Imus isn???t the real bad guy Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture. By JASON WHITLOCK
Columnist
The Kansas City Star
Thank you, Don Imus. You???ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.
You???ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.
You???ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.
Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it???s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.
The bigots win again.
While we???re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I???m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent???s or Snoop Dogg???s or Young Jeezy???s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.
I ain???t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don???t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.
It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.
Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.
It???s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.
I???m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.
But, in my view, he didn???t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should???ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it???s only the beginning. It???s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.
I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.
Somehow, we???re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers??? wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.
But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.
In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?
I don???t listen or watch Imus??? show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it???s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they???re suckers for pursuing education and that they???re selling out their race if they do?
When Imus does any of that, call me and I???ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is ??? a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you???re not looking to be made a victim.
No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There???s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.
says everything I wanted to say, but better than I could
Hip-hop has been making enemies for as long as it has been winning fans. It has been dismissed as noise, blamed for concert riots, accused of glorifying crime and sexism and greed and Ebonics. From Run-D.M.C. to Sister Souljah to Tupac Shakur to Young Jeezy, the story of hip-hop is partly the story of those who have been irritated, even horrified, by it.
Even so, the anti-hip-hop fervor of the last few weeks has been extraordinary, if not quite unprecedented. Somehow Don Imus???s ill-considered characterization of the Rutgers women???s basketball team ??? ???some nappy-headed hos??? ??? led not only to his firing but also to a discussion of the crude language some rappers use. Mr. Imus and the Rev. Al Sharpton traded words on Mr. Sharpton???s radio show and on ???Today,??? and soon the hip-hop industry had been pulled into the fray.
Unlike previous hip-hop controversies, this one doesn???t have a villain, or even a villainous song. The current state of hip-hop seems almost irrelevant to the current discussion. The genre has already acquired (and it???s fair to say earned) a reputation for bad language and bad behavior. Soon after Mr. Imus???s firing, The Daily News had Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, splashed on its cover alongside the hip-hop producer Timbaland, whose oeuvre includes some Imusian language. He had helped arrange a fund-raiser for her and apparently was now a liability. Oprah Winfrey organized a two-show ???town meeting??? on what???s wrong with hip-hop ??? starting with the ubiquity of the word ???ho??? and its slipperier cousin, ???bitch??? ??? and how to fix it. The hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, who appeared on the show, promised to take action, but last Thursday a planned press conference with hip-hop record label executives was canceled at the last minute, with scant explanation.
On Monday, Mr. Simmons and Ben Chavis, leaders of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, released a statement that said, in part, ???We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words ???bitch??? and ???ho??? ??? and a third term, a common racial epithet. (That already happens on the radio; it seemed the two were suggesting that all albums be censored too.) Mr. Simmons helped create the hip-hop industry, and he has always spoken as a rap insider. Monday???s statement was remarkable partly because he was speaking as a hip-hop outsider, unable (so far) to persuade the executives to go along with him.
A different sort of criticism was voiced in this Sunday???s episode of ???60 Minutes???: Anderson Cooper was the host of a segment arguing that hip-hop culture had popularized an anti-snitching ethos that was undermining the police and allowing criminals to operate with relative impunity. The rapper Cam???ron, who was shot in 2005, cheerfully told Mr. Cooper that cooperating with police would hurt his professional reputation and run counter to ???the way I was raised.??? Asked what he would do if he were living next door to a serial killer, Cam???ron merely shrugged and said he would move. The segment said remarkably little about the fear and anger that might help create such an anti-police culture. Even if Cam???ron is just doing what sells, the question remains: Why is this what sells?
None of these complaints are new exactly. Few rappers have used the words ???ho??? and ???bitch??? as enthusiastically ??? or as effectively ??? as Snoop Dogg, who has spent 15 years transforming himself into cuddly pop star from a menacing rapper, while remaining as foul-mouthed as ever. And rappers??? hostility toward the police has been a flashpoint since the late 1980s, when the members of N.W.A. stated their position more pithily than this newspaper will allow.
Nowadays, as all but the most intemperate foes of hip-hop readily admit, this is not a debate about freedom of speech; most people agree that rappers have the right to say just about anything. This is, rather, a debate about hip-hop???s vexed position in the American mainstream. On ???Oprah,??? Diane Weathers, the former editor in chief of Essence magazine, said, ???I think Snoop should lose his contract ??? I don???t think he should be on the Jay Leno show.???
