The Common Ills: 2022-01-02

Saturday, January 08, 2022

The new Parliament is supposed to convene in Iraq for the first time in a few hours

Tomorrow, Iraq's new Parliament is supposed to meet for the first time. A Speaker should be declared. A president should be named. Most importnatly, a rpime minister-designate should be named. The election took place October 10th. It's past time to name a prime minister-designate. After being named, the person will have 30 days to form a Cabinet. That's the test put into the Constitution. You do that, you move from designate to prime minister. It's supposed to be a full Cabinet. That's never happened.

ALSUMARIA reports that the leader of Iraq's Hezbollah Brigades, Abu Ali al-Askari, declared that the new government must be 100% Iraqi, especially, he insists, after the October 10th election had so much fraud. Fraud was never proven. Issues were taken to the electoral commission which dismissed them and that's not a surprise, no one expects a fair hearing from that commission which has been a public joke in Iraq since 2010 (when it was used to eliminate political rivals). However, Iraq's Supreme Court also saw no fraud.

Now the militias -- of which Abu is a part of -- were discriminated against. Security forces vote the Friday before the election. That's tradition in Iraq. They do so because they are expected, on election day, to be dispersed throughout the country providing protection so that people can vote. The militias were made part of the security forces. (That's move I opposed here and opposed it for years and years. I still oppose them being part of the forces, but they are.) Knowing he had no support from the militias (they'd already protested him, surrounded his home, denounced him publicly, called him traitor, etc, etc in the brief time he'd been prime minister), Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced that they wouldn't be allowed to vote early. That disenfranchised many of them. That did effect the vote.

And maybe if people like Abu weren't so damn stupid, they would've made that their appeal to the court because they would have been on stronger ground. Would it have changed the outcome?

No. Even if the Court had ordered a remedy, it wouldn't have changed the larger results. But the Court could have ordered a remedy if they had been presented with this issue. It's very easy to know which precient various security forces were assigned to. Those assigned outside of their own for election day and not allowed to vote early could have had a post-election vote ordered by the Court. It might have added a few seats for them in Parliament but it wouldn't have put them in the lead.

That's because the Iraqi people, never that enamored with them to being with, turned against them.

We can't talk about that because we're a country of very stupid people when it comes to our supposed 'activists' and 'commenators.'

____ is supposed to be so smart and I try to be as nice as I can about her but she's a real idiot.

And she was back to pimping Saint Qassim Solemani tales yet again this week.

She's incapable of learning.

The US killing him made him a martyr to some people in Iraq -- not even the majoirty of people though. It did not make him a saint. Stop the beatification.

Solemani's thugs were out in Baghdad today again. Oh, and by the way, two Shi'ite civilians were shot dead by these thugs.

This is why the Iraqi people turned against the militias.

The US was wrong to murder/assassiante Solemani.

But them being wrong didn't make him a saint. He was an evil person who harmed a lot of Iraqis -- not even going into his actions in Iran. He targeted Iraq's most vulnerable communities. He encouraged hatred and acts of violence to religious minorities, to women who refused to be beaten down, to LGBTQ persons -- and those mistaken for them. He was a hateful man.

A poet!!! -- the fools like to insist.

A murderer.

Goodness, when did CODESTINK decided their life's goal was to be Barbara Land?

That's Annette Bening's character in MARS ATTACKS! -- for any who missed it . . .

Agin, the US was wrong to murder/assassinate the man. It's generally wrong to murder people, I didn't know that was considered a shocking position to take. But murder did not wash away Soleimani's deeds, his many, evil deeds.

Two Shi'ites were killed today. By his thugs. But, hey, it's more important that people pretend that he was a saint, right?

I'm just not in the mood for the garbage. I'm not most days. But I'm really not right now when I'm getting over (I hope!) COVID.

