The "Accidental Racist" controversy continues, as Brad Paisley said that he was influenced by films Lincoln and Django Unchained, to launch "an interesting conversation between country music and rap music," with his latest single. However, the conversations are more of dislike than interest.
Mstarz News reported the controversy with the song, which is solely rooted in the seemingly non-realistic and utterly tasteless lyrics. Critics and fans were in uproar over how Paisley and LL Cool J chose to address racism in America, deducing more than a century of hate and prejudice to an exchange of gold chains and the confederate flag.
The Roots legend and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon drummer Questlove was one of the first artist to share his opinion on the song. He compared the lyrics to that of date rape rhyming rapper Rick Ross. The Philadelphia native tweeted April 8:
all the "OUENO" weigher ins....i expect "Accidental Racist" to get equal amount of discussion & dialogue
Since then several media outlets have denounced the song. MSNBC "The Cycle," host Touré blasted the song, specifically LL Cool J, for influencing people to forget about slavery. Touré was "extraordinarily disappointed" with LL Cool J's lyrics:
"If you forget the gold chains, I'll forget the iron chains.
Watch Touré BLAST LL Cool J and Brad Paisley:
Questlove apparently had more to say about the "Accidental Racist "controversy. He took to Twitter today, to ask a crucial question. He tweeted:
Accidents were made to happen? ti.me/17v2o5y
— Questo of The Roots (@questlove) April 12, 2013
The NY Times Debate Room, contributor, Eddie S. Glaude Jr.'s article, It's How We 'Do' Race in the Age of Obama, explores the parallels LL Cool J's forgive and forget attitude towards racism in American to that of President Obama.
Glaude writes:
Robert E. Lee and gold chains aside, the basic frame of LL Cool J's verse has been the frame of President Obama's racial politics. For Paisley and LL, stereotypes by black and white Americans do equal harm. The president made a similar move in his Philadelphia speech. LL even refers to the president's beer summit: "I'd love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air. But I see that red flag and I think you wish I wasn't here." The point here is that the frame informing the song has been and remains the frame for how we do race today.
While the media continues to dissect "Accidental Racist," LL and Paisley continue to defend their first, and what could be their last collaboration.
"Last year, we had some really powerful movies deal with it really well," the country singer told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno show "We had Django [Unchained] and Lincoln, and the media deals with it all the time, and I thought maybe it would be an interesting conversation between country music and rap music to deal with this subject between two individuals in a loving and understanding way."
Paisley said the underlying intent of the song with LL, a close pal of his, was to "explore what happens when two people [of different backgrounds] have a dialogue," reported Radar Online.
What do you think about "Accidental Racist?" The lyrics aside, the melody and tune, does not scream "play on repeat". For those music lovers who want a great example of "what happens when two people [of different backgrounds] have a dialogue," listen to Nas and Damian Marley's Distant Relatives.
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