COOL

INTRODUCTION

At various points in modern history artists, academics, scholars, MBAs and

trendspotters have all tried to define that amorphous state of being called

cool. But theres also an adage that states, As soon as you try to define

cool, youve lost it. Cool is slippery. It shifts like smoke, a figment seen out

the corner of the eye but gone as soon as you turn your direct attention. What

we can do is identify moments in history where and when widely accepted

opinions of cool relative to the rest of society occurred (call it looking at the

shadow of cool.) We can look at these moments and dissect them, discovering

the commonalities and thus create extrapolations that can help us identify

and define this highly sought but evasive state of being.

In Japan, its hip hop and reggae not country music that moves the underground.

In Russia, twerking is a fitness rage. In New Zealand and Australia we can

find the cutting edge of neo-soul. Around the world, cool as created by black

culture has touched the heart and soul of many people. If I were to editorialize,

I would say cool touches a timeless place coming from hardship but filtered through

intelligence, grace and toughness, a place in the soul that connects people across

color and nationality without words. But this is not a time for such esoteric musings.

For marketers, cool is a commodity, it has value. Brands seek to make things cool to

legitimize products in the eyes of certain demographics and thus increase market

share. They chase cool, attempt to imbue cool into their products through borrowed

interest such as celebrity equity, viral gimmickry and hip language.

A selection of early African-American targeted

advertising. While theyre firmly in the throwback

camp, there is powerful and affirming considering

the time they were created.

Black culture and the symbols of cool at that time were employed to reach

a growing black audience. Dashikis and Afros replaced white button downs and

processed hair. Headlines were written in the lexicon of the new hip tongue.

But cool is not pastiche. Cool cannot be slathered on like some

artisanal hot sauce. Cool must be integral to the concept, born from the subject,

insight and execution.

Cool is authentic through and through. It is lived, inhaled and sometimes bled.

To attempt to understand cool, you must know what cool is, where it came from, how

it cam to be. This document will give a short history of cool as it applies to America

(including its global influence), defining it as an organic and intrinsic part of black

culture. Black cool is a journey as much as its a destination. Lets travel.

Symmetry, composure and
calm are captured in an
ivory mask of Queen Idia, first
Queen of Benin.

AFRICA AND THE GENESIS OF COOL

Author Robert Farris Thompson, professor of art history at Yale University, suggests that Itutu, which

he translates as mystic coolness, is one of three pillars of a religious philosophy created in the

15th century by Yoruba and Igbo civilizations of West Africa. Cool, or Itutu, contained meanings of

conciliation and gentleness of character, of generosity and grace, and the ability to defuse fights and

disputes. It also was associated with physical beauty. In Yoruba culture, Itutu is connected to water,

because to the Yoruba the concept of coolness retained its physical connotation of temperature.

He cites a definition of cool from the Gola people of Liberia, who define it as the ability to be mentally

calm or detached, in an other-worldly fashion, from ones circumstances, to be nonchalant in

situations where emotionalism or eagerness would be natural and expected. Joseph M. Murphy

writes that cool is also closely associated with the deity sun of the Yoruba religion.
The effect of coolness on tribal African culture becomes even more profound as it creates a
connection between the spirit and the material realms. Like the African deities, who for the
most part are unmoved by the petty issues of mortal men, coolness offers a sense of control,
connects ones spirit to the gods. Coolness raises intellect while diminishing the baser human
distractions. Coolness frees the individual from heated emotions that hinder the higher thought
processes. To exhibit grace under pressure is deeply connected to exuding a royal demeanor,
an inner peace and inner spirituality that marks the strongest of men, the leaders of nations.
Id like to draw parallels between the strength and attitude of European cool pose

(sprezzatura or studied carelessness) and African cool pose (ashe.) When we look

at portraits of the kings and courtesans of Europe, we discover a striking similarity

in posture and attitude as is found in photos and sculptures of African royalty despite

cultures being separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years.

 Harriet Tubman in her final

years still carries the steel

and coolness in her spirit.

