Apple might be unfairly painted as an aging company run by middle-aged white dudes with “dad dancing” moves, but it’s certainly not shying away from controversial characters.
Cupertino’s roster today includes employees like Dr. Dre — a man who was the epitome of gangsta rap before becoming “hip-hop’s first billionaire” — and Trent Reznor, aka the singer who once made public his desire to, erm, sleep with you in an animalistic fashion.
It’s a safe bet that Apple wants to be down with the kids, but this controversy-seeking behavior comes with a fair share of risk. And it’s only going to be a matter of time before Apple is hit by it.
Plagiarism on Beats 1
You may well have heard of one of Apple’s newest signings. The Fat Jew, also known as 30-year-old Josh Ostrovsky, is the new host of a show on Beats 1, Apple’s streaming radio station.
On paper, Ostrovsky is everything you’d want from a DJ. He’s (relatively) young, massively tapped into the social media scene, and capable of generating tons of publicity.
Good, right?
Not so much. Ostrovsky is at the heart of a growing backlash, with critics arguing that he is a plagiarist. Comedians and writers have noted hundreds of occasions on which Ostrovsky has stolen jokes without credit, posting them to Twitter and Instagram with the help of an army of unnamed volunteers — and rarely acknowledging where they came from. When he is called out, he claims to have been told the joke by a friend.
“His Beats 1 show is entertaining, but that doesn’t matter,” wrote Mic Wright in a recent article for TheNextWeb. “He got the job by standing on the shoulders of others. No, scratch that, not their shoulders but their heads. He has clambered to prominence by stealing other people’s work.”
Wright ends his article by pleading, “Please Tim Cook, boot [Ostrovsky] from Beats 1 now.”
By misdemeanor standards, Ostrovsky’s sins are fairly minor. But they got me thinking about a larger question concerning Apple.
The changing face of Apple
Since virtually the start of the company, Steve Jobs was the sole face Apple. Jobs alone appeared onstage when Apple introduced many of its most iconic products, and the contributions of people like Jony Ive and countless others were often underplayed to fit a streamlined narrative. You can argue that Jobs behaved as he did out of egotism, but a far more convincing reason is that he did it so he could more totally control everything about Apple’s identity.
Since Jobs passed away in 2011 — and particularly since Apple acquired Beats Electronics for $3 billion in 2014 — his former company’s ranks have swolled with a growing number of attention-grabbing figures.
Dr. Dre, for instance, recently debuted his first album in 16 years as an exclusive on Apple Music, and also hosts the regular Beats 1 show The Pharmacy.
Dre is hip-hop royalty, but his past (currently told in whitewashed fashion in the movie Straight Outta Compton) contains plenty of controversy. The most notable incident was when he beat up Dee Barnes, who Dre admitted to assaulting in the early 1990s.
“I just threw her through a door,” Dre told Rolling Stone magazine later.
Instances of spousal abuse against a former girlfriend, Michel’le, have also been alleged, and Dre issued an apology to Friday to all the women he’s “hurt” over the years. Apple followed up with a statement saying Dre has clearly changed.
The recent influx of controversial characters to promote Apple’s services isn’t totally new. Back in 1995 — when Jobs was busy running NeXT and Apple was working its way into bankruptcy — the company made the decision to run a series of ads entitled “Power Is” that featured the likes of Malcolm X and Hunter S. Thompson. According to legend, gonzo journalist Thompson later blew his complimentary Macintosh to kingdom come with a shotgun and sent it back to Cupertino.
Apple the media company
Needless to say, Apple is in a very different boat today than it was in 1995. Not only has it gone from a company desperate to scare up attention to one that has its pick of media outlets, but we are also in the age of social media and all that entails.
Perhaps the key difference is that Apple increasingly plays the role of content creator. “We don’t own media,” Jobs said in a disastrous 2003 interview with Esquire, which he ended early after not liking the way it was going. “We don’t own music. We don’t own films or television. We’re not a media company. We’re just Apple.”
