Commentary On The Article 'Beasties In Blackface' By Stratton

Great Essays
Stratton begins by describing their backgrounds as upper class Jews. He moves on to talking about the importance of Jews in the history of pairing white audiences with black music, how they still face some kind of unique social pressures, and how they were important from behind the scenes. Latter he moves on to talk about how Simmons and Rubin came to choose the Beastie Boys and how Jewishness was key to their success despite being marked as white.
He wrote this article from a Jewish perspective which he gives away when he says “This article… is written from a Jewish perspective…” (PG 414). This bias is really important to consider when he states that the Besties “This article argues that the Beasties ' Jewishness was central to their success
…show more content…
An example can be found in pages 419 to 421. This area titled the ‘Beasties in Blackface’ starts by saying “Boys mastered a black musical form they did not perform it in a version of blackface”(pg419 Stratton) it then moves on to describe the Cookie Puss EP which uses African American accent and street slang. A line is added saying “The temptation to use such an accent remained.”(pg419 Stratton) after which he describes Vanilla Ice who seemed to lose most of his credibility by trying to imitate African Americans. The later part of the Beasties in Blackface section describes their accent as white with a Jewish element. I agree with Stratton’s argument but parts of it are not as clear as they could be, especially when he mentions the ‘Cookie Puss EP’, I’m really sure why he mentions it. My best understanding is that he mentions it to show you why you could perceive them as doing ‘blackface’ but ultimately is was simply an early stepping stone when “The band, it seems, were looking for a voice.”(pg419 …show more content…
Their ‘white-face’ performance must have been pretty convincing. Many only saw them as white artists including Mickey Hess who in their paper titled Hip-hop Realness and the White Performer commented

“…white artists asserted their immersion in hip-hop culture without imitating a model of black authenticity. Although most commercial rap was recorded by black artists, white artists such as the Beastie Boys met with acceptance from their peers. Nelson George (1999) credits the Beastie Boys’ 1986 debutLicensed to Ill with creating a ‘‘racial chauvinism...making the Beasties the first whites (but hardly the last) to be accused of treading on 100 percent black turf’’”(PG 376)

What to notice here is Hess is completely looking over their Jewish identity and viewing them as white which is exactly what Stratton was saying when he talks about the “…whitening of Jews in the United States…” (PG

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