julianne escobedo shepherd

Holy shart, welcome to yr new late summer rave anthem. I paid...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:06:00 -0400

Holy shart, welcome to yr new late summer rave anthem. I paid actual money for this shit, from my bank account. ~~Women producers destroying their dude counterparts this year so far in the zone of “electronica.”~~ EDIT: THIS IS A DUDE USING A WOMAN’S NAME. WTF DUDE. This song is still awesome but WTF. ALSO THO: “ELECTRONICA.” LIVE IT, LEARN IT. (We’re bringing back “electronica.” If you say “EDM” without the implied quotes I know you ain’t real widdit.)

SOPHIE - BIPP (out now on Numbers) (by numbers12345678)

You Are The Second Person

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:34:00 -0400

You Are The Second Person:

Short story by Kiese Laymon for Guernica’s “Race in America” issue. Stop what you’re doing and read it now*. God bless. #thewordbitch

*Pertinent to know after reading: Laymon has just published a novel… called Long Division.

La Insuperable is the baddest bitch. But I love this song/video...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:24:59 -0400

La Insuperable is the baddest bitch. But I love this song/video the best, where Chimbala’s tryna come at her “culón” on some grimy shit and she’s just like, “Uh, bye.” This is from her latest album, La Mami del Swagger, which is one of my favorites this year SO FAR.

Hey. When is your radio show? And can I stream it online?

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 19:04:53 -0400

Hi! It’s every Saturday from 4-6 PM ET, and you can listen live and/or stream ALL the archives online right here at the Universópolis homepage on EVR.com. I recommend starting with the show on March 9, 2013: that was the Hugo Chávez themed show (RIP) and I dug up some gems for El Comandante. Thanks for caring!

It’s just a clip, but I cannot get the chorus to Janelle...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:29:19 -0400

It’s just a clip, but I cannot get the chorus to Janelle Monáe’s “Electric Lady” (from forthcoming album The Electric Lady) out of my head. SO, SO GOOD.

Been bumping Argentinian cumbia singer La Yegros’...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:34:00 -0400

Been bumping Argentinian cumbia singer La Yegros’ “Viene de Mi” on my radio show for about a year. Earlier this year, she was picked up from Buenos Aires independent ZZK Records by EMI France, and I am super glad because it means she can make TOTALLY AMAZING VIDEOS LIKE THIS ONE.

[EDIT: EXCEPT FOR THE PART WITH THE HEADDRESS, COME ON, MAN! FUCKING HELL WHY DOES EVERYONE RUIN EVERYTHING]

"You might remember that earlier I mentioned I clicked the link provided by Azealia Banks of her..."

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:21:35 -0400

“

You might remember that earlier I mentioned I clicked the link provided by Azealia Banks of her remix, only to find it had been taken down. Banks posted the remix on soundcloud, but Baauer and his labelmate Diplo demanded it be taken down because it was an un-authorized remix. Aside from the obvious rejoinder that the majority of soundcloud is unauthorized remixes, this episode reveals the difference of power that negotiates the “open” space of the internet. We have a white producer, who is accused of appropriating Harlem culture, attacking a black female rapper born in Harlem of improperly using his “intellectual property.” Black claims to propriety are met with crickets, while a white man’s claim is heard and acted upon to the detriment of Banks. Diplo took to twitter to begin the anti-Banks commentary, while Banks refused to back down. She made a music video and posted it to youtube, ensuring that her fans would still have access to the song. The spat continued on twitter though, with Banks inadvertently calling Baauer the “F-word.” This re-ignited a sleeping giant in Azealia Banks’ burgeoning career, which is her intramural relations with the LGBT civil rights apparatus, as well as gay male media figures, that simultaneously support and police her. This conversation is deep and necessary (for a much better handling of this topic, click here), yet for the purposes of this essay it is important to mention this because much of the coverage of this “twitter beef” was to categorize this as “yet another Azealia Banks beef.” There is an almost universal consensus that Banks starts and maintains beefs with producers, a storyline Baauer and Diplo cited and perpetuated to deflect attention away from their own fault. Baauer and Diplo’s story is that Banks recorded a remix and they asked her to not post it because they decided to go into a different direction. The different direction was to get Juicy J to record a remix and release that as the official remix. What this mystifies is what Banks brought up: the fact that they came to Banks asking her to remix it initially and then, at the last second, after she had worked, mixed, prepared a marketing strategy, aligned it with her own schedule, and shot a video, they decided they did not want her to go forward with it. So, Baauer and Diplo decided that Banks’ life and career should take a backseat because they wanted another, more famous, black artist to remix their song.

