Jim DeRogatis Is Terrible

Jim DeRogatis [hereinafter "DeRo"] is a Chicago-based self-described "music critic."

According to Wikipedia, The Oxford Companion to Music defines "music criticism" as the "intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres."

While DeRo irrefutably attempts to engage in music criticism, his attempts fail for at least three discrete reasons:

1. DeRo is allegedly categorically incapable of engaging in any meaningful "intellectual activity";
2. DeRo's attempts to formulate judgments on the value of a particular work are typically uninformed and seemingly tone deaf; and
3. DeRo's proffered opinions of a particular work's "degree of excellence" (or lack thereof) are also categorically and diametrically wrong with a truly galling frequency.

Adding insult to injury, DeRo's writing is so atrocious that attempts to read and understand his prose is very often an exercise in abject futility.  

Here's an instructive example:  On Aug. 10, 2011, DeRo published his review panning Kanye West and Jay-Z collaboration album, Watch The Throne.  To be perfectly clear, I'm not here to provide a "judgment[] on the value and degree of excellence" of Watch The Throne.  

But in DeRo's rage-fueled haste to indict every aspect of the album, he manages to (seemingly inadvertently) reveal just how few brain cells he's working with.  

The following is excerpted from the above-linked review; alterations and emphasis mine:

[The lyrics of a different Watch The Throne track, "Niggaz In Paris,"] make it hard to buy the attempted sincerity of . . . the contemplation of black-on-black murder, “Murder to Excellence,” which starts out as a serious condemnation of an American crisis (“It’s a war going on outside we ain’t safe from/I feel the pain in my city wherever I go,” Kanye raps. “Three hundred fourteen soldiers died in Iraq/Five hundred nine died in Chicago”) before Jay seems to posit yet more materialism and pop-culture posing as a solution (“It’s a celebration of black excellence/Black tie, black Maybachs/Black excellence, opulence, decadence/ Tuxes next to the president, I’m present/I dress in Dries and other boutique stores in Paris/In sheepskin coats, I silence the lamb/Do you know who I am Clarice?”).

"Murder to Excellence" is available for listen on YouTube, and the track's lyrics are online here (as well as posted, in their entirety, below the jump).

As noted earlier, DeRo's writing is not terribly clear, so there is a certain degree of required guesswork to ascertain what, precisely, DeRo is asserting in the above-quoted passage.

So here's my best guess:  DeRo contends, citing the track's lyrics, that the track stands for the proposition that materialism and conspicuous consumption are the solution to black-on-black violence.

But a single review of the track's lyrics and/or an elementary understanding of the track's structure and production reveals that DeRo's asserted understanding of the song could not possibly be more incorrect.

Let's start with the obvious:  The song is two distinct tracks spliced together.  This is evident in at least four different ways:

1. After two minutes and forty-one seconds of the same loop & beat, the production distinctly changes to a different loop & beat — listen for yourself; 
2. The album's line notes — or Wikipedia — attribute the production of the first half of the track to Swizz Beats and the second half to the producer S1;
3. The track's name; and most importantly
4. The lyrics, which also distinctly change at the exact same point the production changes.

DeRo, in his infinite wisdom, astutely notes that the lyrics address two seemingly disparate (even opposite) topics, addressed in this order: 

1. Black-on-black murder/violence [hereinafter "Murder"]; and 
2. Black decadence/opulence/excellence [hereinafter "Excellence"] 

DeRo then proceeds to conclude that the latter portion is the rappers' proposed solution to the problem identified in the first portion.  ("Jay seems to posit [in "Excellence" that] yet more materialism and pop-culture posing [is] a solution [to] . . . a serious . . . American crisis.")

What led DeRo to conclude that his understanding of the track is accurate?  I genuinely don't know. 

For one, his interpretation is counter-intuitive: the former laments a problem with black culture while the latter focuses on examples of black success.  

In fact, there isn't a single shred of lyrical evidence to support DeRo's counter-intuitive belief that the lyrics of "Excellence" are the rappers' proposed solution to the issue discussed in "Murder." 

So what is the most likely accurate interpretation of the track?  Two pairs of passages seem to make it clear as day.  

The first pair, from "Murder": 

No shop class but half the school got a tool

And a "I could die any day"-type attitude

Plus his little brother got shot repping his avenue

It’s time for us to stop and redefine black power

[. . . .]

If you put crabs in a barrel to ensure your survival

You're gon' end up pulling down niggas that look just like you

What up, Blood? What up, cuz?