The following sites updated:

Palestine, the Squad & How the Right To Resist Imperial Violence Is Universal, w/ Ali Abunimah

CREDIT BUREAUS FALLING DOWN ON THE JOB

The Dark Side of the CIA in Chile: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability (2003)

I Was On The Young Turks Again

Unsung: The Story Of Melba Moore

Katie Halper: Andrew Cuomo SKATES, Avoids ALL Criminal Charges. Elites Will ALWAYS Protect Their Own

What's behind our soaring military budget, with journalist Andrew Cockburn and Marianne Williamson

Ethan Klein Tries To Criticize Joe Rogan

WTF is . . . Trap?

Leisurely reads. Quirky tips. Meet your weekend BFF with the lowdown on the coolest art, culture, food, travel, TV shows, music and more.

Jan 08, 2022

TODAY

We are in an era when trap music is king. It was boldly present in Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings,” throughout Bad Bunny’s “MIA'' and can even be heard in the country hit “Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line.

Trap is a subgenre of rap and hip-hop that emerged from the American South in the ’90s. The distinctive sound can be traced back to the Roland TR-808 machine, the first to produce its signature 808 thump. The sound, and genre, has since seen innovations, reincarnations and additions, spinning off even more subgenres. You could say that trap has transcended its original framework to become an aesthetic. There’s trap yoga, trap theater, trap paint — you name it. But few seem to know its origins, how it caught fire and the principal elements of its sound. Even if you find someone familiar with the 808, they probably can’t tell you about the fast pitter-patter hi-hats that originated in New York or the drums that were mastered in New Orleans. And even if music lovers link trap’s origins to Atlanta in the 1990s, few know that “trap” is more than a musical genre — it’s a real place that refers to where drugs are hidden in a car, where deals get made, and how hard it is to escape that lifestyle and poor inner-city neighborhoods.

News to you? Well, that’s why we're here. What the f*** is trap? Read on.

THE BASICS

1 - The Sound

The sound that we recognize as trap all started with the Roland TR-808 — a drum machine manufactured by the Roland Corp. that debuted in 1980. The machine, which allows you to manipulate synths and replicate drums and snares and kicks, was ahead of its time. Maybe too ahead of its time. Rather than trying to mimic actual instruments the TR-808 gave them a new electric sound and, after just three years, production ceased. Still, the TR-808 gave birth to trap thanks to three effects it manufactures: 808s, hi-hats and snares.

2 - Origin Story

The best way to understand how trap started is to follow the trajectory of its sound. There was no single starting palace or origin story — every region that got ahold of the machine ran with its favorite feature. Once merged, these sounds are what we now know as trap. The legendary 808s were first heard in the Bronx in Afrika Bambaataa and producer Arthur Baker’s 1982 hit “Planet Rock.” The impossibly fast hi-hats were embraced and perfected by New Orleans’ Mannie Fresh (as heard in 1998’s “Back That Azz Up”). As far as the word itself? Credit goes to Goodie Mob from Atlanta and their 1995 song “Thought Process,” even if the debate hasn’t fully been settled.

3 - How It Became Popularized

While it is true that Atlanta producer Shawty Redd had been making trap beats as early as 2000 and saw global success with Young Jeezy after producing his 2005 debut album, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, T.I. — another Atlanta rapper — and his producer DJ Toomp are credited with first using the term on an album, Trap Muzik, in 2003. Both albums are certified classics and were defining moments for the South and trap. But the genre ascended to another stratosphere in 2017 when hip-hop, from which trap derived, surpassed rock as the most popular genre in the U.S. That’s when “Bad and Boujee” by Atlanta’s Migos, “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd and Gucci, and Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” all reached No. 1 on Billboard’s top 100, each a quintessential trap song.