AS A COPING MECHANISM As much as cool in America has many positive connotations, the reasons for

cool and cool pose (the carriage of ones self in unfamiliar situations) are

rooted in a darker and troubling history.

Although most minority groups have suffered through some form of racism

and discrimination, no other group has experienced the systemic degradation

within accepted political boundaries as Blacks have in America. Its this deeply

rooted, legally sanctioned and historical debasement that ironically, can be seen

as the pivotal touchpoint in creating cool as we know today.

During the dark days of slavery, an errant action or surreptitious look could

have dire consequences. So it became necessary for the African in America

to sublimate his or her thoughts and feelings, to hide them behind a mask

of veiled emotion. This mask or front took many different guises depending

on what was wanted or needed, becoming a sophisticated lexicon by which

the enslaved Blacks could gain some level of independence and legitimacy in

a white and patriarchal world.

Bert Williams And Georger Walker.

The highest paid minstrel era comedians

during the early 20th century.

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise

We wear the mask!

-Lawrence Dunbar
THE NEW NEGRO
THE BIRTH OF AN INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE
IN NEW URBAN BLACK COMMUNITIES.

New Negro was a term popularized during the late 19th century to the early 20th century implying

a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of

Jim Crow racial segregation.

As African Americans flocked to Northern cities in the 1920s in hopes of employment in booming

industrial cities, they created a new social and cultural landscape. Freed (somewhat) from the overt

inhumane treatment of the Jim Crow American South, and the increased relative wealth found in

new factory and domestic jobs in the North, these New Negroes (compared to the Old Negroes of

previous) moved confidently, unafraid into the future.

Marcus Garvey, Founder of the

Pan-Africanist movement in Harlem.

Many enlisted in the military, hoping to establish themselves as fully vetted

citizens of America, with all the rights and privileges of a white American

soldier. Little did they know the promises of democracy they believed that

theyd fought for on foreign soil would go unfulfilled at home.

Facing the lie of American democracy in post WW1 America only incensed

the New Negro to new levels of self-confidence during the years following

1and the Great Migration.

Race pride had already been part of literary and political self-expression among

African Americans in the 19th century. However, it found a new purpose and

definition in the journalism, fiction, poetry, music, sculpture and paintings of a

host of figures associated with the Harlem Renaissance along with powerful black

thought from across the African diaspora including France and the Caribbean.

Soldiers of the 369th (15th N.Y.) who won the

Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action.

Langston Hughes and Josephine Baker.

The elegance of the New Negro.

The radical Black newspaper, The Chicago Whip indicated in 1920 how this new line

of thought, a new method of approach included the possibility that the intrinsic standard

of beauty and aesthetics does not rest in the white race and that a new racial love,

respect and consciousness may be created. It was felt that African Americans were poised

to assert their own agency in culture and politics instead of just remaining a problem or

formula for others to debate about.

The New Negroes of the 1920s, also dubbed the talented tenth by Dr. WEB DuBois,

included poets, novelists and singers creating their art out of their own folk heritage

and history; Black political leaders fighting against corruption and for expanded

opportunities for African Americans; businessmen working toward the possibilities

of a Black metropolis and Garveyites dreaming of a homeland in Africa.

All of them shared in their desire to shed the image of servility and inferiority of the

shuffling Old Negro and achieve a new image of pride and dignity.
Aaron Douglas (1899-1979)-Aspects of Negro Life: From

Slavery Through Reconstruction

King Oliver and his

Creole Jazz Band

JAZZ, ROCK N ROLL AND THE BIRTH OF THE WHITE NEGRO.
T O S W I N G . T H E A R T O F I M P R O V I S AT I O N A N D B E I N G H I P.

In New Orleans, the rhythm of African slave drums (one of the only locations on the continental United states to allow

African drums and rituals) combined with European horns and the sounds of negro spirituals to create what we know call jazz,

a wholly American art form created by African Americans.

