Ms. Peachez

Occasionally, I'll go to a bookstore and pick up indie magazines with interesting cover stories.  Sometimes out of boredom, sometimes because a cover story catches my eye, and sometimes I just can't find anything interesting on the mainstream shelf.  A couple of days ago, wandering around Borders before I had to be at a rehearsal, I found a magazine called Utne Reader.  It is sort of a reader's digest, that culls forward thinking articles from many different sources.  After reading some thought-provoking articles on the dangers of patriotism, I came to the arts and media section. 

In this media section, I read an article by Ben Westhoff (from The Oxford American) about a novelty rap act called Ms. Peachez.  (I don't know why these kinds of things intrigue me, they just do.)  The first couple of paragraphs describe a music video from 2006 called Fry That Chicken.  I love Westhoff's comment that the song and video are "so dumb it's genius", because I think he's right.  The video is clearly low-budget, with a mannish-looking woman rapping at the camera about her fried chicken, while a whole crew of kids beat on the table, eat fried chicken, demanding that she "Fry that chicken!"  Naturally, I immediately looked for it on YouTube.

The article discusses the different styles of rap music, and Southern rap music, in particular.  I had no idea this kind of distinction existed, but I suppose that it makes sense.  There is Southern rock and Southern blues.  Ms. Peachez's videos (she made two more, and none since then) are contoversial because they appear to be dripping with stereotypical devices.  However, the author of the article explains how he tried to track down Ms. Peachez to get more information.  He found "her" living in Shreveport, Louisiana, by the name of Nelson Boyd.  The Peachez character was originally made for advertising spots and eventually it was decided that Ms. Peachez should rap, too.  According to Rico Da Body, (who wrote the song and helped to produce it), all he was trying to do was to "show what normal people do in everyday life.  We fry chicken.  The video didn't have no rims, no cars, no lies. Just the truth."  Which means the video was only accidentally offensive, if people chose to be offended by it.

Sometimes, a song is just a song.

The article can be found in the July-August 2011 Utne Reader, No. 166, pages 80-83.  Finger-Licken' Rap.  By Ben Westhoff.