Stanley Crouch has long been a critic of hip hop, sometimes unfairly, but often time making stellar points regarding the art form and its troubling place in Black culture. In a New York Daily News article published recently, Crouch goes in on Kanye West and his seemingly proud flaunting of anti-intellectualism vis a vis not reading. According to West, whose later mother was an English professor:
"Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph. I am a proud nonreader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life."
Is that so? Crouch is troubled by West's assertion and should be. While one can appreciate West would rather be an actor as opposed to an observer, Crouch is right in putting a shoe in him for perpetuating a good deal of the anti-intellectualism that is pervasive in Black America.
This clip is from a December lecture at Zocalo