Ifè Oshun: Assorted Rants

The Don Imus bandwagon is reaching full speed with the Black church and Black community leaders finally taking a real stand against negativity in rap music, most recently canceling a celebrity basketball fundraiser at Stamford’s Yerwood Center where rapper Jadakiss and his D-Block crew were scheduled to appear.

According to the Stamford Advocate, the rapper was dissed by Jere Eaton, a former Yerwood Center board member and a potential presidential candidate for the NAACP’s Stamford branch, who was concerned violence would break out at the event.

She was so concerned she hopped online to gather Web site links, articles and lyrics before sending out a warning email blast to community leaders and the media demanding Jadakiss be dropped.

“Under the leadership of Dr. Robert Perry (pastor of Union Baptist Church) and other clergy in Stamford,” she wrote, “we are demanding that the Celebrity Basketball Fundraiser is canceled or ‘CLEAN’ entertainment is provided by artists with ‘CLEAN’ reputations.”

Eaton had previously made her views crystal clear by saying, “All of these artists are the worst of the worst. They’re criminals, their favorite word is the N-word, and they demean women by calling them bitches and hos.”

Deborah Sewell, the Yerwood Center’s president and CEO, canceled the fundraiser after receiving over 60 phone calls expressing concern. There was no time to schedule a replacement.

One leader who spoke out against the event was Rev. Tommie Jackson, pastor of Faith Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.

“It doesn’t make it right if it’s said by Don Imus or black rap artists,” Jackson opined. “It is antithetical to the morals and values that we’re trying to teach and impart to the sons and daughters of the community.

“The bottom line is we believe that the Yerwood Center needs to raise money, but there are better ways of doing it than bringing in Jadakiss.”

The Stamford Advocate 

At first I prepared to title this post: “Russell Simmons Is A Hypocrite,” but, being a professional, I chose to couch it in neutrality and let you, the dear reader, decide for yourself.

However, I just absolutely have to say I am soooooooo disappointed.

Simmons, the man primarily responsible for building the rap music industry, and who I’ve supported for years, has shown himself to be a real publicity whore.

Case in point, let’s examine the recent controversy still brewing around the derogatory remarks made by radio shock jock Don Imus towards the Rutgers women’s basketball team. When community leaders raised a big stink and caused Imus to get fired, Simmons came out weeks later recommending that the rap industry voluntarily remove the words bitch, ho, and ni**er from songs.

As quoted in the Hollywood Reporter: “These three words should be considered with the same objections to obscenity as extreme curse words.”

However, during an interview I conducted with him five years ago (June, 2001) he was freestyling a totally different verse.

When I asked him how he viewed rap music, he commented on the power that rappers have, but said he wasn’t interested in cleaning up rap.

“There’s not one record that I hear on the radio that I think shouldn’t be on the radio. I want to make this clear. There’s not one record that I find offensive.”

When I brought up the rampant misogyny in the rap industry and how, as a father of a then baby girl, he felt about it, he tripped over his pre-prepared responses and took a long pause, afterwhich he said:

“I feel… that [it is] for parents to govern what their kids’ understanding [is] of what’s in the world. What part of it do they want them to hear at an early age is the parent’s choice and the way they want to explain to them what they hear - if they hear it. Now if you don’t have parents [who can do that]… then it’s a hard world that you’ve fallen into… You can’t stop sexist statements.”

Check the whole interview: Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 and judge for yourself whether Simmons is using the recent controversy as a publicity vehicle for his own interests, namely the Hip-hop Summit and his new forage into Africa’s diamond mines. I can’t help to think that if he truly felt that “bitch,” “ho,” and “ni**er” were “extreme curse word” he would have done something about it decades ago when it could’ve made a real difference.

The latest craze sweeping the nation is “gangsta parties,” where white kids, according to the Mercury News, “dress in gang gear and drink malt liquor from paper bags.”

For real.

“A white Clemson University student attends a bash in black face [oh my] over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend [oh my, my]. A fraternity at Johns Hopkins University invites partygoers to wear “bling bling” grills, or shiny metal caps on their teeth.”

Dumb asses are documenting their ignorance by uploading photos from these parties. Look closely and you will see white kids from the suburbs throwing up gang signs… like this one, shown above and found through a Google search.

WTF? If this chick was ever anywhere near a real Crip in…. say… Compton, she’d sh*t her pink panties… Come to think of it, so would I…

“The segment of rap music that is glamorized and popularized by the media is gangsta rap,” said Venise Berry, an African-American associate professor of journalism at the University of Iowa. “It has become an image that is normalized in our society. That to me explains clearly why they don’t see it as wrong.”

What’s really “wrong” is these people don’t realize how ass-out stupid they look.
“One student wore blackface; another white student put padding in her pants to make her rear end look bigger.”

Ok someone really needs a reality pimp-slap. And a punch… and a good stomp. Hey I’m just ranting, I’m not advocating violence…

But seriously… what’s worse? The people making fun of African American stereotypes, or the morons in the rap industry who continually market these stereotypes and pass it off as “reality.”

