Something Died, Agendas took Over

What we learned about the rules is that there are really no rules. Halaqah Media, the parent company of Ocacia, is 3 decades old. Influential but not fiscally successful in monetary terms, despite setting so many trends. Kind of like most out there, never getting credit for work. From Pakistan to Nigeria, to America, you can find Halaqah products everywhere. 

But when you have 3 decades of work, you can understand things better than anyone. Back in 1998, there was no YouTube, no Streaming, none of it. The rules of the industry were so different from now. A decade before that, it was largely all about talent.  The Milli Vanilli was an outlier in this industry; today, those antics are the norm. And we wonder why the arts are so pathetic these days. I even remember as a kid getting on a plane and being an air hostess meant looking like an Ex-model. Being a fashion model meant being polished to the 9's with perfect skin. Today they have on no makeup, and pimples and scars all over their face like they just woke up! My issue is what effort is required? Then, if no special gifts are required and it is an open season, then we destroy the arts if anything goes. 

While it is controversial, we have to weigh in on this with some honesty. 

I would not hire her to model for Ocacia. She is more shocking than beautiful. And we live in a society where calling people not pretty is taboo, but those who discovered her know this and exploited that.  Because she fits into every definition of ugly we know of. 

This is not Grace Jones, who had amazing teeth and bone structure. This is a play on that exploitation but going to the extreme. And just because someone challengesa convention really just translates into a new way to make money. And here is the deeper issue. Someone white (aka European) hired her to SHOCK you and use woke politics to force your agreement that she is beautiful. So they challenge the Eurocentric paradigm not for some Africanist cause but to exploit it and virtue signal. Tell me, do you think that helps us any? If you know the purpose (Nia) is exploitive, then is it still good?  They find the blackest person on Earth, knowing skin blackness is a taboo, also knowing that it causes controversy. Not to challenge the evil stigma of colorism but to exploit it for capitalist gains.

You see what you are supposed to say, to signal to the woke crowd, is this:

If you are "Black" you say this because you must be loyal to the new exploitation of blackness, and if you are "White," you must find her beautiful or be exposed as backward and racist. Not finding her exploited "beauty" beautiful signals you are trapped in the Lisa Bonet or Halle Berry, Vanessa Williams imposition on "acceptable blackness". And please, do not be liking any Ethiopian models. Because they, according to woke, are only beautiful because they fit Eurocentric standards. But here is the problem with that. Long before anyone in Ethiopia knew about these so-called beauty standards we have historical evidence that they were considered beautiful. 

Right now, as I am typing, White agencies that will claim all the profits are hunting deep in Southern Sudan for the next SHOCK, to sell their products. So they piggyback capitalism on woke shaming so that you look bad for not agreeing that she is beautiful. Why should we agree that she is beautiful again? Oh, because she is jet black and has features not within a Eurocentric aesthetic. But last time I checked, that was also not the definition of beautiful. Especially when it is reactionary to Eurocentric beauty. Being the opposite of Natalie Portman is not the definition of beautiful.

Vs

Honestly? I dont know, my own eyes, or reading too many Pan-African books and photographing to many women in Africa has left me numb? So no, I do not think is beautiful at all. 

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography meant a full studio with skilled photographers who had a dark room. Today a photographer has an iPhone 9+ and is taking themselves seriously. They think aperture is a French word, not a critical setting on a camera. And while people would accuse us of being "not with the times" or "old-fashioned," this is false because every piece of modern technology we use. Even AI. But how we use it within the context of our art is very different. We are still the masters of our craft, using these tools as slaves of our own creativity not for our creativity. Every photographer here can control a flash speed and an aperture and bare focus a camera. Every graphic designer can composite using their old skool skills, without resorting to AI.

MUSIC AND FILM

A musician meant being able to play an instrument, a singer meant actually being able to sing. Filmmaker meant an absolute command of light and editing. 

DESIGNER AND POETRY

A designer is someone who has a deep knowledge of design, of aesthetics, and has some sort of knowledge of these subjects. Today, it is someone on Facebook who sketches on their phone. Without any knowledge or training (formal or otherwise), they have a shortcut to success without the investment. Kanye West is a designer because he has 10 graduates behind him who can use his name. 

Kanye is a provocateur rather than a designer. Take a look at his "designs", now take away his name, and what do you see? 

TAYLOR SWIFT

I cannot hum a Taylor Swift song, not one. Yet she is everywhere. Does she have an amazing voice? Is she very attractive? Does she play an instrument? Yet she has a religious following around her weak, lame music. The Swift package has been artificially created in boardrooms. And the gullible, who can't see or hear for themselves, fall into the trap. 

ROUND UP

Every day at every moment, talent has to give way to agenda, and it's another day true art dies. Where agendas dominate who wins and who gets heard, then there is no environment for advancing art. If good music = good package, then what about the really good music? I know successful musicians, and if you strip down the package, what is left? No, they are not bad, but they are also non-notable musically. 70% of their appeal is tied to skin color, heritage, and being apolitical. If you just took their art and put it on a table, it would be blown away by so many unknown folks. In South Africa, it is all about politics. This year, we need a White woman to represent, with a dress made by a "black" designer who is preferably a lesbian, and that is how the competition is judged. Every failure is explained away as some unique "challenging conventions and norms" as if that were a virtue in and of itself.