Thursday, April 26, 2007

Why Oprah is Hip Hopping off Target

"Boyce Watkins is one of the greatest minds of our time"
- Marc Lamont Hill, Temple University Professor and CNN/FOX analysis


By Dr. Boyce Watkins

When I was young, my mother used to say, “ Coco (my nickname), your mouth will either make you great or get you killed, I’m curious to see which one.”

My mother may see her prophesy fulfilled by that religious figure otherwise known as Oprah Winfrey. I was asked to appear in a documentary as an Oprah critic, but I refused. People think that because you question someone’s motives, you must hate them. I don’t hate Oprah, I love her. But my love can’t match the worship she receives from the millions who rely on her for life support. Oprah should change her name to “Black Baby Jesus”, since her following makes me think she sprinkles crack cocaine onto the TV screen. Talking about Oprah on national TV will get you in serious trouble and I have never gotten as much hate mail as I get when I mention her name. I quickly recognized the gravity of challenging a sacred religious figure, as I have nightmares of the angry big woman from “The Color Purple” running at me in the cornfield and saying, “You told Coco to beat me!”

This week “Queen Pope-ra” gathered for a “town hall meeting” with her army of soccer moms, all to discuss how terrible hip hop has become (as if they know anything about rap music). She included the “brilliance” of men like sports writer Jason Whitlock, who couldn’t get second place in a two-man spelling bee against George Bush. The only rapper present was Common, whom I don’t think has ever “spit” a vulgar lyric in his life. Not that Common “ain’t tight”, but his presence on the show was probably rewarded by the fact that he has been approved by Queen Pope-ra for being a good boy, not a “hood boy”.

Let’s be clear. Much of hip hop is dog crap, any dummy who watches MTV knows this. But it’s not identifying the problem that matters, it’s how you analyze it. Basically, I can say 4 things about Oprah’s “town hall meeting”: wrong people, wrong venue, wrong analysis, wrong target.

The “town hall meeting” quickly turned into a cheerleading convention, with nearly every person stating that hip hop is bad, rappers suck, and some even saying that we can’t hold Don Imus accountable for what he said, since black people say the same thing. Blah blah blah blah blah.

So, as Oprah held her anti-meat convention with an audience full of vegetarians, I wondered if she realized a few important facts. First of all, the language used in hip hop does NOT excuse Don Imus. The “I’ve seen others do worse” argument is just dumb. I wouldn’t be able to defend a crime against white women by saying that I saw a white man do worse. Secondly, if you want to impact hip hop, attacking the artists in a venue of people who don’t even listen to the music is not going to achieve very much. OK great. Now soccer moms will no longer buy rap music. But guess what? Their kids don’t give a damn. Third, having a “panel of experts” consisting of a bunch of people who feel the same way you do is NOT a town hall meeting. It’s a McCarthyist witch-hunt against those you do not agree with. Oprah is good at having those, as she possessively avoids “providing legitimacy” to those with whom she does not agree. She proved that to the rapper Ludicris, whom she reluctancy placed at the edge of the stage as a member of the film “Crash”, proceeded to chastise him, and then edited out his response to her statements. Only a bully a**hole would do something like that.

If rappers suddenly changed their tune, then the record labels would simply do as Queen Pope-ra has done with Jason Whitlock; find some other idiot off the street to say what they want to hear. If you really want to have this conversation, and you want it to mean something, you have to go after the labels. This isn’t so easy, because many of the companies that own these labels ALSO own a piece of Oprah.

Hip hop hating is not the answer, and neither are cultish gatherings with Stepford Wife-like unanimity. Constructive and productive solutions work best. THAT is how you kill the monster.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said, good post. Lets see the what others have to say.

Intellectual Insurgent said...

That was excellent and very well written.

Anonymous said...

I see nothing wrong with the critical analysis of rap that is currently going on. Hip Hop is huge. His Hop is bigger then any person would have ever predicted. Hip Hop has taken the world over from country to country. It's wonderful that people of the world have adopted our culture. Why not harvest this great power and use it for good and not just to make profits?? Since it has such wide appeal and shapes the way our younger black culture behaves let's call for the rappers to put more uplifting, call for change in a verse. Like it or not...rappers are this countries leaders. They lead the way millions of young black youth behave like it or not.

