Perhaps it was inevitable that discussions provoked by the words “nappy-headed hos” would come around to rap music and the culture of hip-hop. After all, hip-hop has taken the rap for just about every social ill: misogyny, gun violence, rampant materialism, anti-Semitism, gang warfare, even the decline of the NBA. Yes, to some extent, the insulting remarks of radio shock-jock… return to article
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Reader Comments (7)Page 1 of 1 pages“Even the Rev. Al Sharpton”
*Even* him? Wasn’t Al Sharpton the man who “stood up” for Tawana Brawly? Isn’t he the man who condemned the Duke Lacrosse players for “raping” the poor misunderstood stripper? Does he really have *any* credibility left at all?
It is far past the time where “disadvantaged blacks” are worth discussing. Rather we should discuss “disadvantaged people”, regardless of color, to see what we as a society can do to better help those who fall into this *economic* group. (OJ being a great example of how guilty people, black or white, can walk away from their crimes scotfree, provided they are rich. Justice is color blind, but remains acutely dependent on economic status.)
Posted by wolf on May 22, 2007 at 8:17 AM What a cop-out.
“People who are angry … and come from tremendous struggle; they have poetic license, and when they say things that offend you, you have to talk about the conditions that create those kinds of lyrics.”
That sounds just as phony as Imus claiming the lyrics give him “license” to talk as he did.
“We might better channel social resources if we listened more attentively to those tales.”
Not likely.
This idea reminds me of the panhandler who came up to me on Boston Commons and said, “Hey Four-eyes, got an extra quarter?” One of the first things to learn if trying to influence anyone: Don’t piss off the audience.
Posted by whattheheck on May 22, 2007 at 1:49 PM whattheheck and wolf (you guys are still here?):
I don’t think it’s a cop-out at all to give black Americans a unique place in our history. Furthermore, it’s folly to lump all black Americans into the same level of experience. Mr. Muwakkil comes from one foreign to those street dwellers who produce the majority of hip-hop, yet holds the interesting perspective of one who has lived through some of the last worst moments of institutionalized US racial policy.
I think his perspective holds more weight than your own, based on his relevant experience and his informed study. Is it not easy to pass judgment on cultural expressions which have no effect on you or your life, rather than see hip-hop - and the use of internally offensive language - as a double-standard or playing the race card?
Neither of your arguments hold logical water: not wolf’s convenient socioeconomic ‘equality’ nor whattheheck’s random dismal of Russell Simmons’s comment about artistic license. I think it would be just as ridiculous to consider Joseph Conrad as racist for ‘Heart of Darkness’. Imus, on the other hand, continued a ‘wink-wink’ culture within white male power structures, which allows them to be seemingly egalitarian, while harboring racist stereotypes.
To paraphrase Chris Rock: I ain’t saying he should have been fired, but I understand…
Posted by rocco on May 22, 2007 at 6:43 PM Rocco,
“Is it not easy to pass judgment on cultural expressions which have no effect on you or your life, rather than see hip-hop - and the use of internally offensive language - as a double-standard or playing the race card?”
I’m not applying a double standard — quite the opposite — I see no reason to give either a free pass.
“That sounds just as phony as Imus claiming the lyrics give him “license” to talk as he did.”
Also, everything in life is interconnected. This kind of cheapening of humanity whether form an overpaid shock-jock pandering to the lowest kind of audience, or a foul-mouthed (also overpaid) performer degrades the overall quality of life for us all.
This is about individuals and corporations chasing money.
----------------
As for Mr. Muwakkil’s view, “We might better channel social resources if we listened more attentively to those tales.”
I doubt very many people will be moved to channel their resources based on this kind of call to action. More likely it will only reinforce whatever latent racial prejudices they may have.
Posted by whattheheck on May 23, 2007 at 6:45 AM “Thus, when Imus’ defenders blamed hip-hop for providing their man the vocabulary for his insult, many agreed. Oprah Winfrey’s entire response to the Imus affair was a two-segment “town hall” meeting on the state of hip-hop.”
