CNN plays the wrong music and apologizes
Thoughts_Arrive
Posts: 15,165
Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
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Thoughts_Arrive
Posts: 15,165
Thoughts_Arrive
Posts: 15,165
Comments
Why do black people think that it is ok for them to talk like that?
I will never understand that.
NOT ALL black people talk like that and besides if such speech resides within a rap song what exactly is the problem? It's RAP which I believe is a free form style of speaking!
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
"what a long, strange trip it's been"
I know not all black people speak like that, but some of the stuff in those rap songs are ridiculous and as a woman, I find quite offensive.
.....And as a woman or a man I understand the offense taken however, it is in a rap song which has it's own select genre of music listeners.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
Have you suspended your judgement and tried to understand it?
No I haven't, I see absolutely no need for it.
Let's examine, "Nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga, i'm a hundred percent nigga"
You should try it when you don't understand something, it makes life much more interesting and enjoyable with less negativity and judgement.
The question wasn't about understanding the lyrics, it was about understanding why the person thinks its okay to write those lyrics.
rap music using those lyrics is highly hypocritical and counter-intuitive to race relations and racial equality gains made to this point in history in my opinion. the audience for rap is not just one select type of person as you speak of. offensive words should be offensive no matter who says them.
brings me back to my days as an activist. I think various communities who have been persecuted and abused over the years, like gays for an example, or women have all used similarly abusive and damaging language in their own communities, to try and take the power back from a word that caused harm and shame and pain and to use it in a way that is familial and friendly. The use of the N Word in the black communities is the same thing.
I also think hip hop music as a whole has been very instrumental in race relations in our generation. yes racism is very much alive and well in the world. And in our generation. But i also think being exposed to the powerful portrayal of urban decay and poverty in the art of Tupac, Biggie, etc... had a huge impact on the shaping of self in alot of people. Myself included and im sure im not the only person. The fact that hip hop shows and music sell primarily to white kids in the suburbs deserves a wider discussion on this board and elsewhere. What does the effect of listening to Ready to Die or similar such works have on kids who live in privelege and dont deal with the issues expressed in the art? Further, what effect does it have on those kids to be exposed to more positive or conscious artists, like Dead Prez, or Public Enemy, who confront their largely white audience with the brutal truths of the inner city and racist brutality at the hands of authority figures?
this really has nothing to do with the video, or the music on cnn. certainly i would hope whoever is responsible for it is fired.
but i think to focus in on hip hop as the problem is a straw man and an insane take on the issue. The issue isnt an art form. the issue is racism, structural, institutionalized racism. racism that makes it ok in someones mind to do something like this. to think that this is funny or okay to do.
hip hop isnt the problem.
i do think its not just a coincidence that the word as historically used ends in ER, and the word used in this context is just a A at the end.
I suggest you look into why their exists that difference in spelling. certainly african americans arent calling each other that name in hatred. in fact its often used as a familial friendly term, almost to signify a brother, sibling.
Its pure ignorance to talk about the word and not to understand or dig deep into its history, and its modern use and meaning in hip hop and the larger society as a whole
as i alluded to above, women and gays, have also taken words used against them and turned them into words of empowerment.
8/08 - Ed solo in DC, 6/09 Ed in B'more,
10/10 - Brad in B'more
i see two problems with this theory:
1)the rap music audience is generally of a younger age group (based on it truly becoming mainstream only in the past 10 or so years) that when hearing the word might not have the education or life experiences yet to understand the difference between a word ending in 'er' and a word ending in 'a'. can a teenager or even early adult truly distinguish the difference? not necessarily in all cases i would argue
2) because rap has gone somewhat to the mainstream the audience isn't just blacks. i have no problems if a group of friends want to call each other something like that when together and hanging out, but when you use it in a public forum that others understand as hate speech then to me that is wrong.
