“Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure,” John Legend
Migos
In “Johnny Cash Never Shot a Man in Reno. Or, The Migos: Nice Kids from the Suburbs” (2016) essayist Hanif Abdurriqib addresses his barber’s criticism that Migos are not authentic rappers because Offset, Takeoff, and Quavo grew up in the suburb of Lawrenceville, Georgia, north of Atlanta. Proverbial sword drawn, the hair stylist sneered that they’re “rapping about all this trap shit and they ain’t never even been to the trap.” Trap houses are successors to crack houses and refer to places where kickback parties take place young participants go to get high, perhaps have sex, and play video and bondage games. Abdurraqib wrote:
Culture is the album that is set to be the group’s coronation. The first single, “Bad and Boujee,” is the country’s number one song. It’s being sung in trap houses and minivans. They have entered the realm of many rap acts who have had number one songs in recent months: fascination in the suburbs. And in the hood, a gentle resentment.
The previous year, after a Migos concert at Georgia Southern University, Offset was arrested for possession of narcotics and a loaded gun and incarcerated for eight months due to a previous criminal record. Abdurraqib wrote:
The members of Migos are what they are and what they’ve always been. Like Johnny Cash in the mid-1960s, they spent time getting too close to the fire. It is hard to build a myth so large without eventually becoming part of it. I’m less interested in what happens in the hood you’re from and I’m more interested in how you can honor that place, especially for people who might not know that history. Migos, more than anything, are still North Atlanta’s party starters; now it’s the rest of the world that is catching on.
Back on stage in New York, Offset yells to the crowd. Something about how good it is to make it out of where they are from alive. The word “from” hangs in the air. The lights fade to black.
Regarding the question of whether Migos’ music is authentic, Abdurraqib concluded: “I do not know what it is that makes a person real, but I imagine it is the way they can convince you of the things they have not done.”
Being from the Philadelphia suburb of Fort Washington, I’ve never felt the need to apologize for my WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) legacy or background. Nor, I believe, does it make me less authentic when I have long embraced black music, not rap necessarily but rhythm ‘n’ blues and soul, from Ray Charles to John Legend. If part of growing up is rebelling from one’s roots, I’m thankful for the security my parents provided. Besides, guilt, liberal or otherwise, is a wasted emotion and a poor substitute for helping the less fortunate. That said, it’s frustrating being powerless to prevent our White House mad hatter from carrying out unconscionable actions. His latest, dwarfing all others: giving Turkish leader Recap Erdogan the green light to wage war against the Kurds, America’s staunchest ally against ISIS. He has put to rest the veneer of American exceptionalism and exposed the worst features of the axiom that power corrupts.
Kurds fleeing bombing by Turks
In the Northwest Indiana suburbs of Chesterton and Valparaiso, I enjoyed two successful bridge games partnering with 76-year-old Joel Charpentier, who still referees high school soccer matches and volunteers at a food pantry. I had trouble pronouncing his name until learning that it was French and the correct pronunciation was in four syllables with the accent on the second, like French actor and cabaret singer Maurice Chevalier. I continued my innocent flirtation with 89-year-old Dottie Hart, massaging her shoulders during a break. “Can I take you home with me?” she joked. “Only if your daughter is not home,” I replied. With the treats I found a napkin inscribed, “Make your rap about the day.” I’m totally without imagination and couldn’t even contribute a simple line to Corey Hagelberg’s group poem about Gary. At Strack and Van Til the check-out out lady, Dominique, asked if anyone had told me I resembled novelist Stephen King. Actually, the answer is yes. It must be the hair. I almost replied that people used to say I looked like Rick Nelson and now it’s Bob Barker. I envy Stephen King’s fertile mind. I couldn’t begin to write fiction.
above, Stephen King; below
Harris and Parton
The next-to-last Country Music episode profiled Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. Harris quit college to pursue a music career in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Performing folk songs in coffeehouses and small clubs, she met Gram Parsons, a Floridian who came to love country music while at Harvard. Emmylou’s Grammy-winning “Roots” album “Blue Kentucky Girl” (1979) contains standards by the Louvin Brothers (“Everytime You Leave”) and Willie Nelson (“Sister’s Coming Home”). Parton, born in a one-room cabin in East Tennessee, joined Porter Wagoner’s TV show at age 20 and had a huge hit with “Jolene,” about a woman who begs another not to steal her man (“Please don’t take him just because you can”). Dolly claimed she modeled her image after a hot-looking town prostitute (Jolene?) whose style she admired. She dismissed “dumb blond” jokes by countering that she’s neither dumb nor blond. She moved on to pop and acting success, co-starring with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in “9 to 5” (1980), but never forsook her image as a country girl at heart. Parton’s astute business sense led to a line of Dolly dolls and the water park Dollyland.