Jobs’ contention that Apple isn’t a media company doesn’t hold up today. In addition to the hours of content produced for Beats 1 (and perhaps more stations coming soon), Apple produces its own ads and its own music videos. These days, Apple-affiliated artists perform at Apple-branded concerts, such as the upcoming Apple Music Festival.
In a recent interview, Apple Music honcho Jimmy Iovine hinted that Apple might take some of the curation and content-creation lessons it’s learned from Apple Music and apply them to its rebranded TV offering — perhaps hinting at Amazon- or Netflix-style original shows.
With this shift, the challenge for Apple is that the content it puts out does, by virtue of having Apple’s name attached, bears its tacit approval.
This argument made Apple behave conservatively in the early days of the App Store — booting out apps that it felt harmed its family-friendly image. “Since Apple … is selling its stuff in its stores, and taking a cut, it must take responsibility for the products, and their effect on its brand,” wrote tech pioneer Jaron Lanier in his book You Are Not a Gadget.
Other tech companies entering the entertainment field are also making efforts to stand out by championing controversial projects. For instance, Amazon’s new TV and film division, Amazon Studios, recently picked up Spike Lee’s controversial Chi-Raq as its first original movie. The film, which is about rising levels of inner-city violence in Chicago, has already faced a backlash — much of it based on its name alone.
Paying the cost for being the boss
The difference with Apple is that its unique position puts it in a tough spot.
Apple isn’t just the world’s most valuable tech company: It has explicitly marketed itself as one that wants to be a “force for good” around the world. Under Tim Cook, Apple has allied itself with LGBT rights, environmental issues and any number of social and economic causes.
Just looking at the headlines generated when Siri appeared to take an anti-abortion stance gives some illustration of how people will jump on any Apple-related product if they believe it portrays the company’s official stance on a topic.
So far, everyone involved with Beats 1 has been on their best behavior. The service is still new and, understandably, has the company’s full attention. Influential bloggers have spoken out against Apple Music, and the last thing the company needs is someone saying something controversial on air that could drive away listeners from the fledgling service.
Inevitably, Apple’s new position as a content maker — particularly one in which some of the creative decisions are being made by people with past histories of stirring up controversy — means it is only so long before someone takes offense at something.
And when that happens, it’s going to be fascinating to see how Apple reacts.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
25 responses to “Apple’s grab for street cred could bite it in the ass”
Apple’s image is tarnished by its association with thugs and idiots.
But…it’s true…..
And others aren’t?
I never said others weren’t
“He got the job by standing on the shoulders of others. No, scratch that, not their shoulders but their heads. He has clambered to prominence by stealing other people’s work.”
This is the very definition of pop music and pop culture. It’s not creative invention, it’s all about appropriation.
what a bunch of bull shit!
If this is all the case, then it’s simple:
Apple shouldn’t align itself with the music industry. Period.
Sounds unreasonable, don’t you think? Well, with the number of times I’ve heard people in communities that me and my siblings sometimes listen to talk about how “this artist is a devil-worshipper” and “that artist is only successful because they’re part of the illuminati” and “that band’s song is a devil-chanting song when playing it backwards”, it seems that the music industry is completely evil (since almost literally EVERY artist and band has SOME kind of evil past or some kind of conspiracy (and if there is one that doesn’t have one, then oh, trust me: they will (it’s somewhat how the industry works sometimes) and it means that Apple shouldn’t even sell or have anything to do with it. It means Steve Jobs should have made something else other than the iPod to save Apple.
… that is blatantly stupid, idiotic, and down-right wrong. Here’s the only reason why this is being brought up now: hatred of Apple. Ever since… it’s inspection, whether they were the underdog in the ’70s and ’80s to when they were almost dead in the ’90s to their comeback in the ’00s to their massive success in the ’10s, we’ve always seen large pockets of people just not liking this company. Their can be absolutely various reasons why but most of them are unwarranted. Apple isn’t perfect, but the way things go around the world, they want to see Apple’s demise so badly. So what do they do? They do whatever it takes. This whole foolishness is just the latest in the hate campaign. I’m not saying that the author is hating on Apple, nor is this article is hating on Apple. BUT this article is showing and indirectly highlighting how ridiculous this society has become. Yes: artists have done ridiculous things and that’s bad, but here’s the thing: ALL artists do ridiculous things and that’s bad, so booting people off Beats 1 isn’t going to help with anything (people will find a “moral” or “legal” problem with the replacement and the cycle will continue, and will be boosted by the Apple hate).
