As long as I’m asking unanswerable questions: what the fuck happened to KRS-One? Maybe it’s just the Alzheimer’s talking, but I seem to remember him coming out with some fairly socially conscious stuff back in the day. Can’t say I’ve heard anything from him recently, though. Did somebody hit him in the head or something? Surely there’s a better way to jump-start a failing career than by pissing on the ashes of the dead and discouraging people from voting. That’s just fucked up.
Actually, I was at that New Yorker Festival panel discussion...the audience was dumbfounded when he said that about 9/11. The other panelists (Krist Novoselic, Henry Rollins) were great, and KRS started out well, but then moved way out there. He had some good points about the origins of voter apathy and why the system didn't serve anyone, but then he started talking about how the answer was not to vote and the only solution was some sort of global utopia with no governments, no voting, no capitalism, and everybody helping each other out.
In the Q&A section, lots of people asked him sharply critical questions, and he responded with equanimity, but still had these really crazy fuzzy-headed ideas.
Afterwards, he was holding court at the front of the stage, and there was a cluster of people debating him. Everyone was poking holes in his "logic", but it didn't seem to bug him. He said something about how the system didn't work because the last president was selected by the Supreme Court instead of elected. I asked him why he cared, since he'd spoken at length about how all the major political parties are exactly the same and neither addressed the needs of the people. He brushed off the question and said that KRS-ONE was going to inspire people not to vote, that it would be okay for them not to vote since he was their role model.
I should have asked him if it was a bit odd for someone who made his name and his livelihood through the capitalist system -- and is proposing that he use his image to inspire people -- to then advocate its destruction. But I didn't think to at the time.
It was weird. I'll still like his music, but man oh man, was his political thinking half-baked.
Posted by: Vidiot | October 15, 2004 at 06:27 AM
man oh man, was his political thinking half-baked
Unlike the man himself, who was apparently fully baked, if not somewhat burnt.
Thank you. I'll be here all week.
Posted by: bmarkey | October 15, 2004 at 04:10 PM