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.)

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.

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.

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.

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!”

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.

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.