Do the Chris Paul

As a fan of both Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets, I am enthusiastic about anything that keeps our team (likely) and our star point guard (less probable) here for many years to come. Alison Fensterstock, who writes about music for the Times Picayune and NOLA.com, posted a video of a song by Menace, a local bounce artist, celebrating Paul and his basketball stylings:

"Black and Gold (Who Dat!)", K. Gates’ remix of the Ying Yang Twins’ “Halftime (Stand Up And Get Crunk)” became New Orleans’ ubiquitous stadium during the Saints’ Super Bowl season last year. Now, local hip-hop artist Menace is hoping to work the same magic for New Orleans basketball via his upbeat dance track and ode to the Hornets’ star point guard, “Chris Paul’n (Do The Chris Paul.)” Watch the video below, or listen at nola.com/nolaradio.

 

The video, showing stills of Paul and people doing a dance that includes a sort of dribbling hand move, struck me as sweet and fairly innocuous. But a NOLA.com commenter took it as an opportunity to demonize all young black men who, to him, "all look the same":

rackem22 January 14, 2011 at 10:20AM

This is what is wrong with our city! A website that carries the news and important events is now promoting young THUGS. I think i saw the same young thug in the video that was arrested for the drive by shooting. I might be wrong because they all look the same. I must be out of the loop but siince when does dreadlocks make you the man. This websites should have more importants content then a bunch of our youth thinking they can rap and act like there dribbling a basketball. I wonder how many arrests thoose guys in the club pics have. This city needs work and this website is going the wrong way.

In a move that I haven't seen before on NOLA.com, Fensterstock, the piece's author, posted a reply:

 

Alison Fensterstock January 18, 2011 at 1:57PM

@rackem22: I won't pretend that plenty of rappers don't write lyrics about gun violence and drugs. But this guy's song is about... basketball.