Hello……..Helloooooo………is this thing on? Can anyone hear me? Oh just no one as usual. It’s been i’d say a month and a half since my last blog and i can barely remember what i said in that. It is kinda cozy seeing all this again. I wrote about 2 or 3 posts since my last published post, but i scraped all of them, a couple were spur of the moment and my desire to write it fizzled out fast. And hey this blog got a B2,a B FOOKIN 2. On the one hand, how? how this bunch of shit appease to anyone,i myself am amazed i still have followers. But on the other hand it’s like compared to the other blogs…..idk man…..but who the fuck cares, i know you don’t so let’s get on with it.
Sooooo, the idea, the meaning, the focus of this blog came from the recent controversy revolving the Dublin Hip-Hop group Versatile and an another artist by the name of Erica Cody. This drama has passed but i’d like to dissect it a little for my own amusement.
To preface, i’m taking no sides here, not getting involved in any witch hunt cause fuck all that. I’m not going to say here whose right, whose wrong, whose justified and whose “canceled/deplatformed” cause who the fuck am i to tell you that. All i can tell is my thoughts.
I evoke the famous Streisand effect in the title because in all honestly i’ve thought and listened to Versatile more in the last 2 days than i have me whole life. They’ve been around for a handful of years, and i first heard of them when “Perfume” was in my YouTube suggestions. Song was pretty good,caught me off guard at first that it was Irish but that was about it. A year or so goes by i hear their name a couple of times but never gave it a second thought, until my sister informs me that “You here that people are cancelling Versatile?” Needless to say me interest was very much pricked. So i researched and here’s what i gathered.
Versatile member Casper Walsh and Erica Cody have been beefing with each other for a while now, where that started, no idea, again i’m not here to tell you whats right, just my thoughts. My guess that it’s either a long lasting beef that comes from way back,growing up in similar circles, so they have a lot of history, or it stemmed from Erica calling Casper and Versatile itself as being racists,misogynist etc etc.
From what i’ve gathered, i feel the witch hunt and portrayal of these guys as racist,misogynist,homophobic etc etc etc, is wrongly placed. Most of stems from there music and not from their actions(i assume) which in my book is perfectly fine. An non-racist person my commit a racist act or think a racist thought but that does not make them inherently racist.
In all honesty alot of the lyrics that get held to prove how horrible they are, are pretty fuckin timid compared to contemporary artists and older artists. It wasn’t so long ago that Tyler,the creator, raps new golden boy was coming out with lyrics such as “Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends i have a threesome”, the golden boy was banned from the UK and Australia because his lyrics were deemed as “Threat to public order”. I would’ve loved to see what twitter morons would’ve been saying when the likes of 2 Live Crew,Too $hort and others were coming out with extremely raunchy material, just to see who would’ve thrown the “Cancelled” call first. Like bro 2 Live Crew went to fucking court to defend the lyrics of their songs. N.W.A were arrested for playing certain songs.
On the racist side of their music they’ve been better than most artist accused of this, with public apologies, written statement of intent and the complete removal of songs that they now see as having inherently flawed aspects. You could say “but they could’ve been pushed to do this” and that’s entirely possible but as seen with the other examples it is sometimes best to lean into the situation hard and be totally resolute and change nothing. They have attempted to change. Not totally washing them clean but it should be commended because most public figures see their errors and promise to change this quickly.
To get to the incident that sparked this cancellation parade, here’s what went down. Erica Cody is in her car about to leave when Casper in his car pulls up,phone in hand already filming talking to her. Lasts like 10 seconds,they pull off and she leaves. She makes a insta video describing it and with the info the Casper released later including the cctv footage and the video that his mate was filming in the car from my perspective, how i see it as is this. These two individuals have a toxic history with one another, one happens out of luck to run into the other in public and puts the other one under pressure by catching them off-guard. From here i’d say they’re both wrong, they were willing to throw abuse at each other and it’s spilled into a pretty minor alteration. They’re both adults, they should both cop onto themselves.
