Open Thread: What Are We Listening To?
by Latoya Peterson
I am sure that you all have noted a bit of an uptick in hip-hop oriented content on the site. At first, I was planning to do a hip-hop week full of posts and content on hip-hop and hip-hop culture. However, after the feminism wars and reviewing all my research, I realized I had way too much information to cram into a week. So, you’ll just notice more posts about hip-hop on a regular basis. I’m planning to cover a lot of the social issues and global issues as well, so feel free to email me with recommendations - latoya@racialicious.com
Also, while putting all this together, I realized that hip-hop doesn’t speak to everyone. Music is often associated with racial groups, but as we have seen since music became an industry that there is no such thing as a hard and fast rule as to who listens to what.
With that, dear readers, I ask you this question: what are we listening to? Hopefully some patterns will emerge from your responses and we can focus some posts on that.
To get you started, here are 20 random songs I listened to today:
Beautiful - Goldfrapp
Love & Appreciate - Murs
Blue Collar Blues - The Far*East Movement
Everything is Everything - Lauryn Hill
Ride on Shooting Star [Japanese] - The Pillows (FLCL Soundtrack)
About a Boy (Nirvana Cover) - Cibo Matto
Nirvana - Elemeno P
Toxic (Britney Spears Cover, Remixed with ODB) - Mark Ronson
I’m Addicted to You - Anna Tsuchiya
You Need My Attention - Van Hunt
Top Back - T.I.
Who Needs Forever - Astrud Gilberto
Well Come [Korean] - Jinusean feat. Lexy
Ex-Boyfriend [Japanese] - M-flo feat. Crystal Kay
Ibabo [Korean] - The Wonder Girls
Amiga [Spanish] - Si*Se
Romeo - Basement Jaxx
Say How I Feel (Remix) - Rhian Benson feat. Slum Village
Astrosexy [Japanese] - M-Flo feat. Chemisty
Morris Brown - Outkast
(Photo Credit: Art.com)


So it took me a while to write this part of the series, partially because I am still looking for a concrete answer to the following question:
This Sunday, May 11, PBS will air a
One of the most annoying memes I hear keep popping up in the media and on various threads and boards is that “blacks are voting for Obama - why is it racist to say whites vote for Clinton? It’s a fact that black people are voting for Obama because he’s black, just admit it.”
Interracial and interethnic dating has as much, if not more, to do with “Family Matters” as my own family. So, in order to try to describe the experience of being in an interethnic relationship, I have to first evaluate the culture popping up all around me. Grab some Cheez Puffs or chicharrones, put aside your distaste for cheesy, alliterative snack food references, and let’s get to this.
When speaking of Erykah Badu we find out that the Islam McMurray tells us Badu follows is that of the
The situation of Eve is not so clear. She has been quoted as saying that she finds Sunni Islam beautiful but cannot follow it properly. McMurray argues that, according to her calculations, Eve is a Muslim woman, though even McMurray admits she cannot be sure. McMurray reads Eve as a Muslim woman. Eve refers to Allah in her work as well as thanks Allah on her CD credits. Additionally, McMurray tells us that her own personal communications indicate that she is Muslim. McMurray makes an interesting observation about people’s assumptions about Eve and her religion. In one song Eve says “I thank Allah every night and pray there’s no turning back.” In many online lyrics sources this line is written as “I thank the Lord every night and pray there’s no turning back.” McMurray tells us that people, on all sides (within and without) just cannot fathom Eve as a Muslim so would never assume that she would use “Allah.” She tells us that people have never even asked the question of her being Muslim despite her use of “Allah”.
So, I grabbed 


Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 