What is happening here is a politics of obliteration. That Banks is thought to be replaceable by Juicy J is emblematic of what so many black people in popular culture have attested to: the systemic belief in the interchangeability of black entertainers. The thought here is that a black female rapper from Harlem can be replaced by a black male rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. Baauer attempts to say that he thought Azealia Banks’ lyrics were only so-so and believed Juicy J could do better. If this is not an example of a white man talking out of his ass, I am not sure what is. I do not need to get into the technical aspects of rapping to say Azealia Banks could destroy any rapper who’s idea of a great song is, “Bands ‘a make her dance.” But this is not about Juicy J, this is about Baauer and the meaning of blackness to his ability to produce music. For him, black culture is not an other’s thing made in specific contexts, but instead are loose, unowned resources of “cool” to be stretched, interpolated, and sequenced into a dramatic product to produce his own name. Thus, the being of black culture (its claims to place and time) are obliterated so that he may write himself into existence over the cleared field. Saidiya Hartman writes, “The elasticity of blackness and its capacious affects enabled such flights and becomings… The fungibility of the commodity, specifically its abstractness and immateriality, enabled the black body to serve as the vehicle of self-exploration, renunciation, and enjoyment” (Hartman, 25). Thus, Baauer is not simply emblematic of an internet-age, post-genre music culture, but is instead an example par excellance of the white imagination using the black body as a vehicle for its own purposes. In other words, Baauer is not (only) a thief, he is a master.

”

- Looking for Azealia’s Harlem Shake, Or How We Mistake the Politics of Obliteration for Appropriation (via so-treu)

1st comment:

Damn this is good. I wish I wrote it :/

Thus, Baauer is not simply emblematic of an internet-age, post-genre music culture, but is instead an example par excellance of the white imagination using the black body as a vehicle for its own purposes. In other words, Baauer is not (only) a thief, he is a master.

======================

YOOOOOOOO.

STOMPIN TO THE ’90s

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:18:36 -0400

STOMPIN TO THE ’90s

nuestrahermana: Nuestra Hermana WOC Photography Series : ...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:08:00 -0400

nuestrahermana:

Nuestra Hermana WOC Photography Series :

Gracelia Iturbide

Graciela Iturbide is a 69 year old Mexican photographer born in 1942. Around 1970, Iturbide studied photography at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

The majority of her photography is black & white and uses natural life and whichever environment she is submerged in at the time.

Her first collection released was titled “Mujer Angel” and embodied her feminist views which continued to be weaved through her career. Her best known collection was shot in Juchitan, Oaxaca, a city where women dominated life. It was titled “Señora de Las Iguanas”. Out of this series, came a photograph named “Magnolia”, featuring a physically male person wearing a dress. This photograph challenged and discussed sexuality and gender in Mexico.

She is also the founder of Mexican Council of Photography. Her work can be found in many major museums including but not limited to: Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

It's not Chingo Bling's song, its Lil Moco's, fam.

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 18:50:48 -0400

OOH SHIT, I stand corrected! For some reason I just assumed all was Chingo and Lil Moco, looking hella Drakely in the vid, was a stand-in. Plus Geko Jones sent me the Chingo freestyle from their Que Bajo/RBMA Soundclash thingie and I made AN ASSUMPTION. DEPT OF CORRECTIONS: Lil Moco f. Chingo Bling, “Started from the Border.” Now I will listen to Lil Moco’s catalogue because shit is genius.

Just got around to watching Chingo Bling Lil Moco’s...

