October 28, 2007

Cause Hipsters Are People Too...

Posted by Ninoy Brown at 10:16AM

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Of course, so are Republicans. Just like Republicans, "hipsters" might be a part of your own family, and so, you just have to grin and bear the asinine things that they follow and the reasons why they follow them.

Hipsters even engage and take pride in micro-aggressive acts of racism, as well, through their pretentious attempts at seeking irony (see: Kill Whitey Parties). So while I might be annoyed with them and might even dread the sight of them, I have to acknowledge that their existence is just part of the diverse spectrum that exists within our society, and until they learn the error of their ways, I should be sensitive to them. Shit, I guess my counseling training has begun to take more shape than I actually thought.

In my last post, I hinted an internal guilt at noting the approval of something that might be categorized as being hipster. I don't think I should feel guilty though, many things that have manifested themselves into hipster culture isn't all bad. Take for instance, Flight of the Conchords, it's a quite funny and well written show. Fixies, I can appreciate some of the ill tricks that bike messengers are able to pull. And of course, some of the music that exists under the hipster umbrella can be very enjoyable.

I can get down to some their shit. On a given moment, you might even catch me bumping Chromeo, LCD Soundsystem, Spoon, etc. Allow me to share a few tracks containing varying degrees of hipster elements:

M.I.A. - Paper Planes (remix) feat. Bun B & Rich Boy The darling of hipster bloggers, M.I.A. The song won me over once I heard the shotgun sounds that gave me flashbacks to all the shotgun instrumentations from the Mexican corrido jams blasting from the beat up Chevy's once the end of day hit at Turlock High School. To make the track even better, Bun B and Rich Boy were enlisted for the remix.

Twista - Well Its Time feat. Kanye West (Feist sample) Feist, another huge hipster staple. This time, Kanye showed his own affinity for hipster sounds and sampled a line from "Gatekeeper" the opening track to Let It Die. The Reminder remains one of my favorite albums, along with Kala, of the year. Feist has a hypnotically soothing voice that is as just as enchanting as her own videos.

Wale - W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E. Wale (pronounced wôl.l?) hails from D.C. and reinterpreted what is arguably the biggest hipster song of the year, Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." Justice has that electronic disco thing going for them, and they even got approval from Kanye this year when he said they were more deserving of the VMA than he was; this was before his blow up though. As for Wale, he's got Mark Ronson on his side, so he might even get some points from the hipster crowd as well. This track is from Wale's mixtape 100 Miles and Running and can be found for free on his Myspace page.

Notorious B.I.G. - Party & Bullshit (Ratatat remix) "Party & Bullshit" is one of the greatest displays of celebratory song lyrics. This time around, the synthetically charged duo, Ratatat, provided an electronic take on the Hip-Hop classic. I'm a fan of the group and what they do. Though, what exists here is what I am highly critical of among hipsters, the commodification of elements of the exotified "other". Whether it be rocking a shemagh or making a name for yourself through "third world" flavela mixtapes, an unease sits within me.

Even though I can find some satisfaction in elements of hipster culture, it doesn't mean that I will try to do my best in surrounding myself in their chai drinking, sperm-killing-jeans wearing, ironic-vintage-tee searching presence. Being around all the v-necks at the Diplo show I hit up at the Mezzanine last month was more than overkill. I knew I should have done the Heizman on the blond girl that asked me if I had any coke or E.