Rapper (sort-of) kilted

[James MacMillan]

While channel surfing a bit this afternoon, I'm flipping through the channels, and get to MTV and there I see the Rap group "Under Ground Kings" doing some sort of bit, playing off a wedding. The rapper playing the groom is shown wearing a glengarry with no clan badge, white tux shirt, black bow tie, saxon jacket, and what appears to be the Hamilton Tartan in a short kilt with black hose and white, drum major spats. He looked,- - - - - - well, just silly.

One scene also had a piper.

While I listened to the music, and the singing (it is called singing - right) my un-educated ears couldn't make out any meaning to the song (it is called a song - right?)

I am the first person to tell you that I don't understand, nor fully appreciate rap music (it is called music - right?)


This guy was wearing a kilt for a reason that I just don't understand.

[Mr. MacDougall]

This guy was wearing a kilt for a reason that I just don't understand.

I'm a white boy myself, so I'm just going on hearsay, but I understand that a fair number of Americans of African descent feel isolated from any actual African culture, because it just wasn't handed down by their ancestors. Some of them adopt bits of other cultures because they think it's interesting. Also, some freed slaves took the family names of white folks they lived around, resulting in a fair number of Southern blacks with Scotish names... and they look to Scottish culture as their own, because they don't know where their ancestors actually came from.

So my guess is that this guy thinks kilts look sharp, and included them in his video. A decision I wholely support.

[Rigged]

I'm a white boy myself, so I'm just going on hearsay, but I understand that a fair number of Americans of African descent feel isolated from any actual African culture, because it just wasn't handed down by their ancestors.

Slave masters frowned on that sort of thing and tribes were deliberately mixed together and families broken up so that the slaves would lose their cultural identities, tribal knowledge, and sense of where home was. The theory being that slaves were less likely to attempt to escape if they didn't have a home or group of people to escape to.

Some of them adopt bits of other cultures because they think it's interesting.

Just like people of every other cultural group.

Also, some freed slaves took the family names of white folks they lived around, resulting in a fair number of Southern blacks with Scotish names... and they look to Scottish culture as their own, because they don't know where their ancestors actually came from.

More often it was that slaves were given the surnames of their masters -- sometimes because they were direct offspring, or to identify them as property. Many Blacks have last names like, "Washington", "Jefferson" or "Ramsey", but most of us don't know the details of how we got those names.

So my guess is that this guy thinks kilts look sharp, and included them in his video. A decision I wholely support.

Very cooul!

[James MacMillan]

Please don't miss-understand. My problem was with the way that he wore the kilt.

Saxon coat, spats, et al

It just looked silly.

As Rigged can show us, Kilters come in all shapes and colors!

[Mr. MacDougall]

It just looked silly.

Well, that just means that he didn't have the fine lads of X-Marks to teach him the right way to wear it, doesn't it? ;)

And Rigged, thanks for correcting my details.

[Big Paul]

A kilt is often a colorful garment, so why shouldn't it be worn by people of all colors!

[Ozman1944]

"Rap" was invented so that untalented people with no fashion sense and who can't sing would get a chance to be popular.

[Perldog007]

Rap wasn't really invented. It evolved. In 1976 it had come to be passe' in certain circles, but was not yet known by the mainstream.

The sharecroppers I worked with in my high school years were getting bored with rap by 1977. The white folks I knew hadn't even heard of the form until the eighties.

Not really my cup of mud, but I would not go so far as to say no talent and no fashion sense. Outkast - an example of musical depth to rival any artist of any stripe. You can't listen to Speakerboxx/Love Below without picking up on a vast array of influences, unless you yourself have no musical savvy.

Not able to sing? Heavy D. Talent? his band stetsasonic(sp?) was a rare thing in rap, no digital, all live. Fashion sense? those guys took the baggy look from L.A. gangsters and have made it one of the longest lived youth styles ever. Twenty some years now.

A sad truth, more American young men (indeed of all nations) headed out today in baggy pants than in kilts.

I don't like it, but it has been popular for a long time, the look and the sound.

While rap is not and never will be my favorite, I hesitate to cast dispersions on the genre and it's supporters out of hand.


In any case, I say bully to him for wearing the kilt. Perhaps he just didn't want to look like a generic rapper?

[arrogcow]

I'm a white boy myself, so I'm just going on hearsay, but I understand that a fair number of Americans of African descent feel isolated from any actual African culture, because it just wasn't handed down by their ancestors. Some of them adopt bits of other cultures because they think it's interesting. Also, some freed slaves took the family names of white folks they lived around, resulting in a fair number of Southern blacks with Scotish names... and they look to Scottish culture as their own, because they don't know where their ancestors actually came from.

So my guess is that this guy thinks kilts look sharp, and included them in his video. A decision I wholely support.

While I haven't read it yet (My dad recommended it, I just haven't gotten around to it yet), there is a book called "Black Redneck, White Liberal", by Thomas Sowell. It basically says that what is considered urban black culture today, started in the Scottish highlands.

Adam

[Mr. MacDougall]

One of the things that has remained in modern American of African descent culture is the respect for "men of words." You can see this in Africa even today, a great respect for people who can speak eloquently, a trait they share with the Irish. I believe that Rap is an outgrowth of this -- the ability to extemporaneously compose poetry on any subject, and recite it to a beat.

While I may not agree with the message a majority of rap carries, I respect the accomplishment of the artists involved, and admit to a tiny bit of jealousy at their abilities with the spoken word.

All of which gets off topic... I wonder how the Underground Kings arrived at Hamilton for the tartan to wear in their video?