4 - Where It Is Today

In less than a decade, trap has evolved to the point where you can hear its influence in and throughout various subgenres all over the world. At its inception around 2014, Latin trap was nothing more than Spanglish versions of the sound taking over the South in the 2000s, with Dominican DJs like DJ Flipstar remixing popular trap songs. Now it’s the fifth most consumed music genre in America. Korea has adopted elements of the genre as well: K-pop band BTS is often considered “Korean trap” and is arguably the biggest pop band in the world. Drill is a slow, sinister take on trap that originated on the South Side of Chicago around 2014 with acts like Chief Keef and then spilled over into U.K. drill in London and Brooklyn drill in New York.

MAJOR PLAYERS

1 - Young Jeezy vs. Gucci Mane

You could say that both are considered pioneers of the trap movement, both hail from Georgia or they gained national acclaim at the same time. And yet, no matter how you line them up, Young Jeezy and Gucci have never gotten along. It could be because Gucci murdered an associate of Jeezy’s (Gucci beat the charges), a rift that would take 15 years to heal. Even if their long-standing feud is over, their legacies will be debated for some time to come.

2 - Top Dog?

Most point to Atlanta’s T.I., Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane as the gatekeepers of trap. T.I.’s debut, Trap Muzik, dropped in 2003, while Young Jeezy’s debut, Thug Motivation 101, and Gucci’s Trap House both followed two years later. With the passage of time, however, Gucci Mane has become the modern face of trap, having reached mass commercial success. Since being released from prison for weapons possession in 2016, he’s become an ambassador of the Gucci label, written a book and reached number one on the Billboard charts.

3 - Shawty Redd

If the “trap sound,” consisting of super-fast hi-hats, 808s and a snare at its core, was mastered in different regions and moments throughout its short history, there is one producer in particular who took all three elements, put them together and turned it into one of the most popular forms of American music today. His name is Shawty Redd. The eerie synthesizers, the powerful 808 kicks, the busy hi-hats — that’s all him.

4 - Metro Boomin

If Shawty Redd was the trap pioneer of the 2000s, his descendant would have to be Metro Boomin — an Atlanta producer responsible for most of the modern trap hits. From making the beat for Big Sean’s “HomeTown” off Finally Famous Vol. 3 and multiple tracks on OJ Da Juiceman’s mixtape Culinary Art School in 2010 to making platinum hits for Future, Migos and Kanye West, he’s had the second wave of trap on lock.

MONEY AND INFLUENCE

1 - Highest Earner

If you go by Forbes' 2019 list of the highest-paid hip-hop artists, Migos is the top-ranking trap group on there, pulling in a cool $36 million. And it makes sense, since they’re everywhere. After scoring a No.1 record on Billboard for “Bad and Boujee,” they didn’t see an endorsement deal they didn’t like.

2 - Profitability

At the top of 2018, when Nielsen's year-end report revealed that hip-hop surpassed rock as the most popular genre in the U.S., trap songs were dominating the airwaves. So it’s no surprise that investors are betting that hip-hop will drive the music industry to double its revenue to about $131 billion by 2030.

3 - The Business of Trap

Trap’s influence is such that there’s a hunger to learn more about the down South staple — and T.I. is answering the call. It was reported in June of 2020 that the Atlanta rapper would join hip-hop scholar Dr. Melva K. Williams at Clark Atlanta University this fall to teach “Business of Trap Music,” focusing on the genre’s roots, culture and economics.

WHO TO WATCH

1 - Shaybo

She is destined to be the next big thing out of the U.K., and no, she’s not a ballad singer like Adele. Shaybo is a 25-year-old, Nigerian-born MC who calls herself Queen of the South per her debut LP that dropped last year. Having been cosigned by BBC’s 1Xtra and already making a buzz as a rookie, she is where everyone's eyes should be going forward.

2 - Double Lz

Although a clear and unapologetic copy of Chicago’s drill scene, U.K. drill has proven to be formidable in its own right, with a sound that’s fueling a legion of stars. One of the newest acts is Double Lz. Also a member of the drill group OFB, Double Lz’s recently released Top 40 single, "Circles," and "Straight Outta Tottenham" are proof that he is an artist who’s here to stay.

