Mired in Northern Virginia traffic, a good spring day and
car windows are rolled down. I am idling next to a Toyota whose stereo system is
blasting, “I ain’t f*cking with you, you little dumb ass bitch.” This is shouted
about twenty times by a singer—I use the word loosely—named Big Sean. Big Sean changes
the words once or twice to, “I don’t f*ck with you, you li’l stupid ass bitch,”
and caps it off with, “You li’l, you li’l Bitch, I don’t give a f*ck about you
or anything that you do.” Notice that this rhymes, an accomplishment repeated
eight to twelve times. The lyrics are accompanied by the sort of minimalist electronic
backbeat favored a decade or so ago by the German group Kraftwerk.
Personally, I’m fascinated by anything that can mix anger,
potential violence, illiteracy, misogyny and meaningless cursing so effectively
in so few words. I suspect there are a few neat-o dance moves when this is performed
live. As they say in my neighborhood, congrats, Big Sean, you da man.
But here’s a thought that crept in as the Toyota pulled
away. I’m wondering if maybe Big Sean is
the Marcel Duchamp of our time. You remember Marcel, of the 1917 Fountain sculpture, which was nothing
more than a urinal. It caused a sensation and redefined art. Is that what Big
Sean is doing? Shocking us into an awareness that all is not as it appears to
be?
Nah. Been there, done that. Using the word f*ck gratuitously
is nothing new. It’s been overdone in music, literature, and movies, and now seems
hopelessly juvenile. In contrast, there was something behind Duchamp’s urinal,
a desire to prove that art could be readymade, and that the artist was
displaying creativity by choosing, by
displaying new thought to select the object shown. In other words, Duchamp
moved art from the realm of the never-before-seen-until-conceived to that of
the quotidian. Big Sean is cashing in on our weariness for the ugly, the
stupid, and inappropriate.
Some of Duchamp’s works will be displayed at the National
Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, beginning August 9. On that exact same day,
Big Sean will be appearing in Washington as well. Coincidence, or what?
I’m pretty sure I know where I’ll be.
No comments:
Post a Comment