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| The dope on rap "Dear Puff Kelley
This was Puff Kelley's response:
"Two points come to mind, both from my Intro to Women's Studies class this month. First, from a video called Tough Guise on masculinity, the origin of the gangsta pose and music. You know, the whole kill da motha-fuckin' bitch scenario. The white rappers like eminem copy the black rappers of the 80s, who are in fact copying the block-buster movies of the 1970s, like Godfather and Chinatown. The idea is that men without money or power compensate by the pose of power: physical intimidation and the constant threat of violence.
The second comes from one of my favorite students - the one who led the discussion of penis size on Wednesday night. She is from Detroit, where eminem is from, and is a big participant of the club scene. She says that eminem is in fact a rather small and frail man, and that his work in the early days was very traditional rap - mostly about sex and getting arrested. It is only since trying to break into the national market that he has become so excessively violent with his lyrics, as well as homophobic, and that it is all very much an act to get attention.
I was listening to a radio discussion which pointed to the rather pronounced homo-erotic content in his lyrics as well - he's just a very closeted and insecure queen, in other words.
But the thing is, rap strikes a chord [sic] with the majority of white youth - it is part of a pose, and even if they cut their hair short instead of growing it long, it's a way of saying you are greater than the authority over you.
Bummer, eh? But take heart: we thought that Madonna would never go away, and in a way, she has."
We're still not entirely sure when to plan the party.
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Last week, Steely Dan won a couple of awards at the Grammys. This made the ageing editors at Pigdump extremely happy. True, that eminem fella also won an award or two (and even got a big smooch from Sir Elton John), but we didn't let that get us down. Instead, we wrote to a highly placed US pop culture expert, Puff Kelley, for some advice:
