Where’s My Goddamn SONG?”: Digital Griots in FX’s Pose–09/18/2023

After reading Banks’ pieces from Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age I was interested in exploring Banks’ analysis of the DJ as a community figure. In terms of examples of this figure, it is funny to me to hear the DJ referred to as someone who “helps” the MC, amongst others (Scratch, 4). In the tradition of pageantry and “balls” during the eras explored in the TV show Pose and the documentary Paris is Burning, an event is going on that requires supervision and scripting, falling on an MC that acts as an orator while the DJ spins in a corner. 

When Banks gives a “less academic description of the DJ as digital griot,” he draws on the tensions between making money, supporting your community, while being an admired figure (Scratch, 3). He asks: 

“be the entrepreneur, work the club, the station, or both/all?“ and “do I use my craft to get the most money possible–is it really CREAM? Or do I keep pushing, looking for boundaries to break, continually searching for something new to connect with the old, for that old/new way to create another world, another universe, another text?” (Scratch, 5) 

An example of this tension is the character of Pray Tell from FX’s Pose, who is a judge and MC in the “ball” culture the show portrays. In episode 6, in a state of grief and drunkenness over the impending loss of his boyfriend, he begins telling the DJ to play only one song. This leads to a confrontation, in which he expresses the pressure he is under with “When I’m standing behind that podium, I’m the one that keeps the crowd hyped. I’m the one that makes sure that there’s a flow to the proceedings! If you don’t like the music I’m playing, don’t show up!…My life ain’t never been easy” (Love is the Message). As the episode progresses, we learn that this song was special to his relationship, and that his playing it repeatedly represents his grief. That “old/new world” Banks describes is present here in a tragic way, as he is living for a version of a community that no longer exists. [365] [JU-06]

[Banks, 2011] [Pose, 2018]

Details