One of the positive after-effects of the Don Imus scandal has been the realization that we as citizens can take action to curtail hateful speech. We can put real pressure on advertisers and corporations at the Netroots level and see real results in a short time span. So we can truly impact how much sexist, racist, and violent speech is released through various media.
Oprah Winfrey took on this issue yesterday.
Overview of Oprah's show entitled "A Hip-Hop Town Hall"
No one is taking real responsibility here for the derogatory lyrical content in the hip-hop genre. Common talks about positive trends in hip-hop lyrics, but anyone listening to radio knows that nasty hip-hop tracks still rule the day.
This week's R&R Urban Radio chart
This week's R&R Top 40 radio chart
This week's R&R Rhythmic format chart
The top-selling hip-hop albums are still those by gangsta rappers. I'd love to hear some thought-provoking, socially conscious hip-hop on my radio. But that music, if it's out there, doesn't get the airplay or the press or the marketing hype. The nasty records do. I'm no prude. I personally don't care if a rapper curses or not. And music shouldn't sound like an elementary school lesson where we as listeners are being lectured; party records have their place. We just don't have the balance in hip-hop today that allows anyone to see and hear that something positive is being done. But in reading some of the comments from Oprah's guests I hear a lot being blamed on the ills of society, how if we had better standards of living, better treatment of women, and a more just world, then we wouldn't be hearing the types of lyrics we hear in hip-hop music. But urban radio still plays almost exclusively this type of music from male hip-hop artists (I find it sexist in and of itself that rap is so dominated by one gender, with rare exception). And record labels still choose the records with the hottest beats and rhymes as the singles, not the socially conscious tracks (a track like "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West or "Runaway" by Ludacris are rare exceptions in that regard).
What's wrong with this picture?
SHARPTON DOESN’T LOVE L.A.: The Rev. Al Sharpton has canceled plans to honor Island Def Jam CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid with the James Brown Memorial Culture Impact Award during the National Action Network’s annual four-day confab, which started today at the Sheraton in N.Y., according to a report in AllHipHop.com. Sharpton’s move comes as rap music continues to bear the backlash for racist comments made by Don Imus which prompted his firing. According to Sharpton, he has withdrawn the award in the wake of criticism over the content of some rap lyrics and intends to target corporations that support what he calls "gutter" rap. IDJ artists who presumably fall under that category include Jay-Z, Ludacris, Young Jeezy and Fabolous, among others.
from HITS magazine web site
So Reverend Al was all set to honor the CEO of Island Def Jam Music Group before the Don Imus controversy, but has to do a 180 to maintain his resurgent image as someone who has a constituency - the Black community - that needs to be protected from sexist, racist, and violent language. Could both the invitation to L.A. Reid and the rescinding of that very same invitation both be considered sincere acts by Rev. Sharpton? I think not. It's an attempt to cover his tracks. If Al Sharpton was serious - truly serious - about the language used in hip-hop music, then he and other Black leaders would have won that crusade by now.
This is the theme that is all too prevalent every time we see a major language usage controversy like Don Imus or Michael Richards or Al Campanis or Ann Coulter, etc.... It's the same theme when we see people like Tipper Gore or Oprah Winfrey go after lyrical content. There is a flurry of activity, and then it goes away. We all remember the heat of the controversy. We pledge to do more, to do better by our fellow human beings by making positive changes... but the ball gets dropped.
Do we as a society have ADD when it comes to making a full-bore commitment on this issue? Are we spooked by the free speech implications of such efforts? Are we afraid there is a slippery slope we could slide down whereby censorship gains a lasting foothold in society?
Very interested in hearing your thoughts.
This just in...
HIP-HOP SUMMIT: You think it was easy setting up this meeting with everyone's BlackBerries on the fritz? Reacting to criticism of rap music by Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the wake of defrocked shock jock Don Imus' inflammatory comments last week, the Hip-Hop Action Summit Network's Russell Simmons and Dr. Ben Chavis called for an emergency session of Urban music luminaries at WMG boss Lyor Cohen's Upper West Side digs. Among those on hand were Atlantic's Craig Kallman and Julie Greenwald, EMI Music's Big Jon Platt, Sony Urban's Lisa Ellis, BET's Stephen Hill, WMG's Kevin Liles, Universal Motown's Sylvia Rhone, manager Chris Lighty, SRC's Steve Rifkind, Shady's Paul Rosenberg, MTV's Judy McGrath, UMG's Peter LoFrumento and Chaka Zulu. The group will announce their response within the coming weeks.
from HITS magazine web site
Does anyone think this will lead to a change?
Update on this meeting from the AP