just lost a big post about Ol' Dirty Bastard, Kelefa Sanneh, and the politics of hip hop obituaries. Rather than try to ressurect it, i'll simply praise Sanneh for the very pertinent warning that "wild anecdotes and bits of speculative biography are threatening to obscure the exhilarating music that won him so many fans" and for a lead two paragraphs which eloquently attempt to address why Mr. Baby Jesus' music was so exhilarating, howver much i disagree with the simplistic pop psychoanalysis towards the conclusion of the piece that ultimately cannot entirely escape some of the more problematic representations .
Pete L'Official's "Ode" in Salon foregrounds aesthetic and music over the pathology which dominates the Murdoch-owned tabloids and the AP. To the extent that the obituary as a form of memorializing, and the act of memorializing itself, is something we should engage in and consider valuable, L'Official, like Sanneh, has admirably attempted to give Dirty the obit he deserved.
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