As all art forms evolve with the times that created them, the evolution of jazz occurred hand in hand with the Blacks view and

position in America. The voice of jazz evolved and changed to reflect new influences, new themes and new ways of looking at

their world, dreams deferred in a post wartime America and all new possibilities for the future.
Harlem Jazz club, late 1940s
At the height of its influence, jazz was a powerful cultural movement, particularly influencing the young in

dress, language, and attitude. It was the cool jazz of the 40s that originated the word hipster.

In his book Jazz: A History (1977), Frank Tirro defines the 1940s hipster:

The hipster is an underground man. He is to the Second World War what the dadaist was to the first. He is amoral,

anarchistic, gentle, and overcivilized to the point of decadence. He is always ten steps ahead of the game because

of his awareness, an example of which might be meeting a girl and rejecting her, because he knows they will date,

hold hands, kiss, neck, pet, fornicate, perhaps marry, divorceso why start the whole thing? He knows the

hypocrisy of bureaucracy, the hatred implicit in religionsso what values are left for him?except to go

through life avoiding pain, keep his emotions in check, and after that, be cool, and look for kicks. He is looking for

something that transcends all this bullshit and finds it in jazz.

In the jazz age hipster, we find a rejection of the norms of mainstream society, a disregard of the squares and

their acceptance of the American status quo. In rejecting the confines of a stifling society, they found themselves

free free to explore, to create new modalities, from how to communicate to how to dress.
(Above) Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and

(right) John Coltrane.

These three men helped usher in a new era of

bebop movement in jazz.
The Jazz-age hipster was a new creation. He walked and talked in a manner that turned the world on

its ear. More than anything, he was internally emancipated, freed to birth himself (or herself) into an

wholly new art form that captured a new way of seeing himself and the world he lived in. This was

terrifying to the status quo. Their jungle rhythms along with their unrepentant lifestyle and his

influence upon a young white society enthralled by their rejection of old roles made polite society

see them as dangerous, Thus only making them more attractive to the genteel white world.

It was the white hipsters attraction to jazz music and the jazz musician that created the very first

cool white, or in a phrase created by Norman Mailer, The White Negro.

Marlon Brando and James Dean,

the embodiment of white cool

Mailer explains that white hipsters absorbed the existentialist synapses of the Negro, and for
for a generation both rejected
practical purposes could be considered a white Negro. Smoking marijuana was the wedding
the classic traditions of theatrcal
ring of this relationship and language was the child. The language of Hipgave expression
acting for method acting which
to abstract states of feeling which all could share, at least all those who were Hip. The Negro,
seeked real thoughts and feelings to
unable to saunter down a street with any real certainty that violence will not visit him, has kept
develop lifelike performances.
for his survival the art of the primitiverelinquishing the pleasures of the mind for the more obligatory
They both sought connection
pleasures of the body. So, the hipster, the white Negro, uses the black mans code to live their life.
to an elemental African truth

through the drum.

Mailer goes on to explain that the source of Hip is the Negro for he has been living on the margin between

totalitarianism and democracy for two centuries. He attributes the proliferation of the hip mentality to

the knifelike entrance of jazz into culture, explaining that the post-war generation shared a collective

disbelief in the words of men who had too much money and controlled too many things.
 KEEP COOL DURING CIVIL RIGHTS

If the disbelief in the words of men who had too much money and controlled too many

things fomented cool as an underground cultural movement, it was the civil rights

movement of the 60s that gave cool a concrete spirit to challenge those same men and

the separate but equal establishment they violently strived to maintain.

The 1960s were a tumultuous time for America. The communist threat of Russia, the

encroachment of Communist North Vietnam into the democratic South and Americas

subsequent involvement in that south Asia country, along with growing racial issues at

home all created a palpable unease in America. While many white Americans pined for

the relative calm of the 50s, blacks saw those times as the dark ages of their personal

freedoms and began to stand up for their rights in a manner never before seen.
In a photo from the 1960s, A teen from

Compton wears a Malcolm X shirt unironically.

While there were many unsung heroes in the battle for civil rights, two men

stood at the forefront to lead blacks to the prospect of a civil rights victory:

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Initially, they stood on opposite ends

of the battle. MLK with his college education and Southern Baptist church

background, took lessons from the bible and other historical figures in

non-violent disobedience (eg. Gandhi,Thoureau.) Malcolm X, a former pimp

and hustler from the streets was honed in the fiery rhetoric and pro-black

whites are devils stance of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.

