this is super dope. marginalized bodies doing marginalized shit reinserting themselves back into the cityscape in ways that can’t be ignored. y’all better werq.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Legendary dancer Carmen de Lavallade on the cover of the June 30, 1954 issue of Hue magazine, a Johnson publication.
1. his hair. im having a bit of an obsession with thick locs right now. 2. i can respect any hip hop track that incorporate djembes/African drums. 3. the first words out of his mouth is “you’re over-civilized.” instant win. 4. he’s so bouncy! 5. i dig the concept and the execution. 6., and the is most important, i ESPECIALLY dig how they filmed the dance sequences. not a bunch of quick cuts attempting to generate artificial excitement, the dancing is allowed to speak for itself. i don’t know why editors have insisted on butchering dance on film for so long. look at MichaelJackson'svideos and how dance was framed, versus how it's treated today. (and, i realize that might not be the fairest comparison. Michael and Usher were/are operating from vastly different places in terms of how the music industry worked and how music videos were made. MJ was able to do what he did w/ music videos because at the time - the 80s - the music video was still an experimental form. and Usher is coming from a post-90s, post-Hype Williams, post moment of codification of what music videos "have" to look like. and he's also coming from an era that has effectively collapsed the boundaries between rap and R&B - R&B (contemporary anyway) is basically rap's little brother now. but at the same time i think there's something there worth investigating in terms of the increasing marginalization of dance and dancing bodies in rap/pop/R&B music videos since the 80s, where it goes from this really central thing to this more ornamental thing....and maybe the gendered dynamics of this process?) 7. i also like how they’re doing hip hop dance in fancy dresses.
