I was accosted by a Rap artist on Sixth Avenue Thursday afternoon. He was out hocking his CD, one he had obviously produced himself. I hate being approached in the street, especially when it ends up someone is trying to sell me something. So I was wary when he stopped me. I was immediately hostile, my first reaction, get rid of the guy as quickly as possible. But he absorbed my first wave, and asked me if I knew the bass player from Pearl Jam, whom he asserted was from Montana (I was wearing a Montana sweatshirt). And it turns out he was right. Jeff Ament, the bass player for Pearl Jam, was indeed born in Montana, and not only that, but he was born in my home town, Havre. Havre Montana. I was having a conversation on Sixth Avenue and 8th Street with a rapper about Montana. And I ended up buying a CD. Now, I"m not a big fan of Rap music. I've never understood the popularity of Rap. I'm a bit of a philistine that way. And yet I ended up buying the CD. I'm going to see if I can explain to you, and to myself, why that happened.
The first thing he did was get me started talking about Montana. As I said, telling me Pearl Jam's bass player was from Montana, was I from Montana, where in Montana, etc. And because he had some actual knowledge, and was a personable guy, he disarmed me a bit by this. And then he said this: "There's not a lot of Black people in Montana, are there?" Which is true. There's not a large African American population in Montana. In all honesty, there were NO black people in Havre, Montana when I was growing up, and I doubt there are many now. Which is not to say there are no minority groups represented there at all. Asian and Native Americans make up a respectable portion of the population.
But that's what fascinates me about his approach. He played my inherent need to not appear racist and used it against me. Touché, sir. Well-played. And then, I was going to give him $5 for it, and had nothing but 10s and 20s in my wallet, so I gave him $10. For a CD in a slimline jewel case with no sign of commercial production. He really got me.
And, though I'm still not much of a fan of Rap music, I did put it in and listen. And I have to give him credit. The lyrics are often very witty and smart, and contain some quite brilliant uses of literary and pop culture allusions/references. I don't think I've ever listened to a rap CD from start to finish. Kudos.
I'm going to stop short of posting his name here or promoting him. When he was trying to convince me to buy it, he assured me he's not "killing anyone" in the lyrics, it's all about love. And no, no killing. But there are some beatings, delivered to "bitches," mostly. While I admit that I may not have the cultural base from which to understand a rap lyric fully, there are unquestionably some violent lyrics here, and I won't on principle promote anything that seems to advocate violence toward anybody.
But I will say, he's certainly more aggressive about getting his music out there than I am. This man was good. A good salesman. He engaged me on a personal level and got me to buy a product I normally would never have considered buying. It made me wonder, what am I doing to promote my CD?
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