On ???60 Minutes,??? Mr. Cooper kept reminding viewers that hip-hop was ???promoted by major corporations,??? and he mentioned anti-snitching imagery on album covers. What he showed, though, was a picture taken from a mixtape, not a major label release.
That???s a small quibble, perhaps, but a telling one. In the wake of Mr. Imus???s firing, some commentators talked about a double standard in the media, though ???double??? seemed like an understatement. Like MySpace users and politicians and reality-television stars and, yes, talk-radio hosts, rappers are trying to negotiate a culture in which the boundaries of public and private space keep changing, along with the multiplying standards that govern them. This means that mainstream culture is becoming less prim (or more crude, if you prefer), and it???s getting harder to keep the sordid stuff on the margins.
This also means that just about nothing flies under the radar: a tossed-off comment on the radio can get you fired, just as a fairly obscure mixtape can find its way onto ???60 Minutes??? as an exemplar of mainstream hip-hop culture.
You can scoff at Mr. Simmons???s modest proposal, but at the very least, he deserves credit for advancing a workable one, and for endorsing the kind of soft censorship that many of hip-hop???s detractors are too squeamish to mention. Consumers have learned to live with all sorts of semi-voluntary censorship, including the film rating system, the F.C.C.???s regulation of broadcast media and the self-regulation of basic cable networks. Hip-hop fans, in particular, have come to expect that many of their favorite songs will reach radio in expurgated form with curses, epithets, drug references and mentions of violence deleted. Those major corporations that Mr. Cooper mentioned aren???t very good at promoting so-called positivity or wholesome community-mindedness. But give them some words to snip and they???ll diligently (if grudgingly) snip away.
It???s not hard to figure out why some people are upset about the way Mr. Simmons???s three least-favorite words have edged into the mainstream. One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words. Hip-hop took those rhymes from the street corner to the radio, and those old-fashioned dirty jokes are surely meant to shock people like Ms. Winfrey. Once upon a time, such lyrics (if they had been disseminated) might have been denounced for their moral turpitude, but now they???re more likely to be denounced for their sexism. Both verdicts are probably correct, and each says something about mainstream society???s shifting priorities and taboos. Maybe dirty jokes never change, only the soap does.
Mr. Imus has one thing in common with rappers, after all. Like him, many rappers have negotiated an uneasy relationship with the mainstream: they are corporate entertainers who portray themselves as outspoken mavericks; they are paid to say private things (sometimes offensive things) in public. It???s an inherently volatile arrangement, bound to create blow-ups small and big. Mr. Simmons???s proposal could buy some rappers a few years??? reprieve. But it wouldn???t be surprising if the big record companies eventually decided that brash ??? and brilliant ??? rappers like Cam???ron were more trouble than they were worth. (Cam???ron???s last two albums haven???t sold well.) Why not spend that extra money on a clean-cut R&B singer, or a kid-friendly pop group?
The strangest thing about the last few weeks was the fact that
hardly any current hip-hop artists were discussed. (All these years later, we???re still talking about Snoop Dogg?) Maybe that???s because hip-hop isn???t in an especially filthy mood right now. It sounds more light-hearted and clean-cut than it has in years. Hip-hop radio is full of cheerful dance tracks like Huey???s ???Pop, Lock & Drop It,??? Crime Mob???s ???Rock Yo Hips,??? Mims???s ???This Is Why I???m Hot??? and Swizz Beatz???s ???It???s Me, Snitches.??? (The title and song were censored to exclude one of the three inflammatory words ??? proof that this snipping business can be tricky.)
On BET???s ???106 & Park,??? one of hip-hop???s definitive television shows, you can watch a fresh-faced audience applaud these songs, cheered on by relentlessly positive hosts. For all the panicky talk about hip-hop lyrics, the current situation suggests a scarier possibility, both for hip-hop???s fans and its detractors. What if hip-hop???s lyrics shifted from tough talk and crude jokes to playful club exhortations ??? and it didn???t much matter? What if the controversial lyrics quieted down, but the problems didn???t? What if hip-hop didn???t matter that much, after all?
