Guess Oprah's Monday sports guest ...

I have a couple of thoughts on this as I'm watching:

- Hip hop is like literature. There is good and bad. There's Faulkner/Hemingway/Alice Walker and there is just pure drivel, horrible crap. We shouldn't define the entire genre by a few fools. That's unfair. For every Mims, there is De La Soul, Common, Talib, Mos Def, Kanye, etc.

- We also have to be realistic. We can't expect a corporation to be morally responsible when things are profitable. Imus' firing, at its root, was a business decision. The advertisers no longer saw him as viable. If those advertisers stay, he stays. But record companies are not in the same boat. The demand for hip hop is high. It grows even higher when it's controversial or considered forbidden.

- The real problem, like all problems, is the one that can't be legislated or fixed. I remember when I was a kid, my mother discovered me and my stepbrother listening to 2 Live Crew and she went BALLISTIC. She drove her heel in the tape and we both got an earful. You can't legislate good parenting. BET shouldn't be raising your kids, anymore than hip hop should be. Morals are supposed to be legislated by parents and grown folks, not by music. Asking a music genre to take more responsibility than you take in your own community is pointless.

- In many ways, Oprah's hip-hop panel was flawed. These guys are doing the right thing. Why not have someone like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ludacris or even Nelly explain why they say some of things they say? Or, better yet, have to look at those women from Spellman, who are called "ho's" when they go to the club, and explain to themselves. And Oprah should have put the decision makers at record companies -- the white ones, not just the black ones -- come and explain themselves, too.

- Once hip hop started went mainstream, it got polluted. Artists like Mos Def, Common, and others are not promoted the same way 50 Cent is. We live in a culture that absorbs and relishes in stereotypes. And the stereotype of a rapper is a gold-tooth wearing minstrel with a high level of ignorance, so that's what people like to buy. And that is who the record companies promote. It's no different with Hollywood. It's a reason movies like "The Best Man," "The Wood," etc are few and far between. But Hollywood execs will make 10,000 versions of "Soul Plane" or "Trippin'"

- Russell Simmons made an important point that was overlooked. When these rappers are coming from impoverished, ignorant backgrounds, what do you expect them to say on a record? Do you think they're going to start quoting Thoreau? The real problem in the African-American community is poverty. There is a lack of opportunity, hope and education in inner cities. When you have that sort of desperation, it takes a strong, self-destructive form. People who don't have anything often don't believe they will amount to anything. They carry that form of disrespect for themselves and others with them. That disrespect festers in our inner cities and if a rapper comes from there, it's going to wind up on a record. And if a rapper is making money peddling ignorance -- more money than he has ever seen -- why are we surprised that he/she is not socially responsible?

 

Jemele is on point.

 

I ask out of curiosity and ignorance: Who are the Faulkners, Hemingways and Walkers of hip-hop? I don't know if Mims is from the "good" group or the "bad." If I want to sample something good, what do you recommend?

 

The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco, Jill Scott.........

 

Common
De La Soul
Mos Def
Brother Ali
Atmosphere
A Tribe Called Quest
Lupe Fiasco

good starts.

 

I would add Public Enemy to that list, but that's just me.

 

Clubber - I don't count myself as expert on hip hop but at least at take the time to try and dig deeper than many. SOHH is a good starting point.

One thing that Jemele fails to point out that that the company who dumped imus because they were concerned with the children is the same company that owns MTV / BET and Commedy Channel - all of which put out worse stuff than what Imus said.

Oprah should have had Les Monves on also.

 

Definitely. There's a lot of people who could be added. I was trying to name people who are active now.

 

Yeah, I guess so, Boom. Just know that SOHH.com is not a good represenatation.

And about the business behind Imus: It's just that business. The company isn't dumping Imus because of what he said, but because of the fall out. The advertisers. The drama. Hip-hop is making money. Maybe this whole thing will change that. But it's not a matter of morals, taste or what's right for the people of this country. It's about money.

 

Common
De La Soul
Mos Def
Brother Ali
Atmosphere
A Tribe Called Quest
Lupe Fiasco

Public Enemy

OutKast
The Roots

 

Here are some GOOD songs. This is by not a complete list meant to represent anything, just some stuff I had readily accessible:

Lupe Fiasco - Daydreamin'
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yw68ou

Saigon - Desparados (of "Entourage" fame)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wzu45b

Killer Mike - That's Life (this is going at Bill O'Reilly and Oprah, message is kinda timely and killer mike is plenty angry)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/vwrmri

Murs, Supernatural & DJ Z-Trip - Breakfast Club (this isn't a positive song or anything, just one about cartoons and cereal. see, hip hop can be fun).
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lluui7

 

In the second part of Daydreamin', Lupe was actually putting down(sorta making fun of) "today's" rap.

Now come on everybody, let's make cocaine cool
We need a few more half naked women up in the pool
And hold this MAC-10 that's all covered in jewels
And can you please put your titties closer to the 22s?
And where's the champagne? We need champagne
Now look as hard as you can with this blunt in your hand
And now hold up your chain slow motion through the flames
Now cue the smoke machines and the simulated rain