Imus Fallout and Hip-Hop
Yeah, some hip-hop artists have some very negative things to say about women. But this is the best example this guy could come up with? Hell, that's not even in Snoop Dogg's top 50 most misogynistic lyrics. Someone get him Bitch Please on MP3.
posted by Todd Martin at 1:55 AM
7 Comments:
I really liked this article from Page 2. Felt it was probably the most well written article on this whole fiasco that I've seen.
Isn't the whole arguement moot since people pay to listen to hip hop and it's not broadcast for free to the public? And in situations when it is it's up to the company thats broadcasting it to censor it and not the artists.
Imus' arguement is "black people do it, why can't I"...
I don't know. I mean, record companies have a say over whether they release the material just like the radio station. And the issue of whether to censor is to me a secondary issue to whether this stuff should be out there. To me, a lot of hip hop artists should be criticized for their lyrics, but it's certainly not Imus' place to say so. Moreover, there are plenty of really high quality hip hop artists who have great things to say, just like there are a lot of people with great things to say on the radio. The people who put out crap in both are the ones that deserve the criticism.
And the issue of whether to censor is to me a secondary issue to whether this stuff should be out there.
You're against free speech?
No, I'm not. That's why I distinguished between censorship and whether this stuff should be out there. Censorship is the issue of whether you want to step in and regulate free speech. Whether this stuff should be out there is just a normative question - are we better off as a society with really misogynistic hip-hop lyrics? The reason the second question is the primary one is because the answer to the first question is obvious: of course you don't censor free speech of this kind.
Dave Zirin has a great commentary about hip-hop, misogyny and racism up now at edgeofsports.com.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/23/turner.prom/index.html
2007, First Integrated Prom in school history..
Yes, rap lyrics and the degrading of women in rap songs are a pressing issue facing our society today...
I'll remember that the next time Mr. Marcus lets off on Kristi Myst's grill piece.
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