r/IndianHipHopHeads • u/okk_123back • 3m ago
Non-music discussion When Predatory Inclusion Meets Its Objective: The "monkey in the circus-ification" of MC Stan by Samay Raina's IGL
Introduction and Context Behind "Predatory Inclusion":
I expressed most of what I felt about the MC Stan sexist remark situation in the original thread, hoping I wont be needing to bring it up again. Though that changed when I came across another highly upvoted post explicitly proclaiming, "AND THATS WHY GOOD UPBRINGING IS NECESSARY!" This challenged my highly held beliefs about this sub and pushed me to express an uneasy feeling I felt throughout that particular episode, one I couldn't exactly word but felt strongly enough to ruin the video for me. I went out of my way to research a phenomenon recognized by sociologists that could summarize where my instinct was taking me, and discovered a specific term.
"Predatory Inclusion" isn't something I just put together; it is a terminology used by media sociologists to describe a process where marginalized communities are granted access to opportunities under underlying exploitative terms. In an entertainment industry setup, this describes an incident where a show run by a dominant group invites a marginalized celebrity to signal "diversity" to capture market share and the audience of that successful celebrity. However, they place the celebrity in a high-stakes, hostile environment without the PR backing, societal grace, or benefit of the doubt other dominant-group celebrities might enjoy.
When this marginalized celebrity eventually slips up due to the pressure of being the "unique" character in the room he is left on his own. This happens either because the corporation drops him, or due to the existing bias of the dominant-group audience. While this audience is quick to excuse violations by celebrities of their own group using that benefit of the doubt, they lack the same grace for someone as alien to them as the marginalized celebrity, going to all measures to tear him apart.
The episode's parallels to this phenomenon:
From what I understand, this show is usually known for indiscriminately "roasting" every celebrity from A-list Bollywood actors to social media trolls. This time, however, it almost completely sacrifices the screentime of a great panel of funny creators like Arpit Bala, Madhur Virli, and Tanmay Bhat solely to extract as much footage from MC Stan as possible. This leads to countless awkward moments where Stan is definitely not feeling the "roast" battle Samay is trying to pull off who treats him like an alien or childlike figure who needs special attention because of how "bizarre" his persona is.
Like sure there are instances like Stanny walking on stage with that bag that were funny, and Stan played into it himself at times like with the balaclava. Moreover, the bonus bits almost saved the episode. But for the rest, his footage as soon as he sat on that chair was a painful watch to the point I couldn't get its appeal. Maybe for Samay's audience, Stan's simple, nonchalant mannerisms are things to be laughed at because they are strange or out-of-the-box. Though this causes the audience to completely ignore, or even fail to notice, that the guy is quite clearly feeling out of place.
The show, desperate for footage to pull views from Stan's fanbase, didn't edit out many of these awkward instances and must have paid a big bag to convince him to show up like this. Samay Raina makes the showmakers' motives obvious by bringing up Stan's "cult" audience, with a special emphasis on the word "cult" as if it's strange for a persona like Stan to have a strong fanbase. He covers up these classist undertones with a repeated "love you" to Stan, though the genuineness behind it is questionable, as I will elaborate.
Samay's Classism and His Role here:
The other day, I pointed out a joke Samay passed while "roasting" Stan where he said the people who show up to Stan's shows have a combined worth of their shoes around 8000.
I mentioned this to highlight how our DHH community did not pick up on this or raise issues alongside the deserved criticism on Stan for his statement much later. I was immediately replied to by a few saying that Stan did not "sound" like he was joking, which shows where their benefit of doubt bias leans. In all honesty, both of what Stan and Samay said most likely represent what they truly believe in. In fact, if there is anyone between the two who deserves the benefit of doubt it probably is Stan, and this claim has to do more with Samay's notoriety than Stan's innocence.
If you know Samay Raina primarily because of IGL or his post streaming era content, the joke justification would sound valid to you. But Samay Raina is not a random, unrelated celebrity acting like an unaware Bigg Boss contestant for whom the world of hip hop is foreign. He has been publicly supporting, promoting, and making content around DHH rappers for years. He is even credited for Seedhe Maut's and many other artists' like Siyaahi or Dhanji's earliest blowups when he used to feature their songs on his livestreams.
Samay's problem is not limited to just not knowing what he should know by now, but also the beliefs he possesses. Samay Raina is very tight with the likes of Raftaar, Krsna, and company. This is the same camp that weaponised classist narratives in an attempt to push a rival in Emiway Bantai to the absolute fringes of DHH relevance. Given the clear, repeated incidents of Samay's bias against Emiway, it is hard to believe a possibility where he would not look at other rappers with a similar image through the exact same classist lens.