an artist has no responsibility to worry about how others will take or view or understand their art. their only concern, the only concern of an artist is to express how they feel and express their truth. The truth in the situation is the inner city isnt a nice, kind or hospitable place. its depressing, disturbing, and deadly. A way to do that is with disturbing and dark language whether thats curse words or slurs like the N word. its brutal, shocking and violent. Whether Biggie or Pac ever truely lived the life they portrayed via their songs is irrelevant. they portrayed, accurately the inner cities of america as they existed at that time.
hip hop as an art form is a way to vocalize publically the black and urban experience. white audiences werent necessarily aware that police brutality existed on the level of rodney king until that experience became public and people like Ice T and Ice Cube and NWA started talking about it. It was going on for years, but i think hip hop as a whole exposes the audience to a reality that they never imagined existed. As I said before, the majority of the consumers of hip hop, at shows, and cd sales, are white kids in the suburbs. An artist doesnt bear responsibility in this context. this is how people talk. and to censor it, to remove it, would strip the artist of not only expressing their truth, but the actual truth as well, because as i said, people talk like this. not just in hip hop songs. im talking about the n word, ending in A. not the slur. regular people talk like that, and they dont mean it in a racist, demeaning way either.
hip hop isnt perfect. there are many flaws or gripes. The degredation and exploitation of women, the materialism, the tendency of commercial hip hop to be void of social and political statements. The way that those images, whether unknowingly on the part of the artists, or purposefully on the part of the corporations, reinforce racist beliefs that african americans are lawless criminals. those are essential issues to take to task and discuss. the use of the n word, i think is a non issue, at least in the hip hop context. in the worldwide, societal context, the word, ending in ER, is one that is still used in 2011 as a racial slur. that is the issue, not some hip hop lyrics.
tupac had the word tatted on his stomach. to him it stood for never ignorant getting goals accomplished. So for him it literally was a word that was used to harm him and his ancestors and he turned it around and made it into a positive.
i think its a mistake to suggest any artist should be censoring themselves, or change their views and lyrics in public because the public may misunderstand it. thats silly to me. Im interested in honesty, reality, truth. For these artists, to express anything other than the truth is ridiculous. and even if they are acts, and never really were drug dealers, i think the art form as a whole, its positives far outweigh the negatives. I was radicalized as a result of hearing hip hop, and im sure im not the only white youth who felt this way.
if it was used as hate speech in the hip hop context, sure, thats a bad thing, and that needs to be looked at. but it isnt, at least in most cases.
So these musicians are supposed to write lyrics in a way that THEY DONT speak, in order to not what? offend people? spark racial issues? harm youngsters ears? also to not deal with the word at all, to censor it, would be the worst offence of all, as i said, its still very much a harmful slur thats used currently by people who truly hate people for the color of their skin.
I also think unless you are in that position you really have no right to judge. unless one is a minority or something, i dont think you really can tell an exploited and brutalized community or race to not try and take back the power from a word that is and was so hurtful and harmful
not quite as dirty though. this is the song that really aired:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oF1pf5V ... _embedded#!
coolio
using the 'you don't live in their world so you can't understand' is a lame argument. does that give those who grow up in other environments the same leeway and freedoms? i think not.
as for your argument regarding artists and artistic expression and censoring themselves, well don't the artists have some responsibility to their own people? irregardless of the intended consequences of their lyrics if using that word in that context is harming the perception of their race and of race relations does't the artist hold some responsibility to their own people? it's a balance for sure but where we are in this world to me it's a no brainer that they would be better off not using it.
either way it's a very interesting debate for sure.
+1
I agree This track was from my college days where I was a DJ to make extra money to keep a few dolars in my pocket. I doubt if any of you remember this one...1982
THE MESSAGE...Grandmaster Flash & The Furiuos Five
My boys strickly listen to Rap and Hip Hop and couldn't careless about my preference for Rock music. I will allow it on car rides to their football games...it seems to calm them and put them at ease. It seems most of the kids around here that's ALL they listen too. That guy Little Wayne sold out the Cruzan Ampitheatre just as fast as a country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
It's akin to the Catcher in the Rye. Poignant literature, I'd say.
OH...MY...GOD!