What i find irritable to a sense is that in Erica’s side of this minor alteration,she plays the race card a lot,again i don’t know all the facts maybe Casper has used her race in the past but who knows, i’m saying that she could be totally in the right and Casper be totally in the wrong but from what was shown there wasn’t one iota of evidence is shown in this alteration that proves that this wasn’t just a alteration between a white man and a mixed-race woman, that it was an alteration between a white man and a mixed-race women because she’s mixed-race.So because there’s reasonable doubt, Versatile in my opinion are innocent.
The race card gets thrown a lot in her 6-7 minute video. Plus some gate keeping, that Versatile “aren’t Irish rap” that they’re “guests in the culture” and all of this sorta of hip-hop purism elitism that is shoved down any artists throat that doesn’t do what the core collective want. Music and art is about expression and just because an artist wants to differ in the method or whatever,doesn’t take away from their credibility as an artist. I’m sick to the teeth of this kind of gate keeping. If hip-hop purists had had their way from the start, then rap would still just be dudes dancing during song breakdowns in new york apartments. Music must evolve, and you don’t evolve by making sure everyone who tries to do something different is silenced and not aloud express themselves because they’re “guests in the culture” like bro don’t you realize that a trade off that rap had to make to become the dominant genre of our time, was that everyone, from all walks of life is and are going to alter the sound and make it into something that it wasn’t intended to be. Cause guess what, dance tracks and singles weren’t supposed to be 8,10,20 minutes long, but because some DJ with a weak bladder had to piss during one song,now the extended mix of any dance track is common place. What am i getting at,this,the so called “real Irish rappers” shouldn’t have any greater say on where Irish hip-hop goes than so called “guests.”
Christ that was a big fuck off kinda rant, but again i’m not saying either is right, i understand why both might see themselves as right because by the looks of it their relationship is as clear as mud.
What was hilarious was reading all these dumb motherfuckers on twitter thinking they’re owning versatile, by going “oh well i’m not listening to them on spotify anymore”, wow i guess those 0.0006 cents they got of each songs you played is really going to hurt them financially,the internet has just done a collective slam dunk on them and that they’re finished. I guess they’ll be as effective any online cancellation has had.
It’s times like this where i see left people acting so incredibly dumb and moronic and think, wow Trey Parker was right, when he said that “the people screaming on this side and the people screaming on that side, are [essentially] the same people and it’s okay being somewhat in the middle laughing at both of them.”
Cancel culture is moronic and serves no real long lasting purpose,people whether they like to admit are dumb and incredibly flawed,you, the person reading this are dumb and incredibly flawed, i’m dumb and incredibly flawed.
We’re basically fucked
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Here’s what i’ve watched in the last 6 weeks:
- Murder on the Orient Express(2017) – Good but a ton of wasted potential – 3/5
- Do the right thing(1989) – Tackles issues so intelligently and is incredibly poignant – 4.5/5
- Malcolm X (1992) Damn this was emotional, think i used every emotion through this 3 hour epic – 4/5
- Being John Malkovich(1999) – I don’t like what this film did to my head – 4/5
- Brexit: The Uncivil War(2019) – Happy Memories – 3.5/5
- Rope(1948) – James Stewart is a god – 4.5/5
- 8:46(2020) – Dave Chappelle is such a comedic genius he dosne’t even tell jokes anymore,he just talks real shit and make people feel good about themselves,a treasure. – 5/5
- Intersellar(2014) – Re-watched for my boy James R.M.’s birthday, still don’t think it’s as good as he says it is. – 3.5/5
- Amy(2015) – One word “Heartbreaking” – 4/5
- Citizen Kane(1941) – Not a controversial review at all, This is a fucking good movie,the Citizen Kane of films…..oh wait,,,,,-4.5/5
Mind Yourself til next time
Seán
This blog isn't about fashion,sorry. 