When I first read this title and heard the snippet from Hollywood actress Ashley Judd's new memoir All That Is Bitter & Sweet concerning Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy and Hip Hop music in general, I was a little caught off guard. The actress states:
"Along with other performers, YouthAIDS was supported by rap and hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy to spread the message ... um, who?" the actress reportedly says. "Those names were a red flag."
"As far as I'm concerned, most rap and hip-hop music – with its rape culture and insanely abusive lyrics and depictions of girls and women as 'ho's' – is the contemporary soundtrack of misogyny," she argues.
"I believe that the social construction of gender - the cultural beliefs and practices that divide the sexes and institutionalize and normalize the unequal treatment of girls and women, privilege the interests of boys and men, and, most nefariously, incessantly sexualize girls and women - is the root cause of poverty and suffering around the world," Judd says.
First instinct is to be angry, I mean what does she know about Hip Hop and who is she to judge some of our biggest stars in the game! But once the initial, knee jerk emotion wore off, I read a little more in to her point. Was she criticizing all hip hop music or just Snoop and Diddy due to their involvement in YouthAIDS? Does she know that hip hop is a culture and not just what she hears on the radio? Generalizations have proven time and time again to be very detremental to the social fabric, so it's no wonder people were all up in arms regarding the comments. Even though the words she put on paper seemed to be a little shocking coming from someone who is not known to me as being a fan of the music (maybe she is or at least was), there is some validity to her sentiments. If you tuned into your favorite station or watched one of the more popular videos out today, you may be inclined to agree with her, at least a little. I remember when videos had choreography and the folks wore actual clothing. Not dresses that look like an oversized wife beater or bikini when the guys have on fur coats. Some of the videos have no connection to the song. Why are there directors on set? It's just lights, camera, shake your ass, cut! Women have been in rappers videos since it began, but with today's artists you would think that the song won't sell unless there are half naked women in them. Who are we to get angry with someone who seems to be making an observation of what is actually out there. Far too many times have I seen a video and thought, what do these girls dancing (shaking their booties) have to do with this song? Some of these videos are crazy, remember Uncut, the video show that would come on BET after 12 and show all the videos they couldn't show during the day. You would think some of it was soft pornography! But you see when the television audience thought that show was taking it over the line and actually demanded BET remove it from the lineup, it's hasn't been seen since. Now, back in the day, you had your 2 Live Crew and artists like them that were all about sex, but you knew exactly what you were going to get when you watched them. Parents were warned that this music was explicit and children should not watch them videos or listen to the songs. In today's popular hip hop scene, it seems that the bad rappers out number the good ones. There will always be songs about women, drugs and money, but there are a lot of other underground or independent artists who's voices don't always get heard. To me, hip hop music has evolved. Some of these popular artists, that are considered to have "good songs" today may not have passed the lyrical battles ten, twenty, thrity years ago. But with the evolvement of the artist, there has been a transition of the listener and fan. I talked to this point in my last post, so know need to rehash it, but if you want something different as a music fan, then you have to demand it. Actually, you would be suprised at how many of the popular artists that people say have no real content in their music, can really rap. A lot of times, they have listened to what's selling and have adapted to that. They want to make a come up, so they change up who they may actually be. If you don't believe me, check out some mixtapes of your favorite mainstream artist, you may find some lyrical content that didn't make the "official" album. More often than not, those mixtapesjust keep making good music so opinions like Ashley Judd's have no validity. See you on the stage!
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