Hard News: About Chris Brown
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Shorter Tariana Turia: Better a Brown bro than a Rihanna hoe.
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Seeing as it's Friday, I'd like to let Rihanna have her say:
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
++++
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
That was a strange interview. Kim Hill grilled her on due diligence and really just showed that Tariana Turia didn’t have a clue about the ongoing record. First she was claiming they’d done some investigation and believed claims had been made up, then when Kim Hill started listing incidents, she claimed she didn’t know anything about it, but it didn't matter anyway
Sounds like any John Key interview. The tactics are the same. " I don't know about that but what I do know about is...."
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
I’d like to let Rihanna have her say
'Take a beau'... surely?
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Slightly off-topic, but: Michael Woodhouse has repeatedly said that Chris Brown has yet to apply for an exemption. Could it be that his management are under the illusion, as a lot of Americans, Brits and Europeans, than piddly, little NZ is part of Australia, so having applied to go to Australia, there's no need to apply to go to NZ as well ?
They quite possibly may try to fly out of Sydney / Melbourne / Brisbane, then find, oops, we can't. Or they will fly out, but won't make it past customs.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
Surely his promotional team would be all over that....?
You'd hope.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Turia digs in even more defiantly on Morning Report today, and Kim Hill aint having a bar of it. Head-shaking denial of evidence. “I’ll support whoever I want” etc.
Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing for Labour to lose Tariana Turia after all.
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From a couple of hours ago, Chris Brown tweets his thanks to Dame Tariana Turia and other 'strong women'. https://twitter.com/chrisbrown/status/649763104931209216
Also reported by Radio NZ.
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Sue,
it is totally fucked up that some leading Maori women in NZ are spending their time helping a rich rapper make more money.
Why are they doing this?
Why? -
Alfie, in reply to
Why are they doing this?
Why?The only logical explanation is that they're naive and have been convinced by a silver-tongued promoter that it's actually a race issue.
And not a single one of them bothered to do their homework before issuing a public statement. Not one. Shame on them all.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Why are they doing this?
Why?The whole Maori/Hip Hop thing gets me. Hip Hop used to be a kind of Hippieish form of dance culture thing, Disposable Heroes, Michael Franti, The Beatnigs. The ethos was family oriented philosophy based movement of sorts, a kind of black Grateful Dead if you will.
To call Chris Brown Hip Hop is stretching the genre to the extremes if you ask me but nobody did.
As to why. I imagine some people take great pride in their ignorance. -
Sacha, in reply to
Hip Hop used to be a kind of Hippieish form of dance culture thing
you are thinking of one tiny slice of it.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I don't think it's hugely helpful to use lyrics as a signifier of anything in particular, which is why I was rather less supportive of Odd Future being refused a visa. Lyrics can often be the sentiments of an adopted persona, or an expression of chutzpah or humour or a bunch of other things. His actions are what matters here.
Been watching a stay-10-miles-away-from-this argument raging onTwitter and thinking about it.
The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' is an interesting example. If you saw the play the Big Day Out you may recall that when those lines came up in the chorus you could barely hear yourself think for teenage girls screaming them back. The words very clearly did not mean to them what they meant to outsiders.
And there are tons of of examples of dodgy lyrics that aren't meant to be taken seriously or literally or are in character. There's a tradition of aggressively sexual acting-out that goes back to the blues, and it's not only men what invoke it. Check out Betty Davis sometime.
But Chris Brown's do seem a little different. They are clearly more directly autobiographical (I don't think he's bright enough to create characters) and he's such a shit lyricist that it's hard to divine any wit or literary merit in them. They tend to just enforce the widespread impression that he's an awful person.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
The words very clearly did not mean to them what they meant to outsiders.
One of the Young People sat her old ma down and explained this when she was challenged on her use of the word “bitch” in relation to a male colleague
So, old peoples styles…
https://www.google.co.nz/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=bitch%20definition
the first listing will give one the now archaic definition.
The Urban Dictionary on the other hand….
Time Machine, anyone?
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Musonda, in reply to
That's correct. Hip hop started as an expression of an oppressed urban minority, sometimes manifesting as rebellious partying - but also at times as militant and aggressive resistance to the political and cultural status quote. Run DMC, PE, NWA are just a few examples, and the reason why hip hop resonates in Maori culture.
