Genocide and Slavery on Wax: the "Bradley Campbell" Project.

this isn't part a review of a new album
by daylight a new rap album a new project from a hip-hop artist and it's in part a little bit of autobiographical political commentary telling you why the album means so much to me maybe this video will be meaningful to you even if you have no interest in the album I was in a museum in France recently I guess about six months ago now with my girl was Museum of indigenous peoples and their cultures around the world a lot of emphasis on Africa and some of the remote islands of Polynesia places that were colonized by France in the past a little bit of an implicit anti colonial narrative going on but for the most part it was a museum of fine art showing the objects tell me something about the religion and customs and folk ways of these indigenous people and you know one that really got to me was the exhibit on a new Ireland new have you ever heard of New Ireland and in French the whole exhibit about the people and culture of religion and new Ireland it's showing you these you know ethnically black tribal people and it's referring to them as the new Irish the people of New Ireland now you know I've dealt with many different chapters of you know the history of colonialism and it's I don't know it's it's boggling to me in in different ways but the reason why it hurts me so much is I know with me right now here in the United States and Canada people live in New England and it never really occurs to them just how upsetting bizarre inappropriate and ultimately genocide 'el and colonialist it is for white people to be living this place called New England part of me always wants to scream out when I see that kind of thing just that kind of name on the map or that kind of that kind of name painted on a sign no this is never going to be New England New England is an idea and a concept you painted on this sign and wrote on this map as part of a whole history of colonialism slavery and genocide that we're all supposed to reject now but who's actually challenging it who's even questioning it let alone who's rejecting it you know the New England discourse the New England mythology is is what's dominant and here on the other side of the world this island almost nobody's heard of or cares about politically today this place of no no great power and importance economically here's New Ireland and as soon as I could I went to Google the history of this place to find out well what was it called before what did they call it before Europeans conquered it annexed it and started calling it New Ireland and you know you know what the history was that I found oh well used to be called New France used to be called new Batavia it was fought over by the French the Germans the Dutch and ultimately the British Empire and we have a whole sequence of attempts to name and rename this part of the world this set of islands and none of the names reflect or connect to the indigenous people or their language or their culture in any way no interest that's new Ireland and there I am in Paris looking at these Spears and shields and carved idols of gods and this attempt in this museum to somehow symbolically write the wrong of colonial and genocidal and slave trading history beholding the absurdity of New Ireland and I know when I'm stuck with is coming from a continent North America where people don't even perceive it as absurd that they live in places called New England in New York it's not it's not New York it's never gonna be a New York sure you know where Yorkshire is in the City of York and England do you know that do you know who used to live there before they were driven to extinction do you know what language they spoke in in the area that's now New York I do I know that you can look it up on Wikipedia too I think a very very small percentage of people living in New York can tell you what language was spoken there before Europeans named it New York I think very few people in Los Angeles can tell you what language is spoken there before it was given the name Los Angeles and I think almost nobody is aware and nobody cares that those languages are extended so this rap album this project from daylight you know a lot of people are going to assume it's just a joke and it's not it's satire and I think it's probably more meaningful than any album that was ever put out by wu-tang and there's joking around on it there's there's humor there's satire but in many ways it delivers the political message that a group like wu-tang kind of flirted with for years but never really got down to delivering or you know a specific rapper like ODB kind of played with maybe he's gonna make a statement that somehow anti-establishment and of course ODB had conspiracy theory rapping and rambling to no particular purpose and you know I get the sense of humor I get the punchlines there are parts of the this project part of this album that make me laugh too or made me laugh the first time I heard it but what stays with me what makes me want to make this video right now is that this album also contains rhymes contains content that's really lamenting the tragedy most people don't want to face up to which is why do we speak English at all you know really questioning why do these people worship a God in the King James Bible oh he's got specific lyrics about that about King James and why King James's name is written on the Bible and what that really means why do we have African slaves living in North America speaking English with this religion and this culture and you know who invented this language who invented this society who invented this pen there are some really simple hard-hitting lines here about look what they did to the Mayans Mayan civilization look what they did to Alaska look what they did to Hawaii they're never going to give the land back who owns the land and who pays the rent and there's a real kind of agonized sincerity to that and to my mind it shines through in the midst of all this satire and I think it's made even more effective and more impactful because it's bundled up with joking around about the vacuous Ness of 21st century internet conspiracy theories and hysteria and that people think they're challenging the basis our society is built on by complaining about it on Instagram by complaining about it on Facebook and you're not I mean as as he points out you know you think you're challenging the system by bringing your Bible into court there are all these really interesting and evocative lines packed up in this short project the kinds of self-defeating acts of rebellion and the heart of it all I think there's a lot of pent-up anguish here that you know I've never heard another rapper give voice to I think a lot of projects from wu-tang and odv wanted to or try to even some songs but it'll be once in a while you know GZA RZA those guys III really can't remember any project that quite manages to get this feeling out on paper and you know onto the track and into your ear so effectively and it's it's a remarkable fact that it comes out not in some kind of dead serious of Tupac Shakur style you know lecture but it comes out in the myths of satire that remains upbeat funny and impactful that's the album review 2018 was a weak year in hip-hop and it's now coming to a close I have no hesitation saying from my perspective this is the best album or this is the best rep project of this year