Judging from your 2 reactions to my posts you really seem to have some strong views about this. However I'm not one to just sit there and try to decipher your use of Graemlins and one sentence retorts. Why don't you go ahead and say your opinion on this and we can talk.
Personally I feel Imus has no power over the African-American community. I've never heard his name mentioned when talking about black people as a whole, as individuals, or as stereotypes before this. I never listened to his show, and had someone not decided to turn off the cuff statement from a guy with little to no influence on Americas social climate into a big deal this would not have done more than upset the actual listeners programs who are sensitive to those words.
In my opinion this is a non-issue that was pushed into importance to try to prove a point. As far as I'm concerned the only end result is a fear of censorship. America isn't any less racist because Don Imus was fired, it is a place where one now has to talk with fear because some people can't take or understand that one mans opinion is just one mans (awful) opinion.
Personally I don't care what Don Imus says. right now he could be cussing up a blue streak about how fucked up it is that a black man spearheaded a campaign to get him removed from the air, or something extreme and personal to me like how bad it is that Jews didn't all get incinerated in the holocaust, I really don't care. Those types of talks are still happening all over and will continue to. Don Imus isn't the issue, our own personal ability to deal with the idea of racism and our allowance to give situations like this such power are.
and when it comes to Russell Simmons wanting to remove offensive AKA derogatory words from hip-hop why is there such a "hell no" push amongst soul strutters?
Judging from your 2 reactions to my posts you really seem to have some strong views about this. However I'm not one to just sit there and try to decipher your use of Graemlins and one sentence retorts. Why don't you go ahead and say your opinion on this and we can talk.
Personally I feel Imus has no power over the African-American community. I've never heard his name mentioned when talking about black people as a whole, as individuals, or as stereotypes before this. I never listened to his show, and had someone not decided to turn off the cuff statement from a guy with little to no influence on Americas social climate into a big deal this would not have done more than upset the actual listeners programs who are sensitive to those words.
In my opinion this is a non-issue that was pushed into importance to try to prove a point. As far as I'm concerned the only end result is a fear of censorship. America isn't any less racist because Don Imus was fired, it is a place where one now has to talk with fear because some people can't take or understand that one mans opinion is just one mans (awful) opinion.
Personally I don't care what Don Imus says. right now he could be cussing up a blue streak about how fucked up it is that a black man spearheaded a campaign to get him removed from the air, or something extreme and personal to me like how bad it is that Jews didn't all get incinerated in the holocaust, I really don't care. Those types of talks are still happening all over and will continue to. Don Imus isn't the issue, our own personal ability to deal with the idea of racism and our allowance to give situations like this such power are.
Go read the 10 page Imus thread and the other threads it spawned. If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
Judging from your 2 reactions to my posts you really seem to have some strong views about this. However I'm not one to just sit there and try to decipher your use of Graemlins and one sentence retorts. Why don't you go ahead and say your opinion on this and we can talk.
Personally I feel Imus has no power over the African-American community. I've never heard his name mentioned when talking about black people as a whole, as individuals, or as stereotypes before this. I never listened to his show, and had someone not decided to turn off the cuff statement from a guy with little to no influence on Americas social climate into a big deal this would not have done more than upset the actual listeners programs who are sensitive to those words.
In my opinion this is a non-issue that was pushed into importance to try to prove a point. As far as I'm concerned the only end result is a fear of censorship. America isn't any less racist because Don Imus was fired, it is a place where one now has to talk with fear because some people can't take or understand that one mans opinion is just one mans (awful) opinion.
Personally I don't care what Don Imus says. right now he could be cussing up a blue streak about how fucked up it is that a black man spearheaded a campaign to get him removed from the air, or something extreme and personal to me like how bad it is that Jews didn't all get incinerated in the holocaust, I really don't care. Those types of talks are still happening all over and will continue to. Don Imus isn't the issue, our own personal ability to deal with the idea of racism and our allowance to give situations like this such power are.
Go read the 10 page Imus thread and the other threads it spawned. If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
I don't really feel like going over 10 pages of soulstrut racial sensitivity in order to get your opinion. But if you feel Don Imus holds power over the black community than I can see where your coming from. I don't think his audience or influence really holds much strength with African-Americans. I'll go check the arbitron ratings to see how strong he was with that community though and be sure.
