Imus storm hits hip-hop world
Adam Graham / Detroit News Pop Music Writer
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50 Cent and other rappers have frequently used derogatory words for women in their lyrics and have sold millions of records doing it. See full image
Hip-hop summit
# What: "Get Your Money Right": Detroit Hip-Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment, featuring appearances by Russell Simmons, Mike Jones, Trick Trick, Ciara, MC Lyte, Layzie Bone and Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs 'N' Harmony and more
# When: 1:30-4:30 p.m. today
# Where: Max M. Fisher Music Theatre, 3711 Woodward, Detroit
# Tickets: Free
# Information: hsan.org
Women and hip-hop: A bad rap?
Reactions to hip-hop's treatment of women:
1993: Queen Latifah challenges rap's misogyny in her hit song "U.N.I.T.Y."
1993: C. Delores Tucker leads an organized movement condemning sexist and violent rap.
1993: The Rev. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, N.Y., drives a steamroller over a pile of tapes and CDs.
2004: Students at Spelman College become upset over rapper Nelly's video for "Tip Drill," in which he cavorts with strippers and swipes a credit card between one woman's buttocks.
2005: Essence magazine launches its "Take Back the Music" campaign.
2007: T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, author of "Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women," participates in a 10-city lecture tour under the title, "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?"
Source: Associated Press
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Grammy Award winning rapper Ludacris intoned he's got "hos in different area codes" in his 2001 hit "Area Codes." See full image
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As some of hip-hop's biggest stars gather in Detroit today, the fury over Don Imus' recent radio comments has drawn attention to the misogynistic lyrics common in hip-hop music and culture.
At issue is why it's considered OK for one group to say specific words and taboo for another, and whether there's an issue of hypocrisy at play.
On the April 4 edition of his "Imus in the Morning," the 66-year-old shock jock called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos," which he later apologized for but qualified by saying the term is commonly heard in mainstream hip-hop. On Thursday, CBS fired him for his remarks.
"Hypocrisy abounds with this thing," Dick Kernan, vice president of industry relations at Specs Howard School of Broadcasting, said Friday. "CBS and NBC knew what (Imus) was about for the last umpteen years, and people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have allowed (derogatory terms) with no comment whatsoever to go on in rap music on hundreds of radio stations around the country, and everything was just fine."
Indeed, the term "ho" abounds in hip-hop lyrics: Atlanta rapper Ludacris intoned he's got "hos in different area codes" in his 2001 hit "Area Codes." Other rappers, such as Dr. Dre, 50 Cent and Mike Jones -- who repeats "back then hos didn't want me, now I'm hot, hos all on me" in the chorus of his hit song "Back Then" -- have frequently used derogatory words for black women in their lyrics and have sold millions of records while doing it.
Jones is one of the panel members at today's hip-hop summit at the Max M. Fisher Music Theatre.
Hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, who with his Hip-Hop Summit Action Network hosts the "Get Your Money Right" seminar, said there's simply no comparison between Imus' use of the word "ho" and the word being spoken in rap lyrics.
"(Imus) can't say something that we know -- in his generation and in his immediate circle -- is harmful," Simmons said Thursday by phone from New York.
Simmons said the issue isn't about the word "ho" itself, but rather its intention and the context in which it was used.
"I don't think he's ever referred to his wife as a 'ho,' " Simmons said. "I don't think his intention was to celebrate these women." Furthermore, attempting to justify his using of the word by relating it to hip-hop is "a cop-out," Simmons said.
"People say, 'Oh, I hear black people saying it on TV and on the radio, but a white person can't say it? At that point it is a double standard," Juan Williams, a senior correspondent on NPR's "Morning Edition," said Friday. "But what's not a double standard is the history (of derogatory language), and the black rappers who make use of this awful language don't seem to understand that it was originally intended to deny black people their humanity."
The debate about hip-hop's negative depiction of women stretches back more than a decade, when civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker and R&B singer Dionne Warwick spoke out about the objectification of women within hip-hop.
T. Denean Sharpley-White, author of "Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women," said Friday that Tucker's protests were originally pooh-poohed because the hip-hop generation saw them as an attack on youth culture.
She says there's a misconception that it's OK for a black woman to be called a "nappy headed ho" as long as it's by a rapper.
"For me, it's daunting and mind-boggling that people act like there has been no resistance" to the misogyny in hip-hop, Sharpley-White said. "(Protests) have existed and they continue to exist."
Imus' comments are also bringing up issues of race that are similar to the uproar caused by comedian Michael Richards when he repeatedly used the "N" word on stage at a Los Angeles comedy club last November. Though Richards never excused his use of the inflammatory word by saying it is used non-stop in rap lyrics, other cultural critics made the argument for him.
The question of which group can use what words is not unique to hip-hop or to African-Americans.
"A lot of what is the best of humor is self-depreciating humor," said NPR's Williams. "You can make fun of yourself and everybody laughs, but if you make fun of other people, at their expense, there is a sense that you are crossing the line."
Take the same instance and add race into it, Williams said, "and it becomes all the more explosive."
Events such as today's hip-hop summit on financial empowerment, one of 60 some-odd summits held nationwide over the past half-decade, are part of the hip-hop community's efforts to counterbalance the culture's perceived negativity and help bring positivity to the community.
Simmons said although Imus' comments were hurtful and his invoking of hip-hop in his defense was "a horrible excuse," he hopes good can ultimately come from the incident.
"I'm encouraged by America's response" to Imus' remarks," Simmons said. "Our outrage is a good sign that we're going in the right direction."
But will the Imus flap make a difference in the language and themes of hip-hop? Sharpley-White doubts it.
"I would like to believe it will (make a change)," she said, "but I think hip-hop is way too powerful, and our attention span in the U.S. is way too short."
You can reach Adam Graham at (313) 222-2284 or
agraham@detnews.com.
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I just love how Russell Simmons tries to justify unacceptable behavior in any context. The truth is what a lot of these rappers do and say is offensive in ANY context and is very damaging to the black community. Who cares as long as Russell makes a buck?
BOYCOTT HIP HOP!
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