Words

Boogaloo: The Quintessence Of American Popular Music

by Arthur Kempton

(Pantheon)
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Reviewed by Nathan Rabin
August 26th, 2003

The story of black music in the 20th century is both a triumph and a tragedy, an inspirational tale of adversity overcome and a darker story of shattered lives and destroyed potential. Arthur Kempton works his way through a broad cross-section of black music in Boogaloo, a trenchant, unsparing account of the music business that devotes as much time and space to the business side of the equation as to the artistic element. The names, genres, and faces change in Boogaloo, but certain bleak themes remain depressingly consistent. Sam Cooke and Otis Redding's early deaths presage 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G.'s. Pimp-turned-mogul Berry Gordy morphs menacingly into Death Row super-thug Suge Knight, who plays up his criminality rather than hide behind a cloak of upper-class respectability. Time and again, the exploited die broke and defeated, while the exploiters live to a ripe old age. The story's contours have been shaped by racism and greed, gospel and blues, the illusory perfection of the American dream and the seamy underbelly of a less glamorous reality. Beginning with gospel pioneer Thomas Dorsey and ending with Knight's rise and fall, Boogaloo documents an outlaw industry where artistic concerns almost invariably take a back seat to commercial calculation, and where the real criminals often dress in suits and ties. Doggedly unsentimental, the book suggests that gangsta rap (or "gangster" rap, as Kempton irritatingly calls it) merely brought to the forefront a particularly virulent strain of criminality, financial exploitation, and brute power that has existed behind the scenes in black recorded music almost from its inception. Kempton is most unflinching in his depiction of Gordy and of Motown, whose huge catalog of timeless music was built on the backs of anonymous artists and craftsmen, who were discarded the minute they ceased to be of use. At his most overheated, the author references pimp-turned-author Iceberg Slim to place Gordy's business techniques in a more streetwise context. It's unnecessary, as Kempton makes clear throughout that "pimps up, hos down" is more than just a catchy line. It's also a business strategy, and one that's been enormously lucrative for those doing the pimping.