Certain things belongs to certain people, like Jewish humour for example. It belong to Seinfeld. If Chris Rock was doing it, it wouldnt be funny, and it would even be disrespectful. Reverse what i said, take Black humour, remove Seinfeld and put Cedric, remove Chris Rock and put a random Jewish comedy act. And you will maybe understand...my point.
I've seen black comedians take on Jewish humor and do it well. Eddie Murphy has played a Jew complete with white make-up and a stereotypical accent. It wasn't offensive to me, it was funny.
In the end words have only as much power as you allow them to have over you.
Go read the 10 page Imus thread and the other threads it spawned. If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me. I don't really feel like going over 10 pages of soulstrut racial sensitivity in order to get your opinion. But if you feel Don Imus holds power over the black community than I can see where your coming from. I don't think his audience or influence really holds much strength with African-Americans. I'll go check the arbitron ratings to see how strong he was with that community though and be sure. This is a stupid argument we had a week or 2 ago. We've been over all this. Sorry you missed it.
Yes, I think corrupt (I mean corporate) media has influence over the Black community. Every time someone like Don Imus attacks innocent people, like the Rutgers basketball team, it makes it easier for others to increase their level racism. Maybe it's those subtle wasthatpersonactingthatwaybecauseimblack moments that Black people deal with everyday. Or it might be someone getting dragged behind a pickup truck in Texas.
All it takes is for people of good conscious to give Don Imus a pass for these things to multiply.
Go read the 10 page Imus thread and the other threads it spawned. If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
I don't really feel like going over 10 pages of soulstrut racial sensitivity in order to get your opinion. But if you feel Don Imus holds power over the black community than I can see where your coming from. I don't think his audience or influence really holds much strength with African-Americans. I'll go check the arbitron ratings to see how strong he was with that community though and be sure. This is a stupid argument we had a week or 2 ago. We've been over all this. Sorry you missed it.
Yes, I think corrupt (I mean corporate) media has influence over the Black community. Every time someone like Don Imus attacks innocent people, like the Rutgers basketball team, it makes it easier for others to increase their level racism. Maybe it's those subtle wasthatpersonactingthatwaybecauseimblack moments that Black people deal with everyday. Or it might be someone getting dragged behind a pickup truck in Texas.
All it takes is for people of good conscious to give Don Imus a pass for these things to multiply. I think its a great leap to go from Don Imus saying some words to James Byrd being dragged behind a truck. Drawing the conclusion that his words will lead to people being dragged from the back of trucks is pretty extreme.
But it looks like your preaching the word of responsibility for what one says in the media. So once again why would it be ok for a rapper to call women a ho, but not Don Imus?
and when it comes to Russell Simmons wanting to remove offensive AKA derogatory words from hip-hop why is there such a "hell no" push amongst soul strutters?
So once again why would it be ok for a rapper to call women a ho, but not Don Imus?
I started by saying: If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
Since you can't understand the difference we really don't have any common ground to work with.
So once again why would it be ok for a rapper to call women a ho, but not Don Imus?
I started by saying: If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
Since you can't understand the difference we really don't have any common ground to work with.
So you asked me to get back at you and I did and now that I am you can't explain it?
this begs the question, do you know the difference between the two that you speak about? and if so why can't you explain?
One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words.
Sorry, but I always thought toasting was a Jamaican tradition that migrated to the US and was practiced by a small group of DJs/MCs for merely a few years in the late-70's/early-80's before being fully supplanted by rapping. Is there a "long tradition" of toasting among non-Carribean African-Americans? Someone please to clarify.
One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words.
Sorry, but I always thought toasting was a Jamaican tradition that migrated to the US and was practiced by a small group of DJs/MCs for merely a few years in the late-70's/early-80's before being fully supplanted by rapping. Is there a "long tradition" of toasting among non-Carribean African-Americans? Someone please to clarify.
Toasting in Jamaica is not the same as what Sanneh is referencing, although the words certainly share similar origin. He is talking about snapping, ranking (also used in Jamaica), playing the dozens, capping, etc.
One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words.
Sorry, but I always thought toasting was a Jamaican tradition that migrated to the US and was practiced by a small group of DJs/MCs for merely a few years in the late-70's/early-80's before being fully supplanted by rapping. Is there a "long tradition" of toasting among non-Carribean African-Americans? Someone please to clarify.