The childish behaviour that is the Apple hating is so unprecedented, it’s almost amazing how many people come to together to want to see this company dead. It’s like, in order for the world to achieve world peace, Apple needs to disappear (it’s truly come down to this point: I’m not kidding.
Geez. IT’S JUST A COMPANY! (I know people are going to say that to me since it looks like I’m defending Apple. Dude, if I was defending Apple, I wouldn’t say that they have flaws and some of their hate are warranted, so just don’t.)
I think you are referring to more of the “popular music” world than you are the entire music industry. You rarely hear of jazz or classical musicians/bands getting into any serious trouble since they typically don’t abuse drugs/alcohol or involve themselves with ultra immature people that probably shouldn’t be in the industry in the first place.
This is truly sad. We have the world, literally the world at our fingertips but some people don’t even bother using the power of the internet so they’d rather spout off some of the grandest stupidity just to sound smart when they’re just the opposite.
Here’s a short list of both jazz and, GASP, classical musicians who used drugs.
JAZZ:
Dizzy Gillespie
Lester Young
Charlie Parker
CLASSICAL:
Shumann
Stravinsky
Bernstein
Even Mozart was a known alcoholic. But let me guess, you only associate drug use and “thuggery” to rap music I bet.
YES.
Because, STUPID (and I’m calling you that because people like you pisss me the heck off), no Jazz artist, or Mozart were in involved in criminal street gang culture. I’m open to a Jazz artist(s) that was, please let me know and I’ll stand corrected.
There’s a difference.
Yes, there was drug usage in the Jazz world, sure… but they managed to keep it together interns of their positive contributions to American culture and society at large. Jazz healed and elevated their people, versus THUGGERY which introduced an oppressive admiration and appropriation of a criminal sub culture who’s values and characteristics are all about urban terrorism, street crime, misogyny, drug dealing of even more detrimental drugs, laggard creating pot heads, drive by shootings which have destroyed countless lives and babies, children have even gotten caught in the crossfire or drive by shootings related to GANG THUG criminality.
What, did we forget that? Apparently you’re one of the one’s that bought into that as representative of the Black experience. It’s a shame. I’m not telling you should be ‘white’ or Mr. Perfect but ffckdkgn reach for the best of your people. I bet you don’t stand up for the Ben Carson’s in the world.
And another thing, and I know this because I grew up around street gangs and know them very well, you’re POINTING at others is typical of being caught in or put in a tight spot when faced with the truth. You do exactly what gangs and thugs do – YOU DEFLECT AND POINT AT OTHERS. Why? Because you feel their being…”attacked” and since you bought into that, you have to immediately point out the other negative qualities of other times… OUT of context.
Never fails. I see this all the time and how people like you, that again, bought into thug culture, defends it, and deflects. Just like a street thug. Beautiful.
You don’t know me so please, don’t pretend to.
The point of my comment was not to deflect but to come against the whitewashed idea that only artists that perform rap are born thugs. Your stance on jazz and classical artists not indulging in controlled substances was wrong. My reaction was to inform you that it’s just the opposite.
The perception I got was that you were trying to deify the world of jazz and classic music while at the same time vilifying and lambasting the rap community as though they’re only known for one thing. That, in my eyes, is prejudice in the sense that only type of person or artist would ever do something that wasn’t against the grain of human nature.
I acknowledge that I was a bit too harsh by using the word “stupidity” so you calling me stupid was an obvious retaliation and for that I apologize. I recognize that if I want people to understand and take me seriously I can’t use language like that.
I apologize as well Mark.
