Thanks to Stallion, an HM contributing commentor, for the heads up on BET’s special Hip-Hop vs. America. To be quite honest, the HM contributors did not get a chance to watch the series, even though it is a topic that is worthy of discussion. The BET special is available to watch at BET.com.
According to the Baltimore Sun Times, Hip-Hop vs. America is a town-hall style meeting addressing the negative impact of hip-hop music. Moderated by camera-friendly BET personalities Jeff Johnson and Toure, the series features different panels of cultural critics (Stanley Crouch, Nelson George, Michael Eric Dyson) and hip-hop stars past and present (MC Lyte, Master P, T.I. and Nelly). Among the topics discussed before a live studio audience: hip-hop’s relationship with criminality, the culture’s misogynistic images of black women and how blacks feel about hip-hop’s public airing of the community’s “dirty laundry.”
But the discussion is nothing new. It has been going on in the black community for at least a decade. Long before Imus insulted Rutgers’ women’s basketball team, activists such as the late C. Delores Tucker and hip-hop intellectuals (writers Joan Morgan, Kevin Powell and Farai Chideya) were debating the genre’s degrading imagery and lyrics. At the time, such concerns were largely ignored by mainstream media. And all the while, BET gladly served as an accomplice to black musical oppression by offering little counterbalance to the inanity and straight-up buffoonery glorified in mainstream rap.
Please read the entire article here.
I can’t wait to watch the BET special, which can viewed at BET.com, and comment on the issue and follow up with my fellow contributors and commentors. But I’d like to add Stallion’s input to help lead the discussion at HM:
“I think Nelly made a good point about his tip drill video. After hearing people complain about the video, you would think he made that video for the TRL and 106 & Park Audience… (and) more video like that. I remember when I first saw the video. I was surprise to see that Nelly made that kind of video, but at the time, the only way I could see it and other videos like that was to watch BET around two or three in the morning…They (also) made a good point about parenting. I like to think I’ve grown up to be a nice respectable man. I’m in college getting a degree, I work a part time job and so on and I credit my mom and dad for the man I am today. I also believe being surrounded by positive people who cared about an education played a part in it time. I do think growing up in the day we had more positive black role model like in sports like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, Emmit Smith, Dieon Sanders and more positive black shows on television. I remember watching show like Family Matters, Fresh Prince, Hanging with Mr. Cooper (Yeah I said it) and so on. Even if these people were involve in shady stuff I never heard about it and Hip Hop back in the day had a better balance…”
Have you seen the BET Special Hip-Hop vs. America? Do you agree or disagree with the Baltimore Sun Times? Is BET too late on this issue? How can hip-hop continue to evolve without being blamed? Please let us know what you think!
Reecie
thehonorable
Nelly came prepared, he took what they was given them and came back times 10, but for the most part this was a discussion that’s been done a hundred times and at the end of the day everybody is gonna keep feeling the way they want to towards the issue regardless of who says what..personally I’m glad BET did this, it reminded me of the days when BET was a forum for the black community
I thought the show was pretty good but one the problem I have is that alot of the people in the audiance were there more to cheer on there favorite rappers and not listen to the debate. Nelly contradicted himself many times and then tried to play the victem role, yet you still here people cheering for him as If he just said and did something revolutionary. T.I. made a valid point that there is a very diverse range of hip hop music but none of them sell, well, he is true about that but the reason why they don’t sell is not they are not good but because they don’t get a chance to be played. With a statement like that T.I. has become a puppet/posterboy for the same people that are not only killing Hip Hop music but all music, Corparate America. Even worst after he said that statement you heard some people in the audiance start to cheer. Boy, more and more people are starting to become sheep to this nonsense and we need the true artists of all forms of music to unite and show them what real music should sound like.
I caught some of the shows and i thought it was the same old, same old. Nelly made some good points and it seems he has his head on his shoulders outside the industry. However, TI sound inarticulate to me. I felt Michael Eric Dyson was rapping as usual but not really giving directional advice. I like Cousin Jeff but I thought his moderation was suspect b/c he wanted to give his opinion too much instead of doing his job of moderating the event. I thought Melissa ford was probably the most articulate panelist.
I notice when special like these people want to see rappers like Talib, Common, Kanye West, Jay Z and etc talk for hip hop and sometimes the black community instead of people like Cam’ron, Young Jeezy, 50 Cent and some other crazy writers and those are the people who usually speak for hip hop or other black issues. When Oprah did a similar topic I was please she had people like Russel Simmon and Common on the show. I was wondering how people was going to react once they found out Nelly was going to be involve in this since a lot of people don’t consider him a rapper. I think he did a good job representing Hip Hop. Whenever people talk about stuff like this Tip Drill always come up so I think it’s fitting to have him finally talk about it. Another things that annoys me about these stuff is when people do talk about stuff like this they show music videos that BET, VH1 and MTV have banned as example on how bad Hip Hop is.