The state of hip-hop? Because Don Imus used a near-equivalent of “nigger” on his show? Usually I admire Oprah, but I think she’s mistaken here. Imus is offensively rude all the time; his shot at the Rutgers players was entirely in-character and not at all due to 3 6 Mafia, 50 Cent, Eminem, or any other explicit lyricists’ work.
Imus’ defenders were also way out of line when they blamed hip-hop for his shock-chatter. For one thing, he had specialized in provocative talk for a long time, almost his whole stock in trade was language that triggered shocked laughter, gasps of indignation, and phone-in responses from outraged listeners to sustain the interest and participation of the radio listeners.
And just because I hear a rapper say “nigger” or “bitch” on a CD (or see it in a film, or read it in a book, or hear someone say it in a mall...), does that mean I’m impelled to mindlessly parrot it out in public, dishing out offensive speech with nary a thought for what I’m saying or who it pisses off? Please. Imus is a wordsmith (not to mention a grown-up), and talk is his gig. He chose what to say by himself, and we should presume that he and anyone else above the age of about 9 are able to take due consideration and decide how they’ll express themselves verbally. Blaming rap artists for either indiscrete language in others or (even worse) for social ills is not quite as stupid as blaming metallic rock music for, say, drug use or suicide among teens, but it’s in the same absurd direction.
And as for the movement to pressure rap artists to mute themselves, all that will cause is a rebellion and an intensification of what they’re trying to reduce, and rightly so. You’ll be getting acts that are so explicit and shocking, they’ll make 2 Live Crew look like Donnie & Marie. Radio stations and music stores have a right to decide what they’ll put out into the market, and some artists will refrain from offensive lyrics for reasons of their own (Will Smith’s brand of hip-hop, for example, is comparatively quite benign). But all this pressure to force a broad and multifaceted art movement into some kind of artificially polite (i.e. insipid) shape in order to accomplish some nebulous social goal is entirely misdirected. And, it will fail miserably.
It’s like that, and that’s the way it is.
If you don’t like what they’re rapping about, don’t buy or listen to their work. If you’re really serious, you can regulate what your kids hear and exclude certain works from your home. But let’s not overstate their influential effects upon society at large, as though such a move would stop a guy like Don Imus saying rude shit. It’s what he’s always done.
If it’s the spreading of decent, polite, edifying speech we want, the best place for that to begin is from our own mouths.
Posted by Kuya on May 24, 2007 at 2:30 AM Mr. Muwakkil, I enjoyed your debut radio show on WVON last Saturday and will continue to listen, congrats on the new gig.
Regarding your commentary: hip hop culture and music is really nothing more than the progression of the same Black American cultural expression that was/is Gospel, Blues, Jazz, Rock, Soul, Funk etc...In fact, hip hops’ first cousin “be bop” was just as villified because of its perceived association with drugs. The primary difference being “big business saw great profits”, “and accelerated hip-hop’s profit potential.” by pushing “sensationalized tales of drug dealing, sex seeking and gun play “, which “has distorted hip-hop’s public face.” Early be-bop was way too complex musically for mass public appeal and be-bop muscians weren’t playing it for that anyway, they played it to speak to, for and of Black Americans, signifying in a code that only we could relate to based on our cultural history. Hip hop came out of that same tradition but like be-bop, had to be altered to make it more palitable for mass consumption. The reality now however, is that Black American cultural expression has already moved beyond hip hop. Real artist aren’t speaking to the thug experience but are again pealing back the layers of bullshit this society constantly heaps on the Black psyche in its attempt to crush our spirit so that it can justify to itself the inhumanity it has perpetrated on Africa and its peoples.
Posted by theloneous on May 25, 2007 at 8:16 AM I was listening to a hard rock station today and Prodigy came on singing “Smack My Bitch Up” in which a part of the song has a girl humming a tune that sounds Middle Eastern.
Culture is reflected in music. Right or wrong, it is what it is.
Imus can point to hip hop and the girls in the locker room may call each other nappy hos in jest but Imus is white. We have to choose our humorous words carefully. Anybody know a white comic that could get away with what Carlos Mencia does?
Posted by kimberlyausten on Jun 1, 2007 at 10:13 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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