Category: BCM111

Praise the Lord (Da Shine): The Intersection of Hip-Hop and Global Culture.

A$AP Rocky x Skepta from the ‘Praise the Lord (Da Shine) music video

‘Praise the Lord (Da Shine)’ is a 2018 hip-hop collaboration record between A$AP Rocky and Skepta. With Rocky being one of America’s premiere hip-hop artists, and Skepta being arguably the current leader of UK hip-hop and grime, ‘Praise The Lord’ see’s a fusion of the two biggest global hip-hop cultures, and more generally two world leading cultures. While this is not the first track the pair have teamed up for, it is by far the most successful, and is representative of the rise of hip-hop across multiple cultures.

Thematically, Praise the Lord focuses on a lot of ‘traditional’ hip-hop tropes, be that criminal activity, acquiring wealth/material gains, bragging or ‘flexing’ success, as well as heavy religious themes present in the title and chorus of the song. This builds a connection between the two cultures, by focusing on themes prevalent in both American hip-hop and British hip-hop/grime music. An extra layer is added to this by Rocky and Skepta interpolating the song ‘Who We Be’ by American hip-hop legend DMX. This is done both by mirroring his cadence in the chorus and second verse, and through Skepta’s line “I listened to X, I peeped the bars (Yeah)
The snakes, the rats, the cats, the dogs“. This interpolation shows a big respect of hip-hop culture by Rocky and Skepta, but also in evidence of the widespread global effect of hip-hop.

British hip-hop/grimes global effect, and indeed Skepta’s impact is discussed by Stuart Hedly in ‘Music as a platform: Grime cuts through’. Hedly states that “Penetrating the USA has always been a target for the majority of UK musicians, which traditionally required the support of a major label for access, whereas the Grime scene has shown this is no longer the case”, pointing out that the global influence of grime and English hip-hop has lead to the legitimisation of the genre and less of a need to rely on traditional record labels. The effect of this is that more artists can come up through a variety of paths, such as Skepta’s ascent to the top of grime, and his impact on making Grime a global genre.

Speaking to Genius, A$AP Rocky referenced Skepta’s allusions to DMX and American hip hop, saying “He paid homage to (DMX) in such a slick, fly way… n***a bodied that, shoutout Skep”, which shows both a mutual respect and appreciation of each other, but a coming together of cultures to appreciate hip hop culture more generally. In an interview with Complex, Rocky expanded on his influences and experiences with international hip hop. As he spent a significant amount of time in London recording ‘Praise the Lord’, and completed the album in Germany, Rocky said “The energy there is crazy, I feel like Berlin still has a big appreciation for hip-hop culture”.

Image result for asap rocky skepta listen out
A$AP Rocky and Skepta performing at Sydney’s ‘Listen Out’ festival, 2018

By recording a song collaborating with grimes premiere artist, and through taking inspiration from English and European influences, A$AP Rocky shows an appreciation for global hip hop culture, and shows how American and British hip hop have grown and evolved, and what has happened at the points of intersection. Praise the Lord (Da Shine) is an appreciation song for global hip hop culture, and a shining example of the benefits of combining music and culture.

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Slumdog Millionaire: Globalisation in Cinema

From even the briefest glance, it is clear that Slumdog Millionaire is a global movie. It is a British film, based on Indian book ‘Q&A’, set in the slums of Mumbai. It debuted at the Telluride Film festival in Colorado, America, and won eight academy award, including America and arguably the worlds highest film honour of the Oscar for Best Picture. But more than this, Slumdog Millionaire can also be used as a perfect example of how different cultures view and react to one another, and the interaction between the ‘Global North and South Divide’ both in film and overall culture.

Slums made famous from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, selling for

Even from looking at the movie poster, the global impact of Slumdog Millionaire is clear. It features a Toronto film festival badge, a review from an American magazine, an English actor, an Indian actor and the name of a British director. It portrays a British made film, set in the slums of Mumbai. However, for many people, these global influences are unknown. As a lazy movie watcher, I had initially assumed that Slumdog Millionaire was a Bollywood film, due to its plot, casting, and large amount of Hindi dialogue. But whilst being filmed in India, based off of an Indian story and featuring a predominantly Indian cast, Slumdog Millionaire is classed as a British film.

