{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "Thinking about Kris Kross, and where we were in 1991 that \"tough black rappers are the new thing, that's how we should package...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/638897892216782848/", "html": "<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"/post/638890256238772224/\" target=\"_blank\">kontextmaschine</a>:</p><blockquote><p>Thinking about Kris Kross, and where we were in 1991 that &ldquo;tough black rappers are the new thing, <i>that&rsquo;s</i> how we should package our next novelty act for schoolkids&rdquo; made sense</p></blockquote>\n<p>I mean thoughts:</p><ul><li>Yeah tru, what &ldquo;gangsta&rdquo; meant wasn&rsquo;t really settled in then</li><li>And really maybe between NKOTB and N'Sync/BSB that industry energy WAS minority-focused. I remember elementary kids following along the New Jack Swing thing, and Boys II Men&rsquo;s &ldquo;motownphilly&rdquo; was knowingly putting them in a lineage of packaged harmonized pop boy/girl groups</li><li>Plus Michael &ldquo;it don&rsquo;t matter if you&rsquo;re black or white&rdquo; Jackson really WAS the avatar of kid pop culture in the 80s</li><li>Honestly a lot of when I see Black Twitter go off on like, what your sappy aunt was listening to back then, it had a lot of overlap with my mom&rsquo;s &ldquo;adult contemporary&rdquo;</li><li>And when you look them up the differences tend to be the same romantic schlock for middle-aged secretaries, just in different ballad/Broadway or soul/gospel/R&amp;B idioms</li><li>When you think of it really Madonna&rsquo;s shtick was she was a white ethnic girl who stayed in touch with the urban streets even as they got browner and queerer</li><li>But then rap got coded hard black and white suburban kids went &ldquo;alternative&rdquo;</li><li>Really in a lot of ways pop culture in 1991 prepared us for this moment which then got delayed 30 years, not just &ldquo;racial minorities are now part of the cultural mainstream&rdquo;</li><li>Like remember Married With Children about how liberation had given nothing to the American man it just freed womenfolk to further undermine his hopes for a dignified <i>domain</i></li><li>Or all the &ldquo;Slacker&rdquo;, temp stuff \u2013 no one has real careers anymore!</li><li>Or the SF bike courier cyberpunk &ldquo;so we&rsquo;ll all be poor disposable gig workers underfoot&rdquo;</li></ul>"}