Toasting in Jamaica is not the same as what Sanneh is referencing, although the words certainly share similar origin. He is talking about snapping, ranking (also used in Jamaica), playing the dozens, capping, etc.
One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words.
Sorry, but I always thought toasting was a Jamaican tradition that migrated to the US and was practiced by a small group of DJs/MCs for merely a few years in the late-70's/early-80's before being fully supplanted by rapping. Is there a "long tradition" of toasting among non-Carribean African-Americans? Someone please to clarify.
Yes:
Dude, does your employer block your access to Google or something?
One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words.
Sorry, but I always thought toasting was a Jamaican tradition that migrated to the US and was practiced by a small group of DJs/MCs for merely a few years in the late-70's/early-80's before being fully supplanted by rapping. Is there a "long tradition" of toasting among non-Carribean African-Americans? Someone please to clarify.
Yes:
Dude, does your employer block your access to Google or something?
This is pretty basic schitt.
dude it's at least debatable. "toasting" is generally understood to be the Jamaican variant, and this is clearly not what he is referring to in the article. so yeah, I'd say he made a poor word choice.
One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words.
Sorry, but I always thought toasting was a Jamaican tradition that migrated to the US and was practiced by a small group of DJs/MCs for merely a few years in the late-70's/early-80's before being fully supplanted by rapping. Is there a "long tradition" of toasting among non-Carribean African-Americans? Someone please to clarify.
Yes:
Dude, does your employer block your access to Google or something?
This is pretty basic schitt.
dude it's at least debatable. "toasting" is generally understood to be the Jamaican variant, and this is clearly not what he is referring to in the article. so yeah, I'd say he made a poor word choice.
No, it's really not "debatable".
They're two distinct modes of expression that the same word happens to have been applied to. "Toasting" is understood to refer to a Black American oral tradition amongst people who know what they're talking about.
You really should read up on this stuff a bit if you're going to presume to call out somebody like Kelefa.
You really should read up on this stuff a bit if you're going to presume to call out somebody like Kelefa.
oh, faux. so adorably excitable.
most normal people would view my inquiry as just that -- an inquiry.
only those who roam the interwebs picking e-fights would view my post as "calling out" anyone.
and only the truly pathetic among them would fire back so excitedly when the target of said imaginary "calling out" is not even him.
Hey, if being annoyed by aggressively ignorant dudes who refuse to do their homework and instead try to behave as if the person with a superior understanding of the subject matter is somehow at fault ("it's debatable!"; "poor word choice!") is pathetic, then I'll be that.
holy shitballs. this is awesome. I have seen some excited kids at brithday parties but this dude takes it to the next level.
I've been sitting here going back and forth from laughing to being afraid of that kid.
I don't agree with this shit. It's art and you should be able to say and do what you want (this is America isn't it?). People in general should think before they put things out in the world - whatever it may be. Even more so if you're reaching millions of people.
Comments
Poster guy for the 2007 Self-Hatt Movement?
by Kelefa Sanneh
Hip-hop has been making enemies for as long as it has been winning fans. It has been dismissed as noise, blamed for concert riots, accused of glorifying crime and sexism and greed and Ebonics. From Run-D.M.C. to Sister Souljah to Tupac Shakur to Young Jeezy, the story of hip-hop is partly the story of those who have been irritated, even horrified, by it.
Even so, the anti-hip-hop fervor of the last few weeks has been extraordinary, if not quite unprecedented. Somehow Don Imus???s ill-considered characterization of the Rutgers women???s basketball team ??? ???some nappy-headed hos??? ??? led not only to his firing but also to a discussion of the crude language some rappers use. Mr. Imus and the Rev. Al Sharpton traded words on Mr. Sharpton???s radio show and on ???Today,??? and soon the hip-hop industry had been pulled into the fray.
Unlike previous hip-hop controversies, this one doesn???t have a villain, or even a villainous song. The current state of hip-hop seems almost irrelevant to the current discussion. The genre has already acquired (and it???s fair to say earned) a reputation for bad language and bad behavior. Soon after Mr. Imus???s firing, The Daily News had Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, splashed on its cover alongside the hip-hop producer Timbaland, whose oeuvre includes some Imusian language. He had helped arrange a fund-raiser for her and apparently was now a liability. Oprah Winfrey organized a two-show ???town meeting??? on what???s wrong with hip-hop ??? starting with the ubiquity of the word ???ho??? and its slipperier cousin, ???bitch??? ??? and how to fix it. The hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, who appeared on the show, promised to take action, but last Thursday a planned press conference with hip-hop record label executives was canceled at the last minute, with scant explanation.