NWI Times photo of Hatcher below by Lauren Cross
At the unveiling of a bronze statue near City Hall of five-term mayor (1968-1987) Richard Gordon Hatcher Gary Crusader publisher Dorothy R. Leavell eulogized: “When nobody will disturb the norm, a disruptor who knows what it ought to be will come in and speak truth to power. It’s is the greatest compliment I can give you.” Carolyn McCrady thanked Hatcher for caring about the less fortunate: “When NIPSCO was throwing people out of their homes in the middle of winter because they couldn’t pay their bills, Hatcher used the power of his office to let people know that NIPSCO was wrong, and the people were right.” I don’t have many political heroes, but Hatcher is the most authentic officeholder I’ve ever met. He remained true to his ideals and endured 25 years in the arena unbossed, unbought, and with head unbowed.
IUN Police force; Roy Dominguez top, second from left; below him are Brady Ratcliff and (seated) Chief Lazar
Lake County sheriff Roy Dominguez was another authentic public servant who I came to know well when collaborating on his autobiography “Valor.” He recently posted a photo of the IUN police force in 1975, (he was a cadet), asking how many I recognized. Right away, Chief Andy Lazar and African-American officer Brady Ratcliff stood out in civilian clothes. Former campus cop Don Young recalled:
Chief Andy Lazar never yelled or screamed and talked to me like I was his son. He made you realize that mistakes happened but that one should learn from them. Brady Ratcliff had spent 20 years in the military, never wore a uniform, and made it a point to socialize with students. He was a great mechanic and a stickler for being on time. If I came in a minute or two late, he’d say, “You see that clock? You’re late. Don’t let it happen again.”
Roy remarked: "Andy and Brady always elected to wear the blazer. Andy retired from Gary PD, and I guess he had his fill of the regular police uniform. He always preferred the softer approach to his job and life. He was a wonderful mentor and taught us all that public service included politeness and patience until it was to no avail. Of course, Andy was a pretty big man and no one in their right mind wanted to test his patience. We would say Andy should have been a priest and his equally, beloved brother, Father Lazar should have been the cop in their family."
A judge sentenced Sherquell Magee (above) to 40 years for shooting an 11-year-old bystander while defending himself after being jumped by several kids from a rival East Chicago neighborhood. Magee had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The judge chastised Magee for showing no remorse, but the defendant’s attorney claimed he advises clients not to apologize during the trial.
In 1991 N.W.A.’s Eazy-E received an invitation from President George Bush to a White House lunch fundraiser. Paying $4,000, he showed up in a suit and L.A. Kings cap. Fifteen years later, Hanif Abdurraqib wrote:
I watched as a child who only knew that Eazy-E was a part of a rap group that scared people. But there he was, in the White House, with businessmen, senators, and a president who would likely prefer his music to be banned. It was at the time a rare access granted to any rapper, but especially one who was seen as too intense for some of rap’s younger, more eager fans. Not everyone was impressed. For some it was an item of shame and ridicule. In the diss track “No Vaseline,” Ice Cube opens the final verse, repeating the same line, a thinly veiled shot: “I’d never have dinner with the President.”
Above my desk now, a picture of Barack Obama, surrounded. Rappers on every side of him, dressed however they chose to dress. Rappers with their honest sings about the people who live and die in places often used as political talking points, standing proud in front of their proud president. All those smiling black people in the Oval Office. Miles away from a past where none of them, I imaging, ever thought they’d get to make it this far. The door that Barack Obama pushed open for rappers to be seen and comfortable in his White House presented a new type of power dynamic. What strikes me is that it may never be like this again.
Jim Spicer’s joke of the week:
A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door. Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote “Revelation 3:20” on the back of it and stuck it in the door.
When the offering was processed at the next worship service, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, “Genesis 3:10” Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Genesis 3:10 reads, “I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked.”
When the offering was processed at the next worship service, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, “Genesis 3:10” Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Genesis 3:10 reads, “I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked.”
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