A mild and more enjoyable than not shock occurred to me during a lunchtime conversation with a good friend, underground LA rapper MoCheez, at our favorite underground lounge, the LBC. We were discussing the differences between and rating the "coolness" of East Coast and West Coast slang. The exchange deepened still when we began an etymological analysis of certain slang words namely: one-time (police officers), jakes (police officers), john (a slang word derived from the slang for a favorite thing, "joint" or even "shit" as in, "That's my joint! (as in song)" or "That's my shit..." (same song). During this particular segment in our tete-a-tete, I happen to glance at a flatscreening commercial and see an afro-ed young Black gentleman intensely kissing a brunette hued young White lady. He was the protagonist in this corporate chewing gum commercial and she was his girl, I presume. I watched this digital signal and sat rapt, limbs and language akimbo...
I looked after a second at MoCheez and asked him if that was as shocking to him as it obviously had been to me. He confidently chuckled and affirmed this. There is something going on with that scene that struck me unusually for a television commercial. To my Black American tastes, this commercial was delightfully provocative. Even prejudice is in flux, hatred is dynamic and sometimes shakes itself to the point of total and utter transformation. At a small enough scope of analysis, even hatred can be reduced to a combination of results, a paisley of distinct ingredients, devoid of humanity. At this scale, when things or events or humanity is distilled into their fundamental bits, there is connection to the mystical, to the brand and spanking newness that generates the present moment.
Anyway, I stay in love with the Cult that continues to shock a grown American man.
Cult of Los Angeles
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