I'm so tired of the weak, sad argument that Hip Hop is a mirror. Ok, maybe it is...why not use that mirror for change. Too bad we don't have any more 2pacs. Now that was a brother that reported on the gutter of our society (mirror) but also called for change at the same time.



I wish more rappers were like this.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ4FvfM9Ftk


watch this revolutionary brother: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM6MwXZ84gc

Should I be outraged that rappers are calling our woman bitches and hos? Peep this pac verse:
I give a holler to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares, and don't nobody else care
And uhh, I know they like to beat ya down a lot
When you come around the block brothas clown a lot
But please don't cry, dry your eyes, never let up
Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up
And when he tells you you ain't nuttin don't believe him
And if he can't learn to love you you should leave him
Cause sista you don't need him
And I ain't tryin to gas ya up, I just call em how I see em
You know it makes me unhappy (what's that)
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up"


Let's lift up our community...not bring it down!!!

Denmark Vesey said...

Paul said...

"Why not harvest this great power and use it for good and not just to make profits??"

EXACTLY.

Apparently Paul, others see the power and value (threat) of Hip Hop much more clearly than does the Oprah / Stanley Crouch / Down With Hip Hop crowd.

Which may unveil the motive behind the urgent and organized effort to discredit Hip Hop in general by FRAMING THE DEBATE the way the media has chosen to frame it:

“Should rappers be allowed to use the words “bitch” and “ho”?

Which has all the intellectual sincerity of asking someone “Have you stopped beating your wife? Yes or no?”

I submit any “critical analysis of rap” framed in such nonsensical terms is neither truly critical nor is it analytical. It is simply sabotage.

You notice Oprah is not hosting any shows asking the audience should: “Rock & Roll artists be allowed to worship Satan?”

Hip Hop, EVEN GANGSTER HIP HOP is far more than repeating the terms “Bitch and Ho”. It is complex, it is nuanced it is sophisticated. IT IS POLITICAL.

Anyone who insists on repeating the mantra "Gangsta Rap is only about bitches and ho's" is either:
1) About as qualified to comment on the content of contemporary Hip Hop as I am qualified to critique Hungarian chamber music
3) Loathe to admit there is something produced by "these niggas" beyond their capacity to understand.
2) Not seriously discussing music at all, but is simply playing politics.

Anything corporate media does not want us to have, must be good for us.

Anonymous said...

DV Said...
Hip Hop, EVEN GANGSTER HIP HOP is far more than repeating the terms “Bitch and Ho”. It is complex, it is nuanced it is sophisticated. IT IS POLITICAL.

Anon Said...
I agree with you guys all the way up until the above. Luda's "I got ho's in different area codes" is degrading to women period! And it sterotypes brotha's in that light. If you can stop defending and/or justyfing the crap then I think we all can agree. This is the specific crap I think we have debating with the pro-HipHoppers about. For th 104th time not all HipHop is bad. Face it in every genre Rock(Heavy Metal), Pop(Britney) etc. There are bad artist with bad lyrics. Just because it's got a banging beat an attracts people does not mean it is translating messages that are productive to our people specifically. In the name of art, freedom of speach it doesn't matter. If you would be ashamed to sing it in church than it is probably bad.

Regards,
Anon

Denmark Vesey said...

"For th 104th time not all HipHop is bad."

Anon,

There is shitty Classical music. There is shitty Country Western . There is shitty Opera. There is shitty Jazz.

For the 105th time, this is not about the music, but about the organized effort to discredit all Hip Hop by focusing the attention of the sheep like masses, on only the negative.

Millions of people who weren't even thinking about Hip Hop 3 weeks ago are walking around repeating that carefully constructed sound bite: "Rap is about bitches and ho's".

That is no accident.

If they don't want us to have it, it must be good for us.

Anonymous said...

Picking on Oprah is easy.

I agree that "hating hip hop" is not the answer, but I think we all agree that hip hop needs to be improved from it's current state. So how do we do that, DV?

Big J

Denmark Vesey said...

"Picking on Oprah is easy."

Actually it's not. It takes heart and self-definition to think for ourselves in this time of mass conformity. It's actually easier to side with the herd and let Oprah do the thinking for us.

"but I think we all agree that hip hop needs to be improved from it's current state." Big J


Brother J,

I think that is ridiculous. Name any art form in history that has been "improved" by censorship.

Oprah is a hypocrit. A tool. Note her show (while peddling prescription drugs and Weight Watchers during commercial breaks) panders to the fragile emotional needs of millions of middle aged women suffering from penile malnourishment, is distributed by the same corporations you claim "control" Hip Hop.

