Currently watching- “Hip Hop: Art or Poison”
***UPDATED***ÂÂ
As I am writing this, it is 5:16pm PST (8:15pm EST) and I am watching Paula Zahn special on Hip Hop.
If you are watching this program, share your thoughts if you like.
5:22pm - Okay, let me get this in before I eat dinner. So far Chuck D as expected put ALL THE BLAME on White corporate executives who use these poor and innocent kids who apparently are in the same predicament as the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz - No brain to reason - to make them a ton of money. Michael Dyson (who IMO is impressive only to the extent that he can cram a bunch of statistics and big words within a minute) continued this tune by saying that Hip Hop is only a reflection of a violent society. To an extent I do agree with him, but where he looses me is his assertion that the participants in this culture are innocent victims of America with being a gangster or video ho as the only way out of poverty.
5:39pm - Dyson said this: “If you go to the average church…they are hearing a gospel that says ‘women should be subordinate to men’. Now, they are not is violent, as vicious or as vocal as hip hop but they are saying the same thing”. Again, here is another great example of how Dyson will go to the nth degree to push blame on someone else. The nonsense of this comment is obvious and as a Reverend I would think he would know that–or is Rev. just a title?
Lauren Lake: I hear ya sis, but please sit down! You disqualified yourself by admitting that you sing along with 50 cent in your car.
I’ll return to this post after I eat and finish watching the program. Forget it! 
6:01pm - (At this point I am looking at what I recorded) In the section regarding homophobia in hip hop, Dyson once again excuses it by claiming that these artist act out this way because their regular masculinity has been beat up upon by society.
Why did I know he was going to go there? :~
6:05pm - Based on what I have seen tonight with John Mc Whorter should stick to witting. He had a very weak showing tonight
Okay, based on what I have seen tonight–nothing new. While I do agree with the assertion that hip hop is being scapegoated to a certain extent, it still does not take away the burden on us–Black folks– to deal with the crap that is being put out there in the world of music. (added 2/22: One thing is for certain, while many of us love to take credit for the global influence of hip hop music, we find it very easy to excuse ourselves from any negative aspects of the genre–and the panel personified this point. Many of these artists rap about a ghetto they have never lived in or experienced. Yet to this panel, songs that degrade women or glorify violence is a DIRECT reflection of poor people in America who supposedly do not have the personal choice to live on the “straight and narrow”. What an insult!!!! This is uppity-ism being masked as compassion and fairness). What both Dyson and Roland Martin may not have realized in their persistency to hold record company execs EQUALLY responsible for the content, they were portraying the Black community at large as bunch of weak and helpless folks who are incapable to act on our own defense unless “Whitey” does some of the work. Here are the two cents I would offer to this panel:
From achildswaiting.com
“We are thankful to our families and appreciate their commitment. Unfortunately, the placement statistic do not accurately reflect the children still waiting. There are currently 150,000 children waiting for a home in the United States alone. Of those children, 85% are African American, 60% are boys, many are over the age of 8 yrs, and most have siblings.â€Â
Question: Do we need White record executives to deal with this problem or….
nevermind!
very coincidental. There was documentary on PBS’s Independent Lens “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rymes.” It might air different day and times in different markets.
Anyway t seems to have a lot of the same themes. There was a moment where the film maker “William Hurt” cornered Russel Simmons, who basically washed his hands of the any responsibility. i wish I knew it was coming on I would have Tivoed it.
Comment by BH | February 21, 2007
Okay I am going to comment without having seen the show.
Art does imitate life: As long as black folks are singing about the good in the community then it is okay. (Marvin Gaye :whats going on, KRS, the revolution) Some (not all) of these artist did live a life of poverty where being a drug dealer is the best thing going. To expose this through music is not a bad thing. Record exec’s and moreover consumers play an even larger role in this issue. If 50 cent was talking about love and peace his album would not sell. As true to heart capitalist i say give the people what they want. IF they want to hear about my life in the hood then I am going to give it to them.
Comment by Saudia | February 22, 2007
Let me first say that I did not have a chance to watch the show, but in general, I am getting sick and tired of rap music being blamed for all of black society’s woes. What about the millions of people (black and white) out there who listen to rap music and still manage to lead productive, meaningful lives? I’ve listened to rap music my whole life without managing to commit crimes or treat women like objects. Or what about people who criticize rap music for it’s violent, misogynistic images, yet have no problem going home and watching The Sopranos, or Goodfellas on t.v.? These shows contain the exact same violent and misogynistic themes, yet no one says a word. I wonder, If one looked back through the years at some of the most popular movies in terms of box office revenue, how many of these films would contain violent, sexist imagery?
