Integrity

Integrity. Some people have it. Others don’t. But more importantly, there is the select group of people who used to have integrity. Sure there are the obvious ones: Green Day, Weezer, hell maybe even John Lennon. But we here at the Circular Narrative are here to bring you a list of artists who the average layman would assume to still have integrity. In other words, we’re goin’ Holden Caufield on yo asses and calling out the phonies (man, I remember when J.D. Salinger had integrity…)

Gene:

Wale

Wale’s story is an incredibly tragic one because the dude was killin’ it on a regular basis a couple years ago. His remix of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E” was absolutely sick and his Seinfeld themed mixtape “The Mixtape About Nothing” was chock full of great tunes. However, like many before him, he blew it. The ridiculous amount of integrity that he had accrued all went out the window when he signed to Interscope and released the piece of crap that was his album “Attention: Deficit”. It seems that nobody knows it as well as he does, but his legitimacy is all but gone. It sucks because I’m a huge fan of his mixtapes, and to Wale’s credit his most recent release, another Seinfeld mixtape, is solid. Sadly, a lot of the damage was done when he agreed to let Interscope guide the release of his debut album.

Los Campesinos

Rather than being a statement on their entire existence as a band, Los Campesinos! loss of integrity came in the form of one incident. No one can be sure how it happened (at least no one who writes for the Circular Narrative) but one way or another this hip little group of rockers got in cahoots with Budweiser. Yeah, that Budweiser. Just like that their best known song (“You! Me! Dancing!”) was playing over images of wheat fields and hops (what the hell are hops anyways?) There is some added irony in the fact that Los Campesinos! are from Wales and Budweiser is an aggressively patriotic brand. I can’t imagine all the football and American falg images go over very well with their hometown fans.

Public Enemy (actually just Flava Flav)

It’s really hard to imagine that the dude who wears a viking helmet on MTV while girls fight to have him offer them a gold clock was ever a part of a controversial rap group who penned the song “Fight the Power”. While Chuck D used his success with the PE to score jobs doing video game voice-overs and involving himself in politics, Flava Flav was too busy lending his face to all that is ridiculous about reality TV. Separate vocations I guess.

Radiohead

Yeah, that’s right, I’m callin' bullshit on their whole “pay what you want” scheme. I’m onto them. They saw how successful Kid A and OK Computer were, then they realized that In Rainbows was just good and not mind-blowingly good, so they chose to avoid the obvious monetary comparisons. If everyone’s gettin’ it for free, how are we supposed to tell whether they’re gaining or losing popularity. This the ultimate sacrifice of integrity because they refuse to be judged. I remember when Radiohead wasn’t afraid of economic crises.

DH:

Ludacris

Luda may still have hoes in various area codes, but after appearing on Justin Beiber’s teenie-boppin’ smash, “Baby,” one might question the age of said hoes. In addition to appearing on the most obnoxious song of the year, Luda also appeared on Taio Cruz’s “Break Your Heart,” also known as, “That song that isn’t ‘Dynamite’”. Add to that his acting endeavors (killed it in “2 Fast 2 Furious”, dude!) and we have one sad tale of integrity-loss.

The Roots

Now, my co-writer will strongly contest this pick, but it is something that must be said. The Roots went from an organic, groundbreaking, counter-culture movement of a band to the backing band for “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.” And if you don’t think that the two are mutually exclusive, then you are clearly part of the problem. Additionally, while ?uestlove is still the man, artists such as Ke$ha and Curren$y have ruined the integrity of spelling names with symbols.

Four Loko

My relationship with 4loko is more tumultuous than my relationship with my ex-girlfriend (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSWWsadXzq8). But despite our great times and long nights together, The ‘Loko has become an overused punch line. Especially now with rumors that it may be re-released without its signature caffeine/ginsing kick in the gonads, I am left to shake my head and wonder how I will be able to get blackout next Saturday for under five dollars.