THUG RAPPERS CAN’T COME NEAR IT
Okay, so some friends of mine were joking around with me cause during election night I was using Obama to drive traffic to our website.
Guilty as charged.
Don’t get me wrong though.. I respect everything that night stands for, but it’s a recession… and brothas gotta eat. Anyway, I came across on hiphopdx.com:
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Rev. Al Shaprton, a frequent critic of Hip Hop believes that the Obama victory will “force” Hip Hop artists to behave better. Sharpton predicts that the Obama administration will force a decline in the more violent and misogynistic elements of the culture. “You can’t be using the ‘b’ word, the ‘n’ word, the ‘h’ word when you have Barack Obama redefining overnight the image that black people want to have,” Sharpton says. “Here’s the greatest political victory in the history of black America, and the thug rappers can’t come near it. They will have to change or become irrelevant.”
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Now, my personal convictions and beliefs often clash with those of our community’s popular black “leaders”. And yeah, I’m a lil’ tough on Sharpton, Messy Jesse and their cohorts, but I gotta speak my mind on this one.
He says: “Here’s the greatest political victory in the history of black America, and the thug rappers can’t come near it.”
What is that even supposed to mean?
Does he really think anyone is holding Trick Daddy and Noreaga’s successes in the same light as Obama’s?
(no shots @ Trick & NORE, but I’m sayin….)
Does he really think the Obama victory is gonna force rappers to “behave” better??? Like all of a sudden rappers won’t curse?
Chill son, you wildin’.
The only thing that’ll make people “behave” is home training and/or money. If us rappers (who use the B/N/H words) truly see financial repercussions for our word choices, I can see us stopping. Maybe not me, though. Partially because I barely use curse words and limit my uses of the n-word in raps anyway, and partially because I don’t want to give up who I am as an artist by thinking too much and not expressing myself as naturally as possible.
I’m not gonna lie.. I, too, shake my head sometimes at potty mouth emcees… but often vulgarity helps get your point across. Like is there any way to express the feeling behind “Fuck Don Imus” without using the F-word? I don’t think so… but anyway, Al seems to be leveraging Obama-mania to further his own political agendas. Not a surprise, though…
Just seems like an attempt to jump on the bandwagon, all this after not REALLY supporting Barack and saying he was “grandstanding on front of white people” when Obama claimed it would be wrong to resort to violence after the Sean Bell verdict. http://www.nypost.com/seven/04292008/news/regionalnews/sharpton_raps_obama_108577.htm
If urging people not to riot is grandstanding, Al must be the grandfather of grandstanding. Wouldn’t MLK say the same thing??? Dude is akin’ more and more like Rollo Goodlove from The Boondocks.
I understand the rampant negativity in hip-hop can get pretty bad sometimes, but let’s work on fixing our communities forreal rather than just blaming it on gangsta rap. That whole thing is getting quite old…
- WORDS!
ps - I respect the “leaders” of our community and everything they have done and sacrificed for black people…. forreal… I do.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Black America and the n-word:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP2U0jmZjec
November 10th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
what up scoop…peeped the video / commercial and it looks interesting. the use of the n-word is a whole different beast…
in regards to al sharp and messy jesse. i can see what al is trying to say. and i wouldnt go as far as saying that comment proves he is trying to use this obama victory for political gain. i mean, i don’t doubt he is doing that, but his comment, i wanna say is…misdirected.
i feel with obama being elected, the trickle down effect of seeing an african america hold the highest position in america and arguably the world will permeate into our personal mentality, individual communities, and even popular music. and it will have a positive impact. does that mean rappers will all of a sudden stop cursing? no. thats ridiculous. but it could mean that works of art that are more inspiring and hopeful could be born.
and i believe or better yet hope al feels the same way. he just chose to displace his anger on gangsta rap.
if obama’s victory taught us anything, it should be that there aren’t many excuses left. we have the power to change things for the better. (shouts to http://change.gov)
however, it takes coming together, that goes for hip-hop and for our communities leaders.
to al, pointing the fingers at “thug rappers” wont help.
-cisington
ps: is there a cabinet position for super producer / rapper?
November 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
What does Al use in his hair? I would love to know
November 10th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Concise says:
i feel with obama being elected, the trickle down effect of seeing an african america hold the highest position in america and arguably the world will permeate into our personal mentality, individual communities, and even popular music. and it will have a positive impact. does that mean rappers will all of a sudden stop cursing? no. thats ridiculous. but it could mean that works of art that are more inspiring and hopeful could be born.
++++
coming from you, that sounds fine. however, comin from a person who…
1. Has the political agenda to “clean up” hip-hop
2. Has been opposed to Obama and only seems to jump on the bandwagon after he picks up steam
…it is not genuine or believable to me. that’s why I say it SEEMS like he is leveraging barack n’ roll’s appeal to help with what he’s trying to do.
I dunno, maybe I’m just biased but I don’t believe him, he needs more people.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
i agree with k-words. i dont always trust al’s intentions.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
dopebooty Says:
What does Al use in his hair? I would love to know
+++
wtf?!
November 11th, 2008 at 9:51 am
this is dope to see emcees having this convo…i hope barack has that effect too. im still on my obama high! and yo…i downloaded the mixtape. ya’ll are fire. ya’ll should have been on that cover of xxl. i dont see what the c.hamilton and k.cudi hype is over ya’ll…for real
November 11th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I really like the message of this article. My comment is not so much on Al but on Jesse. This dude was cryig during Obama’s victory speech. Watching him cry on tv only made me think back to his fox news interview where he had said some not so flattering things about Barak. This dude is suspect.
I think people need to remember that Barak Obama is the president for all of america, not just black america. He is going to change policies concerning the economy and foreign affairs. We cannot put it on him to change our communities. Obama’s message has always been change starts from the bottom up not the top down. So please people if we want change lets make change and lets not put it on someone else to make change.
K Dot Wes Dot
February 16th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I am very happy that I found your blog. Keep up the good work.