Old school Rap is the way to go...
Posted on 07/10/2006 5:48:35 PM PDT by neverdem
Having grown up in the midst of many intelligent, down-home and courageous black women, I was appalled for 20 years by the silence of the women who were being demeaned and turned into sex toys so consistently in the worst hip-hop imagery. Where were the descendants of those black women who gave so much of the heat to the civil rights movement and made so many sacrifices for it? Why didn't anyone have the moxie, in the spirit of Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer, to take on the $1.5 billion rap industry? Perhaps because, in our culture at this time, cowardice is more common than the common cold.
Yet when, in 2005, Essence started its "Take Back the Music" campaign to question this hate-filled and decadent material, 1 million hits came to its Web site in the first month. Yes, the campaign festered for awhile because of a lack of funding - but at a recent music festival in Atlanta, it began wobbling back to its feet. Eight thousand people in attendance seemed ready for war against dehumanizing images.
Well, time will tell (perhaps literally). Essence is, after all, owned by Time Warner, which makes more than a few pennies from hip-hop material.
But even if this campaign should peter out, the day is far from lost. Warming up in another corner is Yvonne Bynoe, author and lecturer. Having had more than enough, Bynoe wrote a remarkably intelligent defense of Oprah Winfrey on Davey D's Hip Hop Daily News (Daveyd.com) last month. Go there, I urge you, and read it yourself. With the letter, titled "Do Blacks Really Need Oprah to Be Down with Hip Hop?," Bynoe earns a place as a Thomas Paine in the movement against female degradation.
In reaction to the rappers like Ludacris who complain that Winfrey - the American Queen of Goodwill - has disrespected them or failed to support their careers, her rebuttal is so well thought out, so articulate and so full of righteous anger that I am sure that 50 Cent and Ice Cube suffered skin burns if they read it. Or could read it.
The young lady knows their work well, sees the illogic of their assertions and lays them out in a row like dead fish in the market. Unlike so many critics who tiptoe into such territory, Bynoe shows no inclination to be silenced by a flag of false ethnic solidarity. With confidence, she slaps aside all the manipulative ploys that rappers use against any who dare question their insipid material.
Of the attacks on Winfrey, Bynoe writes, "The underlining sentiment is that if she is unwilling to set aside her values and opinions, then she can't be down for black people. This position assumes that what is good for black entertainers is good for black folks, and that notion is arguable. There are many media outlets that expose U.S. rap artists to the global marketplace. However, Oprah is virtually alone in her ability, through her selection of guests, to provide the world with a broader view of black Americans and their achievements. For most of us, particularly black women, who are frequently equated with the images of half-naked, gyrating females found in the rap music videos, a countervailing portrayal is welcomed." Uh-oh.
Beware, you gold-and-diamond-toothed dogs, they are coming for you. They are young, educated, good-looking and fiery, meaning that they cannot be dismissed as old, out-of-touch, frustrated hags.
The dogcatchers are on the way.
Stanley......obviously NOT a playa!
yeah. but more likely, it's because it's a $1.5 billion industry (if you say so) all interested parties would sell their dignity for much less than that a dozen times a day, for the attention, a thrill, and few kachingas.
Stanley is a self-confessed jazz nerd
Stanley is a self-confessed jazz nerd
&&
Do you see that as invalidating his message here?
I, for one, hope that his prediction about a women's war on these scum bags proves true.
This is all some kind of big joke-"oh,NO, our poor innocent black sisters are being exploited and demeaned by these big horrible colored men who have no RESPECT for their ebony queens"
PUHLEEZE!These women are falling all over themselves to get on these claptrap videos.They are complicit in the whole absurd game.
The days of Rosa Parks,Coretta King and Fannie Lou Hamer are gone.These sistas today want a "n---- with cash",baby.
There is a particular arrogance that permeates Ludacris’, 50's and Ice Cube’s statements, as if Oprah owes them a spot on her show. It is Oprah who has issues if she will not put Black men on her show who have made millions of dollars demeaning Black women. If songs such as Ludacris’ “Move Bitch”, or NWA’s “A Bitch Iz A Bitch” are not Oprah’s cup of tea, then why should she be obligated to give these rapper-actors a platform to promote themselves or their work? This sense of entitlement is the result of years of rap artists going television on program spewing whatever ignorant and/or anti-social messages that they wanted, in the name of art. It does not seem to occur to these Black men (or to their supporters) that Oprah has the right not to use her show, which is seen by 21 million viewers a week, in 105 countries to promote performers whose work she personally feels is misogynistic or offensive. Oprah may not be kicking any Black feminist credentials, but rather than blindly using her influence to “help the brothers,”she is choosing not to support Black entertainers whose work denies the humanity of Black women.
...our poor innocent black sisters are being exploited and demeaned....
Well, I think that you can concede that there could be two groups of women here. The tramps that you describe would be in one camp, and the women who are fighting against the disrespect would be in an opposite camp.
Yes, there are plenty of skeezers -- black and white -- who appear in the videos and many who, for some reason, are attracted to these low life bums, but they certainly do not represent the majority of women.
By your logic, since some women are prostitutes, all women are.
YOUZ a Hoooooooooooooooooo
They are or are raising daughters who are dancing in the videos and buying the hip hop cds that demean and turn them into sex toys.
Nah,not saying all women or all black women are skeezers.
Yet I resent that the black male is usually subtly or not so subtly portrayed as the bad guys in these types of articles.Ishmael Reed spoke long ago of the black feminist hold on the media and how white liberals cater to their every word.
I'll put it to you like this-I work at many schools in the hood and the young black male trying to do right and act resposibly gets very little love from"the sistas".
Of course,ten years down the road when the young successful brother is married to a senorita or white girl,these same sisters are yapping about"see,thats how these n----- are.Soon as they make it they got a white b---- on their elbow"
These sad deluded girls just don't see the patterns they weave for themselves.
Damn...guess it really IS hard out there for a pimp.
I'm working on this one.
?
"By your logic, since some women are prostitutes, all women are."
All women, all men. Are we not prostitutes to the companies we work for?
I would like to think we are not. But how many of us work at a place where things are not above board, and keep quiet to keep our job?
Car Salesman? Selling a story to sell a vehicle.
How many of us sell out in one way or another?
The road to stardom often means selling your soul.
The women who follow non-rap bands, get in their videos, are no different.
Dan Rather. Sold his soul. For fame.
Do you see that as invalidating his message here?
No, I just like making fun of jazz nerds.
All women, all men. Are we not prostitutes to the companies we work for?
Dude, where exactly do you work?
Projecting.
Old school Rap is the way to go...
Did you cut and paste the Bynoe excerpt in your post? Just wondering why the word "black" is capitalized - has that word now become a proper noun?
Has Opera ever had on Condi Rice or Janice Rogers Brown?
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