“Culture of Bling Clangs to Earth as the Recession Melts Rappers’ Ice”
Sorry to double dip in the Wall Street Journal, but this headline was too good to pass up. From the department of ‘Proof we are in a recession’ comes this WSJ article about the market for bling in hip hop. Apparently, lots of rappers are selling their old jewelry and others are (gasp!) using fake ice, like cubic zirconias. Oh the horror!
It is pretty fascinating to read about the politics of the bling game. My favourite part of the article is the WSJ’s journalistic standards clashing with the nature of hip hop. For each rapper they interview/quote, they insist on saying his real name. Biz Markie is Marcel Theo Hall, Lil John is Jonathan Mortimer Smith (Mortimer!) and Rick Ross is William Leonard Roberts II (don’t call him Junior). Perhaps this could lead to another feature about how rappers choose their names.
Hip Hop and the Wall Street Journal - together at last. Maybe they could team up with MTV Cribs and all do a ‘Foreclosure’ episode. Who wouldn’t watch that?
2 years ago