I was just reading this story in the NY Daily News about how Al Sharpton is on a crusade of sorts now to get record companies to stop allowing the use of the “b” the “n” and the “h” words in rap music, and my first thought was, “Wow, look at Al Sharpton – he’s actually doing something to really help the black community for a change.”
The Washington Post reports this morning about Senator Barack Obama’s reaching out to the black community by openly airing out a little dirty laundry:
Last week, I blogged about a rap ‘summit’ of sorts involving some of the top names in rap music and entertainment, including Russell Simmons. In that post, I noted the platitudes and excuses he and others at the ‘summit’ issued which suggested they were more interested in shifting the blame from the rappers who engage in hateful – and in some cases popular – instances of glorifying cop killing and denegrating women (especially black women), to the ‘conditions’ which supposedly ’cause’ these rappers to write such ‘lyrics.’
This one was just too good to pass up.
Last night, I blogged about a rap music ‘summit’ that was organized in the aftermath of the Don Imus “nappy headed hos” controversy, a summit that was more a dog and pony show than a conference of leaders in the rap and music community who wanted to get together to do something meaningful in response to the heavy criticism rap music has come under in the last couple of weeks. In that post, I noted how Simmons wanted to shift the blame for rap’s negative influence on kids to the ‘conditions’ that supposedly ’cause’ the rappers to rap what they do.
If anyone of had been hoping that something positive was going to come from the rap community, in light of the criticism they’ve received since the controversy over Don Imus’ “nappy headed hos remark” thrust the violence and misogyny inherent in rap music in the spotlight, they better think again.
