**LIVE THROUGH THIS**
It's hard to keep your chin up sometimes when you spend a vast amount of time smoking and watching Vh1 in your pajamas because you don't really have a job and the news is so depressing that you can't watch CNN for fear of bursting into tears and not being able to get out of bed for three days so, in the hopes of keeping my spirits up I've made some decisions. After reading basically the same two stories in 4 different magazines I've decided that I am going to become the biggest fan and loudest supporter of both Big Boi and Courtney Love.
See, the most recent issues of Blender, Q, Rolling Stone and Spin have all had OutKast and Courtney stories promenently featured and none of them has any new news to offer.
In short: OutKast are basically breaking up. Andre (who made funkier, more out-there choices with his music and personal style was always my favorite.) basically says that, if it weren't for having two more outstanding OutKast projects, he and Big Boi- his childhood friend and partner- wouldn't even be in each others lives, let alone still be friends. And this is always followed by some sad quote from Big Boi about how they are brothers. Dre doesn't want to tour. Big Boi does. Dre thinks that Big Boi is just in it for the money and, though Big Boi wanted to make music together and collaborate on their separate solo albums Speakerboxx/the Love Below, Dre would only let him participate on one track on his album ("roses"). Dre wants to be an actor and with all of his new Hollywood friends he doesn't need (and I'm editorializing here, but this is the sense I've gotten from these 4 articles I've read now) his pot-smoking, meat-eating, dollar-grubbing ex-partner. And the saddest part is Big Boi's response is always, "Nah, we're still brothers. He's just difficult sometimes. I love him." It's just too pathetic. Big Boi is talented and he deserves better.
When Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out, a friend of mine who LOVES OutKast said that he was disapointed and that Dre's half was uneven and unfinshed. But he said that he was proud of Big Boi for serving the fans and keeping it real and making good hip hop. At the time, I scoffed and said that he wasn't reaching out to the crossover audience as well as Dre and was not as skilled an experimentor. But now....I vow to be the biggest Big Boi fan ever. He does serve OutKast's fans- which is more than I can say of Andre- and he makes amazing hip hop. He worked hard for OutKast's success- as hard as Dre did- and there is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy and capitalize on it. And, frankly, he deserves better than the treatment Andre is giving him in the press. I vow to learn to love Speakerboxxx, not out of pity, but because he's worked to deserve my (and your, and the press') respect. He's the best. Besides, though it's funny to hear grown men sing the word POO, the best part of "Roses" is Big Boi's rap. He has a wam, yet biting flow and when he raps things like, "I wanna see your support bra, not support you," it is ten times more clever than singing that your shit don't stink.
As for Courtney, I'm as guilty as anyone for watching her like she's a bad car accident. I've believed the hype: she's fucked up, she's unfit, she's crazy. All articles portray her as mouthy and petulant and outrageous. She says things like, "It is my godgiven right to take Xanex" and kidnaps journalists for weekend stays at her loft where they have to pay for takeout and subject themselves to her amateur acupuncture. But you know what? I've had enough. I don't want to read about her poor daughter and her dead husband and money woes and her big mouth (which makes her appear crazier than she is- I think she just doesn't think before she speaks sometimes). Rock stars are supposed to be outrageous and she is just about the only one left that isn't a corporate pussy. I want to read about her great new album (ok, I really only thought that it was good, but now that I'm becoming her superfan, I'm determined to find it great!) and the music that inspires her and the kind of art she wants to make and her opinions about the future of rock and roll. I want her to get her life together and be happy and find out who stole from her and then just get on with what is interesting about her: making music. So from now on.... I'm her staunchest supporter.
Frankly, there is a feminist part of me that finds her treatment in the media unseemly. I mean Michael Jackson is accused of molestation and he gets better treatment. Or even someone like James Brown or Chuck Berry, who have both had legal woes relating to beating, peeping or sleeping with women. They are freaking legends! Legends who we think are eccentric. I feel bad for Courtney. Not just because people have obviously taken advatage of her and stolen from her and she has fed the media a million reasons to crucify her. But because she is a talented and smart woman who is more than just a sum of her tabloid headlines and I refuse to spend anymore of my free time wondering if she is a drug addict or a fit parent. From now on, that is an issue for the courts and her lawyers to deal with. Me? I'm only in it for the music.
