Full marks to VH1 this week. Last Thursday’s Bling’d: Blood, Diamonds and Hip-Hop was billed as a “rock doc,” and the concept was straight celebreality: send a bunch of bling-deranged rap stars (Raekwon, Paul Wall, Tego Calderón) to Sierra Leone to find out where their diamonds come from. But the 90 minutes of Bling’d were anything but frivolous.
The heart of the show was Raekwon, whose roly-poly high spirits at the beginning of the trip quickly slowed to a pained solemnity as he got acquainted with the diamond industry and its victims. Outside Freetown the rappers visited a resettlement camp for children and adults mutilated during Sierra Leone’s eight-year civil war, and Raekwon, warned by guide Gavin Simpson that he would be encountering people who were missing “hands, limbs, lips,” found himself unable to get off the bus: “Word, I don’t really feel like going to see that, yo. Honestly.”
Simpson, a Scotsman, was taking no shit. “These are real people,” he told the rapper. “Now they’re trying to rebuild their lives, and it’s a chance for you to draw from that strength and that resolve and show that you too are standing up for what’s right. That’s what this trip is all about.” Raekwon blinked: “I can dig it, I can dig it, you know? It’s just overall — it’s just sad to see somebody like that, man. My heart, my heart is where it’s supposed to be, for the people, but you’ve gotta understand, there’s certain things . . . It just hurts you.” “Yeah, but you’ve gotta see it for yourself,” insisted Simpson. “We need to be there for them. When you get home, these are the moments that are going to mean a lot to you in your quiet time.” Raekwon endured these remonstrations, a towel round his neck, lumpish and stubborn with misery: “All right, I’m comin’,” he murmured finally.
Next week: I consider the Brit rockumentary Stalking Pete Doherty, in which producer Max Carlish falls horribly in love with his subject, and settle down for the final of Nashville Star 5. Stay tuned.
