new immortal technique occupy this album

SKETCHINESS OF LABEL: The album was put out by Artemis Records, which, full disclosure, I used to work for, though I was essentially an office flunky when they were pushing West’s album. Cornel West talking about race, culture and political struggle over instrumentals that take in several centuries’ worth of African-American music and make them sound somehow “lite.” (West doesn’t rap, but uses his normal speaking cadence, which is churchy and already a little musical.) If someone put it on unexpectedly, it would be understandable if you thought they’d switched on some Sunday-afternoon NPR programming.ĭID IT SELL? The controversy, which we’ll discuss more below, didn’t help the album move many units.ĬURRENT AVAILABILITY: Out of print, and almost entirely disowned: West doesn’t mention it on his website, and in his Wikipedia entry it’s listed under “Dispute with Lawrence Summers,” not “Entertainment career.” THE SONGS: All originals, all spoken-word. When does the existence of a work matter more than its quality? What do we want from our public intellectuals? And what is wrong with Larry Summers? As a concept, the album is appealing: maybe we should make pop music that also educates people about socialist perspectives on race! (It’s worked before, at least the socialist part.) But as a piece of music, Sketches of My Culture raises a few questions to which there aren’t any easy answers. Released in 2001, it became one of the major points of contention in a dispute between West and then-Harvard President Larry Summers that eventually grew so heated West left the university for Princeton.

This time, though, we’re talking about Sketches of My Culture, the first album by legendary academic and all-around super-genius Cornel West. While we’ve discussed Ian McShane, Corey Feldman and Milla Jovovich, this series on vanity projects has so far not addressed any album responsible for a major cultural scandal, academic controversy or employment change.

New immortal technique occupy this album