(Ironically, before their unfortunate assassinations both Malcolm and

Martin would move closer to one another in their stance. Regrettably,

we were never able to see the fruition of this drift towards one another

but thats a tale for another essay.)

Despite their difference of opinions, both were leaders of grassroots

movements that spoke to a diverse range. Field workers to accountants,

rich and poor were drawn to these men and their messages for the

movement but more importantly what the movement made them feel

about themselves; empowered, strong, American.

We often forget that Malcolm and Martin were both relatively young men when they

became leaders of their respective national movements. This may explain why they

carried themselves with a sartorial sharpness - to help imbue their image with

an authority their skin and age would not afford them. It apparently worked.

It injected into their movements a sense of self-respect that was adopted

by their fellow participants. Black folks would dress to march, further con-

trasting the disheveled southern police forces and populace that often stood in

conflict to them. Their formality was a psychological armor. By taking the uniform

of the powered establishment and using it to their advantage, they could not be so

readily denied as other but had to be seen as equal.

As much as their clothes aided in giving them physical

presence, their words pushed their gravitas even further.

Malcolm and Martin were very aware of the strength of

words. Not just the words themselves but how they were

spoken. There was a measured quality to their speeches,

even a musicality that connoted strength and power.

It was something very few had ever heard apart from

the pulpit. No matter how fiery their rhetoric, there

was an underlying coolness, often injecting humor or steely

strength that demanded they be heard. Theirs was a

strength carried through generations ago. It was the deep

spiritual cool of African kings, the cool that moved

men. They spoke as if they were heads of state and for

many around the world, they were.

During the 1968 Olympics, Tommie Smith (gold) and
John Carlos (bronze) took a stand for civil rights by
raising their black-gloved fists and wearing black socks in
lieu of shoes. The Australian Peter Norman, who had run
second, wore an American civil rights badge as support
to them on the podium.

A brash, handsome loudmouth named Cassius Clay

(Muhammad Ali) stands triumphant over the previously

unstoppable Sonny Liston. While both fighters were

disliked, Liston represented for the mainstream the old and

accepted ideas of the brutish negro fighter. Clays triumph

would give them a new kind of negro to hate.

The Black Panthers cut an imposing figure of self-empowerment and determination.
70S COOL. BLACK EMPOWERED

The Black Panther Party for Self Defense of the 60s, offered a cool and urban

contrast to the proper and correct posture of the religion-based freedom fighters

of the southern Baptist church of the sixties.

Born from the assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., a kindred

spirit in messaging and self-empowerment, Bobby Seale,Huey Long and many

others created the Black Panther Party to directly empower the people along the

lines of an organized, urban paramilitary movement.

The leather jackets and afros completing the all-black attire, projected an image

that played well for the media and captured attention in a way none other had

up to then. They were far more than style. They created a relatable message and

image for an urban youth. More volatile, more outspoken, The Panthers directly

challenged the white police authority and inspired the black youth with a grittier,

more hardcore message along with concrete activities (food programs, health
clinics and education programs.)
Huey Percy Newton who along

with Bobby Sealeco-founded

the Black Panther Party in 1966.

This was a time of self-awakening and self-awareness.

Day-to-day life was to be deeply immersed in the struggle,

as there was no real option for young black Americans.

The heroes of the young people during the mid to late sixties

were not movie stars or singers but activists and it was

a time when being politically aware was most definitely cool.

The politically-driven black experience of the late 60s,

early 70s along with the powerful development of black

consciousness also birthed a contemporary approach to

telling the black experience in media, specifically B

lack cinema or blaxplotation films.

Angela Davis, political activist and

Black Panther associate.

Her physical appearance was as

much a statement of her world view

as her words, influencing young

blacks around the world.

 Hollywood saw a growing audience and wanted to tap in to a new revenue stream.

