American Gangsta Rap invades Canada

My colleagues at my language institute in Suwon, South Korea are mostly Canadian. I forget what area they hail from. It doesn't matter in this global economy which is border less and invaded by American Gangsta rap.

The other night a bunch of us went to the "Nori Bon," a Korean style Karaoke singing bar where you pay about $13 for two hours to sing and drink with your friends. They had a huge selection of songs, both in Korean and in English. You can also eat food and drink at these places. They are everywhere in Korea. Everyone has their own room; there are couches and air conditioning. It's fun and comfortable. Many have blinking lights, tambourines and all have a wide screen projector and a nice sound system. Just lay off the reverb, eh buddy!

A lot of the songs selected by the Canadians were American rap music like "Gangster's Paradise" by Coolio, Fifty Cent's "In da Club" and an obnoxious Snoop Dogg tune. I am pissed off by this. A bunch of white and mixed, Canadians rapping and singing American Black Gangsta rap in Suwon, Korea. What do they know about urban black people's struggle? Probably nothing. I know I don't that much and I live in L.A.

With the risk of sounding like an idiot and an uptight old fart, this style of music contains and portrays violence, drugs as an end into dealing consumerism and vitriolic misogyny. It has no place in Canadian culture and vocabulary with my 20 something co-workers. American Imperialism has landed in Canada and in South Korea. It is sad and pisses me off.

Many people relate to this music and that's fine. It's unfortunate that this music is exciting, fast, fun, angry and has garnered so much popularity. Rap music portrays people who are fighting for their rights on some level which I can't relate to. This style of music sings of respect, money, dignity, freedom, sex and other things that protest songs did but in an urban, ghetto setting with guns, lots of guns (Matrix reference).

I guess I am mad about the medium in which it's delivered. I am for music that expresses those qualities but there is something "wrong" about hearing this music from the hood of L.A. in the provincial city of Suwon, South Korea. It is fucked up, really. This music is not cool. What would you rather do? Chill to Pink Floyd or Snoop Dogg? There's a terrible "hardness" to this music that is contagious and cancerous. Gangsta rap has infected cultures across the globe and people like it!! I think that's fucked up too.

Maybe if I go back in time to Chicago, Illionois circa 1950 and go to a blues bar to hear Muddy Waters play with Little Walter on harmonica, I could somehow juxtapose that and related to gangsta rap of 2008? People would look at me in my 1950's clothes, a white guy, that buttermilk spot in a sea of black faces and they would think and ask: "What the fuck is this guy doing here?" How could I relate to the blues of Muddy Waters, a cotton picker from the south? I can't but I can get the blues. I can feel sad and joyous like many of Muddy Water's songs. In any case, blues music contrasts to the culture we live in now. A society of easy gun access, shootings in schools, violence, dealin drugs, fighting turf wars with other gangs, a gangsta's life style. I don't get it. If I go back in time fifty years from now (2058) and visit the clubs where Snoop and his ilk played, me with my white face in a sea of mixed people, they wouldn't say: "What the fuck is he here?" But how could I relate even then?

Maybe I'll re-write this piece or delete it.

Palmer in Korea signing off and out.