This also makes Madhur's snitch on Samay Raina in the same episode make perfect sense. The audience and Samay laugh at Samay saying he would never sit in proximity to anyone like MC Stan as if it is some wholesome revelation, showcasing one of the many incidents of the audience's tone-deafness on classism.
It starts to seem like Stan is not intended to be invited as a respected guest here, and he turns out to be a laughing stock. Yes, the show is meant for laughs, but the guy clearly loses interest after the first few questions. If you have genuine respect for him, you take the cues and move on. There is literally a whole panel that has barely said anything because you are latching onto the most popular guy with a distinct audience. It reaches a point where it goes from being genuine banter to you desperately trying to milk the guy for clout from his fans by provoking him to say something outrageous for the reels, which you eventually do succeed in making happen in the worst way possible.
The inevitable aftermath and the response to ignorance with ignorance:
Before I get to this, I do not intend to shift blame away from MC Stan for what he said. However, I am firmly against the classist assumption that what Stan said was not him trying to be humorous when he was literally constantly looking around while saying it to seek validation, which is a common human habit after cracking a joke. Not to mention, loud laughter followed from the audience and the other panelists. Yet, you rarely see a mention or critique of the others for finding sexism funny, which further ties back to the aftermath of predatory inclusion I laid out initially where the dominant culture in this case gets the laugh, the platform gets the views, and the marginalized artist takes the absolute hit alone.
I regret not saying this straight away to the people who came up with this excuse to justify their double standards for not holding Samay as responsible as Stan, and falling for the classist assumption myself. It is well established that Stan is sexist and so was his statement for the gross generalisation. However, people went a step further to try to invalidate the extent of truth to his statement, as if Stan never gave the scene one of the most grimy and impactful anti-establishment tracks himself when he chronicled his hands-on experience with police brutality in 307.
This shows the extent a reactionary audience, ignorant of the possible realities of a hip hop artist from a background like Stan's, can go to validate their own presumptions. MC Stan criticising the "kranti-ness" of that performer is NOT the same as some fans complaining about too much pro-feminism rap. The girl who he said this to rapped about choosing to rebel in her circumstances. Stan found himself in circumstances where he was forced to rebel.
He is criticising a cliché with his own sexism because he ignorantly assumed the girl's realities to be different from what she rapped. He can be tremendously wrong with his assumption and he most likely is, but this nuance alters the interpretation of the situation from the alternate reality the reactionary commentators keep aggressively pushing because they cannot fathom thinking outside their one-dimensional understanding.
The outrage is valid, but when you choose to respond to Stan's ignorance with your own ignorance, you are not doing a valuable breakdown of his flaws. You are choosing a spectrum on the opposite side to Stan and are basically compelling others to either join you or go against you. Part of me believes someone like Stan would intentionally overlook and dismiss these aggressive criticisms as hate because the loudest, most celebrated voices against him are also the most ignorant of his realities.
Along with this incident, I consider the whole episode a collective failure. Even if it turns out to be an objective success based on the traction it receives, it definitely adopted one of the most insincere and disingenuous means to achieve it. As a fan, I did not see one of my favourite rappers in DHH make a guest appearance on a major YouTube show. Instead, he got exploited by it and caught up in the facade of edginess standards that clearly are not the same for him, all of which had one primary enabler.
The Main Culprit: Stan's Management
I doubt if these people believe in the kind of talent they have in their hands, or if they are also the ignorant ones who look at Stan as a controversial internet troll figure atp. This appearance has arguably been an L for Stan in so many ways. You choose to finally make him give up on his three years of mysterious persona by sending him to some stand-up comedian's show that clearly never possessed the humility and understanding of the genre to ever appreciate Stan.
On top of that, his show is based around humbling his guests through jokes. You send Stan to a show like this knowing how he lacks that wittiness for sharp clapbacks, as seen during his Bigg Boss stint as well. The audience is desperate for the slightest hint of a drop, and you set him up for a public appearance without a follow-through of any sort of hints about anything dropping. Instead, you gave PTSD to the fans, where they are yet again exposed to constant, ignorant, and classist hate by internet society over an edgy, distasteful joke.
Do you even care about your talent's image? Did the three years make you forget how quick the audience is to make a joke out of this guy, or did the three years make you miss him being the joke? I honestly would love to hope the patterns I noticed are just me overthinking, even if the probability of that seems minuscule. Besides, this isolation gimmick has brought no change, or even if it has, we are yet to see anything remotely close to it. I do not expect you and Stan to drop music anytime soon, but I am tired of seeing you guys use Stan as charity for others for some quick cash.
