{"id":29,"date":"2007-05-09T22:22:03","date_gmt":"2007-05-10T05:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=29"},"modified":"2007-05-09T22:22:03","modified_gmt":"2007-05-10T05:22:03","slug":"clips-that-were-never-meant-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=29","title":{"rendered":"Clips that were never meant to be"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a week and half of being back on track and a flu like no other (the “El Nino” or Flu weather systems, if you will), I haven’t been up for the usual blogging insight to which you, dear reader, have become accustomed.<\/p>\n

In any case, a while ago an editor of mine sent out a query for hip-hop story pitches. Seeing as to how my email was never returned, it looks like my stories aren\u2019t being picked up, which \u2013 based on the magazine and my ideas \u2013 isn\u2019t unsurprising or even very disappointing. At the same time, I\u2019m still interested in these topics for future writing, if I ever get around to it, though I see little room for the kind of long-form journalism that is of interest to me these days. Removing any pertinent publication names, I\u2019m pasting my original email to my editor for the sake of posterity and for tracking of rejected article topics. Bon appetite.
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[Editor],<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope you are doing well. I have a couple of hip-hop ideas for stories that would be longer than a typical profile:<\/em><\/p>\n

Hip-Hop and the State of the Aging Artist: Basically, I\u2019m interested in looking at how \u201cthe rap game\u201d has changed. Hip-hop is legitimately old at this point, and Jeff Chang\u2019s review <\/a>of Jay-Z\u2019s last album (for the Nation of all publications!) highlighted the way that Jigga has become an aging business mogul, out of touch with his listening audience. Granted, hip-hop is full of artificial bravado and grandstanding, Jay-Z\u2019s lyrical content is about being well past his 20s and enjoying the life of a middle-aged man. Looking at other artists that are still working through popular hip-hop outlets (Common, De La Soul, Ghostface, god knows how many other artists), maybe now is the time for a reanalysis of hip-hop and what \u201cthe game\u201d is all about. Is this a genre maturing or merely a few artists getting out of touch with the lyrical conventions that are required to hook an audience? [Editor], I realize this sounds academic, but I was hoping to write this as a roundtable with a couple of writers (Hopefully Jeff Chang since he talks about this issue directly) and a handful of artists and kind of see if a new definition of what hip-hop<\/em> is comes out of the discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another idea I was interested in was the role of the guest spot on hip-hop albums these days. Look at El-P\u2019s guests, they\u2019re ridiculous (as much as I love the album): Cat Power? Yo La Tengo? Mars Volta?? Common is recording a song with Lily Allen? Saul Williams\u2019 next record is produced by Trent Reznor? Timbaland with Fall Out Boy? I feel like the guest artist has become the equivalent of the iTunes celebrity playlist. These guests help define who the artists is more so than chosen beats or lyrical content. I\u2019m thinking an article talking to a few artists (El-P, Common, maybe someone like MIA?) and a few sidebars illustrating how guest spots have changed over time?<\/em><\/p>\n

Lastly, could we look at hip-hop\u2019s political relevance today? 15 years ago (give or take) Ice Cube called rap Black America\u2019s CNN. And though Dead Prez and the Coup still do the Dead Prez and Coup thing, who else is advocating for social and political change? Is anyone even listening? Again, a roundtable format seems most appropriate with sidebars looking at the history of social critique in hip-hop (Hell, Grandmaster Flash just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they started this whole thing with \u201cThe Message\u201d).<\/em>
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\nI realize these articles sound conceptual, but I\u2019d be happy to make them specific, if you\u2019re interested. I\u2019ve been trying to actively avoid the pitch yr favorite artist thing, and these are ideas I\u2019m genuinely interested in at the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hope everything\u2019s going well,<\/em>
\nEtc…<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>