I acknowledged that that Jazz, especially during the Miles, Coltrane, era there was heavy drug usage. However, again, they or the Jazz genre, which came from Blues, your people’s music, was part of elevating African Americans/Blacks rather than pushing them down like the obvious minstrelsy that thug gangsta rap is. Funk wasn’t even as negative although much more grittier and sexually based. Chic, the Funk Disco band, was also about portraying Blacks as successful and sophisticated. Not WHITE, but elegant and intellectual.
What fuels the neo-minstrelsy is the promise of making a lot of money, riches, as Dre is an example of that. It becomes a perpetual problem of glorifying the worst in the Black community. And it’s rather sad and anglo liberals are the ones that support it and buy into it, the ones that say they help you, they don’t they enable thug culture to flourish and spread it’s criminal street gang values onto generations. Just like gangs do, they will get to your children first and rip them from your arms, generationally.
I agree with you in that there’s this assumption that there’s a rappers are born thugs, not , so I agree, however, they BECOME thugs when they appropriate and buy into criminal thug culture and present themselves that way. Just like a gang initiation, and along with that association they adopt self oppressing, self defeating gang values.
The “rap community” has to align itself with gangsta rap, it’s part of it. Those that say they aren’t or pass themselves off as if they aren’t tied to it, or associated to it, still support it. It’s like letting the gang bangers into the party and not telling them to leave, then they cause mayhem. Same thing.
By the way, I am not an Anglo White, I’m a (non-Mexican) Latino that appreciates the POSITIVE contributions African Americans have made to American art forms and beyond so I’m on your side, I support only things that will uplift your people. Good luck and peace.
Brilliantly said mate!
But of course it had to be another Black person to make a reasonable, rational point. Unfortunately “others” see a Black man of prominence with a sketchy past and deem him unfit for anything other than his previous infractions. As though no one else is capable of doing something deviant and moving on from it.
For all you haters please make sure you avoid the last Mission Impossible film (Alec Baldwin abused his ex-wife) as well as any upcoming Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy films that will feature Thanos (Josh Brolin) who’s also committed domestic violence agains this ex-wife Diane Lane.
If we can look passed his past then pass on Dre. But if Dre will forever be associated with the man he was a quarter-century ago just make sure your outrage is consistent and you balk at the idea of a wife beater playing a major role in the Marvel universe. And while you’re at it throw out your copies of Iron Man 2 that featured the wife-beating Mickey Rourke (actually throw it out anyway, that movie sucked).
The key is NOT ever engaging in “sketchy” “infractions” from the start.
Again, I know gang mentality and culture very well, once a gang banger, always a gangsta, thug.
I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve come across a supposed “reformed” thug in my urban experience only to uncover and discover that they are the same and have not changed on bit. I have NEVER seen a real reformed one. It’s delusional, they are duplicitous, once a thug, always a thug.
For anyone to EVER believe gang members are “reformed” it’s incredibly naive and only the fools that don’t KNOW actual. real street gang culture believe that. All I say is tread carefully with those types.
AND, DRE, dumbdumb, is indicative of a street gang culture and attitudes and values. NWA along with Lovine, the backhanded Black oppressor and many others like him, destroyed popular culture. But again, you deflect and point at others. We’re talking about Dre and thug culture which is much more than beating up a woman. Keep focused
I call it like I’ve seen it, nothing but degenerate urban TERRORISTS.
“The key is NOT ever engaging in “sketchy” “infractions” from the start.”
You mean like not torrenting music/movies, driving over the speed limit or cheating on your taxes. If you’ve ever done any of those things you’re a criminal too. And no, those are not victimless crimes.
But just because YOU’VE never seen someone from the “hood” turn their life around doesn’t mean those people don’t exist. Life is not limited to the daily bubble and routine that is the average American life.
The problem is we don’t hear about those stories because frankly they’re no fun. So the media focuses on what’s horrible to keep us afraid on reliant on “the system” to keep us safe.
Case in point: the news is quick to report that a plane crashed but what they didn’t tell you is that 3,000 planes landed safely that same day.
Rather than watching people exiting a plane in boredom they show a mosh pit of bloodcurdlingly screaming individuals running from the impending explosion of the plane.