It is precisely that reason that lead to criticism regarding the portrayal of Indian society and a perceived Western approach to an Indian story. In Rebecca Duncan’s ‘Reading Slumdog Millionaire across Cultures‘, she addresses these criticisms, saying “responses to the film, reflected in reviews, commentary and even lawsuits and political protests, in some ways uphold certain cultural boundaries, particularly those regarding the genre of the romance film and class-based access to the privileges and benefits offered by a globalized economy”. Viewing the ‘slums’ and Indian society through a Western viewpoint such as Slumdog Millionaire can continue to perpetuate stereotypes within society, and unfairly represent said society. Many believed that there were similar stories from Bollywood that deserved much more acclaim, and that more accurately represent Indian culture.

This is also addressed in ‘Mimicking Bollywood in Slumdog Millionaire: Global Hollywood’s Newest Co-Optation of Culture‘ by Nicole Cox and Jennifer Proffitt. Saying “Although Slumdog Millionaire is not a product of Mumbai, the film contains traditional characteristics of Hindi and Indian film. These characteristics help illuminate the ways in which Hollywood majors sought to co-opt Bollywood in appearance and content”, this shows that tropes and stereotypes that are traditionally associated with India/Bollywood were used to make this movie appeal to a global audience. However, certain elements of the movie that were used to make it feel ‘Bollywood-esque’ have alienated fans of the actual genre. So while Slumdog Millionaire is definitely a global film, it is a global film with a distinctively Western view. It shows how to co-opt a global story, and how to adjust it for a specific audience. Ultimately, Slumdog Millionaire shows globalisation in cinema, and both the potential upside and drawbacks of this.

Bibliography

Lost in Translation: Rake, Kath and Kim, and the Globalisation of Television

Australia has a very specific, very definite style of humour. It’s niche, and centres greatly around self deprecation. It only makes sense then that these themes would be ever present in Australian television and wider media. Many Australian comedies portray characters that we as an audience can relate to, and provide an opportunity to laugh at ourselves. These shows are so appealing to an Australian audience because at a base level, we either know the people being depicted in the shows, or worse, we are them.

This is the case for a number of different Australian shows, such as cult classic ‘Kath and Kim’. This show is held close to the heart by a large Australian audience, as they closely relate to the characters and jokes from the show. It is also due to that fact that the show translated very poorly to an American audience. Not only does America take a different approach to comedy than Australia (choosing to target others instead of themselves), but the large number of cultural motifs and relatable moments would prove to be, well, not very relatable to a foreign audience. Put perhaps best by Karen Brooks for the Courier Mail, the problem with a foreign Kath and Kim is that it is “not monstrous enough to be clichés, stereotypes, parodies or even brave enough to be abhorrent or funny.” Australia and America are different cultures. Not all jokes will carry over.

Persistent as ever, America continued to try and adopt niche Australian humour. Next up: Rake, the story of lovable defence attorney ‘Cleaver Greene’ and his, uhh, ‘questionable’ ethics. The show is brash, crude, and very tongue-in-cheek. It resonated with an Australian audience as we tend to align ourselves with underdog figures whenever able. No matter how morally deplorable Cleavers actions became, we couldn’t help but cheer him on. But to an American audience which tends to focus on weakness and upholds a higher moral code, the protagonist of the US version ‘Keegan Deane’ would not have appeared as a likeable character. This is explained in Michael Almansar’s ‘The Impact of International Television: A Paradigm Shift’. Almansar states that “the traditional layers of identity at the local, regional and national levels are still the strongest for the large majority of people”. Put simply, people align themselves with what they already know, which means that inevitably trying to transition cultural shows to different countries is a very tough ask.

As a final example, take the ABC Drama series ‘The Slap”. Located in suburban Melbourne, the original series portrayed many cultural issues prominent in this area, and therefore made it a relevant and compelling series for an Australian audience. However, once again these themes proved to be non-transferable, with the American version of the show somewhat lacking the serious tone and feeling of the original. While not a comedy like the shows listed above, it was not able to be successful to an American audience for much the same reasons. Culturally, Americans could not align themselves with the show. It represented us, but not them.

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