Saturday, April 14, 2007

Act Too (Love of My Life) Hip-Hop

This post is actually a response to a post of the beautiful educator Kim.

It's easy to attack the rap, but rap has been around since 1977 - racism and sexism have been around longer than that. As a black woman I am in more contact with rap than metal/rock/roll, so I will see the negative in rap before I see it in those other music genres. A black woman saying take rap off the airwaves is music to white people's ears. Do away with rap - the one form of music that hasn't been stolen from us yet. I wish people would get a cd and listen to the songs that don't make it to the air. You are only allowed to have so many hits on an album. To get the fly by night folks to buy an album based on one song takes a whole lot. Half the time folks aren't listening to the lyrics but the music and chorus, so if it's sexual, about glorifying yourself, pimping, and cars - it's going to sale. A true fan doesn't buy a cd based on what they put on the radio. Most rappers were gangsters and they rap for gangsters, hustlers, for the streets. They tell them how horrible it is, seeing folks get shot, put in prison, and how to get out of the whole ganster game through rap. Most of it is not for children. Children only hear what coporate America wants them to hear - negative black men talking negatively about everything. Children can't go buy the whole cd because they aren't old enough. And if they do get a cd rap is so encoded that they are not going to understand anything but the 'n' the 'b' words. As far as the radio - I flip until I find something or put in a Jay-Z cd. I long ago stopped watching BET music videos because they played rap music that would pull in ratings and cross-over to the white people. Since then I stopped watching tv.

I did have some typos that I fixed. Here and hear are something else when you're typing fast. To add to this I would for people to pick up rap and/or hip-hop music that isn't on BET and the radios. I do agree that negative words and images have no place on the airwaves but pick and choose your fights carefully. And when your words aren't working - there is always the power of money. Boycotting works. Turn the tvs and radios off. Personally, I don't want my future children listening to Sexual Healing, Strokin', on the smooth, classic soul, and R&B stations.

5 comments:

Sharon Baptist Church said...

Hey, Carmen. I made a longer response on my blog, but I agree that there is good hip-hop out there (and I love it), but there's also a lot of crap-rap that sells records like you said but doesn't say anything positive. Maybe if we get rid of those charlatans, there'll be more room on the air for all those talented artists who can't get any love from mainstream urban radio stations because they actually have something to say.

CarmenNC said...

Thanks Kim, I'll be over there shortly. When I had music on my page I wanted to put a Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg song there. But after carefully listening to the songs for references to gangs, sex, guns, and drugs - there weren't any. But the 'n' word was still present. Then I figured some songs were too sexual - so I took them all off.

muslimahlocs said...

even though i no longer listen to music, i definately make a distinction between hip-hop and rap.
if it's getting air-play then it's probably rap and not worth listening to.
if your girl told you about it and you had to buy it online direct from the artist or maybe you can't even buy it yet, then it's probably hip-hop and may be worth listening to.
my husband gave up on hip-hop because of rap.
i do miss some of the islamic hip-hop artists (that most non-muslims have never heard of) like kumasi, tyson, 1159, belikemuhammad, m-team, native deen, etc. you can check them out at http://remarkablecurrent.com and http://muslimhiphop.com
i used to be in the front row at all of the shows. maybe i will do a more detailed post on my blog, God-willing.

CarmenNC said...

Do share the hip-hop with others. Once again you are sharing something that I didn't know about. Thank you. And myspace is becoming popular for underground artists.

Maryee said...

Rappers have been rapping about money, cars and women and "the man" since the beginning. I guess they weren't so crass about it as it has gotten gutter bottom bad in the past 15 yrs. Thanks for sharing.