Turia's support is reflexive because there is undoubtedly a racial element here. There is just never this level of vitriol when a white person with priors tries to visit (that I recall anyway).
But, just for complete clarity, I think Chris Brown is a douche, and I hope he gets banned.
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Sacha, in reply to
Turia's support is reflexive because there is undoubtedly a racial element here.
For sure. They just need to pick a more deserving person to support. One who has not continued being violent would be an obvious start. A local popular figure, even moreso.
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Musonda, in reply to
Agreed.
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izogi, in reply to
I hope he gets banned.
A minor point, but he’s already banned from entry. :)
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Russell Brown, in reply to
That's correct. Hip hop started as an expression of an oppressed urban minority, sometimes manifesting as rebellious partying - but also at times as militant and aggressive resistance to the political and cultural status quote. Run DMC, PE, NWA are just a few examples, and the reason why hip hop resonates in Maori culture.
The first wave of hop hop – Kool Herc, Kurtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang – was mostly innocuous party rhymes. It wasn't until the 1980s that it really took on a resistance voice. I have mixed feelings about commercial hip hop from the 90s on. But when you look at the sparse crowd Public Enemy drew last time through – mostly white dudes my age – it's pretty clear that the culture moved on.
Turia's support is reflexive because there is undoubtedly a racial element here. There is just never this level of vitriol when a white person with priors tries to visit (that I recall anyway).
Yeah ... but. It only really became an issue because Chris Brown had already been refused entry to other countries, which is the trigger under our law.
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Musonda, in reply to
Oops, yeah, his denial of an exemption would be very justified.
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Musonda, in reply to
I don't want to defend Brown - or Turia, just to point out that it seems as though every corner of the media/political establishment has coalesced far more quickly and effectively in their opposition to Brown than would be the case if he wasn't brown (the colour).
I'm not saying that means they're all racists, but as Kanoa pointed out, there seems to be two sets of standards.
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chris, in reply to
I don’t think it’s hugely helpful to use lyrics as a signifier of anything in particular
Absolutely, in this context where both the attacker and the victim are pop stars, at best it’s a tangent at worst it’s downright dangerous line to pursue. Above B Jones posted a track from two years before the assault as Rihanna having her say. Fortunately she didn’t post this incredibly ambiguous track recorded 9 or so months after the attack.
or its sequel:
Or some other similarly offensive artifice (Video SNFSFW)
If the lyrics had any tangible bearing perhaps the first place one would look would be those of the leaked Chris Brown and Rihanna’s duet during there brief reunion 2012-2013.
Sometimes lyrics might be a strong indicator sometimes not, some lyrics are pure autobiography, some just scratch the surface, some are pure fiction. Lyrics can inform attitudes, but there’s nothing unique about the attitudes Chris Brown appeals to and perpetuates. This is not about age:
It’s about violence.
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Rich Lock, in reply to
The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' is an interesting example. If you saw the play the Big Day Out you may recall that when those lines came up in the chorus you could barely hear yourself think for teenage girls screaming them back. The words very clearly did not mean to them what they meant to outsiders.
Well, I'm no doubt in a minority, but I used to be a Prodigy fan back in the day (first half of the '90's, when they were blowing up. 'Music for the jilted generation' was a huge release that more or less completely captured both the rave and the indie kid market. 'Smack my bitch up' was released as a single a few years after that, in 1997). I'm now firmly in the 'ex-fan' camp, with 'smack my bitch up' having a lot to do with that (that, and the music getting lazy and shite).
I'm hardly the type to call for the fainting couch and the smelling salts at the first whiff of scandal, but something about the obvious pleasure they took in using that particular wording, and their half-hearted 'no, we didn't really mean it like that' defence, really put me off. The final nail in the coffin was Liam Howlett's 1999 solo mix release, which included the original 1988 track that they sampled: Ultramagnetic MCs 'give the drummer some', which included the full phrase 'smack my bitch up, like a pimp', which he cut and repeated and brought front and centre in the mix to really drive it home. Wasn't impressed.
I know word definitions change and have a certain contextual fluidity, but I guess I'm too old school to let that one slide.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Far out. The Chopper Read who visited New Zealand was comedian Heath Franklin playing the part of Chopper Read.
And the West Memphis Three were, y’know, innocent.
No-one said Willie was bright.
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