3 - Yoon Mi-Rae

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know about K-pop and its global music dominance, and it was only a matter of time before the movement started incorporating elements of trap. Korean rapper Yoon Mi-Rae is a veteran of the K-hip-hop scene; her emergence in the late ’90s makes her a mentor to a number of young upcoming artists.

4 - Smoove’L

Smoove’L is an heir to the New York drill scene. At only 21 years old, he’s recognized as one of Brooklyn’s finest after his SoundCloud page racked up millions of streams with the singles "New Apollos" and "Big Mad." Now that he’s signed a joint record deal with Run Music LLC/Interscope Records, expect to see a lot more from him.

5 - Fivio Foreign

After Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was slain days after releasing his official debut album, Meet The Woo 2, in 2020 — a project that put Brooklyn drill on the national stage — the reins of New York drill were unofficially passed to Fivo Foreign. Although he’s been on the climb in the New York music scene alongside Pop Smoke, his song “Big Drip,” released independently in 2019 on his debut Pain & Love EP, bumped him to another level. Now he’s recorded songs with Drake and been signed to Columbia Records.

6 - Sada Baby

Detroit has its feet in the trap game too. Rapper Sada Baby made a splash on the scene when his video “Bloxk Party” made the rounds in 2018 (now with over 90 million views). Since then, his star has risen even higher with his viral TikTok song “Whole Lotta Choppas.” His sound is a mix of drill with raunchy and explicit Detroit flavor and his just might be the next biggest name out of the Motor City.

Quiz time!

Test your knowledge of trap by taking our quiz!

What U.S. region was first to use 808s?

East Coast
West Coast
The South

Which form of drill came first?

Chicago
U.K.
Brooklyn

Who was the first to use the term “trap” in a song?

Goodie Mob
T.I.
Gucci Mane

What musical genre did hip-hop surpass to become the most consumed in 2017?

Country
Rock
Pop

Who currently sits atop the Forbes list as the highest earning trap star?

Gucci Mane
Future
Migos

Which Atlanta producer was first to compose what we know of as trap music today?

Shawty Redd
Organized Noize
Metro Boom

Which is NOT an effect trap centers around?

hi-hats
bass
808s

What year was the TR-808 released?

2000
1980
1960

Answers:

The South
Chicago
Goodie Mob
Rock
Migos
Shawty Redd
bass
1980

Go Deeper

Listen:

Gucci: Trap God Classics: I Am My Only Competition
Jeezy: Thug Motivation: 101
T.I.: Trap Muzik

Read:

The Autobiography of Gucci Mane: Gucci has done it all — from ruling the underground mixtape circuit to killing a man, developing an addiction to promethazine — and emerging sober after a prison sentence. And the trap star tells it all in this 2017 memoir, which became a New York Times best-seller.
The Rap Year Book: Another New York Times best-seller, this one by Shea Serrano, a staff writer for The Ringer, this book weighs in on what the author deems the most important song of each year starting with 1979. For each pick, he dives into the artists’ backgrounds and explores issues of race.
R Is for Roland: What better way to understand everything that is trap than reading up on the machine that started it all? R Is for Roland digs into the history of 23 Roland synthesizers and drum machines chosen by artists across the world — along with interviews with the musicians.

Watch:

The Art of Organized Noize: This 2016 documentary sheds light on trap as it taps into Atlanta hip-hop history through the story of a group of producers who provided an incubator for talented artists who would become titans of the city’s sound. Although that sound would be described more as dirty south than trap — think Outkast, CeeLo, the Goodie Mob and the Dungeon Family — it’s definitely worth a watch.
Revelations: T.I. has long claimed that he owns and sits upon the throne of trap, and in this 2019 mini-documentary, he defends his case. This film is an in-depth look into the artist’s mind, process and the power of trap.
808: The Heart of the Beat That Changed Music: We’ve told you about Roland and their groundbreaking TR-808 drum machine. Now watch how it was made!

