hot & fresh
by glasgow fabulous on jul 10, 2003, 22:00
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| celine made me duet |
you wouldn’t think that r kelly is facing 21 paedophile offences relating to a 27 minute video supposedly featuring him and a 14-year-old girl in the throes of a sexual liason. kelly has just spent 3 weeks at the top spot in the uk charts and his album is similarly championing the album charts. although he has not yet been tried and convicted of the child abuse offences, he hasn’t suffered the sort of headlines which gary glitter and more recently pete townsend endured even though kelly's penchant for younger girls is no secret. he dated his protégé, the late aailyah when she was 12 and later married her when she was 15. he has already had to settle two lawsuits from women who claim he preyed on them whist they were underage.
you might say that the writing is on the wall with this one but then kelly could very well be innocent and he could very well be the victim of some vile plot to disgrace him. nonetheless, his album is still selling thousands of copies and his single is still in the top 5 and will no doubt stay in the top 40 for the remainder of the summer, and why not, it’s a fantastic tune. his records might not stand the test of time should he be found guilty of child abuse as gary glitter found out to his detriment.
however our love of kelly hasn’t fallen like glitter. when gary glitter was reported to the police for having pictures of children saved to his hard drive the press couldn’t revel enough in his vilification. suddenly, glitter was demonized as a pervy old man who had to wear wigs and isn’t there something dodgy about people who wear wigs anyway? like folk who grow beards. whatever they are trying to hide is not fooling anyone! but glitter fits the stereotype perfectly whereas kelly doesn’t necessarily make the paedo-fit.
lucky kelly. this is perhaps of product of the sub-culture his music aspires to which has led him to continue being a success. r n' b is a music which is notoriously sexual in its content and so it’s fitting that the people behind the music are equally as sexual. can it be then that kelly’s behaviour is almost accepted because that is what we expect from an r n' b singer to like all types of women, and girls? he can’t help himself from even proclaiming he likes his women fresh: "put the key in ignition, hot n' fresh out the kitchen." but it does beg the question would the public's muted response have been different had the girl been white. even the politicians who are ever so keen to take a pop at yoof culture have remained silent.
the black stereotype that black men are sexual predators has undoubtedly helped kelly to continue releasing singles and topping the chart. the acceptance of this stereotype has allowed his music to get aired on radio 1 and massive mtv rotation. but kelly isn’t the only one who has prospered from the black stereotype. 50 cent similarly enjoys a high degree of success with his debut album the fastest selling debut of all time despite his more than chequered past as he confesses to being a pimp and crack dealer. hip hop and r n' b is undoubtedly one of the top selling genres in the music industry and this allows many artists to act in whatever way they want to as well as cultivate an image which the fans demand.
is this form of art reflecting reality for young black british men? or, does the all pervasive image of the american hip hop star make it more difficult to grow up black in britain today?
part of the reason why these men do so well is because they are seen to be living the life that their music talks about. they are of course merely ‘keeping it real’ and it’s a marketing man’s dream to have them signed. but how much of this is actually keeping it real and how much of it is all about image? in the end it’s more to do with the money men than it is to do with actually being about the ‘streets’.
dr dre was a member of electro rappers, the worldclass wreckin’ cru before he released, as part of NWA, the seminal ‘straight outta compton’. what dre might have observed in the late '80s and early '90s has become for many a self-fulfilling prophecy as kids of all races try and out macho their peers. hip hop stars fall over themselves to try and out do each other with their various street credentials. the reality for british stars however, is that they often fall foul of the law and all in the name of trying to ‘keep it real’. asher d, mark morrison and g man have all been prosecuted for their part in keeping it real. british hip hop and r n' b is usually regarded as being inferior to its’ american counterpart, not only can’t we be as bad as the Yanks, we get caught.
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| bill likes chicken |
music is all about portraying an image, you don’t just buy a cd but also the culture associated with it. however, it’s becoming the norm to think of black culture as being one engulfed with sex, misogyny and homophobia. in america living up to this stereotype is expected of you. the worrying part of all this is when those of us who are not famous try to act hip hop since while it might help kelly and 50 Cent become super rich for the rest of us it paints a bleaker picture.
kelly's success is perhaps due to the perceived idea by the largely white liberal media that urban culture is black culture and this exonerates and protects it from the same moral and ethical codes of conduct that we judge everything else by as it’s part of since society largely frames black culture as dysfunctional. thus an important check on american culture is evaded whilst the hammer remains to crush what yoof culture we try to create on our own shores. shame really!
kelly arrest sheets: page one and page two
*g fab works for the bbc
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