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09.19.03 04:55 AM
have you seen the superproducers?
My love for WIRED has waned a great deal since its early days. For one, it's that it's a Condé Nast publication now. For two, and given all the recent discussions about what it means to be a black blogger, in reading WIRED you'd think that black contributions to future culture and tech, in general was damn-near nil. Other than the superproducers cover featuring Timbaland, I think I can remember only two other covers featuring black folks, and one of them wasn't even real. As for the superproducers article, you've got Felix Da Housecat, Timbaland, and half of The Neptunes. The intro in the article states: "Now the production wizards themselves are rising up from the digital underground, armed with unlimited content and unprecendented control." Since my argument is that hip-hop beatmakers have held a symbiotic relationship with tech since day one, this list, even of recent-day "black" super-producers seems a bit low numerically. I could come up with a long list, but I'll just keep it short with King Britt and RZA, to name two. But maybe I'm being too black here, in my contention that is. Or maybe, I just have an overall problem with how WIRED gets down, better yet doesn't get down, with black folks in future culture, or tech in general.
Here are the other two covers that I can remember featuring blackness:
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Jada made it in, not for playing Niobe in Reloaded, but for starring in (well not really her) the Enter The Matrix video game. And John Lee, earned his cover, no doubt for being the baddest (and I didn't say black) hacker to key on a Commodore 64. He later earned sparing WIRED ink for his notorious urbanexpose.com.
You might ask what my beef is? Well I live in Brooklyn baby. And that was home to McLean Mashingaidze Greaves, who founded Cafe Los Negroes in 1994. It had a four-year run as a community oriented site, featuring original articles, audio and video files, and chat rooms. BK is also where Omar Wasow set up New York Online, which did receive a little WIRED street cred back in '95. If you don't know what NYO is, it was Omar's original Black Planet, minus the smut. Also, as Donald has mentioned, BK was home to the first black-owned cybercafe - owned by
Rebecca Walker and Angel Williams. Having participated in these folks cultural productions, I have a stake in how blacks are represented (or not represented) in the world of computer-mediated communication and culture.
When I have met folks like John Lee, who is now making films, or DJ Spooky or Beth Coleman (DJ M. Singe), who both use computers to make music, or Adario Strange, or even just dialogue or just listen to all these folks on the afrofuturism list serv, such as Art McGee - I know there are "other stories to tell about culture, technology, and things to come." I want to be one of the people telling those stories, because I know I can't expect anyone else to tell them for me or to me.
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Comments
As usual, you hit the nail on the proverbial head. African-Americans who have contributed to the existence of cyberspace are so vast and so varied, yet, we don't get any ink. Also, from what I understand, Timbaland is not even interviewed in the Wired story. Maybe we need to have a "black version" of Wired magazine.
posted by Trent Boogie | September 19, 2003 11:37 AM #
damn. next you'll be talking about shade magazine, nkiru books and poetry at fez. we're obviously from the same brooklyn. except i left in 1993. i gotta get back around to here every once in a while, because i'm sure we've been to the same parties back in the day. the nostalgia's thick.
posted by cobb | September 19, 2003 5:38 PM #
Hi Cobb, nice to see you here. Funny thing is I'm originally from the Bronx, but I moved to Brooklyn just b/c of all the culture - in many aspects - that was happening here. And it's interesting that John Lee is from Brooklyn, as is this other kid who recently wrote the book Hacker Cracker. It's like, yeah, sometimes I hear about the blacks in tech from a biz vantage point, but there are cultural workers and creative personalties doing novel things.
Talk about the Brooklyn Nostalgia, I could have mentioned Brooklyn Moon Cafe poetry readings with Saul Williams, Dante (mos def), Mums, et. al. and then the magazine New Word, but that's all for another discussion. Yep, we just may have run in some of the same circles.
posted by lynne | September 19, 2003 6:30 PM #
oh yeah...and trent, don't think the idea for a black tech mag that wasn't biz oriented...that was just cool, ain't been passed around by lots of folks, including self. *wheels turning*
posted by lynne | September 19, 2003 6:31 PM #
or Madlib or Dre or even P.Diddy and his foray into dance music or ...
And I understand that there is a focus in wired on the "tech" of it all but in the web world, as I am regularly saying, the tools are only useful if the content is king and in the world of entertainment and media, it seems to me, that there are black folks involved in lots of those areas.
Just off the top of my head I can think of several, many of whom comment here.
posted by Jason | September 20, 2003 10:31 PM #
trying to find other african americans, especially male that simply wrote online about anything, for any reason is why i started blogging.
posted by kevinrscott | September 22, 2003 4:23 PM #
oh yea, and if that black tech mag ever comes about, remember you've got a newsweeker here with lots of biz side experience.
posted by kevinrscott | September 22, 2003 4:24 PM #
I'm male.
I write online.
I write about anything.
I'm not black...
...but you wouldn't know that from my writing.
And I would be happy to help with your magazine. Let me know.
;)
posted by eric | September 23, 2003 5:02 AM #
You forgot that wack WIRED cover of the sister with the wings jumpin' off the cliff. I forget when it was, but that means Tim makes #4. I actually didn't like the 'superproducers' article much. NO d&b representation.
Ine of the greatest issues of Keyboard magazine was in the late 80s when they interviewed Danny Elfman. THAT was a great discussion about the potential of technology in music. There was a letter to the editor in an issue that followed, basically accusing Danny of "pushing buttons" and questioning whether "bothered to write anything down". He had a brilliant comeback on how he scored everything from "Forbidden Zone" to "Batman" traditionally and only used electronics to enhance the live performances.
As sad as it sounds, I miss the Laurie Anderson era. Back when tech was expensive, the creations were more artistic. the MPC has destroyed the culture. Back when you had to have a pair of Akai racks to make loops right, producers weren't sexy.
posted by daryle | October 1, 2003 10:49 PM #
1. I agree completely.
2. You are forgetting the totally incredible cover photo of OJ Simpson as a white man. That was a very eloquent statement about race compressed into one photo. Right there on the cover. And It was definitely something that only Wired could say.
3. Back in the day, Wired seemed to know that it was weird that they keep putting boring looking upper middle class white men on the cover. It almost felt like a running joke.
4. Wired was *really* *bad* just before Conde Nast bought them. They've been (kindof) on the upswing since then.
5. The superproducers article is the OLDEST news. It's odd that Wired would put that on their cover so many years after it was a notable new phenomena. It felt like a youth-culture piece you might find in Reader's Digest.
posted by Ben Donley | October 7, 2003 2:37 AM #
Electronic superproducers? Where's Bobby Digital - no, not the RZA- from VP records. Everything off of Shabba's first 213 albums in 89-90 sounded like it was off a Casio.
posted by pexdiggy | October 10, 2003 11:21 PM #
I feel like a kid in a candy store. There are other Black People out there Blogging. People with soul, a point of view and information. I am so excited to have found your site through Prometheus 6's site. I will be back!
posted by David Anderson | December 22, 2003 2:13 AM #