Same Old Story

The rapper T.I. is reputedly one of the top figures in the game. Last Saturday he was scheduled to receive the "Best CD of the Year" award at BET Hip-Hop awards in Atlanta. Unfortunately, he never made it to the show because he was arrested earlier in the day for possession of three unregistered machine guns and two silencers and for possession of firearms by a convicted felon. "When a dog bites a man," John B. Bogart wrote, "that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news." So it goes with rappers. That folks like T.I. get busted before receiving an award happens so routinely that it almost passes unnoticed and therefore hardly constitutes news. That a rapper actually manages to get himself to an awards show without being arrested or, worse, shooting somebody or being shot at, now that's news.

Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus

David Yaffe's essay "Spirit Chaser" in the October 22nd issue of The Nation magazine captures the incomparable tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins' September 18th Carnegie Hall concert with drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Christian McBride. This concert was occasioned by the discovery of broadcast recordings of Rollins' 1957 Carnegie Hall debut. Rollins plans to issue the material from both performances on his label, Doxy, in the spring. Although I missed the September 18th performance, I had the good fortune of hearing him at the 50th Monterey Jazz Festival on Sunday, September 30th. One thing is certain: the years have not diminished Rollins' creativity and inventiveness.

Thomas Speaks

Watching Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas make the rounds promoting his memoir "My Grandfather's Son", I am struck by three things. First, that Thomas is an extremely angry and bitter black man, as many commentators note, isn't especially noteworthy - the nation is full of angry black men of Thomas' generation. But what is noteworthy is that Thomas apparently still harbors anger and bitterness stemming from his 1991 confirmation hearings, where Anita Hill came forth to accuse him of sexual harassment. Then Thomas famously lashed out at liberal Democratic Senators and others for conducting a "high-tech lynching" against him for being an uppity black who dared to think for himself. Yet the salient point, a point lost on the Justice, is that despite the allegations, the Senate confirmed his nomination and he has gone on to become a stalwart on an increasingly conservative high court. Second, Thomas' complaints about slights and mistreatment heaped upon him betray a whininess that is decidedly at odds with his narrative of employing a fierce determination and self-reliance in overcoming life's obstacles. Ironically, he seems to embrace a sense of victimization he so roundly condemns in others. And finally, why, after 16 years, is he now speaking out on the controversy surrounding his nomination? Aside from settling old scores, exactly what does he hope to gain?