hate on radio-played “rap” or pop, but don’t hate on hip-hop. hip-hop is a culture, hip-hop has it origins in social change. hip-hop for the most part is still a positive movement and the “hip-hop” portrayed by the media is every ounce as vapid as the britney spears and good charlotte put out by major labels. if we’re going to blame 50 cent for violence then we definitely need to blame britney spears and the pussycat dolls (a burlesque troupe! gasp) for the oversexualization of young girls. its an oversaturation in the media of negative imagery not confined to ONE group, and its this oversaturation thats forced young kids to be bombarded by these images. i’m only 21; i don’t remember feeling the urge to wear skimpy clothes and dance provacatively at the age of 10 or 11…shit i was still playing with jump ropes and sliding down my crocodile mile!

and just like you punkers lament your loneliness at concerts, i as a female hip-hop fan lament my loneliness as a female and a brownie at the “underground” hip-hop shows i consistently attend!

I spent all morning looking for the Kominas Myspace page- Music search on that sucks…Found it though, now, through your site.

How about coming to los angeles to do a show with my buddies over at Slant?

Come to Boston, we’ll do it up!

Here’s an article on some Desi punks: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2006/04/18/the_clash/ ~ Basim, The Kominas

can you e-mail us so we can figure out where we’ll all be datewise, and try and figure out venue, etc.?

So true, PropMcG – not only does being in a band mean that you probably have a bunch of money to begin with, India’s a very difficult place to just say no to your ISCE exams, your physics tutor, your mother, uncle, father, cousins and go off and be a rockstar or a mallrat. Dropping out and working at your local video store is somehow just not an option for most people and that class divide between the blue or um beige? collar workers and the upper classes is so stigmatized, very few are able to even be a tourist in the lives of the (thank you Pulp) Common People.
Nobody I know (and when I say know I mean that I’m friends with) in India would be willing to live the life of someone in the service industry or drop out of school in protest or dissatisfaction. This isn’t a critique – just a sign of the massive overpopulation, the scarcity of well-paying jobs and the effect of living in an economy that is vunerable to globalism and where industry depends on being able to provide competitive, high-quality labour for low wages. This is so obvious that I’m not even sure if I want to post it… but it’s two am and I’m ruminating, so there you have it.

hell yeah!

Yeah, but what do they really know in school anyway? At least some of them manage to pick up again in college.

Hostels = rebirth of punk rock?