On Monday, Mr. Simmons and Ben Chavis, leaders of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, released a statement that said, in part, ???We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words ???bitch??? and ???ho??? ??? and a third term, a common racial epithet. (That already happens on the radio; it seemed the two were suggesting that all albums be censored too.) Mr. Simmons helped create the hip-hop industry, and he has always spoken as a rap insider. Monday???s statement was remarkable partly because he was speaking as a hip-hop outsider, unable (so far) to persuade the executives to go along with him.
A different sort of criticism was voiced in this Sunday???s episode of ???60 Minutes???: Anderson Cooper was the host of a segment arguing that hip-hop culture had popularized an anti-snitching ethos that was undermining the police and allowing criminals to operate with relative impunity. The rapper Cam???ron, who was shot in 2005, cheerfully told Mr. Cooper that cooperating with police would hurt his professional reputation and run counter to ???the way I was raised.??? Asked what he would do if he were living next door to a serial killer, Cam???ron merely shrugged and said he would move. The segment said remarkably little about the fear and anger that might help create such an anti-police culture. Even if Cam???ron is just doing what sells, the question remains: Why is this what sells?
None of these complaints are new exactly. Few rappers have used the words ???ho??? and ???bitch??? as enthusiastically ??? or as effectively ??? as Snoop Dogg, who has spent 15 years transforming himself into cuddly pop star from a menacing rapper, while remaining as foul-mouthed as ever. And rappers??? hostility toward the police has been a flashpoint since the late 1980s, when the members of N.W.A. stated their position more pithily than this newspaper will allow.
Nowadays, as all but the most intemperate foes of hip-hop readily admit, this is not a debate about freedom of speech; most people agree that rappers have the right to say just about anything. This is, rather, a debate about hip-hop???s vexed position in the American mainstream. On ???Oprah,??? Diane Weathers, the former editor in chief of Essence magazine, said, ???I think Snoop should lose his contract ??? I don???t think he should be on the Jay Leno show.???
On ???60 Minutes,??? Mr. Cooper kept reminding viewers that hip-hop was ???promoted by major corporations,??? and he mentioned anti-snitching imagery on album covers. What he showed, though, was a picture taken from a mixtape, not a major label release.
That???s a small quibble, perhaps, but a telling one. In the wake of Mr. Imus???s firing, some commentators talked about a double standard in the media, though ???double??? seemed like an understatement. Like MySpace users and politicians and reality-television stars and, yes, talk-radio hosts, rappers are trying to negotiate a culture in which the boundaries of public and private space keep changing, along with the multiplying standards that govern them. This means that mainstream culture is becoming less prim (or more crude, if you prefer), and it???s getting harder to keep the sordid stuff on the margins.
This also means that just about nothing flies under the radar: a tossed-off comment on the radio can get you fired, just as a fairly obscure mixtape can find its way onto ???60 Minutes??? as an exemplar of mainstream hip-hop culture.
You can scoff at Mr. Simmons???s modest proposal, but at the very least, he deserves credit for advancing a workable one, and for endorsing the kind of soft censorship that many of hip-hop???s detractors are too squeamish to mention. Consumers have learned to live with all sorts of semi-voluntary censorship, including the film rating system, the F.C.C.???s regulation of broadcast media and the self-regulation of basic cable networks. Hip-hop fans, in particular, have come to expect that many of their favorite songs will reach radio in expurgated form with curses, epithets, drug references and mentions of violence deleted. Those major corporations that Mr. Cooper mentioned aren???t very good at promoting so-called positivity or wholesome community-mindedness. But give them some words to snip and they???ll diligently (if grudgingly) snip away.
