Comments on: Kill Your Idols

By: skateboard joe cool

skateboard joe cool — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:26:37 +0000

skateboard joe cool…

Which is or was your favorite cartoon character?…

By: 78

78 — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:30:50 +0000

Again with a controversial article.

And again with an article that I disagree on several points.

First JUSTICE and their new video.

The La Haine arguement was well put to rest by “F”.

Look at the age of JUSTICE. I think that’s a BIG clue as to why the video was made and its possible intentions.

I don’t know where you grew up and how much traveling you did in the 90s or more recently, so I can’t comment on your exposure/knowledge as to what kids were listening to on the STREETS.

So, turning a blind-eye now, S.V. not everyone was listening to punk or hip hop in the streets. And now, people are listening to even more different types of music than EVER before in the HISTORY of civilization.

In Rotterdam you had a HUGE movement with the GABBA scene (a hard electronica), where kids wore, much like a uniform, but BDU pants and MA-1 jackets with Air Maxes. In much of London you had Jungle. Further south in the UK you had ‘trip hop’.

And so forth.

So to say the video is inaccurate in representing the music and dress sense of the youth is well, inaccurate!

It’s a great video.

WHY?

Because it caused a REACTION in people. Everyone’s numb nowadays. And this, like Don P. said, was a smack in the face. Now remember who’s lyrics were used by The Prodigy? Kool Keith. NOW you as a listener of hip hop should be aware of his lyrics.

NOW what is the difference between the material Kool Keith was putting out nearly 20yrs ago to what Justice did with this video?

Things haven’t changed much have they?

Just the medium is now the internet and intensity has increased.

Now NIKE.

If you think it was not appropriate for all these ’streetwear’ creators to go to Beijing because of the ’sell out’ factor.

Well then you should also be appalled by them working with Nike in the first place all those years ago! But you aren’t. You covet those items.

And don’t forget that the majority of Nike products is MADE IN CHINA.

As a SPORTS APPAREL company the OLYMIPICS is the BIGGEST event every 4 years. The biggest.

OFCOURSE they’re going to have a HUGE event to launch their new products and their biggest event at their biggest production point.

And to GAIN MAXIMUM EXPOSURE they’re going to bring the catalytic ‘gods’ that helped give them their recent profitable years - and we all know this already.

FUCK.

By: INOMINOUS

INOMINOUS — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:13:59 +0000

Gregg, I agree positivity is more worthwhile than negativity, but a critical stance shouldn’t be just considered “negative”. Overstand that what I’m doing here is defining some of the terms used in the blog post, e.g. “street culture”, which is this website’s aegis. If you care about those terms or that thing, and disagree with what I’ve said, then it’s worth arguing the toss, isn’t it? I.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:20:15 +0000

I dont agree with you on the Justice rant. I dont think Justice made that video to show their ’streetness’.. I dont really think that the music video idolizes the group of ‘thugs’. It merely shows their day to day reality, and in the suburbs of France this is every day reality. If anything the video shows the horrific side of what is generally known as ‘cool’. I watched the video and I was disgusted, not because I oppose the violence, but because I know that this is what goes on. I also think that the video perfectly complements the song, because these kids are under stress and their rash actions and decisions are coming from the pressure they feel. They have to sustain themselves and resort to violence and crime to do so. I love the video and I thought it would raise some awareness to issues prevalent in but not restricted to the French suburbs..

feel free to contact me if you would really like to discuss this further.. (yeah that might be a little weird, but still.)

By: gregg

gregg — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:12:25 +0000

I was thinking of this. I want to hear more positivity. Personally, for too long I’ve let things like this get under my skin and take up my time and thoughts. Man I want to focus on things that are good. For example, I only need to hear Fall Out Boy’s cover of “Beat It” one time to know that it’s shite, but I could go on and on about the goodness of “Stakes is High” for ages.

So few and farther between, but the real good shit is usually more fruitful. It always gives birth to more original ideas and thoughts. For my creative, thinking side, this is the future I want to see.

By: gregg

gregg — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:12:00 +0000

“is it worth it? Is it worth writing about something that makes you angry or is my time better spent writing and sharing positive events and thoughts in my life?”

By: INOMINOUS

INOMINOUS — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:35:34 +0000

Ok Gregg, how about: “Streetwear” is an effect of marketing. It will die on its hole. The bona fide cultures from which “streetwear” cops its attitudes and bites its guises may die but will rise again. The situation SheOne describes is the shortest of short-term shit.

By: gregg

gregg — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:53:07 +0000

I want to know how you would flip these thoughts if you went for the positivity bent instead. Call it a writing challenge. You ain’t scared, are ya?

By: SheOne

SheOne — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:43:49 +0000

RE The situation of a large sportwear corp. importing a bit of cultural credability, I am actually fine with it. Unfortunately as a creative, one is often in need of patronism and as we know brands are constantly in need of the elusive COOL factor, its the grey area of this collusion (collaboration i probably meant to write) that makes people uncomfortable, and most usually the resulting product is never as memorable or as important as the theory of said collaboration itself would suggest. If we looked at creatives represented as PEACE and brands as War then for the best analogy of this situation we would need to look to the lyrics of TheCult to best describe the situation “Peace is a dirty word, she used to be a painted bird - War, she’s a whore, don’t you know you love her, more and more”……

By: F

Thu, 15 May 2008 08:22:17 +0000

Whats with all the La Haine comparison, it was 10 years ago, and this isn’t actually that similar.
Rather than panning Justice for the video has anyone checked who actually directed it?
I’m pretty sure they don’t take care of promo duties themselves, thats given to some young hotshot out to “shock” you.
What’s scarier is that it’s quite close to things going on in the UK right now, Obviously not stylish gangs dressed in matching satin jackets (although in some cases thats close) but gangs of kids going out stealing from shops around London, guys getting stabbed on Oxford street in the middle of the day, 16 year old kids getting their throats cut and Dads getting their heads kicked in in front of their kids.
Most of those things happened just the past few weeks (way more over the past year) and mostly done by groups teenagers or young men.
In the end it’s just a video, if it had been directed by a big name like Chris Cunningham for example, would that change the opinion?
At least it shows that things have only gotten worse in the 10 years since they “ripped off” La Haine.