If they don't want us to have it, it must be good for us.

Anonymous said...

DV,
I think that is ridiculous. Name any art form in history that has been "improved" by censorship.

Anon,
Porn..LOL

Regards

Denmark Vesey said...

Anon,
Porn..LOL

Hey man. That's funny as hell.

Anonymous said...

See even rappers know when they are wrong...

Cam'ron is apologizing for his comments on Sunday's "60 Minutes," where he told Anderson Cooper that he wouldn't turn in a serial killer if he were living next door to one. Good thing he doesn't host a radio show.

As part of a story about snitching, Cam'ron said, "If I knew the serial killer was living next door to me? I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him -- but I'd probably move. But I'm not going to call and be like, 'The serial killer's in 4E.'" Word?

In a statement, Cam'ron tried to explain what he said, "Where I come from, once word gets out that you've cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence. That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I'm not saying it's right, but it's reality."

Cam'ron went on -- "Looking back now, I can see how those comments could be viewed as offensive, especially to those who have suffered their own personal tragedies or to those who put their lives on the line to protect our citizens from crime," the rap star said in a statement issued today. "Please understand that I was expressing my own personal frustration at my own personal circumstances. I in no way was intending to be malicious or harmful. I apologize deeply for this error in judgment."

Regards,
Anon

Denmark Vesey said...

It was a stupid question to begin with.

Stop Snitchin' was never about serial killers.

It was about informants, paid by the For Profit Prison System, to testify against against black men and send them to prison at a rate of 1,000 per week.

The "60 Minutes" question was carefully crafted and carefully edited to DISTRACT the gullible masses from the underlying political implications of the concept.

STOP SNITCHIN'.

1,000,000 black men in prison, most for nonviolent crimes, is enough.

Anonymous said...

DV Said...
Millions of people who weren't even thinking about Hip Hop 3 weeks ago are walking around repeating that carefully constructed sound bite: "Rap is about bitches and ho's".

Anon Said...
DV The HipHop industry is owned and controlled by the white man anyway. So let them deal with it.
9.8 billion dollar industry of which 9 billion goes to the white man... while a handful of latino and brotha's split the balance.
So really were are crying over their circumstance. We all knew this day was coming.

Regards,
Anon

Anonymous said...

DV Said...
STOP SNITCHIN'.

1,000,000 black men in prison, most for nonviolent crimes, is enough.

Anon Said...
I argue that if someone shot your loved on in front of you and you witnessed it you would be the first to call popo... You don't need to front for us my man.

Keep it real...

Regards,
Anon

Denmark Vesey said...

Anon,

Bra. I'm a grown man. I have a family and international assets.

Although at risk, my relationship with the For Profit Prison system is not the same as 20 year old from East New York - simply another customer.

Instead of looking for reasons to hate, dismiss, reduce, misconstrue, distort and misunderstand young brothers - why not try to understand, relate, empathize and do something about it.

You sound like one of them 1-Way mentors. Maybe you would be more effective if you listened more and talked less.

You creative enough to pick a nick name?

I'm getting tired of calling you "Anon".

Anonymous said...

I never said I'm in love with Oprah.

So why do you think Nas says "Hip Hop is Dead?" Are you saying that there is no white, external "control agent" in hip hop? Perhaps the same one that keeps soldiers in Iraq? Surely you jest!

Big J

Big J

Denmark Vesey said...

I think that white control agent is in the minds of black people who seek affirmation and adjudication from whites.

(As we speak Al Sharpton and a slew of other Civil Rights Negros in NYC are marching on white record labels demanding "dey do summin about rap)

Fools.

Anonymous said...

Sexually charged music directly impacts teenage sexual habits, new study says


By Michael Foust — BP News



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Teen-agers who listen to sexually degrading music, including some forms of popular rap music, are more likely to be sexually active than are other teens, a new study says.

The study by RAND Corporation surveyed 1,461 adolescents ages 12 to 17 and followed them for three years, conducting interviews in 2001, 2002 and 2004. At each interval, they asked the teens about their music and sexual habits.

The teens who listened to sexually degrading music—by such artists as rappers Lil' Kim and Ja Rule—were "more likely … to initiate intercourse and other sexual activities," a RAND news release said. (The study included sample lyrics from Lil' Kim and Ja Rule that cannot be printed here.)