All the major studios began shooting cheaply produced films that featured many of the

future black legends of Hollywood (Pam Grier, Fred Williamson, Lou Gossett Jr, Glynn

Thurman and many more got their start in these early flicks.) While the initial costs

were low, the returns were remarkable. MGM produced Gordon parks Shaft for 500,000

dollars but it went on to make $13 million at the box office, bringing the near-bankrupt

company back into solvency. The power of black film helped save Hollywood.

The films also featured soundtracks by some of the leading artists of the day

(Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for the title song in the film Shaft.) further raising the relevance

for an audience longing for all-black casts telling stories that reflected facets of their lives.

While today, many consider the preponderance of pimps, hookers and violence in these films

as a negative, back then they represented the feelings of the audience they were created for.

These were self-made individuals sticking it to the man and coming out on top. It was a

chance for blacks to see themselves writ large for the silver screen as actualized heroes, in

control of their lives, in charge of their destinies.

Made in 1971, Shaft was one

of Hollywoods first forays into capturing the

energy of Black empowerment on celluloid.

The Jamaican wall of speakers sound system.

The precurser to the Bronx sound systems as

played by the early hip hop DJs.

H I P H O P C O O L I N T H E L AT E 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y

Black culture had been making gains, culturally, politically and socially throughout

the 70s. But as always, those on the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder

were left disenfranchised and ignored. This disenfranchisement was felt doubly

hard due to an economic downturn that struck the entire nation.

The Bronx, a borough in NYC was plagued by poverty and the subsequent symptoms

of having too many people living in too close proximity with others who also have too

little; apart from violence, drugs, gang warfare. Still, for a certain group of youths in

the midst of all these all too familiar pitfalls, this was the perfect time to express their

innovation and ingenuity. They would eventually craft a movement that would reach

across the planet. They would create Hip Hop.

Kool Herc and Afrika Bambatta, creators and codifiers of Hip Hop

Born from a musical tradition birthed in the slums of the Caribbean island of

Jamaica, Hip Hop is not just music but a culture consisting of music, dance and

graffiti. This multi-faceted nature of Hip Hop gave order in the madness and focus

in a time of dangerous distractions by allowing youth to get in where they fit in.

Couldnt rap? Be a dancer. Couldnt dance? Be an artist. It was a way for any kid

to gain fame, even if only in their hood. The founding fathers of Hip Hop, Kool

Herc and Afrika Bambatta may have just wanted to keep the party going but for

the kids in the Bronx, it was a lifesaver in a sea of uncertainty and it was easy

to make. It didnt require instruments except for two turntables, a cheap mixer

console, some speakers and a microphone. You didnt even have to know how to

sing, rapping was the form that gave voice to poor inner city youth. More than

anything, Hip Hop was empowering. The creators looked just like you, sounded

just like you, told tales that sounded like your life. Suddenly you felt like the star

whose song was playing over jerry-rigged speakers in the park, the song that

eventually found its way to black radio.

Those were strange and wonderful times. Young people were

dressing and carrying themselves with a definite sense of

pride, dressing sharply was a given, the latest fresh to def

sneakers a must. The youth were a part of something whose

influences were spreading far and wide. Hip Hop had left The

Bronx, made it all the way to Brooklyn and Queens and was

spreading around the nation. Anywhere where poor, black

young people were found, you could be heard the music of

NYC, a music created by the folks at the bottom of the totem

pole. This was at the core of their cool, to be given nothing

and make something was a feat unto itself. They realized

how remarkable they truly were. Their voices and posturing

connoted a classic cool pose that spoke volumes. They finally

recognized their value and it was never going to be taken away

again. Hip Hop gave a potentially lost generation reason again

to be proud to be black. It was this power that brought black

cool a whole new demeanor.

Kangol, tailor-made grey leather coat and pants and

British Walkers shoes. Note the tasteful medallion.

A unique uniform.
Chatting up a honey while hauling your boombox.

The latest cassette mix could get it popping.

 As the 80s moved onto the 90s, the energy and attitude of Hip Hop

would not be contained in black urban centers. What began in the

streets for a disenfranchised audience became a f u l l - f l e d g e d

v o i c e o f y o u t h t h a t s p o ke t o a n i n c re a s i n g ly w i d e a u d i e n c e .

