Reverend Al Sharpton’s commitment to rid music of filthy language: AWOL

Phil Mushnick wrote in the NY Post this past weekend about a nasty ad that has, ahem, escaped the Reverend’s attention:

July 15, 2007 — By now, I guess, we were supposed to have forgotten all about it.

In April, when Rev. Al Sharpton’s selective indignation helped bring down Don Imus following Imus’s racist comments Γ’β‚¬β€œ Imus’s inexcusably racist comments – it came to Rev. Sharpton’s attention that Imus and his crew were borrowing hateful words that had been returned to the mainstream by black rappers and black comedians.

Somehow, until then, such forms of entertainment managed to escape Sharpton’s keen social senses for nearly 20 years.

So, cornered, Sharpton vowed to act against all entertainers, not just Imus, who would make a living through racist, homophobic, violent and otherwise hateful words and images.

Hey, better very, very late than never.

So what happened?

After all, following the Imus episode, there was no shortage of other entertainers, all of them black, who Sharpton might have targeted.

And even if Sharpton extended grandfathered amnesty to stars such as P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, there’s still fresher black acts providing the same low-life product.

But three months after the Imus stink, Sharpton apparently still can’t find anyone as vile as Imus. You’d almost think that he hasn’t even bothered to look. Or listen.

To that end, we’ll give Rev. Sharpton a hand. For example, let us turn his attention to a new TV commercial for Heineken beer, an ad built upon an autobiographical song, “Can I Have It Like That,” by Pharrell, real name Pharrell Williams, age 35, a black rapper.

While only the ambiguously benign refrain from the song is heard in the TV ad, the complete lyrics make for fairly standardized rap enterprise:

Black men are repeatedly referred to as “niggas.”

Women are referenced frequently, but only for their ability to satisfy the immediate sexual desires of the singer, and then discarded. (And Pharrell’s going to choose a few to have sex with, “right after this song.”)

Paging Al Sharpton, paging Al Sharpton. And what about Russell Simmons?

Is that the sound of crickets I hear chirping?

Perhaps NAACP Chair Julian Bond will respond, once he gets done symbolically burying the n-word.

Hat tip: ST reader Leslie

More: Speaking of filthy lyrics, Grammy-nominated rapper Remy Ma, who hasn’t shied away from utilizing the n-word herself in her own lyrics, has been charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and attempted murder after allegedly shooting a 23 y/o woman early Saturday in Manhattan.

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