I’m not going to sit here and attempt to defend everything about rap music and hip-hop in general. I can certainly understand some peoples’ objections to the lyrics. I’ll even admit that as I get older, the same constant themes and imagery has gotten somewhat tiresome to me. I just feel like the whole “rap music is evil” argument has jumped the shark. It has become the convenient bogeyman to avoid talking about other, less comfortable topics regarding the woes of the black community.
“It’s those damn kids with there hippity-hop music, that’s whats wrong with Black America today!”
Comment by J | February 22, 2007
Or what about people who criticize rap music for it’s violent, misogynistic images, yet have no problem going home and watching The Sopranos, or Goodfellas on t.v.? These shows contain the exact same violent and misogynistic themes, yet no one says a word.
I’m not quite sure if I can agree with this statement. On one hand shows like “The Sopranos“, :”Dirt” and “Desparate Housewives” (how about “Three’s Company” or “Murphy Brown” from back in the day?) have caught a lot of heat from the public for their content. As far as rock music goes, the claim that their music was corrupting culture is seemingly endless starting around the 1950’s
On the other hand I do aggree with your assertion here that misogynistic imagery and violence are not exclusive to the world of hip hop as this type of “entertainment” has been going on for years.
From what I got from this special, it did not seem that the host was blaming society’s woes on hip hop music. Instead, just like the porno industry, heavy metal music and over the edge movies, hip hop was being spotlighted. For whatever reason, there are some Black folks (like the panel in this program) out there who feel that hip hop is the only “expression” that is getting all the heat when in fact these other venues I just mentioned have been catching it for years before hip hop.
Equality also means EQUAL criticism–and some folks want to accept that reality.
Comment by Duane | February 22, 2007
But does it get equal criticism or is in put out in front to take the blame. Rappers or musicians in general don’t talk about being taken away in space ships because that is not familiar ground. They talk about what they know and what they see (on tv or through someone else’s lives) You can not condemn this art form without condemning society at large for having these ills.
Comment by Saudia | February 22, 2007
But does it get equal criticism or is in put out in front to take the blame.
Again, stop and listen to yourself here. Nobody is BLAMING anybody here. This program along with many other programs I have seen around this topic actually look to hip hop, rock, comedy, etc as some of the bellwethers of society. Like this CNN program, the general question that was asked was “How far is too far?” Personally I think that is a fair question to ask. I would agree with you if this program was making correlations between crime, school dropout rates and hip hop, but that was not the case here. With that being said, the “ills” of society do not drive these “artists” to act out in their modern-day minstrel showcase. Let’s be real with that.
Comment by Duane | February 22, 2007
I tried to get some “mega churches” to buy Radio One stock so they could go into a shareholders meeting and give them “what for” especially since Kathy Hughes has no problem in taking to the airwaves of her stations and simuli-casting a prayer or ordering her stations to devote a day to health issues and once stated that the music so disgusted her she was going to have the hip-hop stations tone down the garbage.
I got “pimp smacked” pretty good for the suggestion from a couple of people who I reached. Two liked the idea but said Ms. Hughes has a lot of power. They were right.
Comment by DarkStar | February 22, 2007
I did not watch the show, but the question definitely has validity. Not blaming all of rap music on our communities problems. But I do believe in subliminal messages. Rap music is not the main problem but to me it’s a driving force. I feel irresponsible parents who don’t teach there children and let TV and Rap be the parent let’s blame them also. Everyone has the right to express themselves as these artist are doing but when you have a poverty stricken child being told by his role model to sell drugs what do you think he’s going to do. As a child I loved Michael Jordan and would emulate his moves on the playground, that’s exactly what these kids are doing, big difference is Young Jeezy is telling them to sell drugs and smoke weed. As entertainers they should hold a level of responsibility. How about they use this fame for something positive. They flash these big rims and nice cars but none of that is realistic to the everyday black child how about showing them importance of education so they can afford a nice car. How about talking to them about something other than the stint they did up state. As J stated we all have listened to rap music but what he failed to point out is we all don’t have common sense to seperate entertainment from reality.
Comment by Terrence Orlando | February 23, 2007
“Art or poison”… I know ONE thing… CRACK COCAINE IS POISON. When I see Black ENTERTAINMENT Television (BET) GLORIFY via heavy rotation “artists” who INSIDIOUSLY GLOAT about SELLING CRACK?
SELLING ART OR SELLING POISON? IT IS COYLY AMBIGUOUS…
BOYCOTT BET UNTIL IT STRAIGHTENS UP AND FLIES RIGHT.
One positive song after ‘i luv it’ or ‘make it rain’ is a thin veil under the pretext of viewer choice.)
(…but they definitely are churched up on Sunday, right?
As if that’s enough to wash the sins of willful ignorance.)
Comment by S. Cain | March 2, 2007