MC Chris, Twitter and This Mike Taylor Guy… And How Can I Make This All About Me?
I’ll start by saying this. Your words have consequences. When you say shit people have the right to react to it and in some cases that means the people who you’re talking about or people close to them will let you know what’s up.
That’s the world we live in now. The world is a lot smaller and as a result we all have to pay for our actions. Sometimes that means getting called out for saying some snarky shit on the internet and it teaches not only you, but everyone you know a lesson.
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Let’s back up a bit and see if I can help clear all this up as quickly as possible.
MC Chris (long time nerd-core rapper famous for underground hits like “Fett’s Vette” is having a show in which his opener, Richie Branson (also a nerd core rapper who has a bit of a parody song based around 99 problems from the perspective of Lando Calrisian), is criticized on twitter by a blogger nobody has heard of named Mike Taylor. That’s not a jab at Mike, but rather a fact. Nobody knows who he is.
Mike tweets out
Dear nerd rapper opening for Powerglove/mc chris. You’re not good enough to pander to me. Better luck next time.
MC Chris is apparently in the green room, calls this kid out on his shit and kicks him out of the venue for it.
Two things here: Neither person is in the right, but MC Chris, because he’s a public figure who people know is being bashed all over the internet. Reddit trashes him non-stop, people are interviewing this Mike kid and MC Chris and frankly neither of them look great.
But at the same time what reaction is the proper one? Do you keep it on Twitter? Is it ok to call out Mike but not kick him out of the venue? Should you be held accountable for your actions on the internet or are we supposed to believe it doesn’t count because it’s online?
I’ll talk from my own experience for a second here. There are people I dislike and that put on events or work in areas that I respect and want to experience. They’re one part of a much larger machine and because of that I have to be aware of the words I use because that larger machine may be closed off to me if I don’t keep my criticism to a minimal amount.
One such example is my criticism of a voice actor by the name of Carlos Ferro who makes himself very accessible to the general gaming public. I’ve done podcasts where I tell stories about how this guy acts and how I generally dislike his personality. How he plays up the fact the he’s two major characters in two major game franchises (both of which he’s no-longer a part of because his character is either dead or the story has since moved on… but that’s not the point). The point is that I met Carlos at a few different parties back during E3 2010. One was a gamer’s gone wild party where I also got to hang out with incredibly cool people who were gracious for their level of celebrity and who I knew immediately upon seeing them and then there was Carlos who was the special guest of honor.
Now at this gamer’s gone wild party (which I can’t praise enough because it was a REALLY REALLY good time) I didn’t really get to meet Carlos, but I met him enough that he remembered me later on in the week when we met at a warehouse party. he was there with one of his friends and this pretty attractive girl.
I don’t know if it was intoxication or what but Carlos was really putting on this sexist flair about how this girl looked and was openly talking about how she was basically a piece of candy for us all to admire that did nothing more than raise his persona. In other words almost everything about her was dehumanizing and bordered on “Look at this chick. This is the kind of girl I can get with so you should be impressed with me as a person.” It wasn’t working.
I used the rest of the evening to inquire about his career since he had worked with voice actors that I actually like, respect and who I’d met before when I had tried to get voice work. I wanted stories and Carlos is, to be fair, a pretty good story teller. This included stories where he threw John Di Maggio and others under the bus in order for a laugh to try and impress myself and people who were with me. It didn’t work.
Months later I’d bump into him online again and I’d be called out on shit I said about him, calling him an ass for making a drink named after himself (I think I’ll name a sammich after myself as soon as I’m done writing this).
The embarrassment factor hit, but obviously not enough that I’m ashamed to write about it. Two things were brought to mind. I’m a nobody blogger who called him an ass and he took the time to find what I said about him through what must have been a very precise set of google searches because when I tried to figure out how he found it, it took a while.
BUT I have to deal with that. I have to deal with the fact that some one who’s work I admire, dislikes me. He won’t ever talk to me again and if he’s ever at a party I want to go to, and he recognizes, there’s a chance I may be asked to leave, despite the fact that I know the guy who’s throwing the parties.
I’m ok with that. It’s a consequence that I’ll have to deal with in life. There are others that I’m much more worried about, one that is exceedingly becoming real in the coming days. I may have pissed some one off to a point that I don’t get into a film festival I love going to every year. If that’s the case then I’ll be incredibly sad.
Bottom line. Our words count. Doesn’t matter who you are, when you put something out there, be aware that even the most popular celebrities may be googling themselves. Hell Aziz Ansari is on one of the most popular shows in the world right now, is one of the biggest comics, had a HUGE special in the past few months AND he has multiple jokes about googling himself. (What’s up Aziz!)
Think before you hit “POST”
As for today… the internet is mean… it’s obvious. MC Chris put himself out there in an incredibly honest way and people are still beating him up. It’s actually nobody’s business but here we all are, talking about it. I hope the rest of Chris’ tour goes well, I like Richie Branson and what the fuck is a Game-Boat?