It's hard to keep your chin up sometimes when you spend a vast amount of time smoking and watching Vh1 in your pajamas because you don't really have a job and the news is so depressing that you can't watch CNN for fear of bursting into tears and not being able to get out of bed for three days so, in the hopes of keeping my spirits up I've made some decisions. After reading basically the same two stories in 4 different magazines I've decided that I am going to become the biggest fan and loudest supporter of both Big Boi and Courtney Love.
See, the most recent issues of Blender, Q, Rolling Stone and Spin have all had OutKast and Courtney stories promenently featured and none of them has any new news to offer.
In short: OutKast are basically breaking up. Andre (who made funkier, more out-there choices with his music and personal style was always my favorite.) basically says that, if it weren't for having two more outstanding OutKast projects, he and Big Boi- his childhood friend and partner- wouldn't even be in each others lives, let alone still be friends. And this is always followed by some sad quote from Big Boi about how they are brothers. Dre doesn't want to tour. Big Boi does. Dre thinks that Big Boi is just in it for the money and, though Big Boi wanted to make music together and collaborate on their separate solo albums Speakerboxx/the Love Below, Dre would only let him participate on one track on his album ("roses"). Dre wants to be an actor and with all of his new Hollywood friends he doesn't need (and I'm editorializing here, but this is the sense I've gotten from these 4 articles I've read now) his pot-smoking, meat-eating, dollar-grubbing ex-partner. And the saddest part is Big Boi's response is always, "Nah, we're still brothers. He's just difficult sometimes. I love him." It's just too pathetic. Big Boi is talented and he deserves better.
When Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out, a friend of mine who LOVES OutKast said that he was disapointed and that Dre's half was uneven and unfinshed. But he said that he was proud of Big Boi for serving the fans and keeping it real and making good hip hop. At the time, I scoffed and said that he wasn't reaching out to the crossover audience as well as Dre and was not as skilled an experimentor. But now....I vow to be the biggest Big Boi fan ever. He does serve OutKast's fans- which is more than I can say of Andre- and he makes amazing hip hop. He worked hard for OutKast's success- as hard as Dre did- and there is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy and capitalize on it. And, frankly, he deserves better than the treatment Andre is giving him in the press. I vow to learn to love Speakerboxxx, not out of pity, but because he's worked to deserve my (and your, and the press') respect. He's the best. Besides, though it's funny to hear grown men sing the word POO, the best part of "Roses" is Big Boi's rap. He has a wam, yet biting flow and when he raps things like, "I wanna see your support bra, not support you," it is ten times more clever than singing that your shit don't stink.
As for Courtney, I'm as guilty as anyone for watching her like she's a bad car accident. I've believed the hype: she's fucked up, she's unfit, she's crazy. All articles portray her as mouthy and petulant and outrageous. She says things like, "It is my godgiven right to take Xanex" and kidnaps journalists for weekend stays at her loft where they have to pay for takeout and subject themselves to her amateur acupuncture. But you know what? I've had enough. I don't want to read about her poor daughter and her dead husband and money woes and her big mouth (which makes her appear crazier than she is- I think she just doesn't think before she speaks sometimes). Rock stars are supposed to be outrageous and she is just about the only one left that isn't a corporate pussy. I want to read about her great new album (ok, I really only thought that it was good, but now that I'm becoming her superfan, I'm determined to find it great!) and the music that inspires her and the kind of art she wants to make and her opinions about the future of rock and roll. I want her to get her life together and be happy and find out who stole from her and then just get on with what is interesting about her: making music. So from now on.... I'm her staunchest supporter.
Frankly, there is a feminist part of me that finds her treatment in the media unseemly. I mean Michael Jackson is accused of molestation and he gets better treatment. Or even someone like James Brown or Chuck Berry, who have both had legal woes relating to beating, peeping or sleeping with women. They are freaking legends! Legends who we think are eccentric. I feel bad for Courtney. Not just because people have obviously taken advatage of her and stolen from her and she has fed the media a million reasons to crucify her. But because she is a talented and smart woman who is more than just a sum of her tabloid headlines and I refuse to spend anymore of my free time wondering if she is a drug addict or a fit parent. From now on, that is an issue for the courts and her lawyers to deal with. Me? I'm only in it for the music.
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