BLOGGERS BLOCK: APPROPRIATION IS NOT CREATION AKA STOP BITING
Of late I have been unable to blog. I have just haven’t had the want to expose my world and life to others due to the fact my personal forum for expression has become a guidebook for a few corporate entities and one HBO show called ” How to Make it in America”, I feel like showing people the stuff that inspires me, the stuff that is truly NY has back fired on me and has become free content if you will for a plethora of culture vultures and ripoff artists. Until I can heal and feel better about this equation I just don”t have the get up and go to report the inner working of my personal New York City.
I wonder when in culture did it become OK to appropriate ideas and thoughts from people and did the culture of sampling whether graphic design revisiting classic logos and themes or the recontextualizing of music in the form of sampling ie: HipHop lead people to believe this was a ethical way of proceeding? I do know this my brain has been picked one to many times at this point by too many and my information and rolodex are not free. They never were in fact and it leads me to a crossroads of sorts. Do I continue to report the things in life that make it for me at least that much more palatable and continue to expose my friends art and creative endeavors to the world or do I sit back and enjoy these things soley for my personal consciousness raising?
I am conflicted deeply by this equation currently and until I can figure it out it has for all intent and purposes quelled want to blog and fueled my paranoia. The moral underlying factors are plenty. I wonder do I need to censor myself when talking to so called friends who will run with my so called brain food and incorporate it into there newest lookbook, tshirt design or TV project without ever thinking about where this info came from let alone thinking about compensation for this information/directive? This equation has me pondering a lot of things of late and in the wake of losing so many friends the past few months has made me question the import of being involved in the so called culture of downtown NYC and reporting it to the world at large in a public forum. I am not concerned by the loyalists who check my blog daily most are good people that just dig culture in all shapes and sizes but there is a element of culture jackers and frauds who look at the site just to figure out how to make there marketing presentation feel authentic or there TV project organic so to speak.
The bottom line is the cumulative effect has burnt me out of late and made it impossible for me to blog as I feel each and every time I post something I dig and expose it to the world there is some corporate schmo ready to pounce on the content so to speak with out ever understanding the weight behind it all. I love the opportunity to expose my friends and people who truly elevate the playing field of NYC but I do not enjoy the feeling of sleight when some corporate mongrel I know sits me down and try’s to pick apart my rolodex or get inside my thought process in order to further there own agenda. This has happened too much of late and I feel there is a big bank take little bank element to it all and it plain and simple is unethical to me.
Who knows in the next few days I may feel differently about it but currently I feel a bit disillusioned by it all. What started out as a personal map of my NYC has evolved in to a chart of whats hip and authentic in NYC and youth culture has become fodder for rippoff artists and cultural vampires so to speak. I ask that you bear with me as I will try to run this emotion off and with time return to reporting the things in my life that are truly inspiring and worth while. Lets see how this plays out at the present time I just can’t bring myself to step up and get busy.
I ask the following of the vultures that pick apart my site:
Stop biting it’s not right ,get your own ideas and programing together. Appropriation is not creation real talk.
Dante Ross
NYC
October 1st, 2009 at 3:57 pm
That is really too bad.. i so enjoy your blog.. sometimes it’s a great record of part of my world, and others cuz i get to peak into those pockets i dont get to experience myself. I actually did my Master’s thesis on this idea of theft and Hip Hop aesthetics. I looked at our boy Prince Paul’s hip-hopera, “A Prince Among Thieves” and his warning that an unethical theft — one that does not recognize the source leads to diminishing returns and quite literally death. death of a person, and of a culture.. stay up Dante, ur always on the next shit and i’m sure will figure out how to flip it;)
October 1st, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I’ll miss your posts for sure… make it an iPhone app and charge subscriptions…
Raoul
October 1st, 2009 at 7:34 pm
It sucks D but unfortunately that the price of publication…..Its not new, just another long line of corporate thieves pillaging the cats in the trenches of the culture. Lucklily for those that really know you, you keep an endless stream of creativity. Might just have to make your blog invite only.
Holar my man
Dom
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
I hope the fact you schooled the ignorant masses on the Thomas Edison of the crack game is proof that you’ll continue to fight the good fight and keep dropping knowledge. It sucks that rule #1: staying fresh and true runs counter to corporate shenanigans so that jackers and biters will always be lying in the grass. Hopefully the sincerity of your fans and readers prevails.
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 am
Your basically asking for publishing rites on blogging and intellectual property. Both are cases that can be won in your favor should you decide to go that route. I would ask yourself though if you can hold yourself to the same level of moral/ethical accountability you place on corporations like HBO? Have you ever had lunch with a friend and amongst catching up, a little shop talk is discussed, and before you know it topics from that conversation are then being brought to companies like 10deep or keds? It’s a slippery slope. Having worked in retail, specifically a store that catered to said “Downtown Culture”, I saw a lot of brands with similar if not exactly the same patterns, subject matter, influences, etc, release during the same season. Were they all going to the same forecaster? Or were they all friends and before you know it casual conversations had amongst friends, influenced their creative thought process sub-consciously? Or did someone just flat out steal or “bite” someone else’s idea? I think any creative individual can say they have done all three and probably also say they have been a victim of all three. When a company like HBO does it, it makes people (you, me, others,) mad because they are someone that can pay for said information as opposed to taking it, but really its almost no different from the liberties taken amongst other smaller brands, companies, people.
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I’ve had so many conversations about these very issues in the past few years. I think it comes down to the fact that there is no stigma to biting, being a poseur or all sorts of similar traits. Actually, in many cases those are the most popular and successful people out there in this era. That said, sounds like you’re doing the right thing. Let folks figure things out for themselves or just recycle others vibes, why put yourself out?
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Morgan I appreciate your words they have validity and are great for creating dialog. I for one coming from a era of graffiti and beat making where biting would get you a severe beating try to be as cognoscente as humanly possible about biting or appropriating peoples ideas. That said I could say with a clear conscious I have never stolen any idea from any body consciously in my entire life.
Touching on similar themes with in the genre of so called “Streetwhere” is often people just mining the same elements of popular culture and hitting that same tipping point at approx the same times. It happens we are all children of pop culture and I have often called this HipHop gridlock in reference to people catching the same loop or drums or concept.
It’s happened by accident to me and by me a few times musically speaking and I think this tends to happen upon occasion in the scope of” Downtown Culture” what ever that may be.
Morgan I like your words great dialog provoking stuff my man hope to see you soon and pick it up in person.
Thanks
October 5th, 2009 at 9:05 am
You know what my first assignments in artschool were? To copy other peoples’ photos. I refused to do that. And this made me really lose respect for my teachers. I grew up knowing that it was not ok to bite + now I’m supposed to bite stuff that I don’t even rate?
October 6th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
When you started the blog, I wondered why would such a influential person in the culture that is NYC pass on his thoughts and ideas so readily. The way you spoke to your audience mimicked the way you would talk to your friends while chillin in the studio. That is why your blog is real. That is why people fiend for your information. Cause it’s as real as it gets.
Now, my exact thoughts about how your blog could get exploited have come to fruition and it cheapens the whole fabric of the internet more and more. Why can’t tastemakers give out free information and create dialogs to enhance the overall culture of the best city in world…cause their are vultures in this city too. But in the cyberworld, you can’t beat down the biters. All you can do is remain silent.
Sorry that it has come to this but this is a lesson for anyone that blogs creative thoughts or ideas. Remember, your art is in your thoughts and dreams and even tho money shouldn’t control it, compensation is a must!
Give thanks Dante. Your like the cool older brother that we all need but never had.