Love and Hate in the Nostalgia Industry Complex

A brief introduction to an ongoing conversation about Memory, Fear, and Personal Power

You see, the question isn’t “why does Temu Macho Man Randy Savage think he’s better than Nas?” He should think he’s better if he has personally invested in the craft of rapping as a professional career.

The real question is why do WE continue to give more attention to Trolls than we do people who are helpful to society by consistently making cultural contributions that allow us to cherish our own human experiences as we relish in the deep impact of their demonstrated excellence.

Trolls want attention for its own sake, and whatever we pay attention to we incentivize when it comes to trolls and delusional souls. Nas has been quiet amidst all of the internet and social media hype because he understands how this all works. So do astute professional wrestling fans. The “Bad Guy” gets on the mic and he starts bad-mouthing the “Good Guy” who occupies a warm spot in the heart of the fans.

Through the hate and resentment he gets from the fans the Bad Guy cultivates the cultural capital in their mental economy that he does not have the energy to generate through love. This is one of the things that makes “the bad guy” bad in the world of professional wrestling. He becomes relevant through the hatred that the fans have for him because he does not possess the energy to earn their love. Perhaps the intensity of our hate is stronger than the force of our love. Maybe the wrestling villain understands something about human nature that we do not.

Nevertheless, I want to address something that I see in a lot of men between the ages of 40-50, myself included.

I want to acknowledge our preoccupation with pop culture nostalgia which I don’t see as much with women who are more interested in what’s present, generally speaking. I also notice that when men’s memories are attacked men get defensive and start swinging at their perceived attackers. I think that this is because for many men, an attack on their memories is an attack on their precious sense of peace because many between the ages of 40-50 only find sustained peace in their memories and not their present day reality. While, I don’t personally relate to that aspect of nostalgia, I understand it.

If someone in 2025 attacks the legacy of the man who gave them Illmatic and It Was Written when they were teenage boys, many will have a fierce response as if they’re still stuck in the summers of 1994 or 1996. It’s comparable to the resentful response you might get from an eight-year-old boy in 1987 upon finding out that the Million Dollar Man wants to buy Hulk Hogan’s championship belt.

This is not an exposé on the immaturity of men, it is an acknowledgment of the tenderness in men that is often exploited by the Nostalgia Industry Complex.

A lot of Black men hate when Black male celebrities they’ve looked up to since they were teenagers are attacked because it infringes on their peace of mind, because peace is in the PAST.

It’s wild when guys my age and older say things like “in my generation we appreciated rappers who…” Every recording artist who puts out music for public consumption while you are still alive and breathing is an artist from your generation, but what’s not being said is that a lot of men dropped out decades ago and are simply walking around today as the undead.

The Nostalgia Industry Complex exploits this for consistent currency within the attention economy that is very easy to come by. The Nostalgia Industry Complex are also the only art and entertainment markets that target heterosexual Black men over 40 years of age.

Do you agree? If so, why do you think this is? How do we stay current so that we still register in markets centered around the present and the future?