Black College Women Take Aim at Rappers

[cally]

ATLANTA - Maybe it was the credit card that rap superstar Nelly swiped through a woman's backside in a recent video. Here at Spelman, the most famous black women's college in the country, a feud has erupted over images of women in rap videos, sparking a petition drive and phone campaigns.

Nelly planned to visit Spelman earlier this month for a charity event enlisting students for a bone marrow registry. But the rapper canceled the appearance after hearing that a protest was in the works because of his videos - especially "Tip Drill," the one with the credit card, which also shows men throwing money between women's legs and women simulating sex acts with each other.

Misogyny in pop music, especially hip-hop, has been around for years. What's new, students say, is an explosion of almost-X-rated videos passed around on the Internet or shown late at night on cable channels like Black Entertainment Television, also known as BET.

Never before, students say, have the portrayals of black women been so hypersexual and explicit.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/8504066.htm?1c

[frank frankly]

1. those videos are garbage. currently, all music videos are garbage

but swiping a credit card through a woman's ass? a new low. BET is no friend of anybody except the puppetmasters. i pity anybody who watches that propaganda/marketing/brainwashing.

but then again, i am a naturalist who prefers my music "listen only."

ON EDIT: good rap like Dub Pistols and Public Enemy and Dead Prez are the antithesis of the abovementioned garbage.

[playahata1]

3. One video/song, one particular kind of video/song,

does not make the entire genre "garbage," as you say. The only reason you are saying this is because that is the ONLY style of rap video, the ONLY style of of rap, they are playing on TV and radio these days.

Oldies but Goodies such as Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest couldn't even get air time, let alone a record deal, in the current climate, 'cause SEX SELLS! For better or worse.

[frank frankly]

4. you are correct

i will edit to reflect the big picture.

thanks!

[skooooo]

2. About time...

Exploitation is exploitation.

[PfcHammer]

5. back dat thang up ! just kidding.

until the interest,demand, and willing
participants go away, they will continue
to crank this stuff out. like an addict,
people demand more lewdness and nastier
videos. there's a bias against rap here, too.
britney spheres employs a certified
pornographer to produce her videos.

[formernaderite]

6. Women exploiting themselves is altogether different....

....than men doing it. Perhaps it's my age, but I'm very puzzled by this. Particularly since the groups who produce and support this stuff, are generally more progressive ideologically.

[playahata1]

9. You might want to read Joan Morgan's book

"When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost". Excellent read. Morgan feels that we shouldn't just blame the mostly male rappers, producers, video directors, and record company executives. The women who audition for these video shoots are also complicit in their own exploitation.

[hippiechick]

12. "Complicit in their own exploitation" ??????

When the only images they see on tv are those of the big bootay bling bling playa gals gettin' theirs, with dudes fallin' all over 'em ... they think that's the only way out.

If you're from a poor family, semi-decent looking, and wanna get out 'da hood ... you're gonna take whatever chance you get.

I don't call that being complicit, I call it lack of alternatives.


:hippie:

[playahata1]

15. Just because you are in "da hood,"

does not mean that you are cut off completely from alternatives to prostituting yourself -- be it with or without a pimp. There are a lot of young black women who are in "da hood," but not of it.

[Brooklyn-Mecca]

7. Corporate hip-hop = B.S. n/t

n/t

[jean]

8. drat - it's subscription. I hope the Spelman students kick butt on this

issue and bring it to the level of national discourse. There's too much apathy and "well, what can you do?" attitude in our country over womens' issues in general and this one in particular. Kudos to these young women - I hope they spread their intelligent message far and wide.

[gottaB]

11. Other sources

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/04/24/ap/Entertainment/d824n57g0.txt

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/wire/sns-ap-music-spelman-vs.-rap,0,747804.story?coll=sns-ap-music-headlines

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/8504066.htm?1c


**

"Black entertainers have become the new myth makers, showing gangsters and bikini-clad women with hyperactive libidos," said Zenobia Hikes, vice president for student affairs. "For non-black children it creates a gross misrepresentation of the black experience."

**

[SmokeyBlues]

10. This outrage is nothing new...

Back in the early 90's a Black woman named C. Delores Tucker and..hold on now...Joe Libermann went on the attack against the vile, offensive, and misogynist images of Black women in some rap videos, especially those dubbed so-called 'gansta rap'. But it appeared the music industry didn't want to hear complaints about this new found money-maker.

Bottom line is that America has always had a peculiar and perverse fascination for Black street life. Some rappers wittingly or unwittingly recognized this 'trend' and shamelessly capitalized on it. Black sex and so-called Black thuggery sells not only in some parts of the Black community, but also in many other communities.

There are rap groups such as Arrested Development and Digitable Planets that were both positive and extremely creative, but they lacked two key ingredients: Black women shaking their asses like they ain't got no sense or snaking all over the bathroom floor, or Black men with mouths full of gold talking some of the most supremely ignorant shit mankind has ever heard.

Hats off to the Black women at Spelman for attempting to resurrect a movement that had fallen inactive for to many years. This is one Black man who will join my Spelman sisters in their protest!

[playahata1]

16. If we are going to criticize "gangsta rap,"

we must also consider the fact that rap is NOT the only black music that has come under criticism for sexually explicit lyrics. Even THE BLUES has some pretty nasty stuff in them. Furthermore, what about the heavy metal and hard-rock bands that have sexually explicit videos? Are we going to criticize those, too.

Misogyny is not a black thing, or a white thing. It's an AMERICAN thing, a WORLDWIDE thing.

[slinkerwink]

13. I've never liked the blatant misogyny in rap music against women

[whatelseisnew]

14. Meanwhile, political hip-hop continues to be suppressed

the misinformed continue to 'hate' a whole genre of music.

Next time somebody tells you they hate rap or hip-hop ask them

if they mean that they hate poetry.