Welcome to the last blog post of the semester! For this blog post, please read either or both articles in the file on Google Docs entitled “Professor_Corva’s_Articles”. The first piece is an interview with Wu Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah and the second piece is an interview with Tom Morello, best known for his work as guitarist the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine. Yes, I am old, but I am still cooler than you! If you don’t know who Wu Tang Clan or Rage Against the Machine is, get your Google on. All of you have to do for this post is share your critique of the articles. Your response can be as long as you’d like.
9 thoughts on “Blog Post #18: Review Your Professor”
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The interview with Tom Morello is the one that really made me start thinking. When he talked about how we in this country worry about very insignificant issues such as what dress to wear to prom, while children in other countries are dealing with life and death situations on the daily. We have the privilege to not have to worry about when our next meal is going to be or if we will be able to attend school (not college). This interview made me step back and realize the comforts that I enjoy in my own life that I take for granted.
The interview with Wu-tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah was interesting, to say the least. One of the things I love about this article is the interviewer’s questions about the internet’s influence on the music industry. It lets us see a 90’s rapper’s perspective on mid-2000’s hip-hop when it was first getting started. In this interview Ghostface predicted a couple of things firstly the death of radio, radio has significantly less as much impact on the music industry as it did before. Youtube and Instagram promotions have more of an effect on the music industry than the radio. Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have taken over as the main platform for music plays over CD’s as well. Another thing I found interesting is that he mentions is that DJ’s have a lot more power and notability in the music industry now. This is especially true because producers regularly place their name tag on songs and names on albums now, with the likes of Pierre bourne, Tay Keith, Murda Beatz, etc. The last prediction I found is the fact that Ghostface says people don’t care about lyrics anymore. In modern hip-hop dominated by a new generation of “mumble rap” rappers like lil pump,playboi carti, lil uzi vert, and Kodak black all dominate music charts, and are some of the most popular artists of the 2010s. I will applaud the interviewer for pushing Ghostface and steering him towards answering the question in more depth. To me, it sounded like Ghostface did not want to offend anyone so he was not going in-depth, so he repeated “I don’t know” a lot, and the interviewer used a good choice of words to convince him to speak.
First of all, I love the Wu-Tang Clan, I use to get in trouble at school for drawing the “W” logo on all of my textbooks. I think it’s amazing you got the chance to interview these artists but there is a huge difference in the interviews. I love that Ghostface killer says “you know what I mean” a lot, growing up on the islands I always had the image of New Yorker saying “You know what I mean” and wearing timberlands, (i know better now)! Back to the article, when you compare both articles, it seems that the Tom Morello interview was more personable and informative, he gave you great feedback speaking about politics, his childhood, racism, wars, the 2008 election. It was a really good interview. When comparing it to Ghostface, I do love him but he came off as a bit perplexed using the phrases “Nah” and “I don’t know” a lot, and I think maybe it had to do with the questions you asked. When you look at the Morello interview you asked personal questions about his childhood and things he seemed interested, passionate, and knowledgeable about, with Ghostface when you asked questions that had to do with social media and the internet he did not know how to answer. The Myspace reference give the time frame of the article, I am assuming early 2000s, so the age of online media and the sharing/selling of music on the internet was fairly new, so I do understand his apprehension to answer the question, he probably did not know what to say. Ghostface’s thoughts on the mentality of current music fans was correct, the substance in lyrics does not matter anymore which is an unfortunate game-changer, it’s about a catchy beat and a hook. The song C.R.E.A.M is a classic anthem but I do not think it would be as successful with today’s music consumer, he was quite prophetic as well speaking on how rough the world would become and the death of CD’s. One thing is for certain, Wu-Tang is still Forever !!!
I read both of the interviews and found them both approachable and interesting. The one with Tom Morello was more thorough, approaching topics such as ethical beliefs and philosophies as opposed to solely music. Not knowing much about the artists beforehand, it provided nice insight into the person as opposed to just promoting the artist’s works, which some may not be familiar with. Morrello’s passion was clearly apparent and his words were refreshing. As for the Ghostface Killah interview, the same level of enthusiasm was not as present, but it still yielded some noteworthy responses, especially his thoughts on lyrics losing their significance over time. I think all of the questions asked were worthwhile, however, he obviously did not have the same vigor when discussing the internet, instead cutting straight to the point. Overall, I think both interviews were well generated and I enjoyed reading them.
Both articles were a pleasant read. For the interview with Ghostface Killah, I was surprised that the questions related to technology and the role that will have in the future were shrugged off with him saying that he does not know what will happen. I understand that it may have been since the technology was still growing in the industry at the time, therefore many artists may not have known how to navigate online platforms. Another part that struck out to me was when he pointed out that no one wants to hear lyrics anymore. This was in repose to the question, “What do you think has really changed about people over the last decade” which goes to show that years after the interview, this still holds to be true. I personally am guilty of just listening to music for the sake of listening to it and not listen to what it means or the significance of the words. Another part that stood out to me was when Ghostface said that he did not know what led him to make certain decisions such as being one of the first artists that released exclusive work online. I find that to be strange considering that was not the norm at the time. I feel that there should have been some justification for that. Unless it was the work or advice of someone close to him. I feel that the questions that were asked were great. It was not solely focusing on music considering that the interviewee was from the music industry. It ranged from politics, personal life, and finally music. This applied especially to the interview with Tom Morello.
I really liked reading these interviews. I think it was really interesting experience for you, interviewing these artists. I noticed that these two interviews are completely different. The interview with Tom Morello was much more personal than the interview with Ghostface Killah. The questions that was asked to Tom Morello seemed to me deeper and more focused on his life and life beliefs than questions that was asked to Ghostface Killah. Also, Ghostface Killah did not answer on the questions that you were asking with huge enthusiasm (it seemed to me, maybe I’m mistaken). Tom Morello was sharing some really important information about him. Also, while reading it, I understood that it is really important to know and research about a person before interviewing him. I noticed that you were asking questions that was concerning the information that not everyone could know and ask without previous research.
After reading both articles, my favorite article would have to be the interview with Ghostface Killah. The vibe of the article makes it really interesting and fun to read especially with the way he talks. I love the fact that you wrote everything he responded from your questions, word for word, and the tone he speaks with. Just by reading the responses, I can visualize as if Ghostface was talking to me. My favorite responses are when Ghostface would reply “Nah, nah, nah” or when he says “You know what I mean?”. Those responses were as if he was talking to me and I could just imagine it. I also loved how thorough the questions were and for some of the questions and with one of them he responded “I dunno”. Overall, it was an amazing article to read and I really enjoyed it.
After reading both interviews, I was very intrigued as I was not familiar with these people, but they are people that I’ve heard of before. It still blows my mind that you got to interview such iconic people. The way that Ghostface Killah answered the questions so casually helped me envision that I was interviewing him as well. The way that he said everything was changing and technology was becoming more advance made me feel clueless about what happened back then. For Tom Morello’s interview, it sounded more deep as he went into some personal details and what he valued over other things.
I read the interview with ghost face Killah. I liked the questions you asked, simple and straight to the point about the internet and how times are changing. He talked about how people don’t really care about lyrics nowadays and I agree with him on that. Most rap and hip-hop is gibberish with a good beat. I also really liked the title you chose, summarized what the interview was about in his own words.