And the second pair, from "Excellence": 

Now please, domino, domino

Only spot a few blacks the higher I go

What’s up to Will? Shout out to O

That ain’t enough, we gonna need a million more

[ . . . ]

In the past if you picture events like a black tie

What the last thing you expect to see, black guys?

What’s the life expectancy for black guys?

The system’s working effectively, that’s why!

I will try to avoid belaboring the point:  What does the track mean?

On a basic level, it's a juxtaposition of two opposites: the worst parts of black culture and the best parts of black culture.  Why juxtapose these opposites in this way?  To contend that the reason there's a dearth of the best is because there is so much of the worst.  

Hence it's "time for us to stop and redefine black power" from its current meaning, and the focus on examples of black success (few as they are) in "Excellence" is the rappers' proffered rationale for why black culture is in dire need of being redefined: "Just look at how good you could have it!" 

So DeRo has it almost exactly backwards: material success isn't the solution to black-on-black violence; instead, curbing black-on-black violence will help create more examples of blacks' material success.   

The only level that DeRo's interpretation is even partially defensible is that material success should serve as an effective incentive to stop black-on-black violence.  

And yet even that's tenuous:  If that was really the track's thesis, then why isn't the incentive currently working?  

So, no DeRo, wrong yet again.  He doesn't like the track?  Fine, that's his prerogative. 

But DeRo's reason for disliking the track is nothing short of journalistic malpractice.  

["Murder" produced by Swizz Beats]

[Intro: Jay-Z]

Bloody murder, murder, murder

[Hook: Kanye]

Paper read "murder, black-on-black murder"

Paper read "murder, black-on-black murder" again

[Verse 1: Jay-Z]

This is to the memory of Danroy Henry

Too much enemy fire to catch a friendly

Strays from the same shade nigga, we on the same team

Giving you respect, I expect the same thing

All-black everything, nigga you know my fresh code

I’m out here fighting for you, don’t increase my stressload!

Niggas watching the throne, very happy to be you

Power to the people, when you see me, see you

[Kanye]

And I’m from the murder capital where they murder for capital

Heard about at least three killings this afternoon

Looking at the news like "damn! I was just with him after school"

No shop class but half the school got a tool

And a "I could die any day"-type attitude

Plus his little brother got shot repping his avenue

It’s time for us to stop and redefine black power

41 souls murdered in fifty hours

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Kanye]

Is it genocide?

Cause I can still hear his mama cry

Know the family traumatized

Shots left holes in his face about piranha-sized

The old pastor closed the cold casket

And said the church ain’t got enough room for all the tombs

It’s a war going on outside we ain’t safe from

I feel the pain in my city wherever I go

314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago

[Jay-Z]

I arrived on the day Fred Hampton died

Uh, real niggas just multiply

And they say by 21 I was supposed to die

So I’m out here celebrating my post-demise

If you put crabs in a barrel to ensure your survival

You're gon' end up pulling down niggas that look just like you

What up, Blood? What up, cuz? It’s all black, I love us

[Hook]

["Excellence" produced by S1]

[Interlude: Jay-Z]

It’s a celebration of black excellence, black tie, black Maybachs

[Verse 3: Jay-Z]

Black excellence, opulence, decadence

Tuxes next to the president, I’m present

I dress in Dries and other boutique stores in Paris

In sheepskin coats, I silence the lambs

Do you know who I am, Clarice?

No cheap cologne whenever I “shh-shh”

Success never smelled so sweet

I stink of success, the new black elite

They say my Black Card bears the mark of the beast

I repeat: my religion is the beat

My verse is like church, my Jesus piece

Now please, domino, domino

Only spot a few blacks the higher I go

What’s up to Will? Shout out to O

That ain’t enough.. we gonna need a million more

"Kick in the door" Biggie flow

I’m all dressed up with nowhere to go

[Verse 4: Kanye]

Yeah it’s all messed up when it’s nowhere to go

So we won’t take the time out 'til we reach the T-O-P

From parolees to hold G’s, sold keys, low keys

We like the promised land of the OG’s

In the past if you picture events like a black tie

What the last thing you expect to see, black guys?

What’s the life expectancy for black guys?

The system’s working effectively, that’s why!

I’ll be a real man, take care of your son

Every problem you had before this day is now done

New crib, watch a movie

Cause ain’t nothin on the news but the blues

Hit the mall, pick up some Gucci

Now ain’t nothing new but your shoes

Sunday morning, praise the Lord

You're the girl that Jesus had been saving me for

So let’s savor this moment and take it to the floor

Black excellence, truly yours