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OTL 45: Michael Holman Excerpt #6 - Tone-Deaf Anchors Lyrics by Outside the Lines With Rap Genius

OTL 45: Michael Holman

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SameOldShawn: I wanted to ask something very specific about the Breakers and them blowing up. I was watching a TV news segment about the Breakers, and it was by and large flattering -- portraits of their personalities, interviews with their mothers, shots of them dancing on the street. But there was also a pretty racist element to a lot of the coverage. I think they called the dancing "ragged and naive" at one point
Michael Holman: Was it one of those magazine shows?
SOS: Yeah. So I was just curious about dealing with non-hip-hop audiences and how you dealt with the racial overtones or sometimes more explicit vibe in the coverage
MH: I suppose it had a racist undertone or overtone to it. What you say instantly reminds me of -- this never happened overseas, but it definitely happened here. There were a number of times in which the New York City Breakers, who were a big part of the Beat Street film, when we went on a Beat Street tour, I can remember us doing news shows. We'd be on local news stations, like 5 o'clock news or whatever, and they'd need a little novelty news, and they'd have us on
It happened so many times. I was shocked the first time it happened. One of the newscasters, who inevitably would be a white guy, youngish to middle aged; we would do a performance, they would interview us, and then inevitably he would try and breakdance. It's like, oh no, this is too painful. It was like, watch me try and do this, ha ha ha, and aren't I silly and funny?
It's like, no no no, you're not supposed to do that. If you had some famous concert violinist on, would you then take the violin and make an idiot of yourself playing the violin? You wouldn't do that. But they would do that with the dancers, it was a major dis. And it happened three or four times
On one hand, you couldn't refuse the exposure, you needed the exposure. On the other hand, that was the price of that exposure. What assholes. We'd always stand and roll our eyes while they were doing that
I can remember this happening too with DJs. I can remember TV things where Jazzy Jay would have to teach some news reporter how to scratch. It's kind of humiliating. I suppose it's racist, but it's tone-deaf in terms of cultural awareness, for sure
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Outside the Lines With Rap Genius

Outside the Lines With Rap Genius

About “OTL 45: Michael Holman Excerpt #6 - Tone-Deaf Anchors” by Outside the Lines With Rap Genius

Read the complete lyrics to "OTL 45: Michael Holman Excerpt #6 - Tone-Deaf Anchors" by Outside the Lines With Rap Genius from the album "OTL 45: Michael Holman". On Lyrks you can follow along with the full text, explore the artist's discography, and discover related songs. The track is often categorized under Rap.

"OTL 45: Michael Holman Excerpt #6 - Tone-Deaf Anchors" is performed by Outside the Lines With Rap Genius. from the album "OTL 45: Michael Holman" This page provides the full lyric text for fans who want to sing along, study the songwriting, or compare versions across releases. Lyrks organizes lyrics by artist and song slug so you can bookmark and share a stable URL. Music lyrics help listeners connect with emotion, narrative, and rhythm in a track. Whether you are learning English, researching a favorite chorus, or preparing for karaoke, having accurate line breaks and section labels (verse, chorus, bridge) makes the experience easier. We link to the official artist profile on Lyrks where available, including biography snippets, top songs, and chart placements when we have that data. If you enjoy "OTL 45: Michael Holman Excerpt #6 - Tone-Deaf Anchors", explore more songs by Outside the Lines With Rap Genius using the links below. Chart and trending pages on Lyrks highlight what listeners are searching for this week. For copyright or correction requests, see our DMCA and contact pages.

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