Have you ever met a group of artists from a musical genre that was so unwilling to accept responsibility for what comes out of their mouths? In addition to being invincible, apparently Hip Hop artists are also infallible. Even when they admit to hatred and violence, it is NEVER their fault. We wouldn't accept this from anybody else.
"Yes, our rhymes can contain violence and hatred. Yes, our songs can detail the drug business and our choruses can bounce with lustful intent. However, those things did not spring from inferior imaginations or deficient morals; these things came from our lives. They came from America."
Jay-Z, "Know What I Mean? Reflections On Hip Hop" By Michael Eric Dyson
Thanks Tawra! How long has Jay-Z been a millionaire? A decade or so? Folks don't bother running out to buy yet another tome by Hip Hop apologist Dyson. I'll check it out from the library and read it so you won't have to. Yes. Yes. I know that I never did finish Russell Simmon's book " Do You," but I will finish it by next Friday. Have you noticed I've been a little busy around here?
All of these pseudo- intellectuals and their edutainment prattel are yet another example that Hip Hop is not the voice of rebellion, but of the establishment. When you own sports teams, jets, restaurants, clubs, have clothing lines, toy lines, Vitamin Water, Hip Hop soda pop, publishing companies, and have academics writing tomes about you, I don't think you qualify as a "rebellion" anymore. Hip Hop is the establishment, the Empire. They even have their own dictionary now.
Moving on..
Rolling Stone talks about Master P's attempt at "clean" Hip Hop. Y'all have read my post, "Should Hip Hop Be Eradicated?" right? It's kinda like a horse with a broken leg. As much as we wanted Barbaro to live and as much as we put into rehabilitating that horse, we just delayed the inevitable.
The NAACP continues their effort to "bury" the "N-word" I wonder when they are going to get around to burying tangible things like BET's " Hot Ghetto Mess" I called them all of this week and sent four e-mails to four different branches. Have you read my post " Are Civil Rights Groups Pimping the War on Black Women?"
I don't know if I have posted about this here, but there was a conference in NYC called R-E-S-P-E-C-T: When did we lose it?. The Amsterdam News has a summary of the events. I guess I am too impatient. This thing isn't all that complicated to me. I think some people are making it complicated in hopes that the outrage will flicker out. Y'all know I think others are just exploiting current events. But alas, I am the first to admit that I don't know it all.
So maybe this meet, meet, meet, discuss, discuss, discuss, committee, committee, committee, summit, summit, summit, conference, conference, conference stuff is the way to go. I just view it as something that tires people out. I went to a forum last February and went to the most unexpected workshop by a community organizer for a local interfaith alliance. The group is church-based, the topic was about power and it was so eye opening. She said as a policy, they do not serve on committees or workgroups etc because that is just a way to tire people out. I am going to have to look her up and ask her for some advice. Their first rule is " Never do for others what they won't do for themselves." Their second rule is " No permanent friends. No permanent enemies." If i had known that a few months later I would be doing this, I would have asked more questions.
