What Are We Gonna Do With All This Trash?: Jay-Z Explains Why Indie Rock Matters

September 01, 2009

Jay-Z Explains Why Indie Rock Matters

"[Grizzly Bear is] an incredible band. The thing I want to say to everyone -- I hope this happens because it will push rap, it will push hip-hop to go even further -- what the indie rock movement is doing right now is very inspiring. It felt like us in the beginning. These concerts, they're not on the radio, no one hears about them, and there's 12,000 people in attendance. And the music that they're making and the connection they're making to people is really inspiring. So I hope that they have a run where they push hip-hop back a little bit, so it will force hip-hop to fight to make better music. Because it can happen. Because that's what rap did to rock.

"When rock was the dominant force in music, rap came and said, 'Y'all got to sit down for a second, this is our time.' And we've had a stranglehold on music since then. So I hope indie rock pushes rap back a bit because it will force people to make great music for the sake of making great music."

-- Jay-Z, explaining to MTV why he and his wife attended
the free Grizzly Bear show yesterday in Brooklyn

I love Hova.

3 comments:

Scrap Heap Pete said...: I'm not a huge fan of Grizzly Bear but I like what he said about the indie rock/hip-hop connection.

And even though I feel his emcee skills are a tad overrated, I can still respect him for things such as this.

Kanye though, I don't care how much he likes Lykke Li, Santigold, or Peter, Bjorn & John.; 8:07 PM
Mike said...: Yeah, Kayne's indie obsession seems -- like almost every public thing that dude does -- to be a grasp at being cool.

Like, have you ever seen the Zach Galifinakis/Will Oldham video for Kanye's "Can't Tell Me Nothing"? It's kinda funny to see them recontextualize rap video cliches into a rural, farm setting, but at the same time, it totally feels like a stab at indie cred. Like, hey hipster kids, do you think these indie culture representatives are cool? Well, so do I, so that then makes me also cool, right? It's the same shit Madonna has pulled her whole career: find some hip, underground thing or person and use it to demonstrate your own undeniable cool-ness.

What were we originally talking about?; 9:22 AM
Scrap Heap Pete said...: We were originally talking about H-to-the-Izzo and his indie rock fandom, I believe...; 2:42 PM

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A History Of Trash

Trash, at first, was a pretty cool guy. You know, he’d come over with some beers, and you’d hang out and have a couple of laughs. Maybe Trash brought some weed with him, and you guys tried to sync up Dark Side Of The Moon with The Wizard Of Oz until you remembered you lost your VHS copy of that movie sometime in college and that you fucking hate Pink Floyd. Good times were had, nonetheless.

But then, you don’t know what changed, but Trash started to overstay his welcome. He’d just linger for hours, never taking the hint you wanted him to leave, no matter how many times you yawned obnoxiously or mentioned how early you had to get up tomorrow. Trash just didn’t get it. You were getting older. You didn’t have the time anymore to stay up until 3 a.m. to talk about the Port season of “The Wire” or how much you miss Jawbox. Eventually, you just stopped taking Trash’s phone calls and no longer replied to his group e-mails about sneaking into abandoned mental hospitals.

Last time you saw Trash, he was smoking alone outside a local dive bar, looking down at his decaying and mismatched shoes. You hoped he had been doing well. You hoped he had not been hurt by the disintegration of your friendship. And if he had, you wanted to comfort him. You wanted to tell him that even though people move on with their lives, it doesn’t mean they stop caring. You wanted him to see in your eyes a sincere appreciation for the time you shared, because all the relationships in our lives help make us who we are, and even if you weren’t the best of friends anymore, you wanted him to know that there would always be a piece of Trash in your heart.

But instead, you looked away and crossed the street. You were with your new girlfriend, and you really didn’t want to have to explain Trash to her. She’d never understand.