought it was only to receive an exasperated eye roll that it had already been played out. Like I said, I\u2019m old now.]<\/p>\n<p>And this is still the Kanye we <i>think<\/i> we know as an artist. This is the sped up soul-sample Kanye that changed things up by going back to hip-hop\u2019s roots. From samples for Jay Z to the inescapable \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uvb-1wjAtk4\" target=\"_blank\">Through the Wire<\/a>\u201d the Kanye that was an opening act for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Chappelles-Block-Unrated-Widescreen-Edition\/dp\/B000FMH8RG\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1386578734&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=dave+chappelle+block+party\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Dave Chappelle\u2019s Block Party<\/em><\/a> is the listener-friendly, funnily cocky Kanye. His swagger fit the trope of the confident black man and that was great. And much of white America even gave him a pass for his 2005 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zIUzLpO1kxI\" target=\"_blank\">George Bush Doesn\u2019t Care About White People<\/a>\u201d stunner. He spoke truth to power and this is where America supported Kanye. [Aside: I wanted to point folks to the history of the phrase \u201cspeak truth to power\u201d and Wikipedia wasn\u2019t coming to the rescue. I started a Wikipedia page for the entry <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Speak_truth_to_power\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. A sentence and a citation. Let\u2019s grow this.] In 2005 we loved Kanye because he was a young black man shooting from the hip for what he believed in. This was confrontation and we liked it.<\/p>\n<p>It was the stuff he did that was confrontational <em>after<\/em> this that shifted our attitudes. I won\u2019t run down the list \u2013 it grows regularly and currently includes selling merchandise on his tour that features a confederate flag. We can recognize the lasting effect of Kanye\u2019s \u201cImma let you finish\u201d speech. His bullish behavior and the timid look of Ms. Swift shifted the narrative we had of Kanye: now he is seen as reinforcing the image of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stereotypes_of_African_Americans#Mandingo_Negro\" target=\"_blank\">primitive and dangerous black man<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7390\/11286631323_d5c61dfc6c_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"370\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We can recall where Kanye goes from here: there is more of Kanye firing on all cylinders, creating music that toasts \u201cdouchebags\u201d and \u201cassholes\u201d and essentially embracing the cagey labels that have been placed on him. We could weave a narrative here that he is appropriating the same language that castigates in the same way \u201cQueer\u201d and the \u201cN-Word\u201d have been re-appropriated in recent years. But one man is not a movement and I want to pause this pathway for a moment and return us back to Clipse and the <em>Black Album<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Going Back Home<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Don\u2019t you know that things go in cycles?<\/i> \u2013 Tribe Called Quest<\/p>\n<p>This is years ago \u2013a decade now\u2013months before <i>College Dropout<\/i> dropped. [Aside: why are regular albums \u201creleased\u201d but rap albums get \u201cdropped\u201d? I imagine this is related to dropping the needle on new vinyl, but the metaphor has been moved and the d-word has become the urban signifier for writers today.] I downloaded a supposed Kanye West album: my interest picqued by his innovative samples and \u201cThrough the Wire.\u201d It was someone\u2019s pruned collection of Kanye songs floating about the \u2018nets. It began with that Def Poetry Jam video above [Aside: Check out Kanye&#8217;s canon-shattering introduction into the world, describing his intent of being \u201cthe best dressed rapper.&#8221; Here is Kanye, no album to his name, already trying to confront the hip-hop <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Identity-Agency-Cultural-Dorothy-Holland\/dp\/0674005627\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1386579314&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=holland+figured+world\" target=\"_blank\">figured world<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>But that piece wasn\u2019t the most interesting track. Instead, it was the song \u201cHome.\u201d Take a listen:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tc1_sOD4d_M\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nWhat are the connections we hear? Well, it features the same lyrics as his song \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LQ488QrqGE4\" target=\"_blank\">Homecoming<\/a>,\u201d which would be released five years later and replace John Legend with Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin (a move to build pathos with and speak to a whiter listening audience, perhaps). It is also a part of a tradition of hip-hop songs that function as odes to rap music, even quoting directly from the most iconic of these song\u2019s Common\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/rapgenius.com\/Common-i-used-to-love-her-lyrics#note-12401\" target=\"_blank\">I Used to Love H.E.R.