It???s not hard to figure out why some people are upset about the way Mr. Simmons???s three least-favorite words have edged into the mainstream. One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words. Hip-hop took those rhymes from the street corner to the radio, and those old-fashioned dirty jokes are surely meant to shock people like Ms. Winfrey. Once upon a time, such lyrics (if they had been disseminated) might have been denounced for their moral turpitude, but now they???re more likely to be denounced for their sexism. Both verdicts are probably correct, and each says something about mainstream society???s shifting priorities and taboos. Maybe dirty jokes never change, only the soap does.
Mr. Imus has one thing in common with rappers, after all. Like him, many rappers have negotiated an uneasy relationship with the mainstream: they are corporate entertainers who portray themselves as outspoken mavericks; they are paid to say private things (sometimes offensive things) in public. It???s an inherently volatile arrangement, bound to create blow-ups small and big. Mr. Simmons???s proposal could buy some rappers a few years??? reprieve. But it wouldn???t be surprising if the big record companies eventually decided that brash ??? and brilliant ??? rappers like Cam???ron were more trouble than they were worth. (Cam???ron???s last two albums haven???t sold well.) Why not spend that extra money on a clean-cut R&B singer, or a kid-friendly pop group?
The strangest thing about the last few weeks was the fact that hardly any current hip-hop artists were discussed. (All these years later, we???re still talking about Snoop Dogg?) Maybe that???s because hip-hop isn???t in an especially filthy mood right now. It sounds more light-hearted and clean-cut than it has in years. Hip-hop radio is full of cheerful dance tracks like Huey???s ???Pop, Lock & Drop It,??? Crime Mob???s ???Rock Yo Hips,??? Mims???s ???This Is Why I???m Hot??? and Swizz Beatz???s ???It???s Me, Snitches.??? (The title and song were censored to exclude one of the three inflammatory words ??? proof that this snipping business can be tricky.)
On BET???s ???106 & Park,??? one of hip-hop???s definitive television shows, you can watch a fresh-faced audience applaud these songs, cheered on by relentlessly positive hosts. For all the panicky talk about hip-hop lyrics, the current situation suggests a scarier possibility, both for hip-hop???s fans and its detractors. What if hip-hop???s lyrics shifted from tough talk and crude jokes to playful club exhortations ??? and it didn???t much matter? What if the controversial lyrics quieted down, but the problems didn???t? What if hip-hop didn???t matter that much, after all?
Dan,
Judging from your 2 reactions to my posts you really seem to have some strong views about this. However I'm not one to just sit there and try to decipher your use of Graemlins and one sentence retorts. Why don't you go ahead and say your opinion on this and we can talk.
Personally I feel Imus has no power over the African-American community. I've never heard his name mentioned when talking about black people as a whole, as individuals, or as stereotypes before this. I never listened to his show, and had someone not decided to turn off the cuff statement from a guy with little to no influence on Americas social climate into a big deal this would not have done more than upset the actual listeners programs who are sensitive to those words.
In my opinion this is a non-issue that was pushed into importance to try to prove a point. As far as I'm concerned the only end result is a fear of censorship. America isn't any less racist because Don Imus was fired, it is a place where one now has to talk with fear because some people can't take or understand that one mans opinion is just one mans (awful) opinion.
Personally I don't care what Don Imus says. right now he could be cussing up a blue streak about how fucked up it is that a black man spearheaded a campaign to get him removed from the air, or something extreme and personal to me like how bad it is that Jews didn't all get incinerated in the holocaust, I really don't care. Those types of talks are still happening all over and will continue to. Don Imus isn't the issue, our own personal ability to deal with the idea of racism and our allowance to give situations like this such power are.
Go read the 10 page Imus thread and the other threads it spawned. If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
I don't really feel like going over 10 pages of soulstrut racial sensitivity in order to get your opinion. But if you feel Don Imus holds power over the black community than I can see where your coming from. I don't think his audience or influence really holds much strength with African-Americans. I'll go check the arbitron ratings to see how strong he was with that community though and be sure.
I've seen black comedians take on Jewish humor and do it well. Eddie Murphy has played a Jew complete with white make-up and a stereotypical accent. It wasn't offensive to me, it was funny.
In the end words have only as much power as you allow them to have over you.
Go read the 10 page Imus thread and the other threads it spawned. If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
I don't really feel like going over 10 pages of soulstrut racial sensitivity in order to get your opinion. But if you feel Don Imus holds power over the black community than I can see where your coming from. I don't think his audience or influence really holds much strength with African-Americans. I'll go check the arbitron ratings to see how strong he was with that community though and be sure.
