Saturday, August 08, 2009  50/50 Grind in Eagle Rock  Fab Five
Freddy changed my world. I was in middle school in suburban
central Connecticut, and then there was this show, Yo MTV Raps.
It was more than just a show: it was The City, it was a wildly
new musical form, it was a new language: it was a way out.  The
a la carte identity options for suburban kids are well rehearsed
(a nod here to John Hughes, R.I.P., even though he didn't quite
know how to deal with certain outsiders [i.e., Asians, Blacks,
etc.]): skater, goth, jock, prep, art/drama, church, math club,
hacker, debate society, homeschool, delinquent/drug dealing,
etc.  For a Bengali kid in leafy Connecticut, unable to accept
being the perfect obedient, religious, traditional Bengali son,
and unable to accept trying to pass as a white boy with a deep
tan, wearing boat shoes and two collars, the world of hip hop
felt like a welcoming home. The shoes, the music, basketball --
the shared sense of a struggle against something (often vague
and amorphous),