Live data from Hacker News

Afrika Bambaataa has died

bbc.co.uk

61–70 of 81 posts

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#61

This brings up a point I often ponder: should the records of horrific criminals be cancelled? Consider the two extremes: A) artist is never played again, no more royalties are paid. Nobody gets to enjoy the music. B) the artist's estate is sold to a victims compensation trust, that collects, say, $4m/year that gets distributed to victims and charities. You still hear their song occasionally on the radio and gradually…

Should they ban Mein Kampf?

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#62
I saw DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's Afrika Bambaataa tribute and it was just outstanding. One of the best shows I've seen and some seriously talented people. Then I learned more about Afrika and how his misdeeds were mostly ignored.

When I open up a famous author / musician / athlete's wikipedia page, it feels like it's a coin flip over whether there's some horrible thing they've done and largely gotten away with it.

I'm still upset about Neil Gaiman. I connected deeply with a lot of his work in my youth and now I don't know what to think...

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#63
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can imagine scenarios where decent people in tough environments might be compelled to join a gang, rob, or even murder. That doesn’t make it ok, but it makes it at least understandable. I’m unable to imagine a reason why decent people might be compelled to rape children, let alone serially.

> decent people in tough environments ... murder You find an excuse for MURDER? You are definitely not a decent person.

Um, yeah? You can’t think of a single reason for justified homicide, ever? Maybe a kid who’s tired of seeing his stepdad beat the hell out of him and his mom, or they’re in a lawless part of the world where might makes right and the local mayor is horrid.

I’m not talking about random “my neighbor disrespected me so I killed him” idiocy. Just saying, I can at least imagine situations where, even if he shouldn’t have done it, if I were in the jury, I’d probably vote to acquit. If you can’t, you are definitely not a decent person.

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#64

Bambaataa was a serial sexual abuser and everybody in the rap scene knew it back in the day (early 90s) same way everyone knew about R. Kelly (I ran a rap program on the radio in 92-94).

I've read this a number of times, and dismissed it because there's no proof. But, I'm beginning to believe it, given the sheer amount of different sources saying it.

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#65
post #5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHQ11l4uiM4

Contemporaneously: World Destruction - Afrika Bambaataa & John Lydon (Released on: 31/12/1984) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoXGMSOIrIs

Great bumper music for the progressive history podcast _Blowback_.

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#66
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes it more understandable, but he lost a trial that said he was raping a child when he was 38 years old. Someone abused as a child who does sketchy things in their early 20s is tragic. Someone doing the same when they’re nearly 40 is a whole lot harder to dismiss. Like, you don’t make it to that age without hearing a lot of people along the way saying not to rape children.

Oh, please, don't think I'm making any excuses here .. but I was around and about the evidence management side of a five deep dive into institutional childhood abuse ... the various things that went down tend to explain a lot of early following behaviour once some kind of distance from early abuse is made. You're right to flag ongoing and persistent shitty behaviour as unacceptable - even assigning blame there gets p…

Yeah, I hear ya. My wife and I like watching crime shows, and you see someone like Ed Kemper, and wonder how he would’ve turned out if he hadn’t been subject to loads of abuse. If his parents hadn’t sucked, he might’ve been a doctor or something. It doesn’t forgive his crimes but does give a lot to ponder.

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#67
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> s3xual This is not TikTok. You can spell the word sexual without fear.

Is TikTok how the practice of censoring one's own swears came about? I've seen it on a lot of social posts and have been wondering. Besides it being hokey (why use the word to then immediately self-censor), it also instantly dates the poster as someone too new to the world to be able to make an interesting post. That last part is just an opinion, though.

This is more of my personal axe to grind, but it's important to view this as a result of monetized content and highly algorithmic feeds. It is my understanding that these platforms don't even really remove this language, just demote it, but that the culture on these networks is entwined with people who post for money, so anything that reduces exposure or payout is shunned. This is true for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube (shorts).

That said I wouldn't even assume "s3xual" is a result of this. It smells of older censorship to me, all the new stuff is video-first, so phonetic substitutes are more characteristic.

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a reasonable question. All my information was third hand at best. We didn't play Bambaataa, R Kelly or Tupac (convicted rapist) records. That's about all a radio station could do. Can't state what legally speaking were merely rumors on the air without facing problems. All you can do is not support them commercially, which we did.

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and/or flamebait and/or snark? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly; actually a rather shocking amount. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Re: Afrika Bambaataa has died

#70
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and/or flamebait and/or snark? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly; actually a rather shocking amount. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

[flagged]
Post reply on HN