Hip Hip Is Not What It Is Today
July 26, 2007 | 12 Rajab 1428
Recent personal events had me revisiting the Don Imus scandal [if it can be labeled such a thing] and how its apex came in the form of an Oprah town hall meeting. 9th Wonder, a hip hop musician, had some interesting remarks on this phenomenon, in that why did it take all this time, and more specifically, a white man to say something we’d consider derogatory [when the word’s used by us all the time as well as other morally suspect nomenclature], to have a hip hop town hall meeting. As 9th Wonder pointed out, “we should have been had one”. Black folks can run around and act irresponsible, fight, shoot, cuss and more, and it’s just “okay” for us. But a white man comes along and says something we think is racist rhetoric [yes, I do believe Imus is an ass but that’s a bit besides the point here] and the media goes into a whirl and we’re having a town hall meeting. My question is, why ain’t we havin’ a town hall meeting about gun violence in the black community? Why ain’t we havn’ a town hall meeting about AIDS? About teen pregnancy and single motherhood? If we’re waiting for the white man to find that controversial, well, let’s just say we should pre-order our coffins today because none of the aforementioned issues have ever been crucial to non-whites and yet we continue to suffer horribly in black urban centers. May God give us the insight, the courage and the means to make a permanent, lasting changer for the better.
You Tube interview with 9th Wonder.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Thanks, Anthony. It just really gets me, you know. People wanna blame hip hop but not look critically at the people. But this goes for any social malady. We have to be honest. Now don’t get me wrong, I ain’t down for Imus and others like him to shoot off at the mouth. I don’t condone what he said and I do think he had racist intentions behind it but more importantly, we do we always gotta wait for some white folks to make something an issue for us when it’s been an issue [or should have been] all along? Peace.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:39 am
True - but as others have pointed out and I most certainly agree, Oprah’s show is a show from “a” black woman’s perspective [and most certainly not the normative one] for upper middle-class white women. Her show will never target an audience other than what it targets now! It matters not that she has Blackamerican artists, guests and otherwise on her show. It’s a show that’s meant to connect with a non-black audience.
Thanks for the 9th Wonder link. I will check it out right now.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Seems like Victimology is alive and well and helps foster moral mediocrity among the popularly accepted hip-hop artists.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:27 pm
youre welcome