Cornel West Drops New Album, Larry Summers Still Scared of Black People
The Ivy League's resident black radical and pop-scholar phenom Cornel West returns to hipster-hop with the release of his second rap album, Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations, featuring the likes of Prince, Talib Kweli, Andre 3000, KRS-One, Jill Scott, Rhymefest, and the late Gerald Levert. Which is impressive and all, but seriously, where's Kanye? This is totally up his alley. They even have the same last name!
Professor West's first album, 2001's Sketches of my Culture, predicated the professor's public spat with Harvard ex-prez Larry Summers and the professor's subsequent break from the university in favor of Princeton. Though his new boss, Princeton president Shirley Tilghman, has yet to comment on Never Forget, West thinks she'll be hipper to the project than Summers was. In a Boston Globe article West speculates,
"I think she'll be much more open than Brother Summers," he says. "The hip-hop scared him. It's a stereotypical reaction."
A vocal opponent of misogyny and hedonism in contemporary hip-hop, West portrays his music as a "danceable education" reaching towards the genre's socially progressive roots. "We'll go from the bling-bling to Let Freedom Ring" Brother West raps in "Bushonomics," before giving a shout-out to militant beat poet Gil Scott-Heron. The track features New York MC and black progressive Talib Kweli denouncing "voter registration with no scope of education," "whore-mongerers," and "war-mongerers" alike. Listen to it, and Prince collaboration "Dear Mr. Man," below. Bushonomics Cornel West and Talib Kweli Dear Mr. Man Cornel West and Prince --MAUREEN O'CONNOR
11 Comments | 
| 
Print This Post
Read more: Cornel West, guest editors, Harvard, Larry Summers, music, Princeton, Shirley Tilghman
Email – 
Search
About
Report a bug
Archives
RSS Feed
August 25th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
like many, I was sorry to see cornell west go. but then, I listened to his CD and, well, I wasn’t quite as sorry. it was hilariously terrible. I have nothing against the project, but I have something against the quality. west’s rapping is more like spoken word, done with the inflection of a preacher, and it doesn’t really work. this CD seems a bit better, partly because west is talking a lot less. I say, good luck to him on future albums, but for now, I’m “listenin to dead prez hell yeah”
August 26th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Well, I wonder what Princeton will have to do in order to stroke Cornel West’s ego enough over this. CD distributed to all incoming frosh? Concert on campus? The mind boggles.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
How come real, non-pseudo intellectual African-Americans don’t lynch this embarrassment?
August 26th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Remind me again why people take Cornel West seriously?
August 26th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Because he’s black and if you criticize a black person, you’re a white devil.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_wsj-cornel.htm
“In that light, what troubles me is Prof. West’s reflexive insistence that it’s an attack on his integrity to even question why he, as one of only 14 ‘university professors’ at Harvard, has stopped producing academic work. Or to be more specific, that it’s racist. He’s been circumspect on that charge with most interviewers, but letting his hair down in a NPR interview with a fawning Tavis Smiley, he conveyed that Mr. Summers’ suggestion reflected a fear among Harvard’s leadership that ‘the Negroes are taking over.’”
August 27th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
ivies still having problems accepting the “coloreds,” are they? Sure Prof. West can’t rap and he’s terribly pretentious but why should black people be responsible for his behavior? And last time I checked, there are plenty of ppl criticizing black individuals, including Cornel himself, so I guess he’s a white devil working to destroy black privilege!
August 28th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
H’05 here, and I’m so glad that walking minstrel show won’t disgrace fair Harvard ever again.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Why did he quit acting? He was really spending his time well as “Councillor West” in the Matrix trilogy…
I think Lawrence Summers was originally just pissed that Cornel didn’t ask him to kick a verse on the first album
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:40 am
^H’11, I completely agree. Geez, I’m Black and I could care less about his rap career or academic output. The issue is less about criticizing Black people than it is about the witch hunt mentality in America that penalizes those who are most visible. By no means am I defending West, however. You didn’t see Summers coming after Skip Gates, so clearly this isn’t just a race issue.
^To “Don’t,” the reason real, non-pseudo African-American intellectuals aren’t lynching West is because, well, we’ve done a little research into the history of lynching, and it’s a term (and practice) we would rather not employ. Nonetheless, an honest and balanced critique of his work would be refreshing.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
c829t