Something I Said -- 2010 MN Black Music Awards obstructs Black artists
2010 MN Black Music Awards obstructs Black artists
by Dwight Hobbes
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
The New Congress (TNC) is a fine R&B-rock band, a powerhouse, in fact. When they are on their game, you can't find a better outfit for consistently inventive melodies, rich vocals and smoking guitar.
TNC have a pair of albums and an EP (all high-quality recordings), a Los Angeles Music Award, and receive strong airplay. All of which portends continued success and, sooner than later, a national profile. They still had no business being on the bill at this year's Minnesota Black Music Awards at all, much less appearing as featured performers.
The prevailing principle behind Black awards is to rightfully acknowledge and honor artists who are marginalized and obscured, unconscionably obstructed by the music industry's racist discrimination. It is not for White musicians to shore up their quotient of credibility as waxing soulful as they score a major publicity coup. It certainly isn't for White performers to prevail at the expense of Black artists who sure as hell could've used the MBMA exposure, what with stars like Mint Condition, Jamecia Bennett and Sounds of Blackness on the same stage.
The New Congress, profoundly talented though they may be, are White.
When event producer Pete Rhodes (who, by the way, is Black) brought them in, he kept out any one of several Black or Black-led bands that richly deserved the opportunity.
Take, for instance, fusion-funkmeisters the Yohannes Tona Band, smooth-jazz wonders Wenso Ashby featuring Zsam, Afro-Cuban rock aces New Primitives, soul balladeer Chastity Brown, R&B-rap standouts Soulacious. The list goes on, but you get the idea.
Rhodes ignored these artists to promote a White band at a Black event. He sold out each and every one of them.
Let us be crystal clear on one point. The New Congress, themselves, are not the bad guys, here. They and their management would have to have been just plain dumb, stupid and crazy to turn down the gig.
The buck lands squarely in the lap of Pete Rhodes. He owns and runs Urban Mass Media Group, WRNB Cable Radio and Blackmusicamerica.com. A good question is how much airplay does the New Congress versus the Yohannes Tona Band, Wenso Ashby featuring Zsam, Chastity Brown and Soulacious get on these stations?
Black artists have a tough enough time making a go of it. A slap in the face, a closed door on this order obviously makes the going tougher still. And, of course, it is a cruel irony that such a blow is dealt by the Minnesota Black Music Awards.
Something I Said -- 2010 MN Black Music Awards obstructs Black artists
By: Dwight Hobbes
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