Sorry about the ‘dumb dumb’ name calling. I retract that!
I’ve torrented music yes, but I owned the vinyl record that I couldn’t digitize and the CD I had no time to rip and scan covers for. I don’t torrent movies, those I buy or rent or hit the library for. I don’t CHEAT my taxes either, I’m pretty good about that.
You don’t hear those stories because they are rare. Once a gang banger always a gang banger. I’ve met, spoken, known those that say they aren’t and behind people’s backs, its another story, or similar story. I’m much more absolute about it because of what I have seen living in the inner city.
I have seen local news profile Black kids or youth doing positive things and excelling in school and succeeding, those stories are reported on and I applaud them every time! Look at the recent French train American heroes! There’s a brother in there! Fantastic! And THAT counters Dre’s, Snoops, thug criminality, riots, etc. etc.
A plane crash is kind of rare and alarming, it will be reported on, just like if there’s a person disturbing a flight, etc. Don’t be so negative. I only rail against criminal gang cultures because of the lives I’ve seen that mentality, that criminal sub culture inflict on so many. Just like that poor black girl who got shot in Furgeson in a black on black drive by. It breaks the heart knowing that thug culture was behind it, do black lives matter then? That’s when I get negative only because the subject is negative and it sickens me enough to the point I stop myself from discussing it any further because honestly we have to take care of ourselves but I will fight against gangs and their miscreant criminal culture, always.
I agree with you very much on the Apple hating, I love some of their products but I am very disappointed in their acquiring Beats.
However, the iPod and or iTunes was, as the article suggests, about MEDIA, but products to provide enjoyment, access to media in an easier, innovative way.
As for the whole Illuminati and devil worshipping thing going on in the Black community in regards to Black popular music artists, well, all I can say is that that’s a problem of ignorance. Just focus on more positive things, like… education which will knock all that nonsense off.
I think in any company if you dig deep enough you’ll find someone with a past that might present some sort of problem. Humans are flawed. No one is perfect. Should Apple do a thorough background check on everyone that they hire? Should Apple not acquire a company who might have employees who have done something wrong in the past? It’s not as if this guy is a murderer or child molester, as an example. Is Apple’s reputation actually going to be ruined by one employee? I sure hope not. Why not look into some other companies and maybe you’ll find they also have employees with criminal records. It’s certainly possible. Asking Apple to hire only perfect individuals would be an almost impossible task especially if they have some skill Apple needs.
The whole Dre apology was just a damage control stunt. Oh, and he was convicted, the problem that there were other women that made the same allegations, they just didn’t take him to court probably out of fear since he ran with the gangsta crowd. I think if Dre wants everyone that’s offended by his music or his past actions to be offensive, to be a changed man, he should take his content off the market and she should hand over cash settlements to the victims of his crimes. But he’s taking the chicken $hit public apology route since it costs him no money and he gets to market his content which sells more content to make more money.
Oh, also, for the record, he’s not a billionaire. According to the latest stats, he’s worth $700 Million, which is still a lot of money, but he’s still a few hundred million from joining the 3 comma club.
Bottom line, Apple hired a thug gang banger simple as that. It’s really just a reflection on white guilted liberals whom support thug gang culture and ignoring the fact that this criminal sub culture’s values pretty much terroristic and horrid.
Just because it was pushed by degenerate whites in the music industry in the late 80s, early 90s in what seemingly was an attempt to create a self-oppressing genre, akin to the crack epidemic, that introduced neo-minstrelsy, doesn’t make it “kewl”. And a very successful push of this junk onto youth culture, it worked, still around, we still have gangstarap in our popular culture, selling Sprite… “know yor wort…”.
Many lives were destroyed by thug gang culture, many lives lost, needlessly, children, babies killed, my lady once nearly got shot in South Central by a drive by targeting a sister next to her. I got caught in the cross fire also years later, nothing happened, but this is what YOU support.
