Less Flav was more
Wednesday, August 9th, 2006
If you are a true Public Enemy fan, “Flavor Of Love” has surely caused you at least a little bit of pain.
On the other hand, as a reality show, “Flavor” is impressive in that it consistently manages to get outrageous stuff on the screen never witnessed on the previous thousand reality series.
But the most significant thing about “Flavor of Love” is the reflection it casts on Chuck and crew’s ability, during P.E.’s heyday, to keep this clown bottled up for little explosions of hype and humor in support of important content. Flav’s balancing of Chuck’s potentially droning seriousness cannot be downplayed. He helped P.E.’s messages get through by making them go down smoother. Not to mention, the musical pairing of Chuck’s baritone with Flav’s shrill outbursts was inspired.
A few years ago, I saw a Flavorless P.E. show in DC (Flav supposedly couldn’t leave New York over some parking ticket drama with the courts, yeah right), and, although Griff held down hype man duties well, the vibe was definitely too “unfun”, lacking the classic Chuck-Flav balance.
During the Golden Age, when hip hop coolness meant you had a politically conscious side, eschewed gold chains for African medallions, and gave a crap about the upliftment of black people (yes, that actually happened, I was there), you got your education on sociopolitical issues from Chuck. But on the downlow, you secretly couldn’t wait to get through Chuck to reach Flav’s occassional lines, motormouth intros, and creative, sometimes bizarre, but always catchy and cutting edge slanguage.
Flav’s exaggerated attention-seeking fit perfectly into P.E.’s aesthetic when forced into snippets of a few seconds. In that context, Flav acting wild and crazy and hollering “Yeahhhhh boyyyeee” represented a raw expression of “we’re here, we’re black, we’re powerful, and you can’t ignore us anymore” — just as important as other group members’ ways of getting the same message across: Terminator X’s silent intimidation while presiding over the turntables on a raised platform; Chuck’s studied, meticulous, pull-no-punches message raps delivered with booming authority; Griff representing the educated black man as “Minister of Information”; the Bomb Squad’s trademark “wall of noise” sound literally attacking your ears; and, you can’t get much more direct than the S1Ws, P.E.’s answer to Golden Age hip hop’s requisite backup dancers. The paramilitary S1s marched around the stage with uzis, while Chuck and Flav bopped between their formations.
P.E. used to really scare people! Flav let you know there was still a place for fun in the revolution.
If you wanted a full blast of Flavor, you got one or two songs per album. I remember a friend rewinding “Cold Lampin’ With Flavor” over and over in his walkman on a school field trip. He handed me the headphones insisting I check out the song while he did the Original Flavor Dance in the background.
But those few songs were it. Just a taste. Less Flav was more Flav. Too much Flavor ruins the meal. Keep us wanting more, you get what I’m saying?
Alas, on reality television, more is more. Balance is out, insane extreme characatures are in. There’s no Chuck, no Griff, and no S1s to hold an uzi to Flav’s head and reign him in. In the “Flavor” world, Flav is the sanest one, presiding over grotesque displays like a “Flavor of Love” contestant actually shitting her dress during the “who stays and who gets kicked off” ceremony.
I must admit that it was mouth agape, albeit scatalogically, funny.
For better or worse, you never heard that on a P.E. song.
Burn reality TV burn.
Reposted at last.fm, where you can stream “Cold Lampin’” and link to artist pages for the members of P.E.
August 9th, 2006 16:32
we watched that episode last night! i can’t believe that actually happened…like you said, the show coninues to get outrageous stuff never seen on the other reality shows!!
August 9th, 2006 20:38
The problem as I see it this time around with “FOL2″ is that the first time, it was a perfect counterbalance to have one crazy woman like “New York” and 19 relatively normal women. Granted, the majority of women on the show were trying to further their “careers” (eg. “Smiley”, “Pumkin”, “Hottie”, etc.), but they at least gave the impression that they generally liked each other even though it was a competition.
It became abundantly clear to me after he got rid of “Sweetie”, I think, after they had to make the chicken, that the producers were putting him up to picking women who would create the most controversy, ie “Hottie” and “New York”. The fact that “New York” got as far as she did seems to confirm that for me.
Anyway, from what I saw last week, the idea is reversed: now let’s get 20 crazy women and see what happens. It’s pure Jerry Springer now, and I feel bad for Flavor.
I remember seeing a VH1 “Driven” special on Flav, and how he came to LA/Hollywood specifically to get on a TV show. It’s pretty remarkable that he’s be able to generate three spin offs from his initial foray with “The Surreal Life”, but you would think he of all people would know that his 15 minutes will be up very soon — go get a late pass!!
August 16th, 2006 11:45
[…] For more on Flava Flav’s descent into utter buffoonery, check out these great posts from Nate On The Mic and Return of the Brown-Eyed Girl. […]
September 1st, 2006 23:35
[…] For more on Flava Flav’s descent into utter buffoonery, check out these great posts from Nate On The Mic and Return of the Brown-Eyed Girl. […]
September 10th, 2006 22:11
Okay Jeremy, we’re still watching Flavor Of Love in my household. Give us an update your feelings about the latest FOL happenings.
September 11th, 2006 21:59
Man, I was going to post here last night right after the show, but I said let me hold my tongue. But since you asked…
Apparently, 20 faux “New Yorks” could match up with the real thing! I was hoping upon hope that something good could come out of this season, but with the reintroduction of NY into the competition, I believe the show has officially jumped the shark, speared the stingray, or whatever you want to call it.
Whereas before, I could blame the producers for generating controversy, this falls squarely on Flav’s shoulders, since he is the executive producer. I guess Cris Abrego and the other people in the production who film the show had some input, but as the main financier of the project, Flav had to OK all of this foolishness.
I can marginally believe that he would be friends with Warren G, his contemporary, but since when was Flav down with G-Unit, Ying-Yang Twins, and mf’ing BISHOP DON MAGIC JUAN???!!!???!!! Shameless cross promotion IMO.
Based on what I saw from the “highlights” of the rest of the season, especially the episode with NY’s mom (who pretty much loathed Flav from season 1), I think the show has gone from highly explotative at best to just unecessarily cruel.
This is probably the last time I’ll watch it. Like I said before, I love ya, Flav, but it’s time to get a late pass!
September 12th, 2006 22:33
Shameless cross-promotion you say… I can believe that when it comes to most of the “product placements” who appeared on the show. The Ying Yang guy was doing his own hook from the Bubba Sparxx “New Booty” collab constantly. So uncouth, I mean, its like quoting yourself while in conversation. Like, isn’t he sick of himself yet?
But how does it help promote Warren G by showing the aftermath of a party at Warren’s house where people apparently painted on his bathroom walls with feces??? Maybe that would fly back when being shiftee, low down, gritty, and grimy was in.
I can’t be too hard on Warren G though, because he spit some of truest lyrics ever put on wax:
“Nate got the freaks
And that’s a known fact”
September 12th, 2006 22:36
I cross-posted this on last.fm here, hopefully will get some more comments: http://www.last.fm/user/nate32x/journal/2006/08/25/213722/