TONIGHT ON THE TERRORDOME: HARD TO BE CONSCIOUS when the world is full of jimps*
Last Sunday night I watched parts of the Academy Awards ceremony on television, and was sickened to see the performance, celebration and victory of a song called “It’s Hard to Be a Pimp.” I discussed my disgust at length on The Bro-Log (see below).In short, I objected not only to the promotion of the stereotype of Black folks as criminals, exploiters and sexual deviants, but even more to the three groups who made this revolting display possible: the Black performers and music-makers who created presented the material, the Black folks in the audience who cheered the song and its sentiments, and the wealthy White Hollywood establishment that makes piles of cash by promoting these hateful and destructive stereotypes in albums, TV and films.
Just a week before, I’d hosted a forum on that exact topic at the Edmonton Public Library, a forum called Get Rich or Die Slavin’, an exploration of how corporate media in North America exploits images of Afrikan-Americans and Afrikan-Canadians as anti-intellectual lowlifes, hyper-sexed thugs, prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, drug users, gang bangers and murderers in order to earn hundreds of millions of dollars for wealthy White record company executives and stock holders... and how plenty of rappers, singers and video models are quite happy to sell out their race in order to earn their own thirty pieces of "House Negro" silver... not to mention how far too many of us will support these vampires by buying their records, their fashions, their imagery and their ideals, all at the low, low cost of our souls.
Originally I was going to present only one edition of The Terrordome on that forum, but in light of our defeat because of an Oscar win, tonight we’ll part one of two of that discussion. I began the day by discussing the title of the event, Get Smart or Die Slavin’.
Tune in tonight at 6 PM on FM88 in Edmonton, or go click on THE TERRORDOME link on the left.
*What's a jimp? See my novel The Coyote Kings (links on the left) for an explanation.
Comments
- A tribe called quest
- Leaders of the New School
- De La Soul
- Nice and Smooth
- etc
I remembered I stopped listening to Hip Hop when ‘the Wu’ first came out, positive messages, come on. If so, they are the epitome of hyp-ocrisy. That in my mind was the point where hip hop was destroyed. Before that it was fresh and interesting, in a world of alternatives that included glam rock and the Go Go’s. Even NWA’s first album had a stories of anger.
Could the 'suburbanization' of Hip Hop have started with the success of the House of Pain? The first 'pop' hip hop group, indecently white. Let’s not forget the innovators of ‘As Nasty as we wanna be’ 2 Live Crew, who took it to the next level. They were constantly in court over there lyrics and performances with minimally dressed women. Fast forward to the present, 2 Live Crew would definitely not be over the top.
Once the record companies, which are huge corps realized the profits, no more law suits, or successful ones.
This brand of degrading hip hop, is only accepted by White North America, because it has the message of, ‘it’s ok, it’s not us, it’s them’. A friend of mine from a rougher neighbourhood in Las Vegas made an interesting comment to me a few years back. He came to visit Beaumont (south of Edmonton), and said, “ Picture this, riding in a minivan with three girls, through a wheat field, in a rural country town, blasting 50 Cents new album – what a joke”.