H i p H o p w a s n o w s p e a k i n g t o t h e w o r l d . F ro m P o l a n d t o

To k y o , y o u t h w e re d r a w n t o t h e a r t f o r m , f i n d i n g t h e i r ow n

vo i ce a n d c re a t i n g m e t h o d s t h a t m a d e i t t h e i r ow n , w h i le

st i l l st a y i n g t r u e t o t h e b a s i c p re ce p t s t h a t we re fo u n d e d

ye a rs b e fo re . Fo r t h e s e p e o p le , H i p H o p w a s p e rs o n a l , i t

b e c a m e s o m e t h i n g t h ey ex p e r i e n ce d .

While the world was discovering the power in the culture, so were

marketers. They saw an opportunity to bring hipness to all kinds of

products utilizing Hip Hop. Commercials for everything from sneakers

to fast food now had a Hip Hop track, a Hip Hop attitude. Some were

executed better than others but all were commodifications of the cool

of Hip Hop. What we start to see is the slow degradation of the soul

of cool that had never occurred in history. If there was a dollar to be

made, hip hop and its cool would be subverted and even denigrated in

clichd attempts to reach a demographic.

In 1995, Rap Snacks originally

featured MC Potato.

A near spot on Nordic imitation of an early Hip Hop look.

But there were some forms of the culture that would never be assimilated by mainstream. On the West Coast, a new,

more hard edged and some say dangerous subset of hip hop music was created. Gangsta rap was speaking from

another black perspective, a perspective that told of a hard reality where cops were as lethal to your life as any gang

member. Their cool had a different attitude.

Born out of the earlier Black Panther movement, what would eventually become known as West Coast Gangster

Culture initially started as benevolent community groups for the neighborhoods that bore them. Unfortunately the

influx of crack cocaine in the 80s sullied any good that once existed, accelerating gang culture and destroying the

neighborhoods they once set out to protect. These young men reveled in the frisson of danger and fear the young

black male exuded on polite society. In some ways, it was not dissimilar from the friction that was created back in

the jazz days but instead of an abstract philosophy of life, the gangster lifestyle threw the long-standing love of guns,

money and violence back in Americas face. Rocking locs (sunglasses), pressed dickies or chinos and Cons, they

kept to a blue-collar appeal (some would say this is a look adopted from jailhouse garb) with a definite edge of danger

in a way that was wholly new to the mainstream.

This new form terrified both established blacks and whites. It seemed for a while to be incapable of digestion into

mainstream. But even the dangerous cool of gangster rap would eventually succumb to the C.R.E.A.M. philosophy

(Cash Rules Everything Around Me)

NWA (minus Ice Cube)

The West Coast Gangsta look.

Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre made the transition to mainstreamwhile

maintaining their core audience. Their brands remain authentic,

their cool undiminished.

HIP HOP AS MAINSTREAM

Throughout pop history there has always been artists whove transitioned from music to movies.

Hip Hop should prove no different.

Some of the larger personalities in West Coast gangsta rap proved marketable in the film industry.

Ice Cube, Ice T and Snoop Dogg all appeared in films as legitimate actors. In 1991, one of the earliest

of these new breed of hip-hop influenced films entitled New Jack City featured cop killer Ice T

playing of all things, a cop. That same year, Ice Cube would be featured in another seminal hip hop film

Boys n The Hood. While both were placed on opposite sides of the country, they both captured a

reflection of the world through a black POV.

Ice Cube and Ice Tea both made the transition to

mainstream. Cool is not forever.

But more than the films, or even subject matter, it was the willingness of Hollywood to take two of the hardest

voices, the most thug of personas and transform them into bankable Hollywood personalities. This is the

power of black cool, to understand ones inherent sense of self and ones value, yet still be able to sublimate

that sense for survival (more than survival, great wealth.) This has been the role of cool since the days of

slavery, through Jim Crow and still is applicable today.

