THE CONSERVATIVE HIPSTERS

A lot of people have been talking about Kanye West and his rant on live TV during the NBC telethon for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

I'm not going to stand here and tell you I'm going to boycott his music, etc. I'm not. He's entitled to his opinion, not matter how misinformed it might be. I'll still listen to his music. In fact, I have his latest disc under my "What I'm listening to" section in my sidebar.

But what I will say is this--if you need someone to speak about life in the ghetto, Kanye ain't the right guy to do it. He grew up solidly middle class, with both of his parents involved in his life. He has never known real poverty, and is often criticised by his fellow rappers as being "too bourgie": someone who really has no idea what its life to be living on the streets.

So, when he talks about how hard blacks have it in America, you might want to ask him: you mean as hard as you had it, Kanye? I'll give you a quick rundown of his "hard knock life".

• Goes to high school in the upper class suburbs.
• Starts his own band, which flunks.
• Really gets into the production side of making records.
• Produces records for most of the late 90's (soem good $$$)
• In 2001, creates a huge buzz with production work for Jay-Z
• Becomes one of the most sought after producers in rap (big time $$$)
• Almost killed in an October 2002 car crash (OK, that sucked)
• Takes to the mic shortly after
• Records mulitplatinum "College Dropout" in 2004 (huge $$$)
• Tours extensively, becomes known as the "Louis Vitton Don"
• Records second album, "Late Registration", which ships platinum (super big ass $$$)

(sarcasm) A real rags to riches story. He sure did have it tough (/sarcasm).

Yeah, Kanye, if the ghetto ever had a real spokesperson, its you.

Stick to music, my friend.

INTERESTING FOOTNOTE: I guess media spin isn't limited to politicians. How's this for a misquote?

Jay-Z Backs Kanye's Bush Comments

By Gail Mitchell, L.A.

Rap mogul Jay-Z is standing behind Def Jam colleague Kanye West in the wake of the latter's comments during Friday's telethon to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. As previously reported, West declared that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" and that America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible.""I'm backing Kanye 100%," Jay-Z tells Billboard by phone from London.

"This is America. You should be able to say what you want to say. We have freedom of speech."

Jay-Z admits he shares some of West's views about the slow response to the disaster. "It's really numbing," he says. "You can't believe it's happening in America. You wonder, what's going on? Why were people so slow to react? I don't understand it."

Although Jay-Z says he hasn't "spoken to anyone about doing a concert event" to benefit Katrina victims, he says he wants to speak with Sean "Diddy" Combs about starting a fund exclusively to aid African-Americans in times of crisis. "Just in case anything like this happens in the future, we can do what the elder Bush and [former President Bill] Clinton are doing for our people specifically."

So, he's backing his right to comment, not his comments. That's accuracy in the press for you. The last line is classic.