Kelefa Sanneh

Kelefa 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".

Early Life

Sanneh was born in Birmingham, England, UK, and spent his early years in Ghana and Scotland, before his family moved to Massachusetts in 1981, then Connecticut in 1989. [ [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/october/35.112.html Christianity Today] ] His father, Lamin Sanneh, was born to a royal family in Gambia and is now D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity and professor of history at Yale Divinity School. [ [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/october/35.112.html Christianity Today] ] Kelefa's mother, Sandra, is a white South African linguist who teaches the isiZulu language at Yale [ [http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=4889 Yale Herald] ] .

Sanneh graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1993, and Harvard University in 1997. While at Harvard he served as rock director for WHRB's The Record Hospital [ [http://www.lawweekly.org/pdf_archives/040502.pdf L.A. Weekly] ] and played bass in the bands Hypertrophie Shitstraw and MOPAR [ [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=233680 The Harvard Crimson] ] . He now lives in Brooklyn.

Career

Sanneh garnered considerable publicity for an article he wrote in the October 31, 2004, issue of the "The New York Times" titled "The Rap against Rockism." [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/arts/music/31sann.html The New York Times > Arts > Music > 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.

"Project Trinity"

Sanneh wrote the high-profile " [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/07/080407fa_fact_sanneh Project Trinity] ," which appeared in "The New Yorker'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.

References