Kelefa Sanneh
Encyclopedia
Kelefa T. Sanneh is an American
journalist
and music critic. From 2000 to 2008, he wrote for the New York Times, covering the rock 'n' roll, hip-hop
, and pop music
scenes. He now writes about culture for The New Yorker
.
, West Midlands
, England
, and spent his early years in Ghana
and Scotland
, before his family moved to Massachusetts
in 1981, then to Connecticut
in 1989. His father, Lamin Sanneh
, was born in Janjanbureh, Gambia and is now D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity and professor of history at Yale Divinity School
. Kelefa's mother, Sandra, is a white South African linguist who teaches the isiZulu language at Yale.
Sanneh graduated from Harvard University
in 1997 with a degree in literature. While at Harvard he served as rock director for WHRB
's Record Hospital
and played bass in the bands Hypertrophie Shitstraw and MOPAR. He now lives in Brooklyn
.
titled "The Rap against Rockism." The article brought to light to the general public a debate among American and British music critics about rockism
, a term Sanneh defined inductively to mean "idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video; extolling the growling performer while hating the lip-syncher." In the essay, Sanneh further asks music listeners to "stop pretending that serious rock songs will last forever, as if anything could, and that shiny pop songs are inherently disposable, as if that were necessarily a bad thing. Van Morrison's 'Into the Music
' was released the same year as the Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight
'; which do you hear more often?"
Before covering music for the Times, he was the deputy editor of Transition, a journal of race and culture, based at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research
, at Harvard University.
His writing has also appeared in The Source; Rolling Stone; Blender; the Village Voice; Man’s World (“India’s classiest men’s magazine”); “Da Capo Best Music Writing” in 2002, 2005, and 2007; and newspapers around the world.
In 2008, he left The New York Times to join The New Yorker
as a staff writer. Sanneh's New Yorker profile on syndicated radio host Michael Savage
was published in August 2009. Eric Boehlert of Media Matters for America
criticized the article as it "mostly set aside the host's nasty streak and suggested instead that the paranoid, gay-hating, xenophobic talk show host was really just misunderstood."
's April 7, 2008, edition, to give context to the controversial comments of Reverend Jeremiah Wright
, who was Barack Obama
's pastor. The article provides a historical context of the Trinity United Church of Christ
, Obama's church, and to Wright, the former pastor of Trinity.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and music critic. From 2000 to 2008, he wrote for the New York Times, covering the rock 'n' roll, hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, and pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
scenes. He now writes about culture for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
Early life
Sanneh was born in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and spent his early years in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, before his family moved to Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
in 1981, then to Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
in 1989. His father, Lamin Sanneh
Lamin Sanneh
Lamin Sanneh is currently the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity and Professor of History at Yale Divinity School.-Life and work:...
, was born in Janjanbureh, Gambia and is now D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity and professor of history at Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
. Kelefa's mother, Sandra, is a white South African linguist who teaches the isiZulu language at Yale.
Sanneh graduated from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1997 with a degree in literature. While at Harvard he served as rock director for WHRB
WHRB
WHRB is a commercial FM radio station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It broadcasts at 95.3 MHz and is operated by students at Harvard College.-History:...
's Record Hospital
Record Hospital
Record Hospital is the underground rock department on the Boston-area radio station, WHRB 95.3 FM. Harvard undergraduates and alums serve as the department's DJs and hold administrative positions within the department such as Music Director. "Departments" at WHRB refer to a group of members who...
and played bass in the bands Hypertrophie Shitstraw and MOPAR. He now lives in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Career
Sanneh garnered considerable publicity for an article he wrote in the October 31, 2004, issue of The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
titled "The Rap against Rockism." The article brought to light to the general public a debate among American and British music critics about rockism
Rockism
Rockism is a derogatory term referring to perceived biases in popular music criticism. It was popularized by New York Times critic Kelefa Sennneh in 2004 in an influential article. The term was coined by Pete Wylie with a variant meaning and used by "one or two" critics in the British music press...
, a term Sanneh defined inductively to mean "idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video; extolling the growling performer while hating the lip-syncher." In the essay, Sanneh further asks music listeners to "stop pretending that serious rock songs will last forever, as if anything could, and that shiny pop songs are inherently disposable, as if that were necessarily a bad thing. Van Morrison's 'Into the Music
Into the Music
Into the Music is the eleventh studio album by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1979 .Typical of Morrison's music, the album draws on a variety of styles, from New Orleans R&B to Philly soul and Celtic folk, with featured soloists, saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and violinist...
' was released the same year as the Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight
Rapper's Delight
"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song's opening lyric "I said a hip hop, a...
'; which do you hear more often?"
Before covering music for the Times, he was the deputy editor of Transition, a journal of race and culture, based at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research
W. E. B. Du Bois Institute
The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research is located at Harvard University and was established in 1969. It is named after W. E. B. Du Bois who was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University...
, at Harvard University.
His writing has also appeared in The Source; Rolling Stone; Blender; the Village Voice; Man’s World (“India’s classiest men’s magazine”); “Da Capo Best Music Writing” in 2002, 2005, and 2007; and newspapers around the world.
In 2008, he left The New York Times to join The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
as a staff writer. Sanneh's New Yorker profile on syndicated radio host Michael Savage
Michael Savage (commentator)
Michael Savage is a conservative American radio host, author, and political commentator. He is the host of The Savage Nation, a nationally syndicated talk show that airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...
was published in August 2009. Eric Boehlert of Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America is a politically progressive media watchdog group which says it is "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Set up as a 501 non-profit organization, MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and...
criticized the article as it "mostly set aside the host's nasty streak and suggested instead that the paranoid, gay-hating, xenophobic talk show host was really just misunderstood."
"Project Trinity"
Sanneh wrote the high-profile "Project Trinity," which appeared in The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
's April 7, 2008, edition, to give context to the controversial comments of Reverend Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr. is Pastor Emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ , a megachurch in Chicago exceeding 6,000 members...
, who was Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's pastor. The article provides a historical context of the Trinity United Church of Christ
Trinity United Church of Christ
Trinity United Church of Christ is a predominantly black church with more than 8,500 members, located on the southwest side of Chicago. It is the largest church affiliated with the United Church of Christ, a predominantly white Christian denomination with roots in Congregationalism, which branched...
, Obama's church, and to Wright, the former pastor of Trinity.
External links
- Column archive at The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
- Column archive at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Reviews "Fringe"Fringe (TV series)Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
and "The MentalistThe MentalistThe Mentalist is an American police procedural television series which debuted on September 23, 2008, on CBS. The show was created by Bruno Heller, who is also the show's executive producer...
".