In the field of pop culture there are few truly relevant one name wonders. Nevertheless, Touré, a newlywed with metrosexual flavor, sporting a coiffed 'fro reminiscent of Huey Freeman from the comic strip The Boondocks, has swiftly moved to the forefront of the pop-punditry brigade. A regular contributor to Rolling Stone and long known as CNN's first pop culture correspondent, he is presently wearing a variety of hats over at the cable network BET. Eminem, Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Kanye West and 50 Cent, Touré has schmoozed with them all. The author of three books, The Portable Promised Land (Little, Brown & Company, 2003), Soul City (Picador, 2004) and Never Drank The Kool-Aid (Picador, 2006), even Touré's voicemail asserts a kind of irreverent wit: "This is Touré, please leave a message unless you're part of the conspiracy against me!"
Your latest book is entitled, Never Drank The Kool-Aid. Are there any intersections between your books and your more well-known television work?
A lot of people come up to me on the street like, "I disagree with what you said about Tupac, about Michael Jackson, about Mary J. Blige?" But there's a clear level of respect, given that they want to have a discourse with me about it. As opposed to other people that you might see on television like Tucker Carlson, who's so disgusting that I don't even want to talk to him.
For two years you claimed the title of the first pop culture correspondent at CNN. Why did you leave to go to BET?
Well, to keep it real, it was not my decision (laughs). My job at CNN was eliminated. Is it a step up, or a step down? Other people have brought that up. Certainly, BET is not yet as sophisticated as CNN. CNN is one of the most sophisticated news media operations in the world, and BET news is slowly growing into that. When I was at CNN, I was one of the smallest of small fish. I was relatively inexperienced compared to all the other people on the air. And I was covering entertainment, which was considered by the executives and the higher producers as lesser work (assuming the voice of a stodgy executive): "You know, that's not the meat of what we do here. We cover news. We cover real things. You're just doing pop culture?" So flip over to BET, now I'm kind of the big fish. But I still want to cover those pop culture entertainment moments.
You're Mr. Ivy League, a Boston boy now living in Brooklyn with a certain public image. At this point in your life, do you consider yourself more yuppie or more b-boy?
It's interesting that you posed this. Did you read the story in New York magazine on grups ("Up With Grups," New York, April 3, 2006)? It's fascinating. It's a cover story that talks about people past 30, maybe even around 40, who are still interested in pop music, the latest rock groups, iPods and wearing jeans and sneakers. Their kids even listen to the same music as them.
I certainly don't think that I'm a b-boy. I think I'm definitely a grup. Be it 35 and still wearing jeans, only owning two suits, hardly any ties and wearing sneakers?It's interesting, because in the New York magazine story there was no expectation or even consideration that the grup may be interested in urban culture.
All the examples dealt with white culture. The grup listens to Death Cab For Cutie and The Chemical Brothers, all these white bands that I don't even listen to. I don't think it needs to be racialized. Whatever, I'm a 35-year-old guy who thinks Papoose and Saigon are the next shit. You know? What's really good with the new Green Lantern mix tape? I just got my wife three pairs of sneakers and myself a pair of Rogan jeans that I wear everyday. I mean, am I really 35?