As far as I’m concerned, Nelly was one of the most illogical of the entire panel. I think many of you give him a pass because he’s an articulate rapper that speaks his mind. There are plenty of those. He was articulate, but really made no sense.
Also, Nelly was deceitful in his arguments. After reading the Spelman open letter to BET, I found he misrepresented what really happened at the Spelman protest. The women WANTED to have a forum with Nelly- they didn’t want to cancel the event. They just wanted to make him aware of what they felt about his videos.
NELLY AND HIS CAMP were the ones who decided to pull out of the event. His sister ended up dying of leukemia. The most disgusting thing about this is that Nelly blamed part of his sister’s death on those protests when HE WAS THE ONE WHO CANCELED! He and his sensitive camp couldn’t take criticism and moved it elsewhere. I applaud the Spelman women who took a stand. Supporting Nelly would have been the equivalent of using drug money to support the family. The ends don’t always justify the means.
I too, read that open letter, from Spelman college. And as a black woman I must say that I agree with much of what was said. And I applaud them for holding their OWN bone marrow drive. But I believe that Nelly, who had a serious personal stake in this whole thing, would have sat down with Satan himself, if it meant he could save his sister’s life. While watching that show, and hearing Nelly’s words, not ONCE did I get the impression that he was blaiming the sisters at Spelman for Jackie’s demise..the man was simply trying to find a bone marrow match for her, and perhaps many others out there in need of a bone marrow transplant. What better place to find one then an all female, black college. Bottom line, saving lives trumps ANY type of protest. The ladies at Spelman should have taken the high road…and greeted him at the front door, with all of their sisterly love, let him hold his bone marrow drive at their school, and then later, sat him down, and talked to him about their concerns over that disgusting ‘Tip Drill’ video…It’s like the old folks say, you kill more flies with honey……then vinegar.
LETS KEEP IT REAL LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. I am an eighteen year old black woman in college. I do not blame rap videos for the way people are because I look at those videos DAILY, and I turned out just fine…HOWEVER, I was so disgusted in that BET interview. I felt like TI kept cracking jokes and being sarcastic, instead of talking like an intellegent man should. Also, NELLY WAS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. I though Nelly was better than that, and why the the hell did he start talking about WHITE GIRLS!!! I AM SO SICK OF BLACK MEN THINKING THAT BLACK WOMEN ARE JEALOUS OF WHITE WOMEN. That is so untrue. I know that I’m not. I think that JESSICA SIMPSON, LINDSEY LOHAN, and HEIDI CLOONE are the most beauitful women I’ve ever seen, but not anymore beauitful than BEYONCE, HALLEY BERRY, ASHANTI,or TYRA BANKS. What makes me mad about (SOME,NOT ALL) BLACK MEN is that they always say “I’ll leave you for a white girl” or “white girls are better than black girls” and so forth. WHY? YOU’RE MOTHER WAS BLACK, YOU’RE SISTER IS BLACK, AND YOU’RE DAUGHTER IS BLACK. I JUST FEEL LIKE BLACK MEN DON’T HAVE A SISTA’S BACK NO MORE. ALL THE CRACKS ABOUT “WEAVES” I WOULD EXPECT THAT FROM A WHITE MAN, NOT MY OWN BROTHER, IT HURTS LIKE HELL. IT SEEMS THAT EVERONE THINKS THAT BLACK WOMAN ARE A BUNCH OF WEAVE-WEARING-NAPPY HEADED-BIG BOOTIE-SLUTS, AND THAT IS FAR FROM THE TRUTH. I also feel like black men put us on blast in front of the whole world. I’VE NEVER SEEN WHITE MEN TALK SO BAD ABOUT THEIR OWN WOMEN AND BE SELF HATERS LIKE I SEE (some, not all)BLACK MEN DO. Let me get back on topic by saying, that it disgusted me that Nelly found nothing wrong with sliding a credit card down a women’s but cheeks…HOWEVER…we can’t just blame Nelly, we have to blame the BLACK WOMAN that let him do such a degrading to her. THE BLACK MAN and THE BLACK WOMAN DEGRADES THE BLACK WOMAN. Nelly has a BLACK MOTHER,had a BLACK SISTER,and has a BLACK DAUGTHER. It would seem like he would try to set an example. Most rappers think that their little daughters are princess and will never be touched, but that is far from the truth…BECAUSE, JUST LIKE NELLY DIDN’T CARE THAT, THAT BLACK WOMAN WAS SOME MAN’S DAUGHTER, SOME DIRTY MAN IS NOT GOING TO CARE THAT HIS LITTLE GIRL HIS SOMEONE’S DAUGTHER.
hahhahahaha tia has no shirt on.
i mean i have no shirt on.
wow man i really hate toniann
i really like the show n nelly n t.i comes wit theres 2 defend hip-hop