Earlier this summer, while en route to Vegas, my friend and I
played an
eclectic mix of CDs. After a couple of hours of Dungeon Family, A Tribe
Called Quest, and the Y Tu Mama, Tambien soundtrack, she popped in the
Johnny Cash album, At Folsom Prison.
My realization: Johnny Cash is one bad muthafucka.
Sure, I'd paid vague attention when Bono of U2 was championing
Eminem's right to a foul mouth at the 2000 Grammys, stating, "Johnny Cash
sang 'I shot a man in Reno just to see him die,' and you don't hear anyone
shouting, 'Arrest that man!'" But Johnny Cash, live from Folsom Prison on
the album I heard, sings about the staples of gangsta rap lyrics-murder,
drugs, bitches, breaking the law-in a way that makes Eminem and Ice Cube
look like law-abiding citizens. When Cash says that same line during his
performance at the prison, the entire crowd of convicts roars in approval.
It's a lot creepier than Eminem's gun-touting skits.
How's this wrinkled, country, cowboy-hat sporting white rural man
more
"urban" than most of the harder artists you hear on 92.7? Well, he spends
his songs beating the shit out of his father (A Boy Called Sue), killing
his cheating girlfriend while coked up (Cocaine Blues), and just generally
using murder as a good solution for many problems.
In a society where white people are perceived as the timid sheep of
manicured subdivisions, and all music created by black people is now
tagged "urban," a reference to their living in the city, it's fantastic to
realize that Johnny Cash's badass persona puts some of the quasi-gangsta
bling-blinging of today's "tough" music to shame.
The man may be carrying an acoustic guitar instead of a 40 or a
diamond-encrusted mic, but there's no denying it: Johnny Cash is hardcore.
Regardless if Cash, like many MCs, just sings about fictionalized things,
I'd still prefer to run into Ol' Dirty Bastard in a dark alley any day.
Because, after all, Wu Tang is for the children.
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