SIGNIFYING RAPPERS – WHEN WHITE YUPPIES GET THE BLUES

SIGNIFYING RAPPERS by David Foster Wallace & Mark Costello

(Back Bay Books, 2013 – originally published 1990).

“Can blue men sing the whites, or are they hypocrites?” was the surreal and satirical question posed by the Bonzo Dog Band in 1968. In Signifying Rappers, David Foster Wallace (DFW) and Mark Costello are more in earnest when they ask themselves “What business do two white yuppies have trying to do a sampler on rap?”

In both instances, the question could be reframed as ‘What do privileged white people know about the music of disenfranchised blacks?’

Section one of the DFW & Costello’s book is called ‘Entitlement’ and, in it, they seek to convince the readers that they are qualified to analyse rap music despite being of the ‘wrong’ class and color. We learn of their frustration with Punk and other supposedly anti-establishment music which has been appropriated by the mainstream as the acceptable (i.e. unthreatening) face of rebellion.

DEFENDING JOAQUIN

If ‘Two Lovers’ does turn out to be Joaquin Phoenix’s last ever movie then at least he’s going out on a high note. His performance as the borderline dysfunctional Leonard Kraditor torn between the smartly sensible Sandra (Vinessa Shaw) and the sexily screwed up Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow)  is both riveting and totally convincing.

Just as Robert De Niro was Travis Bickle in  Taxi Driver or Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, Phoenix has that rare ability, which he also displayed as Johnny Cash in ‘Walk The Line’ to be totally at one with the character he is playing.