<\/a>\u201d But it&#8217;s not John legend that makes this song so great or even the way it&#8217;s like Common\u2019s song. It&#8217;s the relentless, sampled loop. It\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UhNCknkYHZ0\" target=\"_blank\">Patti Labelle &amp; The Bluebelles\u2019s \u201cYou\u2019ll Never Walk Alone.\u201d<\/a> In Kanye\u2019s hands it becomes a relentless, heartbreaking, and overbearing expression. [Aside: but expression of what? I think this is still Kanye learning to wield these samples in ways that become more purposeful later in his career.] \u00a0I said I wasn\u2019t going to do the \u201csounds like\u201d thing but indulge me once: this is Kanye\u2019s attempt at the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wall_of_sound\" target=\"_blank\">Phil Spector-like wall of sound<\/a>:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QzhbGaCwBzs\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Sound and Statement and Messages and Mediums<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The sample in \u201cHome\u201d wasn\u2019t just a fun background. Just as Mr. Redding\u2019s voice will boom throughout the exuberant \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BoEKWtgJQAU\" target=\"_blank\">Otis<\/a>,\u201d Kanye is instructing and building with the past. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1273\" target=\"_blank\">a recent article<\/a>, I talk about how Kanye used samples of Gil Scott Heron to weave a dialogue across varied albums to display transmedia practices.<\/p>\n<p>What I want to point to here is that these are confrontational samples. When I think of \u201cHome,\u201d it\u2019s not of the run-of-the-mill lyrics. It\u2019s Labelle\u2019s voice over and over, phasing in and out like a modernist classical composition. It\u2019s minimalist with little more than the start-stop skittering beat to propel the song forward. This is a foundation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51xNTn2L83L._SL500_AA280_.jpg\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Kanye\u2019s work has been orbiting this constellation of minimalism even when his own rants seem endless. [Aside: No one does the rant better than Kanye, \u201c<i>But\u00a0my greatest\u00a0pain in life is that I will never be able to\u00a0see myself perform\u00a0liv<\/i>e.\u201d] From the largely rap-less <i>808s and Heartbreak<\/i> to the <em>piano+shouting loop=hit song<\/em> of \u201cRunaway\u201d to the nothing-there, iconic cover of <i>Yeezus<\/i>, Kanye\u2019s work can be understood as using less to confront and challenge. Lyrically his is work that is outspoken and problematic.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And the medium in pop culture is the tweet-able outburst. Kanye is so public in our eyes because he is saying things that makes a white hegemony shake its head. His confidence extends beyond what is acceptable within the niche market of hip-hop. When Kanye says \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ViGNBLQpGWE\" target=\"_blank\">I am a God<\/a>,\u201d we squirm. [Aside: English teachers might want to use the song\u2019s title to differentiate between metaphors and similes.]<\/p>\n<p>The non-commercial qualities of Kanye\u2019s latest album, <i>Yeezus, <\/i>to me, seem to push directly against what consumers <i>count<\/i> as hip-hop today. In the same quarter that Jay-Z attempted to appropriate the Magna Carta, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vibe.com\/article\/jay-zs-magna-carta-holy-grail-features-nirvana-says-courtney-love\" target=\"_blank\">Nirvana Lyrics<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1194\" target=\"_blank\">Marina Abramovic\u2019s work<\/a>, in an attempt to capture sales, Kanye\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6BKGp1XqddM\" target=\"_blank\">lead single<\/a> was a minimalist song with little beat and lyrics that are all but unplayable on the radio. For fans anticipating <i>Yeezus<\/i> the rest of the album followed the same musical and lyrical motif as \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YLx11xq6X7Q\" target=\"_blank\">B<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YLx11xq6X7Q\" target=\"_blank\">lack Skinhead<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Which brings us to &#8220;Bound 2.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><b>Bound for Glory<\/b><\/p>\n<p>On November 25 (the day before my Pirate Ship tirade), I retweeted the following:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23snap&amp;src=hash\">#snap<\/a> RT <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/noyokono\">@noyokono<\/a>: So is Kanye allowed to do anything without white people making fun of of it?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; anterobot (@anterobot) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/anterobot\/statuses\/405107415160336385\">November 25, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The context was <a href=\"http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/53131-watch-james-franco-and-seth-rogan-re-create-kanye-wests-bound-2-video-shot-for-shot\/\" target=\"_blank\">a shot-for-shot remake<\/a> of a tawdry video Kanye made for his song \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SPxkp2F-nAQ\" target=\"_blank\">Bound 2<\/a>.