Sketches of My Culture

Dr. Cornel West | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 25, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Artemis Records
• ASIN: B00005OC67
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,967 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Journey

2. Stolen King

3. Elevate Your View

4. 3Ms

5. Frontline

6. N-Word

7. Reflections (interlude)

8. 70's Song (with Haskell Jackson Jr.)

9. Finale

10. Automobile (outtro)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shoemaker, stick to your last., November 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Sketches of My Culture (Audio CD)

Lord but this is an embarrassing production. Leonard Nimoy albums manifest more soul than this excruciating vanity project. At its best, the "music" here soars to the level of an uplifting jingle in a pharmaceutical ad. The spoken word content consists of a steady drone of Cornel's nebulous after-school-special pieties, leavened with the odd statistic. I'm giving copies away as stocking stuffers this Christmas to my academic friends.

30 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please, please, please, June 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Sketches of My Culture (Audio CD)

On page 87 of The Cornel West Reader, Dr. West explains that he and W.E.B. Dubois "are birds of a very different feather." How so? Well, it seems that West is "much closer (and proudly so) to the funk of a James Brown or George Clinton, the soul of a Curtis Mayfield, Richard Pryor or Aretha Franklin than [Dubois)."

This would seem to be an unseemly way of talking about oneself. Surely it is a task to be left to someone other than Cornel West to remark upon his resemblance to James Brown and Aretha Franklin. (This is comparable in its shamelessness to Camille Paglia's habit of blathering about how brilliant she is. That's simply not for you to say, dear. If you demonstrate the trait, then the world will notice. )

A thought experiment: Suppose some white academic offered a parallel explanation of the differences between himself and Richard Hofstader (R.I.P.) "I am much closer to the blistering surf guitar pyrotechnics of Dick Dale, the ethereal harmonies of Brian Wilson, and the rhythmic thunder of Led Zeppelin drummer John 'Bonzo' Bonham than Hofstader." I dare say that the author of such a statement would be written off as a flake, and rightly so.

Anyway, West has been flogging these absurd comparisons of himself to musicians for years now. So here we finally have a chance to evaluate directly the validity of his claims to James Brown-like super-soulfulness .

Well, Dr. West, I knew James Brown. James Brown was a friend of mine. And you, sir, are no James Brown.

19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sketchy is as sketchy does., April 9, 2002

By 

Lord Drywall (Park Ridge, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sketches of My Culture (Audio CD)

This is an utterly inexplicable thing. It will provoke disbelief. Confound your friends with it.