I can think of very few things a price tag can’t be placed on. Whether that price is currency-related or opportunity-related, most anything these days can be profitable. The way you style your hair, the science behind how and when you decide to order a cup of coffee and the language you use when conversing with friends and family are the lifeblood of the American marketplace. African-Americans spend billions of dollars a year on consumer goods, and in 2013 Nielsen declared African-American consumers are more relevant than ever. That’s why brands make it their business to try and master or even predict your preferences. However, their manufactured clairvoyance usually doesn’t pass the smell test. It’s how you end up with things like the ill-fated Mary J. Blige, “What’s in the new chicken wraps?” spot for Burger King, one that was never supposed to see the light of day but, thanks to the magic of the Internet, found its way to YouTube where it can be scoffed at in perpetuity.
This cycle of watching you, packaging you and selling you back to yourself is nothing new. It was the subject of a fantastic Frontline documentary produced by PBS in the early 2000s titled “The Merchants of Cool,” which explored the symbiotic relationship between counterculture and the media. It’s free on the PBS website, and I encourage you to watch it and share it with a friend.
In hip-hop culture, where authenticity is everything (or at least at some point it was), popular artists are routinely labeled sell-outs for their participation in this system, particularly artists who are labeled conscious or attempt to have a conscious moment. How dare they try to talk about “real ish” while being backed by the machine? Enter Beyonce at the Super Bowl and Kendrick Lamar at the Grammys.
Ernest Owens of the Huffington Post said of Beyonce’s halftime show, “Being a visible face for female empowerment and Black excellence is admirable, but exploiting that favor for capitalistic gains is disappointing. Whether you want to admit it or not, that’s what Beyonce did with her new single ‘Formation,’ and it’s sad to see how many people are buying into it.”
Though the Kendrick backlash hasn’t been quite as rough, many critics have called into question the sincerity of his performance as well.
Here’s the thing — isn’t dissing Beyonce and Kendrick’s performances because of their supposed corporate influence a sort of “throwing the baby out with the bath water” move? Are they less aware or are their efforts less genuine and impactful because CBS may have profited? Look, I get it. Someone may have figured out a way to commodify this revolutionary-esque moment we’re experiencing. Is it wrong that that’s not what I care about right now? Maybe if you’re one of the detractors, you see what Bey and K. Dot did as nothing more than an artfully packaged sedative meant to keep us happy, dancing and distracted. If you’re one of those who celebrated and reposted their performances online over and over again, perhaps this is your James Brown “I’m Black and I’m Proud” moment. As a Black person living in America, no one needs to preach to you about what it’s like. You know all too well there is a lot to be enraged about. But does that mean we should stop creating art and celebrating moments like this? You may argue that Beyonce and Kendrick are nothing more than puppets and their shallow attempts have no righteous merit.
Riddle me this: if you were the puppeteer, wouldn’t it be lot easier to prop these two up with messages of death and destruction instead of pride, hope and liberation?
Beyonce and Kendrick may not change the world, but what they did may spark the minds that do.
On another note, Bill Clinton and Meryl Streep have recently come out as mixed race and African, respectively. Right. To quote Paul Mooney in his infamous “Ask a Black Dude” sketch on the Chappelle Show (a highly rated television series on a major network that undoubtedly made lots of white folks rich, yet no one seems to negate the impact of), “Everybody wants to be a (fill in the blank) but nobody wants to be a (fill in the blank).”
I couldn’t agree more.
Ebony Chappel is a columnist for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. She can be reached at ebonyc@indianapolisrecorder.com.
