Writing for a purpose

NP: Random Radio Paradise Music

Rarely, maybe once or twice a generation, a cultural icon appears to usher in a new era in American society. Elvis Presley. James Dean. Frank Sinatra. All of these names mean more to previous generations than they do today. A picture on Turner Classic Movies. A note in a textbook. But to our parents and, in some cases, our parents parents, these names and their body of work represent an important watershed in their lives when things changed. Maybe they weren't ground-breaking transformations, but people remember the impact of individuals like Presley, Dean, and Sinatra. They made the world a somewhat better place and inspired individuals to work harder, helped them relax after a day at the job, or gave people a sense of escapism that allowed them to continue through the day. And really, who hasn't dreamed of moving to Las Vegas after the King's performance in Viva Las Vegas.

Today, our generation is hopelessly lacking in cutural icons. One could argue quite persuasively that we no longer have a culture. Mass media, the advent of information-on-demand, and greedy music, literature, and movie producers have completely segmented our culture. What plays in the African-American community, for example, will not sell five copies in the latino community. Therefore, every niche is marketed to with almost no cross-cultural transmissions. Toby Keith couldn't draw an audience of a dozen viewers on BET, and ten out of those twelve would just be too distracted by their cell phones/chatroom conversations/e-mail to change the channel. Of course, I wouldn't walk out my front door to hear Toby Keith (and would probably walk out my back door so I wouldn't have to hear him), but I may be in the minority of my cultural group.

Recently, in the throws of dissertation procrastination and the general end of the semester malaise, I have discovered one individual who I think has the chance, albeit the slight chance, of uniting individuals from a myriad of backgrounds and economic circumstances into a national culture once again. This person has collaborated with a number of people outside his own ethnic niche and, while staying relatively true to his cultural roots, has managed to fuse various performance styles into a comprehensive and coherent body of work. That man. The new cultural icon of the new America, is Nelly.

Nelly is a unique individual in the hip-hop community. While his body of work is too long to list here, he has done a great deal of collaboration projects. His single with country singer sticks out as the best rap-country project since Tammy Wynette sang the hook on KLF's 1991 track "Justified and Ancient" and Wyclef Jean covered Johnny Cash's "Delia's Gone" at the Johnny Cash tribute show in 1998. Nelly's work with Mcgraw shows that he is willing to expand the boundaries of hip-hop to include traditional country-western styles into his work. His dual release "Sweat" and "Suit" is the most groundbreaking double album concept since the technically perfect "Use your Illusion I" and "Use your Illusion II" by troubled metal band Guns N Roses. While Nelly does not have quite the talent to emulate GNR and the coke-fueled guitar rage that was Slash, he makes a good effort at music immortality.

Nelly, however, will surely receive his due in the history books for his latest single, entitled "Grillz," currently at the top of MTV's "Direct Effect" chart. Nelly uses "Grillz" to highlight emerging trends in African-American dental care and share them with white, latino, and other cultural groups. His lyrics, while eloquently written, convey the sense of pride associated with the advances in prosthetic teeth since the late 1990s. Nelly is taking a cultural phenomenon of his own people group and is sharing them with the masses. And we are better for it.

The rhetorical skill exhibited in "Grillz" is nothing short of phenomenal. Take the opening invective, sung over the synthetically produced beat:

"Rob the jewelry store and tell em make me a grill.

Add da whole top diamond and the bottom rows gold."

Simply brilliant. Here, Nelly is sharing his taste for expensive jewelry and other precious stones and, quite literally, putting his money where his mouth is. This clearly shows that the problems of poverty and urban decay, associated with inner-city areas and minority groups since the late 1960s have been overcome. Nelly, a cultural icon of the hip-hop community, is sharing with everyone that his level of disposable income is so high he can afford to deck his teeth out with gold and diamonds. Surely the problems discussed during the "Long Hot Summers" of 1964-1968 have been solved. Thank you Nelly, for showing us the light.

The rest of the lyrics are also nothing short of outstanding. Lines such as "If I could call it a drink, call it a smile on da rocks/If I could call out a price, lets say I call out a lot," and "My mouth piece simply certified a total package/Open up my mouth and you see mo carrots than a salad" are mind-numbingly creative and well-articulated.

As with any good collaboration, especially on a project that praises masculinity in the form of artifical, diamond-encrusted teeth, an attractive, sweet-voiced female sings along. While in many rap songs these voices are used as little more than a doormat for their male counterpart, Nelly's "Grillz" bucks that trend. Behold, the lines from the buxom and beautfil Ali, as quoted in their entirety:

"Dis what it do when da lou
Ice grill country grammar
Where da hustlas move bricks
and da gangsta's bang hamma's
Where i got em you can spot them
On da top in da bottom
Gotta bill in my mouth like im Hillary Rodham"

It is beyond my literary capacity to add any further comment to augment the sheer brilliance of those words. Especially the part about Hillary Rodham having a bill in her mouth. I just can't add to that.

In short, should Nelly be able to continue producing singles with the combination of catchy beats and culturally-significant lyrics like "Grillz," he will emerge as the cultural icon of this generation. There is little doubt in my mind that in twenty to thirty years, Nelly will be featured prominently in the history textbooks and a central part of the narrative on the turn of the 21st century.