I say the latter.

Not that it’s ok to racially mock anyone, these college kids are really out of line, but so are the garbage lyrics and videos from these wanna be gangsta rappers, the majority of whom would crap their pink panties if they were anywhere near real life gangsters.

James Johnson, a black psychology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington says: “In the civil rights movement, you didn’t have blacks who called themselves `niggers’ and who called their women `bitches’ and `whores’ and who glorified being violent and being thugs. Now these white kids are kind of confused.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

RIP Alice Coltrane.

Almost 50 years ago, Dr. Kenneth Clark conducted a ground-breaking doll test proving African-American children suffered from low self-esteem as a result of internalized racism.

Ironically, in 2007, a highschool student’s documentary shows that not much has changed. This 7 minute film is all over the news, sparking national dialogue and invoking straight-up weeping.

Yeah, I cried.
The doc brings up an important question. Why, oh why are so many young people still suffering from feelings of low self worth despite the progress our society has made? Could our own popular culture be part of the problem?

Hell yes.

Hey, you in power. You rappers and some of you singers who routinely spit “nigga” and “bitch.” Take look at this documentary and recognize.

Yeah, I said “those in power,” ’cause, guess what, if your music and videos are reaching millions of people all over the world, then you, my friend, have power. Power to affect the minds of people. Power to affect a generation. Power to either negate racial stereotypes or perpetuate them.

In the new millennium, it’s not just institutionalized racism that kills our self worth, it’s the songs, albums and videos, filled with lyrics and images of self hate that pass on the legacy of low self esteem.

My 3 year old, the only dark-skinned child in his daycare, came home last week and said he was “black.” As he held his head in his hands, I realized he felt traumatized by the way this information was given to him. I immediately told him he is beautiful, smart and able to do anything he put his mind to. When he smiled, I knew that I’m doing my part to neutralize society’s message that he’s somehow lacking.
And I’ll be damned if I let a rapper tell him otherwise.

Watch the video “A Girl Like Me”

The ever-conscious Pharoahe Monch recently debuted a powerful video for his new single “Gun Draws.”

Accompanied by its own website, the song sees the Brooklyn emcee address the ongoing problem of gun violence in America by expressing his lyrics from the viewpoint of a bullet.

The song talks about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Tupac, Biggie and others, while the video addresses murders-by-police, and shows a little boy mistakenly shoot his sister in their parents’ bedroom.

“This is my effort to help awaken the unconscious and nourish the youth,” Monch says at the end of the clip.

Despite the fact this video is less violent than the majority of video games out there, it’s been deemed “too graphic” for television video outlets such as BET and MTV (who, ironically, don’t see anything wrong with airing a ton of videos marketing violent and/or sexually explicit images and themes). The video is currently running exclusively on YouTube.

The track’s website offers lyrics to the song as well as disturbing gun facts such as: “US Children are 12 times more likely to die by gun fire than in 25 other industrialized combined,” as stated by the John Hopkins University Center for Gun Policy.

“Gun Draws” is the lead single from Monch’s eagerly anticipated Desire, set to drop in May.

VIDEO
Pharoah Monch - “Gun Draws”

It seems that MTV has really lost touch with the youthful audience it panders to.

According to Zomba, the “Vans” video from Bay Area hyphy-hype group The Pack has been banned by MTV.

David Bell, Director of Digital Marketing for Zomba Label Group, told me the video channel didn’t approve of the message.

“[They] said the video was basically an ad for Vans,” said Bell.

When the decades old “video” channel asked the teens to cut a new clip and change the name of their song in return for airplay, they refused and basically told the network to step off.

“There are so many more outlets for video exposure right now,” Bell added. “so we are exploring on a much deeper and grassroots level than normal.”

The song, an almost whispered ode to the punk rock footwear, has been blowing up West coast radio. The video shows Nike shoes being thrown away by dreadlocked Black boys on skateboards.

Scandal. Anarchy.

I also posted this on my news blog. Still haven’t gotten a comment from MTV… screw ‘em.

VIDEO:

“Vans”

Photo courtesy Zomba

They’re good at serving up raw Atlanta rap, and now Field Mob’s casting director skills will be put to the test in their dedicated search for video skanks.

The duo has recently asked for female fans to submit their own videos for their latest track “Baby Bend Over.”

“This ya boy Smoke aka Chevy P of the almighty Field Mob and we just dropped our second single “Baby Bend Over” aka The Strip Club Anthem. Me and Shawn need to see who got the biggest donkey on the net! Get ya web cam out and make ya own “Baby Bend Over” video and send em in and well post the best video on our page! Only apple bottoms over the age of 18 need to apply.”

You can check a recent entry, but I warn ya, it’s nasty… which is probably what most of you skank lovers want to see anyway.

And if you’re feeling it, why not grab your chance to be a video hoe, too?

If you think you can outskank Momma Skank, then check out Smoke’s Myspace blog to see how you can send in your own submission.

And may the best donkey win.