Quick Thought on John Legend and Common's Oscar


There are few things that annoy me more than a celebrity not named Chuck D commenting on issues of political/social significance.  Let me also say that Common's music/career direction over the last 8-10 years has been a little disappointing and annoying to me (though not surprising).  I'll even go further to out my cynical, cranky ass by saying that I'm less than enthusiastic about John Legend (along with Will.I.am) being the unofficial song writers to all corny, socially conscious pop songs.  With that said, I think both Common and John Legend represented themselves quite well last night with their Oscar winning acceptance speech.  Their point was made in a well prepared, concise, and sincere way.  Though I may be incredibly bias as a life long hip hopper, I think Hollywood was taken to school last night on how to use a global platform to express social commentary in a fashion that is least likely to result in a valuable message being dismissed due to a poor messenger.

2 comments:

pipomixes said...

I agree with everything you saying. Lonnie, Rasheed or Common Sense has left the building for this brother not trying to be Will Smith but not bringing his best pen game to the lab. With that said Common other than Nas is the only dude that gets radio play that I can take seriously when it comes to expressing their views on social issues in a song. To be fair I think this is where Common is in his career, the beats on BE made him step his game up, but he's been on this message kick for a decade now.

pipomixes said...

I saw him hosting a furniture making show on Spike the other day, wearing some futuristic sweater and having them make an armoire for him!