As I expected the debate over the comments by Mr. Don Imus continues to expand. Inevitably the question of rappers use of similar terms as those used by Mr. Imus has been broached. It’s a subject I have long targeted, but now comments are being made by Fatman Scoop and Snoop Dogg, in addition to Rev. Sharpton and Jackson. The comparison is not only fair, it is necessary.
As we watch Mr. Imus fight for his career, as sponsors abandon his show which may be the key to his dismissal, attention is moving to rap music. While the hypocrisy of the corporations that fund and promote the current version of rap have remained untouched questions are being asked of the artists and entertainers in this field. And in the case of Mr. Calvin Broadus (Snoop) he has graciously offered his ill-worded and obscenity-laced position. I will discuss the failures of his argument in a moment.
Rap is about to face the biggest challenge to its existence ever. Let me correct that, gansta rap is challenged. There is a blatant difference. While there has been no other form of rap music promoted since roughly 1992 other than gansta rap, it is not what the music genre is comprised of. Public Ememy, Grandmaster Flash, KRS-1 and may others are not the same as 50 cent, Snoop Dogg, or the others in the current crop of ‘street prophets.’ Given this distinction, this form of rap is being asked to justify its existence and I personally don’t think it can be done.
The current trend in rap is similar to the trend in movies; copy what others did well and just pump out volumes of it and see what sticks. Originality is widely missing in this sub-genre. To my knowledge [which I will state is somewhat limited as I do not actively listen to, and never buy, the current gansta rap music offerings] the sum total of virtually every entertainer today is to state that they are some form of criminal (pimp, drug dealer, thief are the most common) that is an addict (smoking marijuana, possibly also using other drugs in combination with, or instead of) and uses women in a manner similar to tissue paper. They seem to state that they are the best at these 3 actions, as opposed to their counterparts who are less than men since they don’t match up. I think that sums up 85% of all the rap songs made in the last decade or so. In my opinion that is so pitiful that I do not have the words for it.
Given the limited mental expenditure used to create these less than expansive ‘social’ comments, the question is what is the difference between anyone using the same corrupted terminology as these predominately Black ‘artists?’ During the Big Story on Fox News at 5:35 today, Fatman Scoop tried to justify that there is a difference. His argument was perhaps one of the weakest ones I have heard. Mr. Chuck Creemur tried to help shore up Fatman Scoop’s argument but it still fell flat. In essence the argument made by Scoop was that the meaning of the words used by rappers and the youth of the nation today [I believe he means specifically African American youth but that is a guess] is separate of the meaning that has endured for centuries of use and is still maintained today. This logic is dizzying in its fallacy. In effect Fatman Scoop is saying that if kids start calling cellphones pineapples, then the meaning of the word pineapple is now changed. Does that make sense? He further clarified that the “old people” just need to get used to this as we are the ones most offended by these words.
Continued in Part 2...
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