NFL
By: Brock Vierra
My musical taste stems from whatever was playing on 104.3FM in Hawaii and thus my favorite genre of music is rap/ hip-hop. Not trying to sound like an old head but the modern rap of today does not give me the same feeling as the artists I grew up listening to once did. At the forefront of my exploration into this new musical frontier was a man by the name of Akon. Akon was an innovator, a catalyst, and a rap savant. His run from 2004 to 2008 was the stuff of legends. 3 albums of straight auditory fire shaped my entire musical understanding. Trouble (2004), Konvicted (2006), and Freedom (2008) produced multiple number-1 hits, millions of sold records, and a discography that rivals the best of the best. His work with artists like Eminem, T-Pain, Kardinal Offishall, Gwen Stefani, Baby Bash, Plies, Young Jeezy, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Wyclef Jean, and more elevated his status as both a rapper and a producer.
Unfortunately, we’re not talking about rap, we’re not talking about rappers. We’re talking about our favorite artists being bad people and the challenges of separating artists from their art.
Nick Cannon, the father of now 12 children, children all of who are close in age has sparked a debate on the role a father with multiple children from multiple baby mothers can play in each of their children’s lives. With only 24 hours in a day, it is guaranteed that Cannon will have to miss certain events in his kids’ lives to dedicate time to the others. Akon, unprovoked had something to say. Akon who is a father of 6 came to Cannon’s defense stating that “That’s a white man’s thing, who gives a f**k about a recital?” Well, many fathers came to find Akon’s words irritating, even posting pictures of themselves at their kid’s events, emphasizing the importance of being involved in their kid’s lives. Now I find Akon’s words to be unacceptable, inappropriate, and downright foolish. I am the product of a father who was heavily involved in my life, my father is a product of one who wasn’t and I’ll let y’all guess which person is resentful of their childhood.
But this dives into a deeper issue associated with fandom. The music which has defined my taste was made by a man who possesses a character which I despise. I’ve never had this moment before. R Kelly was a little before my time, I never felt the same connection to Kanye West as I do with Akon. This is the first time I’ve had to perform that separation.
How do you do that? Do you just ignore what he said? Artists are not meant to be role models right? I mean they signed up to make art, not make a difference. And it’s not like he did anything illegal. All Akon is saying is that as a father, as a man, all you need to do is the bear minimum wow that’s bad.
It’s sucks when the man you are a fan of, the one you looked up to isn’t really a man at all. One would think that a man who prides himself on overcoming the challenges of his criminal past would be the least likely person to make such a dumb comment.
The worst part was him saying that being a present father is “a white man’s thing.” Perhaps he was just talking about attending a recital but it’s no secret that society makes a mockery of black men, especially black men who aren’t in their kid’s lives. Now there are plenty of men of all races who are not in their kid’s lives but the spotlight is always put on black men. It’s the number one go-to storyline in the NBA and NFL draft. It’s the source of the “going to get milk” jokes. It’s a false rhetoric that gets perpetuated because of comments like this.
In the end, there’s nothing we can do about someone’s idiocy. We can call them out for their behavior, not buy their art, or boycott their performances but unless everyone is willing to do it, it won’t work. Sometimes we just gotta accept people are people and people say dumb things. Even if it’s the person you’d grew up wanting to be like.