As Hollywood and Madison Avenue rediscovered the financial gains to be made utilizing black cool, others races

and classes suddenly felt comfortable adopting certain elements of black cool. From dress to speech, black cool

became a thing to put on (and just as easily take off.) It was now a time of the white rapper, the expansion of

singers who adopted black styles, the usage of underground cool words in common speech. It was also the

beginning of a new wave of gentrification. No longer was it a black community, it was an urban community,

urban music, urban fashion. Urban became the catchall phrase to broaden the black experience for easy

accessibility. Black and black cool had been co-opted and morphed for mainstream appeal. Black cool

had made it to the Forbes 100 richest list with the likes of Jay-Z, Sean Puffy combs and Dr. Dre as proof

of its widespread appeal amongst all demographics.

B l a c k c o o l h a d e v e n re a c h e d t h e h e i g h t s o f p o l i t i c s .

I n 2 0 0 8 , A m e r i c a v o t e d f o r t h e i r f i r s t b l a c k p re s i d e n t .

Yo u n g , h a n d s o m e , w i t h a b e a u t i f u l w i f e a n d c h i l d re n ,

B a r a c k H u s s e i n O b a m a c o u l d s i n g l i ke a b i rd , o r a t e

l i ke M a r t i n o r M a l c o l m . . . h e eve n h a d a t h re e p o i n t s h o t .

Fo r t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s , t h e wo r ld , a n d e s p e c i a l ly b l a c ks

i n A m e r i c a , O b a m a w a s t o b e a sy m b o l o f t ra n s fo r m a t i ve

t i m e s . Fo l ks d i d n o t m i n d g i v i n g u p a b i t o f c u l t u re ,

a bit of their neighborhood, theyd now gotten a

b l a c k p r e s i d e n t . B u t t h i s was not good enough for some.

I t s e e m e d a b l a c k p re s i d e n t b ro u g h t o u t t h e w o r s t i n

certain groups. Empowered by endless cash from private funding,

the far right created the Tea Party, t h e e m b o d i m e n t o f

t ra d i t i o n a l A m e r i c a n v a l u e s . I f eve r t h e re we re

a polar opposite to black cool it was this group.

Jean Michel-Basquiat, patron saint of the Afropunk ideal.
Still, reinvention has always been at the core of the black culture and is very much a part of

cool so we find it morphing again with the birth of AfroPunk.

AfroPunk started as a counter to black imagery and black music that was no longer

wholly representative of black identity. It took some of its attitude from the downtown

punk rebellion of the 70s, rejecting the previously commodified and pimped-out black/

urban styles and culture to create something that echoed the afro-centric past while pointed

towards a neo-futuristic vision of black identity. Their music spans a range of styles, from hardcore

rock to soulful hip hop infused-jazz, albeit with a earnestness and edge unlike anything before.

They are a new breed of black, less concerned with adaption for survival, more concerned with self

expression, the idea that their cool should be pure to their unique American experience (the influences of

growing up in the suburbs, pop radio, as well as Mingus, Peter Tosh, Malcolm X and Chaka Khan.)

Afropunk is youthful as it is old, it is new even as its influences go back as far as Africa or music

from when they were ten. Its the poise of African princesses smashed into the couture of the Paris

runway. It is proud, defiant and worldly. Its malleable and plastic morphing from the popularity of

Erykah Badu to the philosophy of Cornell West. It is the latest iteration of black cool that is reshaping

black consciousness at the beginning of a new millennium.

CONCLUSION

Black cool has always been amorphous, a mutable and evolving state of mind and being. Like the image at the corner of ones

eye, when you try looking at cool directly, it moves and shifts like quicksilver. The tighter marketers try to get a grip on cool,

the quicker they lose the mark. Cool comes with a soft touch, a respect for the conditions that birthed it and having an intimate insight

into its current modes, staying on the leading edge of culture, trends, language and thinking. And even with all these resources, black cool

is hard to encapsulate. Maybe the best way to define cool would be with a simple but enigmatic quote:

D O N T P L AY W H AT S T H E R E , P L AY W H AT S N O T T H E R E .

MILES DAVIS