I just got back from this venue. The band known as Black Pussy quite thoroughly rocked the house tonight at Cloud 9.
I'm blogging about this because of the controversy surrounding this band. I'll elaborate on that here for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know. You see, they were originally supposed to perform at a bar called The Exchange. However, the management there had second thoughts about and made the following statement about it:
Yep, they actually said that. In a truly free society, NOTHING supersedes anybody's artistic freedom ESPECIALLY someone or some group's objection to that artistry. The Exchange really dropped the ball with their attempt at virtue signalling and their sudden puritanical attitude. Thankfully, Cloud 9 has the open mind to pick up that fumbled ball and do the decent thing.
But they're not the only ones who have strong objections to the band's name. Here's Black Pussy's lead singer Dustin Hill defending the band's name to a crowd of angry people.
Ok, no. This is not appropriation. Black women did not en masse go to the "Cultural Patent Office" and all chip in to pay for trademarking their genitals. The band's members Dustin Hill, Adam Pike, Ryan Mcintire, and Chief O'Dell have every right to call themselves Black Pussy.
According to legend, the band got their name from a Rolling Stones song. The song Brown Sugar was originally going to be called "Black Pussy". Then someone in a suit at the record company considered that to be too much, so Mick and the boys had to change it to the more mentally digestible Brown Sugar. It looks as though naming their band Black Pussy was their way of both correcting that bit of unfortunate bit of censorship from the past and firmly establishing that they will not be censored either. If anyone tells Black Pussy to change their name to "something less provocative that my grandchildren can enjoy" they will of course respond to that with a resounding NOOOOOOOOO followed by the displaying of 1 out of 5 fingers, the gluteal muscles, and several minutes of pantomiming the more intricate positions of the Kama Sutra.
For anyone who's coming here to say "oh well you're not black or a woman so of course you're not offended blah blah chu chu", none of that matters. If, say, for equality's sake, there was a gangsta rap group that "appropriated" white culture by calling themselves "Droopy Little White Penises That Just Came Out Of The Pool", I would be more than fine with that.
It's dope, dog. For all the shizilz. |
So to anyone who, after reading this, STILL has a conscientious objection to this band's name you are beneath contempt and should really just stop experiencing art in any form altogether because your brain is obviously not developed enough to handle it.
For those of you good people who are capable of appreciating art in any form (like music as an example) then I have embedded a Black Pussy performance below. Enjoy them in all of their glory.