Dojo Of Coolness
Monday, October 04, 2004
Hip-hop = Culture?
Our new PM,Lee Hsien Loong has,in a not-so- recent interview with Time magazine,expressed his desire to allow for more space for the expression of self and Time magazine included an accompanying picture of a group of Singaporean punks clad in all their steel & leather/PVC glory.
This move towards a more "liberal" society has resulted in a vibrant explosion of youth sub-cultures like the skinhead movement,the "mods" revival,the punks and the most blatantly commercial,hip-hop. These youth sub-cultures have claimed the streets as the origin of their ideologies,lifestyle and fashion.A local rap group,X-statix can be quoted as saying in one of their songs that Hip-hop is a culture not a "concept".
Oh PLEASE!
With no disrespect to X-statix and their craft,i think the whole notion of any of these juvenile trends(skinhead,hip-hop etc.) being a culture is absolutely absurd and laughable. If you're gonna subscribe to a "culture",you might as well subscribe to the one you were born into and just fucking shut the hell up.At least it'll please your parents and you could get an allowance increase.
We could just wear the baju-kurung and tumbuk belacan if you wanna talk about culture. Whatever happened to being "yourself", listening to songs you want to listen to,watching movies that you actually enjoy and wearing clothes that won't exactly turn your balls into reservoirs of sweat? The"mods" revival is one of the most nonsensical sub-cultures with its "unconditional and unquestioning embrace of anything British and anything that has the logo of the Union Jack". These "mods" listen to any band that's British no matter how crap some of these bands are (read:Rialto),list boring-as-dog-shit films as essential vieweing e.g Quadrophenia and are required to grow hair that (at least!) touches the ear. "Mods" and "modettes"(female versions of these shitheads) walk around town in their trendy glasses and address each other as "lads,blokes and genital warts(okay,the last one's a lie). Skinheads and punks on the other hand present themselves as the anti-thesis of these mods with their counter-culture fashion. They perceive "mods" and "hip-hoppers"(for lack of a better word) as being trendy pussies. I totally agree with this. However,agreeing with them does not constitues approval for them as these skinheads are blatantly contradictory and plain dumb-asses ESPECIALLY when they spout their "working-class" and "oppressed" rhetoric. Apparently being "youths of the working class" means that these skinheads actually have the money to buy 3 pairs of Doc. Martens each costing close to $200. Well done,the oppressed youth of the proletariat. Stupid fucks.These different sub-cultures requires these teenagers to spend their parent's hard earned money on brands like Merc,Lonsdale,Phat Farm and Avirex. Teenagers becomes a consumed consumer dictated by a label that was supposedly to free them of the restrictions of conventional society. Ironic huh? If you're gonna be a blind sheep and follow everything that others tell you,you might as well visit your local mosque and seek tutelage form the pak imams there. at least it'll bring you one step closer to the "syurga".
Your hostile neighbourhood ninja,
Zainal Abidin
p.s Teenagers should be eaten alive
This move towards a more "liberal" society has resulted in a vibrant explosion of youth sub-cultures like the skinhead movement,the "mods" revival,the punks and the most blatantly commercial,hip-hop. These youth sub-cultures have claimed the streets as the origin of their ideologies,lifestyle and fashion.A local rap group,X-statix can be quoted as saying in one of their songs that Hip-hop is a culture not a "concept".
Oh PLEASE!
With no disrespect to X-statix and their craft,i think the whole notion of any of these juvenile trends(skinhead,hip-hop etc.) being a culture is absolutely absurd and laughable. If you're gonna subscribe to a "culture",you might as well subscribe to the one you were born into and just fucking shut the hell up.At least it'll please your parents and you could get an allowance increase.
We could just wear the baju-kurung and tumbuk belacan if you wanna talk about culture. Whatever happened to being "yourself", listening to songs you want to listen to,watching movies that you actually enjoy and wearing clothes that won't exactly turn your balls into reservoirs of sweat? The"mods" revival is one of the most nonsensical sub-cultures with its "unconditional and unquestioning embrace of anything British and anything that has the logo of the Union Jack". These "mods" listen to any band that's British no matter how crap some of these bands are (read:Rialto),list boring-as-dog-shit films as essential vieweing e.g Quadrophenia and are required to grow hair that (at least!) touches the ear. "Mods" and "modettes"(female versions of these shitheads) walk around town in their trendy glasses and address each other as "lads,blokes and genital warts(okay,the last one's a lie). Skinheads and punks on the other hand present themselves as the anti-thesis of these mods with their counter-culture fashion. They perceive "mods" and "hip-hoppers"(for lack of a better word) as being trendy pussies. I totally agree with this. However,agreeing with them does not constitues approval for them as these skinheads are blatantly contradictory and plain dumb-asses ESPECIALLY when they spout their "working-class" and "oppressed" rhetoric. Apparently being "youths of the working class" means that these skinheads actually have the money to buy 3 pairs of Doc. Martens each costing close to $200. Well done,the oppressed youth of the proletariat. Stupid fucks.These different sub-cultures requires these teenagers to spend their parent's hard earned money on brands like Merc,Lonsdale,Phat Farm and Avirex. Teenagers becomes a consumed consumer dictated by a label that was supposedly to free them of the restrictions of conventional society. Ironic huh? If you're gonna be a blind sheep and follow everything that others tell you,you might as well visit your local mosque and seek tutelage form the pak imams there. at least it'll bring you one step closer to the "syurga".
Your hostile neighbourhood ninja,
Zainal Abidin
p.s Teenagers should be eaten alive
poison penis, 6:59 AM