Sevyn Streeter on 'The Carlos Watson Show'

Sevyn Streeter shares the secrets of how she expresses herself through her music, and opens up about the R&B queens who made her who she is today. Plus: See what happens when she improvises songs about 2020, tequila, and a serenade for Carlos. To listen to the full, unedited conversation between Carlos and Sevyn Streeter, subscribe to the podcast version of the show here: http://podcasts.iheartradio.com/s_34Zjdh

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Sean & Jacquie w/Richard Wolff!

Imprint Of Imperialism - Season 2, Episode 1

OZY's Top 10 Week: Arts & Entertainment Stars

The newsletter to fuel — and thrill — your mind. Read for deep dives into the unmissable ideas and topics shaping our world.

Jan 07, 2022

TODAY

Wrapping up our Top 10 Week, today's Daily Dose turns its attention to the upcoming faces in the world of arts and culture. Some of the names below you will know. Many you won’t. All of them are doing trailblazing things in their own spheres and are likely to break big in the near future. From models to musicians to social media stars, here, in no order of priority, are the people we recommend you keep an eye on as the year ahead unfolds. Once more, dear reader, we look to you to guide us: send along your top tips for success stories in the world of the arts (ozycommunity@ozy.com) and we’ll feature your recommendations here next week. Enjoy the read, and happy Friday!

1 - Ali Malik (comedy)

The son of a Pakistani British mother from London and a father from Pakistan, Ali Malik’s first comedic turn unfolded in that most nonjudgmental of spaces: the shower. The first-generation Americans’ experiences have been similar to many others in his shoes, with his parents spending much of their time working to create a secure future for their children. Now approaching 30 and based in Los Angeles, Malik’s upbringing not only features in his material but also contributed to how he discovered his love for comedy in the first place. Rarely allowed to listen to music as a child, “I was able to download comedy albums instead, and I would obsessively listen,” Malik tells OZY, citing legends like Russell Peters, Dane Cook and Gabriel Iglesias as inspiration.

2 - Noname (rap/book club)

She is a heavy critic of Barack Obama’s drone strikes, dared to challenge the ethics of Beyoncé and was one of the first rappers to advocate for defunding the police. Plus, there's that very public spat with J.Cole. To say Chicago rapper Noname is on the radical side would be a drastic understatement, but the truth is she just wants … truth. All she cares about is spreading knowledge, which is why she founded Noname’s Book Club to lift up marginalized writers.

3 - Halima Aden (modeling)

The 24-year-old Somali American grabbed headlines by becoming the first model to don a hijab and burkini for the cover of Sports Illustrated. Aden is a genuine trailblazer. She had negotiated a contract that would see her only work with agencies that let her wear the hijab and work only with female stylists. It worked, but only temporarily: In 2020, she quit modeling to protest the industry’s exploitative practices, “taking one for the team,” she says, to help others feel more comfortable about speaking up. Industry issues aside, Aden still hopes to represent Somalia in the Miss Universe pageant. While it would be a first for a contestant to compete while wearing a hijab, that doesn’t scare Aden, who has made a career out of breaking down barriers.

4 - Michaela Coel (acting)

The British daughter of Ghanian immigrants broke through with her Channel 4 sitcom Chewing Gum, a coming-of-age tale about a young Black woman finding her voice and sexuality in “hilariously filthy” fashion, as the Guardian put it. And her 12-episode HBO series, I May Destroy You, quickly became a must-see show. Playing the protagonist, Arabella, Coel tackles the trauma of being sexually assaulted — a battle she fought herself after being drugged and assaulted in 2016. The 34-year-old East London native forces her audience to confront uncomfortable topics, and it’s resonating with British and American viewers alike.

