Absolute Nonsense...
It's interesting how anything that has do with black people is seen as 'mumbo jumbo'. That is, until it is becomes 'validated' and everyone else imitates what black people do. Ironically, once black culture is passed around, it becomes 'outdated' and fades away. The novel Ragtime illustrates this through the spread of Jes Grews and the rise and fall of jazz music. There many instances where things that originate from black people have been 'adapted' and been made into something 'acceptable' to mainstream society.
New York City truly is the birthplace of amazing things. From jazz in Harlem, to rap from the Bronx, New York City has been a critical influence on pop modern culture. Speaking of rap music, rap has become one of the most popular genres of music in recent times -- and it comes from black people. Rap music wasn't always as popular and celebrated as it is now. When rap first came out, it was looked at as violent and 'gangster' music. During the 80s and 90s, artist such as Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G., N.W.A., the Wu-Tang Clan, and many more were seen as drug-dealers trying to be artists.
In 1993, Ice-T came out with a album called Home Invasion and on the album cover, there's a white kid with headphones on as he's listening to rap music. The idea behind the illustration is that the ideas of rap music are infiltrating the homes of white families and is entering the mind of white children. Furthermore, white kids and other races seem to like rap music. This is relevant to the novel Mumbo Jumbo because in the book, Jes Grews is a 'disease' spreading throughout America. Unlike other diseases though, once everyone gets it, it dies. Viewing rap music, it resembles Jes Grews because it was once deemed as negative and now the entire world seems to be infatuated with it.
Rap has become so widespread that the question of when it's popularity will end does come to mind. Personally, I've like listening to rap from a very young age and it almost seems too timeless for it to be a fad. I wonder when rap will lose it's touch to mainstream society, but one can only hope that rap remains true to its roots and isn't perverted like other forms of art have been.
Hello Titus, I enjoyed reading your post. I like how you connected the Jes Grew movement with jazz to the development of rap. Home Invasion is such a good example and description of how Jes Grew seems to spread uncontrollably, whether the atonists want it to or not. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI see a number of parallels between Reed's account of the emergence of Jes Grew in New Orleans, spreading to the rest of the country and settling in New York, and the emergence of hip-hop culture in the South Bronx in the mid-1970s. In both cases, there is no expectation or anticipation of a world-changing cultural form emerging--"Jes Grew" implies something like *organic culture*, and its "X factor" (as LaBas calls it) implies that it is entirely unpredictable. When Reed writes this novel in 1972, no one is anticipating hip-hop, but when Reed talks about a "Future Text" emerging, and points out that "slang is Jes Grew too," I can't help but think he's prophecizing what will emerge across the river from Harlem in just a few years, blending slang with break-beats and sampled music to create an entirely original and extremely "viral" new cultural form.
ReplyDeleteReed's writing definitely agrees with this idea of black culture being taboo until it's brought into mainstream society. Jes Grew did just kind of fizzle out in Mumbo Jumbo, but I would have liked to see the other side, Reed's description of what it would look like for Jes Grew to grow "outdated" and fade away.. He kind of describes its "death" but I would have liked to see him describe Jes Grew being realized by different characters and people as a passing fad or something.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, especially with your comparison of jazz with rap. They are both things that were initially seen as perversions of culture, as passing fads, but then they went on to become two of the most popular kinds of music of all time. Personally, I thought it was really strange for Reed to frame Jes Grew as a disease, because diseases have such negative connotations that it doesn't really makes sense how this would help his opinion. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis that certain aspects of black culture are seen as "mumbo jumbo" until they become accepted into society, and as you mentioned, also changed to be more acceptable or mainstream. Your examples of this trend in music are strong, and I find it interesting that Jazz seems to be a central aspect of Jes Grew. Reed also included dancing in his description of Jes Grew, an art form which has seen movements inspired by black culture such as hip hop. Another one that comes to mind is fashion, although that wasn't really mentioned in the book. For decades the clothing styles found in black communities have been deemed lower class, just until everyone else starts coping their style. But I also agree with you, by the time mainstream culture has taken those clothing styles as their own, the Jes Grew within them has died out.
ReplyDeleteHi Titus, this is a great post and I agree with what you are saying. I think the way you connected Mumbo Jumbo to real life situations makes a lot of sense, and I definitely see the similarities you have pointed out. I also agree with your mention of the disease having negative connotations, and it ties in well with your point of black culture being initially rejected.
ReplyDeleteYour connection and elaboration here connecting rap music to mumbo jumbo's story of jazz is really interesting. I'm curious to see if rap music will eventually become "outdated" such as jazz has somewhat become, at least in the end of Mumbo Jumbo. I wonder as well if rap is already on its way to become changed by popular media, as we're already seeing it become so popularized, everywhere in the media, that it's begun to be taken away from its roots.
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