Sounds like hell to me.
Still, I get what he’s saying. The West Village has, over the last two decades, gotten precious and pretentious (and segregated) beyond belief.
If his job is worthless, I’m rather surprised someone is willing to pay him to do it.
I admit, I kind of suspect his honesty, inasmuch as he named his hip-hop themed restaurant after a jazz musician. That’s a bit like opening a restaurant named “Jim Morrison,” and decorating it with country & western memorabilia.
And I think that’s what it really comes down to, when it comes to cultural appropriation. That was part of the Miley Cyrus thing - if Miley Cyrus genuinely loves hip-hop, and just happens to be very bad at it, more power to her. But if she doesn’t really give a shit about hip-hop, and is just using it as a gimmick to distance herself from her Hannah Montana image… well, that’s kind of insulting to the people who put their heart and soul into building the genre. I don’t know if Miley is a genuine hip-hop fan or not, but if I wanted to create a music video that was a spoof of a corporatized, soul-less attempt at a cash-in, I couldn’t do much better than the video she recorded.
Anyway, the other thing here is related to the gentrification issue. A lot of people think of New York as the birthplace of hip hop (others say LA). Except, the gentrification process has largely driven out the people who invented east coast hip-hop, and replaced it with upscale boutiques and fancy restaurants - in short, they’ve been driven out by people like the owner of Charlie Bird. So while this restaurant is superficially celebrating hip hop culture, it’s also playing a key role in destroying it, at least in New York City.
I didn’t realize anyone questioned hip-hop’s strictly New York origins.
That said, it went global years ago. All of New York City could be destroyed, without destroying hip-hop culture now.
I thought that was the origin of the east coast/west coast rivalry thing, but on doing some research, I see that I was mistaken.
Sure, sure, but if one of the things you love about New York is that it’s the World Capital of Hip Hop, seeing it lose that status can be frustrating. Especially if the people responsible for it happening claim to be hip hop fans themselves.
So, I went looking for some photos of this supposedly “hip hop themed” restaurant.
I was expecting something like this.
Instead, I found this.
Looks like any other pretentious bistro in any hip neighborhood in any large-ish American city. The only thing that’s hip hop themed about the decor are a few framed graphics of boom boxes.
I didn’t know white people weren’t allowed to do that now, nor play hip hop music. I guess white people can only open meat-and-three family restaurants with country decor, with accordion and champaigne music. Stray from that, and it’s OMG cultural appropriation.
Here’s some photos from Sylvia’s in Harlem, one of the nation’s mos iconic soul food restaurants.
Look at all the cultural appropriation going on in the second photo. Nothing but modern day colonialism, just like the British in Africa. Little racist Cecil Rhodes wannabes, all of them. Whites should stick with their own food in their own neighborhoods. :rolleyes:
And that is what the author is objecting to. The hip hop isn’t a theme, an object of celebration, or even really window dressing. It has no connection to the food, the vibe, or the people in this restaurant. In execution, the hip hop connection is so abstract and uninspired that it could be swapped out for anything else without doing more than changing a CD and hanging some new posters. It’s not anything more than a momentary distraction for people sipping $50 aperitifs.
Which wouldn’t be that bad, if the place had gone in honestly saying they are and oddly decorated upscale restaurant with a soundtrack. But they don’t. The proprietor made a big deal about his connection to hip hop, and loaded up the promotional materials with lots of big language about how the restaurant represents something other than the well off eating expensive Italian food.
And that is no tribute to the creativity and vitality of the artists and communities involved. This is potentially rich ground for a talented restaurateur to explore, but this guy just totally dropped the ball.
I agree completely; the connection and juxtaposition is so abstract as to be ironic. Which, I guess, may be part of the appeal among the restaurant’s customer base. I just don’t think it’s the kind of insensitive cultural appropriation some think it is. Cultural appropriation happens all the time, and most of the time it’s a not bad thing; consider how rock evolved from jazz and blues, for example. Think about the collective culture of the United States, whether you see it as a melting pot or mosaic.
Appropriation of sacred dress and iconography usually faces the most scrutiny of cultural appropriation critics. I wonder what the author would think about the Gospel Brunch at any House of Blues location.
TL/DR: Cultural appropriation? Feh. Kinda’ dumb? Yeah.
And folk, country, and pop, among other things.
Shucks, maybe that’s the catch-all answer to this critic: even if, for the sake of argument, said restaurateur is making shallow and inauthentic use of the culture he’s trivializing – well, that’s just him genuinely championing and embodying his culture, such that we should probably award full marks for sincerity.
Right. Who will stand up for Shallow culture?
Not that they seem to be under any threat.