As some of you probably remember, my husband is deputy warden in a prison. He’s busily setting up Yard Day, which is an inmate recretional day with music, games and athletics. (Paid for by the inmates themselve, not your tax dollars, BTW.)
He’s been considering different musical acts which would appeal to the greatest number of inmates. Last year, they had a rock band with a Hot Chick lead singer. That went over really well, and not necessarily based on the musical merit of the group.
Last night, we went out to a bar which had a live band. They were an accoustic band, two guys and a bongo plater-- really good. Some of their original tunes I could seriously see as Top 40 Hits. They also did some great covers of hiphop songs like “Gin N Juice” and B.I.G’s “Hypnotize” as well as modern rock like “Blister in the Sun.” Hell, I even bought their self-produced album.
After we went home, I told hubby that this might be a great act for Yard Day, but he wasn’t so sure. What would the black inmates think about a white group taking rap songs and turning them into accoustic rock? Would they be offended? Or, like i suspect, would they just enjoy a rockin’ group on its own merits?
Nothing offensive about it to me. There’s a Cafe Society thread on the front page about Paul Anka’s album of '80s and '90s rock songs reinterpreted as big band swing cover versions, and I’m strongly in favor of reinterpreting songs in interesting ways, even if that means totally different styles and genres. Over the last several years (and really starting with Anthrax and Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” collaboration in the late '80s), there has been more and more hip-hop influence in traditionally-white rock music, with white lead singer/rappers, DJs, and so on. It’s the nature of music to spread and cross over, especially with how influential hip-hop has become.
A few years back, Dynamite Hack had a minor hit with an acoustic folksy cover of Eazy E’s “Boyz In the Hood,” complete with a tongue-in-cheek video of the (white) band dressed up in very preppie clothes and doing square/“white” things like playing golf. The Gourds also released a country/bluegrass cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” that was a favorite among internet file-sharers. While those two examples would be thought of primarily as novelty songs, they are fun and funny and entertaining, and I wouldn’t think they’d be offensive at all.
I don’t know about offensive, but it sounds kind of lame for a prison crowd. I mean, they’re in prison, something tells me they aren’t into “Blister in the Sun.”
When I imagine a prison yard concert, I think of that Metallica video where they are playing at some big prison in Cali. Obviously, you can’t book them, but something edgy seems more appropriate than a pop cover band.
Can you do more than one band? Maybe get a local metal band and a couple of local rappers. That seems doable.
My thoughts exactly but the opinions he’d get wouldn’t necessarily be useful in this situation. Some of the inmates would say it was a great idea if the staff wanted to have a Barney The Dinosaur perform because they fear the staff will get angry if they give an honest opinion (though that’s not true.)
I was hoping if I got a fair number of opinions here, it would be more helpful than just a couple of guarded ones.
Well, remember, some of those people are just like us-- not necessarily hard-core thugs, but people who did stupid things on impulse. Not everyone in prison is evil or cruel.
One of their favorite acts last year was an inmate who did a Michael Jackson impersonation.
Heh, I’m not evil or cruel (well, not all the time) and I couldn’t be paid to listen to a pop cover band.
I wasn’t sure what kind of prison we were talking about. Minimum security is a whole different animal than medium or maximum. Still, I would think they’d want to hear something edgy. If you’re locked up like an animal you probably need to let off some steam every once in a while.
It’s medium security. It’s relatively good-natured as prisons go. Very little violence. They raise puppies for charity.
They don’t really like metal that much. That was tried one year and it went over like a lead balloon. Since then, the acts have been mainly rock/pop bands or DJs. The thinking is that most people are okay with rock or pop, but only a some segments are fans of other genres like rap or country (and many people can’t stand rap or country.)
So the choice will most likely fall to a rock/pop band. My main question was whether people would get offended by a group which did accoustic covers of groups like Eazy E and Notorious B.I.G.-- taking “black” music and making it “white.”
I would hope not. This has been going on for decades (centuries actually) in both directions. I didn’t care for Ray Charles’ version of the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna,” or Bill Haley’s version of Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” but I wasn’t offended by them.
Yeah, they probably would be offended. If the prison is mostly made up of african-americans (which by the sound of your OP, I assume it is), try to get an african-american hip hop artist. That is, if hip hop is what appeals to most prisoners, which is probably the case.
A white, acoustic band, which leans toward “Top 40 hits”-type songs, and which occasionally plays hip hop covers, probably won’t sit well with hard core african-american prisoners.
Maybe not offensive, but it’s been done. I think that kind of schtick might be sort of cliche at this point - even if it’s for comedy - and I’m not sure the prison crowd will be entertained by it.
Can I get some kind of prize for using a Yiddish word and a French word in the same sentence?
I once went to a party in what was then East Germany and they had a group of three accordion players who played Jimi Hendrix tunes.
It was the most bizarre show I have ever seen and if it weren’t for the wall, I would have sold everything I had to sign them up for a world tour.
I think the prison population might actually enjoy seeing a new variation of songs they know and if the group is half as good as you claim they are, I don’t see a problem.
They should, however, records this concert for posterity, and I think it would make one hell of a mini-documentary!
Just reading this makes me want to beat the shit out of the guys, and I’m not an angry, frustrated prison inmate.
From your description it sounds like these guys are definitely working the “Isn’t it just fucking hilarious that we’re a bunch of white herbs doing acoustic joke versions of those negro songs?”
Nah, I didn’t get that impression at all. They played them like they’d play any other cover, and said something along the lines of what a great hip hip artist so and so was beforehand. They didn’t adopt comic mannerisms, or play it with any sort of mocking overtones. They played the songs like they thought they were cool and enjoyed performing them.
The only song they played tongue-in-cheek was Britney Spear’s “Opps, I did it Again”.