Although the study looked at all types of music—including hard rock, country and pop—it found that rap and rap-metal typically had the highest frequency of sexually degrading lyrics. The study found that the degrading lyrics negatively impacted both boys and girls, whites and non-whites.

Unlike music of decades past, the language in many of today's songs that is "used to describe sex has become increasingly direct," the study said.

“These portrayals objectify and degrade women in ways that are clear, but they do the same to men by depicting them as sex-driven studs,” Steven Martino, a RAND psychologist who led the study, said in a statement. “Musicians who use this type of sexual imagery are communicating something very specific about what sexual roles are appropriate, and teen listeners may act on these messages.”

Sexually degrading music and music videos, the study said, depict "sex-driven males competing with one another for females who are viewed as sexual objects" and whose "value is based on their physical appearance."

The RAND study confirms what Focus on the Family and other Christian conservatives have been saying "for years," said Bob Waliszewski, media specialist with Focus on the Family.

"I'm very, very happy that the RAND corporation did this study, because some people seem to just overlook the obvious," Waliszewski said. "And until there's a study out there, it just doesn't resonate."

The average teen listens to music 1.5 to 2.5 hours a day—not counting the time he or she may spend watching music videos, the study said. One-fourth of teens listen to more than three hours of music a day, it said.

Listening to degrading music can have a significant negative impact on teens, the study said. Girls, it said, may come to expect to be treated with disrespect by boys.

"If so, these expectations may have lasting effects on their relationship choices, a possibility that warrants further investigation," the study said. "Boys, on the other hand, may come to interpret reckless male sexual behavior as 'boys being boys' and dismiss girls' sexual preferences and desires as inconsequential."

chosen said...

Hegemony (pronounced he'gem.ə.ni or hə'dʒɛ.mə.ni) (Greek: ἡγεμονία hēgemonía) is the dominance of one group over other groups, with or without the threat of force, to the extent that, for instance, the dominant party can dictate the terms of trade to its advantage; more broadly, cultural perspectives become skewed to favor the dominant group. The cultural control that hegemony asserts affects commonplace patterns of thought: hegemony controls the way new ideas are rejected or become naturalized in a process that subtly alters notions of common sense in a given society.

Hegemony results in the empowerment of certain cultural beliefs, values, and practices to the submersion and partial exclusion of others. Hegemony influences the perspective of mainstream history, as history is written by the victors for a congruent readership.

As Antonio Gramsci defines it, "The term hegemony describes the process whereby ideas, structures, and actions come to be seen by the majority of people as wholly natural, preordained, and working for their own good, when in fact they are constructed and transmitted by powerful minority interests to protect the status quo that serves those interest."1
--wikipedia.org

Mr. Wilson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mr. Wilson said...

dv:

well written original post...its the first time i have been able to stay with you without feeling like i was drinking the koolaid

casper:

yawn. correlation does not prove causality. finding a link between two events does not determine which one led to the other or if either had a causal relationship to the other. in most cases two correlated events have a more subtle parent causal event:

for instance: there is a statistical correlation between near-sightedness and high I.Q. People with high I.Q.s are more likely to be near-sighted than your average person, and near-sighted people are more likely to be of above average intelligence. does one cause the other? no. a voracious reading appetited leads to focusing at one focal lenght for long periods of time which develops near-sightedness in those who are at risk for it, where as those who do not read do not develop the condition (or at least not as severly). reading large amounts also tends to increase one's cognitive capability.

so what does it matter if hip hop and high sexuality are related? what if you you found that suicide rates were lower among teens who listen to explicit lyrics? i am sure then you would search out the real culprit connecting these two events, because you wouldn't want to claim that explicit hip hop lyrics are helping kids to maintain emotional health. people that bring forth these kinds of arguments and even think they are relevant are living in the dark ages and are an embarassment to the educational system which should have erased this kind of bad reasoning like we did polio y ears ago. of course the american education system is about producing good consumers and producers, not questioning minds.

so newspapers routinely put this kind of b.s. out in the public because it sells papers to people who think it matters. everyone at the paper knows that this is b.s. anybody that ever took an economics class or is slightly familiar with scientific inquiry knows that unless you control for all of the variables that tend to delineate rap and rap metal listening teens from other teens, you are in no position to even suggest a causal relationship, but here we have people thinking they are really making some critical points...

thoroughly frustrated...

mr. wilson