Please allow me several dollars worth of your valuable space to add my comments to the “50 Cent” issue which has captured debate in certain segments of our community.
Sir, as Bahamians, if insularity and close-mindedness does not manage to carry us off and kill us, then certainly, ignorance, hypocrisy and selective memory will do the trick.
50 Cent is supposed to be coming to our town and true to form, we have donned our cone-shaped hoods of intolerance and our white sheets of selective memory and hypocrisy and picked up our tar buckets and feather pillows. We have conveniently forgotten some of the musical and artistic heroes from our own youth and now we stand ready to tar and feather these modern rebels and run them out of town. Leave these young children alone and allow them to have their own musical heroes!
Trust me, Mr. Editor, I hold no special brief for 50 Cent or many artists of his ilk. He is rude, obstreperous and defiant; his music is unintelligible to me and his style of dress leaves much to be desired. But, he is an artist and is thought by many who understand such things to be a young performer whose star is on the rise. Young adults love him, buy his music and follow his story. For that alone, he has earned my respect. I do not know of any lazy successful artists, for it is indeed a hard-driving demanding, competitive world where the days are long, the performances grueling and the audience fickle at best. 50 Cent has made it thus far and I congratulate him for his achievements.
Beyond that, however, he is an artist who has come from the mean, ghetto streets of the United States. He owns a colourful and controversial background indeed, and a recent past (let us remember that he is still a very young man) which seems to be hugging him tightly even as he attempts to re-invent himself and create a different present and future out of his success.
But is he very dramatically different from thousands of artists both past and present whose works we all adore today, count as major inspiration for many of our own actions, make love to their music, recite their poetry or even use some of their works as texts for our worship?
Just a few reminders, Mr. Editor:
King David of the Old Testament was a poor little shepherd boy who was a bit of a brawler, a wife stealer, murderer, war-monger and all-around rogue. But he was also beloved of God and chosen as a King. And man, could David sing, could he write, could he dance and perform. What would Christian worship be without his beautiful, plaintive, defiant, contrite, vengeful, loving Psalms?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was the son of a parson, ran away from home at seven, grew up in orphanages, lied about his age in order to join the Army and had a life-long addiction to opium. But this great artist became a prominent literary critic, writer and poet. He is credited for introducing many phrases into the English language including the word “aesthetic ” and the term “selfless.” No true student of English literature could possibly earn any sort of degree without a full study of Coleridge’s poem, “Xanadu” which he wrote while heavily under the influence of opium, and which tells of the exotic pleasures of the empire of the legendary Kubla Khan.
Lewis Carroll ( Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1832-1898 – of Alice in Wonderland fame, also the son of a churchman, was a don at Oxford University, a mathematician and early amateur photographer. His famous collection of photos of little children, mainly little girls has left the literary world still grappling with the issue of whether or not his interest in little children was merely the curiosity of an artist for his subjects or if it was perhaps the unhealthy interest of a rather mysterious, but brilliant young man who was reportedly more comfortable around children than around adults.
The world has come to love the late Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) and we regard his music as the signature of an era when life was simpler, cigarettes and booze were not harmful and every year was a “very good year.” Yet, Sinatra, along with his running buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, (the infamous ‘rat pack’) did things his own way, and was reported to have had long and intimate connections with the Mafia of the time.
Then there is Elvis Presley (1935-1977), another one from the wrong sides of the tracks in Mississippi who gyrated his way into prominence on the entertainment scene and whose copying of black entertainers’ singing and dancing style caused the white world to look beyond the copycat to the originals. Elvis died fat, depressed and drug overdosed, but boy he could sing a love song, a ballad, a rock ‘n’ roll song or a Negro spiritual. Today, his fan club is one of the most enduring on the music scene.
Remember Marvin Gaye?(1939-1984) His album “What’s Going On” has become a musical icon of the 1970’s and today, his songs protesting war and environmental degradation in the 1970’s have been discovered and adopted by a whole new generation. He too was the sons of a preacher, but as an adult, he developed all the wrong antecedents and all the socially unacceptable behaviours. Today, however, we honour him as a great artist.
Or James Brown (1928 -),”Godfather of Soul,” who amazed us with his splits, his colourful costumes, his high energy performances and his affirmation that we were all black and proud. Today, he is still considered a grand master of his art, but every so often he is dragged off to court or to jail for physically abusing his women.
Do we remember David Ruffin (1941-1991) of the original Temptations? For many years Ruffin, the son of a Baptist preacher, was the voice of the Temptations. He left the group, pursued a solo career for a while and eventually died of a drug overdose. He was unreliable, arrogant and weak, but oh, boy, Ruffin could sing, and his lead voice on Temptations songs such as “My Girl” is an intrinsic element in any golden oldies atmosphere.
Or the very talented and youthful Andy Gibb (1958-1988), who at one point was a part of the BeeGee’s? This Australian youngster rocked the world with his voice and had the privilege of singing along with many entertainment greats of the eighties, including Barbara Streisand. He died of a drug overdose, but yet today his art survives him as a wonderful example of a pure voice, clear harmony and excellent musicianship.
Mr.Editor, many of my generation made love to Al Green’s music. He was “Simply Beautiful,” we were “So in Love” with him and we all promised to “Stay Together” As long as Al Green was producing the music for our private trysts and public dances. In fact, many of us still wonder if it was the message in the hot grits or the message from the Holy Ghost which finally lost him to us of the more secular sphere and converted him To the gospel ministry.
Do I make my point clear Mr.Editor? Any or all of the artists mentioned above would have been more than welcome to visit and perform in The Bahamas. We would have found a way to look beyond their personal lives, beyond their foibles and to honour their art.
ﾠThe classic purpose of art is to make us uncomfortable so as to make us think. Is 50 Cent any more controversial, any more racy, any more sordid and seamy than earlier literary or musical luminaries ever were?
Certainly, the young man is unacceptable to me and my (50ish) generation. Certainly, he s too brazen, too naked, too much in our faces. We’ve become a kinder, gentler, softer group now. Life may have blurred and softened the hard edges of life and the art and artists that many of us once enjoyed, reveled in and flaunted before the very eyes of our senior generation.
Those who know these things say 50 Cent he is a great artist. If it is true, perhaps he will live long enough to mellow and to have his art become classic like the great art and artists of our youth and all youth before us have become. If not, then time will take care of it all and then another youthful artist will occupy our attention. Until then, let the young man sing.
For myself, Editor, 50 Cent still a bit too raw, his lifestyle a bit too controversial, his habits a bit too anti-social. I prefer artists who croon love songs to women in that slow, seductive manner like Johnny Mathis does ﾅ oops! Or to come fully groomed and well dressed like Luther Vandross ﾅ oops, again! Or to sing about pristine oceans and fresh mountain air like the late John Denver didﾅ uh oh!. Well how about those who live healthy, drug-free lives and can belt out an inspirational songs like Whitney Houston does? No?
Or should I mention entertainers from the glory nightclub era of Nassau who loved the ladies and sang in clubs and rooms with names from ancient Africa?
Oops, again?
Hon. Theresa Moxey-Ingraham
Nassau.
