We Care About Rap Lyrics

Printed on: Thu, Apr 19, 2007

Many in black community oppose rap lyrics

By Kelvin Wade

Bloviaters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and those in the conservative blogosphere are all decrying some kind of double standard regarding rap music in the wake of the Imus firing. They say that rappers are allowed to say all kinds of vile things and no one complains. That's nonsense.

The late C. Delores Tucker was a civil rights activist who attacked the rap industry with a vengeance for the violence and images it portrayed. She was supported in her efforts by the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus. She bought shares of Time-Warner and once, at a shareholders' meeting, asked the bigwigs to read the lyrics of the music they profited from and they refused. Time-Warner ended up selling Interscope, its big rap label.

Chuck D of the trailblazing socially conscious rap group, Public Enemy, regularly blasts gangsta rap. Chuck rails against the corporate promotion of negative images in hip hop. He tells artists they have a responsibility to the community.

Director Spike Lee has been blasting negative lyrics and images in rap long before Bill Cosby headed for a microphone to echo the sentiment. His 2000 movie, "Bamboozled" took aim at black culture demeaning itself. He's delivered speeches calling out individual rappers like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent for the messages they send to black youth.

Essence, a monthly magazine for women of color, kicked off a campaign two years ago to fight the hypersexual image of women in rap videos.

Since 1993, the Rev. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem has attacked vile and derogatory lyrics in rap, as well as the use of the N word.

In 2004, Spelman College canceled a bone marrow drive with rap artist Nelly when he refused to attend a forum where he would have to answer questions about one of his offensive videos. The college's student governing board issued a statement saying they couldn't support artists who exploited women.

This year marked the first time a hip hop act, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, were selected for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After the induction, group member Melle Mel lamented today's gangsta rap saying, "We were street, but we never sold drugs or shot anybody. We gave youth a voice."

And even the civil rights ambulance chasers conservatives love to hate, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, have long been attacking violence and misogyny in rap music. Just last year, in a keynote address to the National Association of Black Journalists, the group who led the charge against Don Imus, Sharpton said, "We have got to get out of this gangster mentality, acting as if gangsterism and blackness are synonymous. . . I think we have allowed a whole generation of young people to feel that if they're focused, they're not black enough. If they speak well and act well, they're acting white, and there's nothing more racist than that."

You don't have to like either one of these guys but to say they haven't been criticizing rap is just sheer ignorance. Wasn't it Jesse Jackson who tried to lead the charge to ban the use of the N word after the Michael Richards meltdown? It went nowhere.

No one's been criticizing rap? Do black voices not count?

So why has there been no tsunami against hard-core rap? That's a good question. Why didn't the mainstream media ever get behind any of the people I mentioned? Sharpton tried years ago to get radio stations to ban violent rap with no help from the mainstream media.

Why are there so many Johnny-come-latelies on this issue? And I'm talking about the conservative pundits who don't really give a hoot about hip hop, black youth or how women are depicted, but just want to score political points while licking their wounds over Imus.

So to those now criticizing nasty lyrics and images in rap, welcome aboard. It's about time.