Friday, August 21, 2015

everybody's screaming Compton

...Stick a flag in my city - everybody screaming Compton - I should pro'bly run for mayor when I'm done, to be honest...
- Kendrick Lamar (King Kunta)

Veteran musician Dr. Dre has just released a music album and movie about that scary 'hood.
Compton, where Yetunde, big sister of Venus and Serena Williams was killed in a mindless drive-by shooting.
I remember when my little sisters wanted to go out to Compton for a New Year's party.  Or was it Carson?  They'll remember it as Fun December 2004.  Anyway, no, anywhere but there, sweeties.  Y'all 'bout to give me a heart attack :) so I shepherded them to a party in the whiter, bourgie-r, safer hillside town of Altadena.

Maybe I'll see the Straight Outta Compton film at some point, and try out the music too, but meanwhile here's the effect these hip-hoppers have had on media interest in "Compton"
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=compton%2C%20Nigeria%2C%20Africa&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT-1
Google Trends: Compton (in blue) is ten times more popular than, basically, ever
For comparison, at the top (yellow) is Africa and in red is Nigeria, both of which spike in popularity for football and only for football - L and M coincide with the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa, while G marks the 2014 World Cup where Nigeria almost made the quarterfinals.
Right now, Compton (population ~100,000) is a bigger deal than Lagos (population > 20 million) and even Nigeria, and all because of a movie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton,_California
Wikipedia: Compton is youthful 'working-class' and black, but has produced great musicians

There's a lesson here: it's so easy to build a city.  Keywords: Lekki.  Ikeja.  Oregun.  dot-biz.  Chambers of Commerce.  I'm just saying, let's BE the local government we want to see. 

Advertisement: Read Three Sisters, my novel #1 here ##

1 comment:

t said...

The film: very nicely done. a lot of people are watching it too.
The Compton 2015 album: interesting. related to, possibly derived from, the (far more dazzling, superlatively dazzling) TPAB album.
The N.W.A. Compton album: classic.