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Let me preface this by saying, as someone who gets the direct hiphop or street type of male viewpoint quite often being a DJ and producer for over 5 years, its really interesting how race plays into hip hop today. ALL women at this point, whether specifically black or of color or asian, white, brown, mixed etc are targets for degradation. We are rarely taken seriously. On top of that we are under a damn microscope when we need to get our needs met yet men are still rewarded for being players. But sadly women have started playing the game (if you can’t beat em, join em) like men because there’s no other way to handle business at a certain level.
The bottom line is this: No evolution has occurred in 20 years of hip hop. Its regressed. Is there one group like Tribe Called Quest out there today? Only Talib Kweli recently has had a level of commercial success by avoiding the f*cking multiple bitches subject matter in every other song.
I really don’t want to put him on blast but a perfect example is Jdilla’s “Won’t Do”. I can’t help but love the song (the beat/music esp) yet the hook is “One won’t do it, two is not enough for me (line em up)”…..the song is all about getting with multiple “freaky” women. “If you kept your mouth closed maybe we could deal with you”…”keep em in line”…”when i pull that f*cker out it attracts the gold diggers”. Damn dilla you just had to go there. When I listen or play the song, I just can’t help but cringe at certain points. We all know some disreputable women out there but they are not the majority….and certainly not the women in power.
On the flip side, commercial R&B singers/songwriters are actually putting out songs that could potentially empower women rather then degrade them. A song about the woman making a man better is an inspiration to us all. These songs are getting mainstream play which helps to counterbalance all the negative sh*t talking about women in urban music.
Below is just an excerpt of their letter.
FYI, Spelman Alumni Moya Bailey and Leana Cabral just drafted this letter to BET’s CEO which is in the Atlanta Daily Newspaper among other news sources. Feel free to spread the word in any capacity. If anyone wants to contact Moya or Leana, email Moya.Leana@gmail.com
October 3, 2007
Dear Debra Lee:
As two of the so called “Nelly Protesters,” we feel compelled to speak after the egregious presentation of “Hip Hop vs. America” on BET. Though purportedly trying to redress the sexism, misogyny, and materialism of hip hop videos, the program actually deified all of these by not engaging with feminist women panelists, or panelists that did not invoke a kind of celebrity worship. Once again the voices of young black women were marginalized in preference for a largely older black male voice of authority. Even the women panelists who were present were talked over and addressed less.
It was very disheartening to hear Nelly completely misrepresent the events leading up to the so called Nelly Protest. Upon hearing about Nelly’s desire to do a bone marrow drive on campus, the Spelman Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance placed signs on campus calling attention to his misogynistic lyrical and video content. Apparently, the foundation had been to campus earlier that week and seen the signs that the FMLA put up all over campus. They scheduled an emergency meeting with the Spelman Student Government Association and requested that no protesters be at the drive. SGA could not provide this kind of guarantee. The foundation then left the room so that SGA could vote on whether or not the drive could continue if, at the foundation’s request, Nelly agreed to participate in a forum to address student concerns. Despite a unanimous vote to continue with the drive under the new stipulations, when the foundation came back they had already decided to cancel the drive. Our intention was to do exactly what Nelly stated on the program. We planned to have him come to campus and meet with a small group of concerned students, something he was unwilling to do. Not only that, we still had a bone marrow drive and all the students initially involved registered to donate bone marrow! The foundation was apparently so upset about this issue that THEY went to the press, saying that Spelman canceled the drive because of the video “Tip Drill.” Aside from this factual error, both Nelly and T. I. continued to skirt the issue of their own responsibility. Yes, America is racist and sexist. Yes, America is materialistic but that doesn’t make it right! That doesn’t mean that we as black women should have to negotiate a world that has historical portrayed us to be less than human and continues to do so in a genre that should counter that stereotype.
Sincerely,
Moya Bailey and Leana Cabral
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It’s easy to place blame on the rappers making these songs and the big white record exec plantation owners pushing them to make them thus perpetuating all the stereotypes of the wild angry black man, and the ‘ready for sex at anytime’ black women. But when will the women stop being ‘victims’ of this, and start being ‘responsible’ for their own demise.
These feminists should send an open letter to these models, actresses, video chicks, and let them know that it stops with them. What type of women are we and they raising? Address the young girls and women who still watch BET, and listen to mainstream radio. Granted the women have been indoctrinated for so many years into thinking this is the norm.It’s a slippery slope teetering on brainwashing, sexism and politics. Quite possibly this is a set up to get everyone, women included, distracted to what’s really going on . But don’t listen to me, I’m the educated woman who got caught out there singing ‘Laffy Taffy’ at an asian karaoke bar.
thats for sure, dude