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:43:00 -0400

Just got around to watching ~~Chingo Bling~~ Lil Moco’s “Started from the Border” video [FEATURING CHiNGO BLING: SEE CORRECTION] (modeled after “Started from the Bottom,” obvs), and it’s really a return to form—Chingo’s old-school tactic of using sardonic humor to get a political message across, which he abandoned a bit recently in lieu of being more straightforward (well, straightforward for Chingo, shout to best-song-ever “Banda Makes Her Dance”).

I still have a Chingo Bling SXSW promo poster from a few years back that says, “Welcome to TEJAS: home of George Bush, Chingo Bling, and 11 MILLION MEXICANS!” Hahaha.

“Fuck a big wall, homie, we can jump that.” Also the vato-Drake’s 15 sharpied-on eye tears SO SO REAL (and, technically, cholo-art music criticism)!

Will you sign my yearbook?

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:32:20 -0400

DUH!!!

New Nicky da B video looks gorgeous. I love the gay strain of...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:31:47 -0400

New Nicky da B video looks gorgeous. I love the gay strain of NOLA Bounce (“sissy bounce” to some tho I’ve interviewed Freedia and Nicky and both object to the term) because it’s all about the democratization of butt shots. It’s sexual, but it’s not, and it’s not just naked woman butts but boy butts too. Butts are cool.

will you look at my artwork?

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:06:57 -0400

Yes but I don’t really know too too much about art, at least compared to what I know about music, film, television, and dance.

"The SAT is a scam. It has been around for 50 years. It has never measured anything. And it continues..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:27:59 -0400

“The SAT is a scam. It has been around for 50 years. It has never measured anything. And it continues to measure nothing. And the whole game is that everybody who does well on it, is so delighted by their good fortune that they don’t want to attack it. And they are the people in charge. Because of course, the way you get to be in charge is by having high test scores. So it’s this terrific kind of rolling scam that every so often, somebody sort of looks and says—well, you know, does it measure intelligence? No. Does it predict college grades? No. Does it tell you how much you learned in high school? No. Does it predict life happiness or life success in any measure? No. It’s measuring nothing.”

- John Katzman, founder of The Princeton Review (via finedineonmyvegangenitalia)

by the founder of Princeton review? crazy.

(via citizenblue)

The greatest indicator of SAT score is familial income

(via schmullesschweitzer)

just about everyone i know who got a perfect or near perfect score on this says the same thing

(via crackerhell)

This is amazing. I never took the SAT (never went to college, didn’t really think I had a way there), and yet I AM A MFING BOSS.

will u read my writing?

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:44:23 -0400

yeah totally

Sad to say, the only time I ever saw Romanthony was here (I...

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:40:44 -0400

Sad to say, the only time I ever saw Romanthony was here (I wrote that, too). It was pretty empty, and I remember his set being disappointing because he was playing all new tech house (I think? it was years ago) and I wanted him to play the old shit but obviously, why would he, it wasn’t 1998 it was 2009. Anyway… I’m tired of reading that Romanthony was just the Daft Punk dude, I could give a fuck about 2013 Daft Punk frankly (that new single is boring as shit, still haven’t listened to the new album because the new single was so ZZZZ/not progressive in relation to the same shit they made 8 years ago). Anyway, Romanthony was a genius before and after Daft Punk.

RIP Romanthony. So much history with his music, and this song.

Sun, 19 May 2013 05:27:00 -0400

RIP Romanthony. So much history with his music, and this song.

My family Le1F in his sexiest video yet (altho am I pnoid if I...

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:30:03 -0400

My family Le1F in his sexiest video yet (altho am I pnoid if I can’t stop thinking about bacteria while watching this?). Lotta fam in here—Ian Isiah, Junglepussy, Rahel, Lex doing some naked shit with a loofah, Hima doing his “hey I’m in a video” cheesing, and my boyfriend, the only dude who didn’t take off his shirt (hair, bacteria).

I LOVE DAI BURGER.

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:16:56 -0400

I LOVE DAI BURGER.