A lot of questions are being asked about hip hop these days. Recently, Felicia Pride introduced , a traveling panel and discussion event with the questioning title, ?
I don't know about hip hop as a whole but I do know that there's a lot of woman hating going on in rap music.
In the above video by Kanye West, a remix/parody of Rich Boy's song about getting new rims for his new Cadillac, Kanye humorously plays with the idea of upgrading various women with breast implants. It's funny and it's catchy, yet it takes the commodification of women for granted to the degree that it's quite sick and hateful.
And hip hop's full of such things that both attract and repel, leading some of us to feel conflicted about our love of hip hop, especially when we find outselves drawn to music that has such objectionable elements.
In the coming week or so I'll be focusing on signs of life rather than signs of death in hip hop. But I wanted to start off by saying that many of the problems in hip hop are quite obvious but what to do is not, that feeling conflicted is normal in such a situation, especially when one's concerns are dismissed out of hand by so many hip hop fans, and that those that can't understand or empathize with such feelings are not to be trusted when addressing serious concerns.
Coming Soon: Hip Hop Signs of Life!
Posted by Clyde on March 19, 2007 in I haven't been closely following the gender discrimination lawsuit brought by Kim Osorio against The Source, Dave Mays and Benzino, but last night to the tune of $15.5 million. It should go without saying that the verdict will be appealed.
Jose Martinez for the New York Daily News while Leonard Greene for the New York Post.
SOHH had a courtroom observer with daily reports but they don't seem to have a landing page for the series and reports aren't interlinked however, if you want a look back, go wander around over there or check out and you'll see some of the others linked in the right hand Related Articles column.
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond recently which leads into a larger discussion of hip hop journalism for the Village Voice.
Posted by Clyde on October 24, 2006 in If you're feeling a bit suspicious about old Clyde at the moment, it's all good.
I'd suggest clearing your head with the really real from Adisa Banjoko on using the Matrix to save his daughter from feeling like she needs to look like a white girl.
I'm not ashamed to say that I cried while reading this story.
Posted by Clyde on July 18, 2006 in According to the , the MBADC Women's Music Industry Workshop has left its iVillage location and will relaunch January 1st with a . The site will focus on women's issues in the music biz, though men are welcomed as readers, and the shift relates to a desire to move away from the "stereotypical women's content" that Randi Reed felt came with the territory at iVillage.
The MBADC Women's Music Industry Workshop is a sister site to and the new developments include MusicBizAdvice.
com staff writer Darcie-Nicole Wicknick becoming Managing Editor of the relaunched Workshop site.
"My personal hope for the WMIW is that it will offer diverse perspectives for women (and men) in the music industry. We're aiming for this site to serve as an outstanding resource with content for all.
"
Right on. My own experience has been that well done resources for women operating in male dominated terrain tend to have a lot of good material for working with and around business as usual. I look forward to having more time in the new year to check out what these folks are up to.
When I saw the that Kim Osorio is puttin out a publication called RHYMES WOMEN Mixtape Magazine aka RAW, I thought that the former editor of The Source, who's bringing a lawsuit against the magazine for , was doing a project to boost female djs and mcs. The very idea seemed like a form of justice, even though it probably wouldn't rake in the dough as did The Source in its heyday.
RAW features interviews and centerfold pinup posters of the hottest models and video chicks from around the country in every issue.
This issue features a 54 caramel honey straight out of Harlem, USA.
However, if the business relationship with models is handled in an above board fashion, i.e.
they are treated like professionals rather than choice cuts of meat, then that could also be a positive development in the modeling scene. In fact, if they included some real coverage of what goes on behind the scenes. it might be a positive endeavor.
Of course, it's not just a modeling magazine, RAW is planned to have news and coverage related to the mixtape scene, so it's a mixtape and pinup play featuring honeys and artists who are mostly men. Which is probably a good business idea since it also will include a "fully licensed Mixtape Album" with each issue. The time has probably come for licensed mixtapes since they now have a visibility and popularity that makes it feasible to sell them on newstands and so forth, emphasizing their marketing value without putting folks in danger of .
Though hip hop remains a male dominated musical sport, next month brings the to New York. Female djs will battle for supremacy on the turntables at SOBs. Among the judges of She's My Dj!
will be Kool DJ Red Alert.
More info on She's My Dj! at .
Posted by Clyde on October 14, 2005 in While Suze Orman's seems pretty reasonable, if obvious (but folks need the obvious), GoodDebt.com's Jon Hansen feels that some of what she says will .
"1.
Lose the attitude. I can't tell you how annoying 20-somethings (men and women) are who, because they are young and cute and went to a good college, think that they are smarter than anyone else."
But the most telling advice I've seen of late comes from MusicBizAdvice.
com in the form of . It contains good advice for female fans and professionals. Men should read it too, in order to be reminded of the bullshit and abuse women have to guard against who just want to see a show or work in the biz.
My various worlds seem to be colliding at the moment. When I started ProHipHop I wanted to keep it really separate from my personal/political hip hop blog, , partly because I had this vision of becoming a hip hop translator for those white male baby boomers in corporate board rooms since I'm a white male from the tail end of the baby boom. I know hip hop, to some degree, and I understand their concerns, sort of.