You laugh along with Snoop, you think he’s interesting, funny, cool… you buy into cheap chinese made street marketed bass heavy welfare state bling and now you backtrack. Stupid. You suck. You think it’s beneficial to Black Lives, no it’s not, you support gang culture, you buy the tickets, you pine for the 90s… oh man.. then you complain when you see a life lost not by the police, but by gangs, knifed, shot at, women beat up… we can go on and on. Hypocrites, all ya’lls.
I don’t like where ANY of this reporting is going and it shows a complete lack of integrity for Cult of Mac and every other tech news organization that’s looking at Dre’s past exploits with complete and utter tunnel vision as though he’s committed the ultimate sin and that as judge, jury and executioner we need to drive what little integrity he has left into the ground.
No one’s bothered looking at the complete picture of our industry and our world in general. Instead we’re piling up on Dre and Cult of Mac has the nerve to report on this like it’s brand new. If anything is proves how out of touch you are with the industry and the people you cover that this is somehow new information. Bravo, you uncovered something that happened 25 years ago. Where are the pulitzer people when you need ’em?!
What I find most disturbing is the timing of this so-called newfound revelation about Dre’s past. No one was talking about this when Dre was showing up in Dr. Pepper commercials, when his visage and name was plastered everywhere promoting Beats headphones and were around the necks of athletes and celebrities, and not a single word was uttered when Apple acquired Beats. No, it was when the women that he abused some 25-years ago weren’t mentioned in a movie about FIVE members of N.W.A.. THAT’S when this news broke and that’s when Cult of Mac and everyone gave a s*** about what an impulsive, young Black man did while he was enjoying a life of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Right, because Dre was the ONLY guy to ever do something wrong as a young, rich kid with no parental oversight.
But here’s how you can fix things CoM staff: since you like to venture outside of just tech news and occasionally cover stories about film and culture be sure to bring up Marvel’s “street cred” problem when the next Avenger’s movie comes out so we can talk about Josh Brolin’s checkered past of beating ex-wife Diane Lane. Or better yet, let’s talk about Alec Baldwin who’s starring in the most recent Mission Impossible film and his indiscriminate past in domestic violence.
Everyone seems intent on piling up on Dre as though he’s the only guy with skeletons. Meanwhile ESPY winner and recent guy-gone-girl Caitlyn Jenner could be charged with involuntary manslaughter from a fatal car accident a few months back but let’s instead give him a medal of courage for growing boobs and long hair but holding onto his original plumbing.
I’m Black and my race represents only 10% of America so if because of this story I decide never to visit your site again — and encourage other Black people to avoid it — you won’t notice and probably don’t care, and that’s okay. Based on all the other sites I’ve visited I’m clearly a minority voice (which works well because am I a “minority”) that somewhat defending Dre. While I’m not attempting to discount or downplay his past I don’t feel that the outrage is consistent. I’ve heard the argument that “once a wife beater, always a wife beater” but if that were true then Dre’s wife of 19-years would likely have something to say about that not to mention that there’s nothing else in his past that suggests he’s the same man he was 25 years ago.
But here’s the crux of my point: we’re all faulty and yet we feel it’s our right to judge who’s more wrong than the other. If you’ve ever driven over the speed limit, parked in a handicap spot or torrented a song or movie you’re a criminal. Plain and simple. You can rationalize that it doesn’t hurt someone else but by definition you’ve broken the law. And torrenting is not a victimless crime but if it helps you sleep at night, by all means keep doing it.
I can only hope that this is the one and only time CoM talks about Dre’s past and hope that something that I’ve said either makes you think or possibly even regret posting this garbage without first looking in the mirror.
You do realize being a wife beater in private life and promoting domestic violence on a platinum album are two different things. With all the blood lust, crime, womanizing and statutory rape he promoted I don’t even need to HOPE he gets what he deserves…I know he will
I laugh at people with their crappy Beats they paid 200 bucks for
Dr Dre’s apology was very neat and nice, but perhaps taken in the full context of actions, Apple would be less quick to back him up. He didn’t throw Dee Barnes through a door, he tried to kill her. It was very violent, and it wasn’t limited to just her. Making him a billionaire and 25 years, doesn’t make a batterer not a batterer.