5 - Mickey Guyton (music)

Last year, country superstar Morgan Wallen laid bare the genre’s long-standing problems with race and representation when a video emerged of him shouting a racist slur. It’s the same genre Mickey Guyton has devoted her career to. One of the few Black artists in country, Guyton minted a minor viral hit in 2020 with the personal, passionate and bold “Black Like Me.” It tallied hundreds of thousands of views and streams, but it didn’t make a dent on the country charts. Now Guyton has a second chance to win the song the attention it deserves, with “Remember Her Name” making her the first Black woman to be nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards later this month.

6 - Seema Hari (social media)

In a country where fair skin is an obsession among many, this dark-skinned beauty is going down a different road entirely. Seema Hari is confronting colorism in India’s modeling industry with full force as an ambassador for the advocacy campaign Dark Is Beautiful, a social media presence and as a writer. Growing up, Hari faced bullying and harassment for her dark skin tone. But she didn’t let the naysayers dim her light. Instead, she shines as a model, DJ, activist and engineer. Her Instagram is a gold mine of content celebrating dark skin tones while addressing issues such as India’s caste system and transphobia.

7 - Bobby Cash (music)

As a child growing up in Uttarakhand, Bal Kishore Das Loiwal was immersed in music, and his love of country music was established early thanks to a relative in Nashville who sent the family daily doses of American country tunes. That led to him taking his nicknames, Babu and Kish, and combining them into the stage name “Bobby Cash” before performing his first gig at Rodeo, a Tex-Mex eatery and hub for expats in Delhi, in the ’90s. The managers were so impressed they offered him a regular spot. A member of the audience, an Aussie film producer, reckoned Cash was “fair dinkum ” — the real deal — and invited “the Indian Cowboy” to play at the Southern Hemisphere’s hippest country festival in Tamworth, New South Wales. More than two decades later, the unlikely country star, now 61, was included in 2018’s Rockumentary: Evolution of Indian Rock and continues to perform live shows.

8 - Han Shimei (poetry)

The factory cook was sold to her husband by her struggling family. Today, she’s emerging as China’s unlikely new poetry sensation. Each morning, she wakes up in her village in central Henan province to a flood of comments on her musings from the previous day, which she posts on Kuaishou, the popular, TikTok-like app. For Han, the poems are an outlet from a mundane life between the factory and the shoes she crochets in her free time. It turns out her writings are just what many other Chinese people need as the country recovers from recession and the pandemic.

9 - Thuso Mbedu (acting)

Twice nominated for International Emmy Awards, this South African is on the cusp of a Hollywood breakout. Mbedu, 30, generated tons of buzz following the run of the Barry Jenkins series, The Underground Railroad, on Amazon Prime last year and for which she was recognized by the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards and the Gotham Awards for her compelling performance. But the best is yet to come: Up next is a role alongside Viola Davis in the historical epic, The Woman King, set to screen in September.

10 - Antibalas (music)

Antibalas’ 2021 Grammy nomination was more than a half-century in the making. The versatile New York-based group, which features as many as 19 members, has only been around for two decades, but its music channels the great Fela Kuti — with a dash of kung fu teaching. Starting in the late ’60s, Kuti became Nigeria’s greatest sonic export by pioneering Afrobeat, a hybrid of traditional Yoruba music, funk and jazz. Antibalas’ first Grammy nomination last year, for Best Global Music Album, Fu Chronicles, came in a year when Kuti himself was shortlisted to be enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He ultimately lost out, but is sure to be back.

Julie Delpy on 'The Carlos Watson Show'

After a multi-decade career in Hollywood, Julie Delpy has learned more than a few things about what it takes to stay relevant and get paid. First an actor, then a writer, director and producer, Delpy’s got advice for anyone trying to come up in Hollywood today. Her latest project, On the Verge, follows four women as they navigate the highs and lows of their midlife crises. Delpy has fought to tell authentic stories about women for decades, and now she sits down with Carlos Watson to talk about how she got here and where she’s going. Check it out.

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