Public Enemy.

“If white people knew what was going on in most black people’s heads it would scare the shit out of them” – miles davis

talk about performers

The reference to sampling touches on authenticity from another angle, one that’s germane not only to politics, but to art and music and, really, living in the modern world, I gather that’s Dave’s take from the start, but I’m occasionally slow on the up take.

Maybe this gets to the heart of my perspective – I don’t think sampling or borrowing from other sources necessarily detracts from authenticity. Take a track from Public Enemy’s seminal “It Takes a Nation of Millions” album. The song Night of the Living Baseheads has no fewer than 17 samples (an interesting aside that this song would be financially unfeasible today due to licensing rules), and I don’t think anyone could argue that’s not an original contribution to the genre. Likewise, the album Rainy Dayz, by Amp Live, is a (seriously badass) remix of Radiohead’s In Rainbows . Again, authentic even though it’s thoroughly derivative.

Anyway, I’m done kicking this dead horse. But I really enjoyed the post and the discussion that followed! Great food for thought.

I think this is a lovely idea ssw, unfortunately, we all have wants/needs and feelings that conflict. everyone does. finding that inner self, and facing it, requires looking at what those things bring and the choices we make. But I think this is where Dave’s post gets at the dangerous part of everyone’s psyche, with awareness come the awareness of performance.

“Many of us can and do tap into “who we really are” and the likelihood of finding it rises exponentially with safety–when a person finds a source of real safety (if they can) I think sincerity, earnestness, authenticity, etc surface.”

this is completely true, not everyone finds this source, i’ll always be grateful for it.