Gentrification

Critics of gentrification in Chicago will be happy to know that the South Side is still enough of a ghetto to have notoriety in popular music.  While the latest homage is no "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," Alec Brandon--my informant on all cultural and economic affairs in this world--recently informed me of Kanye West's new song and music video, "The Corner", about the life of drug dealing and related violence on the streets.  For rap, it's actually not such a bad song, surprisingly.  The CTA green line is featured often, including some shots of stations somewhere between the 55th and 35th street stations, there is a reference to "the stories told by Stony and Cottage Grove" (two streets which I live between), and some nice shots of Washington Park in the end.  The funny thing is that Chicago really does look that depressing in the winter.