\u201d The remake was funny. I get it. And I can see why Kanye\u2019s video isn\u2019t very good (though I do suspect he is making a move at having a seat at the pop-art table along side the work of Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst, and Andy Warhol). I can see a gallery aesthetic here that ultimately failed and opened him up for parody.<\/p>\n<p>But what is \u201cBound 2?\u201d With hyper-masculine lyrics I won\u2019t excuse here, Kanye is defining swagger and challenging rap music. Bound 2 says, <i>Oh, you like those sped up soul samples? Well, here you go. Deal with THIS<\/i>. The same wall of sound of \u201cHome\u201d is present here. Kanye is throwing his musical thesis in your face \u2013 take it or leave it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Uh Huh Honey<\/b><\/p>\n<p>And it is this confrontation that matters. We\u2019re 2,000 words in here and this is what I need to tell you: when Kanye makes you uncomfortable\u2013be it through his unapologetic beats, his uncomfortable lyrics, his troubling iconography, his in-the-news-black-man-out-of-control rants\u2013he is attempting to rewrite the role of the marginalized. He is forcing us to <i>see<\/i> Kanye and acknowledge him.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, we need youth today to <em>see men being seen<\/em> like Kanye. When Kanye says he is a god or he wishes he could see himself perform or that he wants to reinvent high fashion, he is affirming his existence in ways that youth today <i>need<\/i>. More than ever. Reading the biographies of tech legends over the summer\u2013Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos\u2013you know what they had in common? They were uncompromising jerks. They would throw fits to get their ways. To get people to \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/onmarketing\/2011\/12\/14\/the-real-story-behind-apples-think-different-campaign\/\" target=\"_blank\">think different<\/a>.\u201d And we laud their efforts today.<\/p>\n<p>When I taught 11<sup>th<\/sup> grade English, an instructional unit that I really appreciated developing over the years was one that paired the canonical text, Shelley\u2019s <i>Frankenstein,<\/i> with research on graffiti in Los Angeles and the documentary film <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4mQ2b-PE7Iw\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Bus 174<\/i><\/a>. The unit asked my students to look at how social monstrosity is constructed. We looked at how a bus highjacker in Brazil confronts society and moves from being invisible to a violent \u201cthreat.\u201d I am reminded of this unit as I attempt to wrap up this length rant.<\/p>\n<p>In recent months, Kanye has redoubled his efforts to confront Western society with his brash and outspoken behavior. He is reaching out and rejecting the labels we cast on him.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d made a list of the things Kanye had disregarded over the course of his developing career but realized is was neither comprehensive nor necessary for an already rambling post. Instead, I want to pose that Kanye is the race-conscious rapper that the DVR and Snapchat generation needs (now that I know what Snapchat is). In an era when texts and pictures can be sent and viewed before disappearing into the ether, Kanye presents us with sounds and images and ideas and beliefs that don\u2019t disappear. He is a visible man that affirms that he\u00ad\u2013like Ali\u2013is the greatest. His unyielding belief in himself a beacon of confidence for his youthful listeners.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-1301\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-1301\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-pinterest-1301\" class=\"share-pinterest sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pinterest\"><span>Pinterest<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span>Reddit<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-1301\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span>Pocket<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was sitting on the deck of a pirate ship in a non-descript office building in San Francisco celebrating the nuptials of my close friends from earlier in the day when a voice next to me said, \u201cI heard you like Kanye West.\u201d I knew it was bait. And I took it. An hour later [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-1301\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-1301\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-pinterest-1301\" class=\"share-pinterest sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pinterest\"><span>Pinterest<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span>Reddit<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-1301\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301&amp;share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span>Pocket<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-rants"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe04s-kZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1301"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}