This is a stupid argument we had a week or 2 ago. We've been over all this. Sorry you missed it.
Yes, I think corrupt (I mean corporate) media has influence over the Black community. Every time someone like Don Imus attacks innocent people, like the Rutgers basketball team, it makes it easier for others to increase their level racism. Maybe it's those subtle wasthatpersonactingthatwaybecauseimblack moments that Black people deal with everyday. Or it might be someone getting dragged behind a pickup truck in Texas.
All it takes is for people of good conscious to give Don Imus a pass for these things to multiply.
holy shitballs. this is awesome. I have seen some excited kids at brithday parties but this dude takes it to the next level.
I don't really feel like going over 10 pages of soulstrut racial sensitivity in order to get your opinion. But if you feel Don Imus holds power over the black community than I can see where your coming from. I don't think his audience or influence really holds much strength with African-Americans. I'll go check the arbitron ratings to see how strong he was with that community though and be sure.
This is a stupid argument we had a week or 2 ago. We've been over all this. Sorry you missed it.
Yes, I think corrupt (I mean corporate) media has influence over the Black community. Every time someone like Don Imus attacks innocent people, like the Rutgers basketball team, it makes it easier for others to increase their level racism. Maybe it's those subtle wasthatpersonactingthatwaybecauseimblack moments that Black people deal with everyday. Or it might be someone getting dragged behind a pickup truck in Texas.
All it takes is for people of good conscious to give Don Imus a pass for these things to multiply.
I think its a great leap to go from Don Imus saying some words to James Byrd being dragged behind a truck. Drawing the conclusion that his words will lead to people being dragged from the back of trucks is pretty extreme.
But it looks like your preaching the word of responsibility for what one says in the media. So once again why would it be ok for a rapper to call women a ho, but not Don Imus?
Because edited versions SUCK!
I started by saying: If at the end you don't understand the difference between a powerful media figure calling a group of 19 yo college students hos, and Snoop calling a fictional whore a ho, get back at me.
Since you can't understand the difference we really don't have any common ground to work with.
So you asked me to get back at you and I did and now that I am you can't explain it?
this begs the question, do you know the difference between the two that you speak about? and if so why can't you explain?
One of hip-hop???s many antecedents is the venerable African-American oral tradition known as toasting; those toasts are full of those three words.
Sorry, but I always thought toasting was a Jamaican tradition that migrated to the US and was practiced by a small group of DJs/MCs for merely a few years in the late-70's/early-80's before being fully supplanted by rapping. Is there a "long tradition" of toasting among non-Carribean African-Americans? Someone please to clarify.
Yes:
Toasting in Jamaica is not the same as what Sanneh is referencing, although the words certainly share similar origin. He is talking about snapping, ranking (also used in Jamaica), playing the dozens, capping, etc.
PS dude Sanneh says Cam'ron = "brilliant."
right. I sorta thought he meant the dozens.
Dude, does your employer block your access to Google or something?
This is pretty basic schitt.
dude it's at least debatable. "toasting" is generally understood to be the Jamaican variant, and this is clearly not what he is referring to in the article. so yeah, I'd say he made a poor word choice.
No, it's really not "debatable".
They're two distinct modes of expression that the same word happens to have been applied to. "Toasting" is understood to refer to a Black American oral tradition amongst people who know what they're talking about.
You really should read up on this stuff a bit if you're going to presume to call out somebody like Kelefa.
oh, faux. so adorably excitable.
most normal people would view my inquiry as just that -- an inquiry.
only those who roam the interwebs picking e-fights would view my post as "calling out" anyone.
and only the truly pathetic among them would fire back so excitedly when the target of said imaginary "calling out" is not even him.
Hey, if being annoyed by aggressively ignorant dudes who refuse to do their homework and instead try to behave as if the person with a superior understanding of the subject matter is somehow at fault ("it's debatable!"; "poor word choice!") is pathetic, then I'll be that.
I've been sitting here going back and forth from laughing to being afraid of that kid.
I don't agree with this shit. It's art and you should be able to say and do what you want (this is America isn't it?).
People in general should think before they put things out in the world - whatever it may be. Even more so if you're reaching millions of people.