So it seemed like an interesting possibility. I still think that route has potential but hiding my anarchist self isn't necessarily the way to go.
Mostly I've just been trying to focus on what needs to be said here, which is different from what needs to be said there.
The cool thing is that trying to become more accessible and understandable here at ProHipHop has turned me into a more serious, somewhat less ranty writer over at Hip Hop Logic. Plus, now that I don't really need to cover news over there, I can focus more on politics. I also hope to do more reviewing cause I have a huge box of stuff to review but that's not happening so far.
What can I say? I'm time crunched and it's not going to let up for at least a few more years and then there will be something else to consume my life. What exactly that will be remains to be seen, but my list is long.
I've been writing about the Hip Hop and Feminism Conference at Hip Hop Logic and The Source gender discrimination/sexual harassment charges over here and now it's all getting mixed together. Today, I ran into a on the Source situation by Mr. Irreverent.
I'm trying not to do too much name calling and was just going to point out that sexual harrassment isn't generally about whether or not people find someone sexually attractive, it's about creating a hostile environment, even though Mr. Irreverent was taking the low road and showing his ass to the world (oops). Anyway, MJ from beat me to the punch by explaining realities of which Mr.
Irreverent seems unaware so I just chimed in. The thing is, I'm also writing about her of the Hip Hop and Feminism Conference at Hip Hop Logic and somehow I'm not exactly clear on what should go there and what should go here.
The problem with Mr.
Irreverent's take on The Source situation is that he might just be trying to get a cheap laugh but a lot of people really think that way. I'll be getting back to this topic soon, especially as it relates to Jeff Chang's take on The Source in his book . For the moment, let me just say that violence and sexual harassment in the workplace is bad for business in the long run.
Media Chin-Check's may unfortunately be right that the charges against The Source won't matter to a lot of people. But serious legal action is ahead and that's what always puts big corporations in check much more quickly than boycotts or consumer discontent. It also sets the stage for other forms of investigation, as when they suddenly found my man Eliot Spitzer and the New York State Athletic Commission investigating them for their Smackfest slapouts.
From the sound of things, The Source has a rich history of disturbing material to uncover and I look forward to watching the show.
Here's the from the lawyers representing Kimberly Osorio, former Editor-in-Chief of The Source, and Michelle Joyce, former Source Vice President of Marketing, on which most of the news reports seem to be based. MTV's Chris Harris has on the suit against Benzino and Dave Mays.
Apparently The Source has released a statement that, true to form, makes personal allegations against Osorio and Joyce. Osorio and Joyce's lawyer Kenneth P. Thompson says there will be an additional lawsuit filed.
Besides Chris Harris' report, the best stuff seems to be coming from hip hop scholar, activist, blogger who reports on the speech Kim Osorio gave at the recent Hip Hop and Feminism Conference, that I've been writing about at , as well as a typically self serving statement from The Source in which Benzino unresigns.
Typically bloggers are thought of as outsiders but both Jeff Chang, who blogs at , and Jay Smooth, who blogs at , are long time hip hop writers and insiders who will probably know a lot of stuff that they can't say publically. Keep checking their blogs for interesting statements like Jay Smooth's :
"Anyone who doesn't understand why this press release is dripping with hypocrisy/absurdity should read the chapter in Jeff's book [Can't Stop Won't Stop] about Benzino's role in the rise and (mostly) fall of The Source.
"
I really get the feeling that this situation will get extremely nasty because so many writers have been burned by The Source, including many left/lib types who are probably quite sick of The Source's claim to be an important progressive force within hip hop culture. It looks like The Source's chickens are finally coming home to roost.
First Kim Osorio and Ms.
Info show the boys that they're , then Ms. Osorio comes clean at the in Chicago and now word's out that she and Michelle Joyce are for sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
Now that's hardcore hip hop action!
Thanks to for alerting me to the legal action via Media Chin-Check. By the way, shouldn't I be the one covering the ?
The NY Times has two interesting articles today that relate to hip hop's cultural influence, for better or worse.
One article attributes the NCAA trend of , in part, to hip hop style and that makes perfect sense. Like the says:
"aint gonna say that everybody knows who I is, but when you see me collar-poppin doin the electric slide you'll be like 'this brotha gets down for his.'"
I was really surprised that a NY Times writer is just catching on to the fact that the term can include men.
Although Virginia Heffernan is focusing on tv, she seems to have missed the extensive use of bitch among male hip hop artists, comedians and their fans when dissing other men. Given that rap musicians have a distinctive ability to mainstream prison culture, one would think that the connections would be fairly obvious. Even more so given that hip hop is full of the kind of macho males who diss "faggots" but think it's ok to get head or fuck a guy as long as they beat him down first.
You know, with all the talk about reforming hip hop, I doubt any prominent cultural critic is ready to take that one on.
By the way, Carolina's gonna kick everybody's punk ass. And maybe some day the NY Times will figure out the related meanings of punk that have nothing to do with music, little to do with Ashton Kutcher (though the lineage is there) and everything to do with men raping men.
News RSS