Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Robert Christgau and Danyel Smith

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415
from: Robert Christgau

Worry, Be Happy

Posted Thursday, June 24, 1999, at 12:18 PM ET

Dear Having a Moment,

Carola took one look at your missive and decided that the operative metaphor of this Breakfast Table wasn't Civilized Marriage--it was College-Age Daughter Spends Week With Non-Custodial Father. And as metaphor, there's some truth to that. Except, of course, that at 34 you're already having a premonitory midlife crisis (trust me, they keep coming). I feel a little guilty, or at least concerned, about my role in bringing it on. Dang, Danyel, at 34 you're a bigger cheese than I've ever been. And since no editor in chief is expected to stay put forever, you have a world of options in your intermediate future. If you decide that's enough of that, as many do, you can pick your shots.

I really have been wishing we could talk for some time. I've never forgotten your terse celebration of what I still regard as hip-hop's parlous gangsta phase for the Voice critics poll, and thought your Vibe response to the Foxy Brown incident (if our readers don't know the details, we don't have to tell them) was a model of tough tact. I figured in this context we'd get some cross-generational fireworks going, perhaps cross-racial too. Instead you go all self-examining on me. That's what you get for taking on a free-lance assignment the same week you're closing an issue and celebrating your birthday. In my house, the birthday strategy is to surround yourself with trusted allies.

Still, it's a tough balancing act, isn't it? I don't know many big cheeses--who I can stand being around, and who have any use for me--who don't wonder whether they might be doing more. I'm flattered you think I'm "active," but let's just say that, though I'm a moderately good union member (Voice strike benefit June 29, Coney Island High, good acts) and try to give some money away where it counts, my activism is literally rhetorical. One reason the Voice pisses people off is that many of us keep hectoring away at issues we care about while pulling down a living wage. And that's a balancing act too--insofar as I have credibility it's because I convince readers that my concerns color but don't determine my responses to the music I love, and that sometimes the music reacts back on the concerns. It's even harder for artists. Common and Prince Paul and even Chuck D are hardly ideological giants, an unknown breed in pop except maybe for the marginal Linton Kwesi Johnson, but they do more than keep it real--they try to figure out how reality works without sounding pat or holier-than-thou. Other rappers I admire simply shove the world's face in the untapped brilliance of the so-called underclass, as cultural heritage if not personal experience.

And now, my dear, it's off to my real daughter's middle-school graduation. My assignment: get three grandparents with a mean age of 85 into a cab and to the auditorium by 9:15. Talk to you this afternoon. Worry, be happy.

Actively,
Robert Christgau

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415
from: Robert Christgau

Worry, Be Happy

Posted Thursday, June 24, 1999, at 12:18 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Robert Christgau is a senior editor and chief music critic of the Village Voice. His essay collection, Grown Up All Wrong (click here to buy the book), was published in 1998. Danyel Smith is the editor in chief of Vibe.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post