In light of the Don
Imus issue, Oprah formed a “town
hall” meeting with a panel of experts who discussed the issue, opening up about
racism and the denigration and sexual exploitation of women. A conversation that
needed to be brought to attention.
Part two of the town
hall comes just a day later. This time the hip hop community has it’s chance to
speak with music mogul Russell Simmons;
record exec. Kevin Liles; Dr. Benjamin Chavis, former
CEO of the NAACP and current President/CEO of the Hip Hop Summit Network; and Grammy-winning
rapper Common as their voice.
Russell Simmons
stated that “it is historically
incorrect.. Black people didn’t invent ‘nappy-headed hos.’ Don Imus’ statements
were offensive to everyone.” He then went on to [almost] thank Imus for making such a statement, since
it sparked the discussion that’s been needed for some time.
“The hip hop community
is a mirror, a reflection of the dirt we overlook. The violence, the misogyny,
the sexism. The need to be discussed,” Russell
said emphasizing that the music does not CREATE the conditions of the world [or
celebrate them], but rather discusses them frankly.
Dr. Benjamin Chavis
was the first to “defend” hip hop as the questions from Oprah and statements from audience members turned towards it’s inevitable
blame.
“Hip hop artists are
NOT responsible for what Don Imus did. Don Imus was a racist! Don Imus was a
sexist, and there’s no way that Don Imus can blame hip hop for what he did.”
Not fully taking the weight off of hip hop’s shoulders, Chavis continued, “That is
not to excuse hip hop. Hip hop is not perfect. We’ve got to make it better. But
we make hip hop better by making society better, because hip hop reflects the
contradictions of society. There’s too much poverty, there’s too much injustice
and there’s too much bad treatment of women in our society.”
Chicago rapper, Common
begins speaking about his earliest memories of hip hop, “Hip hop was telling stories about consciousness … I learned about the
Bible through hip hop. I learned about … uplifting black women. I started
changing my way of thinking because of hip hop.”
Despite being one of the artists that does in fact stray
from the denigrating of women in his rhymes, Common admits that hip hop has taken a turn. “Hip hop has been this child that we had. Our elders kind of abandoned
the child at a young age and said, ‘okay, we don’t really understand this. We don’t
relate to this’ … and now as hip hop has evolved and grown up, our parents are
expecting hip hop to be perfect and to be right.”
Cutting to the big screen, where a group of seven women who
attend Atlanta’s Spelman College were ready to point the finger. Keli, a
student, began with, “There is a lack of
accountability. As rappers, I feel that accountability should be taken into
consideration, as well as with Don Imus, from a racial standpoint. Rappers from
a sexist standpoint. It all needs to be addressed and we need to quit talking
around the issues.”
Common
acknowledged the problem and stated that women have been treated unfair for
over 300 years. When asked if it’s ok to continue, Common said no.
“Let me say to the
sisters from Spelman we acknowledge there’s a problem and we want the help.
When I talk to cats on the street, they don’t want to be in that situation. We don’t
want to be in this painful situation … and we are apologizing for the
disrespect that does come from the mouths of men to women,” Common said.
Even though he isn’t included in the group of rappers who
disrespect the women throughout every song, Common refused to abandon the culture. “I’m going to ride with my hip hop people, because if I divide myself that’s
going to continue to keep the problem going … if criticism came with love, we
can make some progress.”
Diane Weathers, former editor in chief of Essence magazine,
says women must take the lead in the fight against misogynistic images of women
in hip hop. “You cannot go to the industry, people in the industry, and expect
them to fix this … woman have to say, NO.”
Simmons cuts in
with his thoughts that the industry shouldn’t promote the “dirty behavior on any part.” But “they have a right to say what’s on their mind. I’m not saying we have
to put them on the radio … the idea [should be] to lift up each voice to say
the most positive things.”
Oprah cuts to a clip
from part one of this discussion (Monday, 16th) in which Diane Weathers stated that rappers
should face consequences for their derogatory language. “They have to know that it’s not acceptable if you keep doing this kind
of music. The contract is off.”
In quick reponse, Simmons says taking away record deals
could actually make an artist more popular and that most artists could
distribute their own albums. “They’re
just as big without the record company.”
Londell McMillan,
an entertainment lawyer (who has represented the likes of Prince, Mos Def, Lil Kim, Stevie Wonder and Usher),
says that record companies have a responsibility about what they choose to release. “The companies are the owners of the product. They also, in these
contracts, have rights to what product they would like to distribute. That
doesn’t mean they should jump into the creativity of artists, but certainly
there is responsibility there.”
Londell understands
that the industry is dabbling with a “very
profound and complex issue,” but he points out there are many outlets in
which change can take place. “At the hip
hop table, Oprah, you’ve got corporate America, you’ve got the artists and
producers, you’ve got the consumers, and let’s not forget radio. Radio plays
this music, and just like they stopped Imus, they have an ability to stop music
that offends young people.”
Dr. Benjamin Chavez
brings up that if we eliminate poverty we can eliminate negative images in hip
hop. “I know that we need to solve this
problem so that we can treat each other better in the home, in the community.
What we’re saying is you want to sanitize poetry and lyrics and videos and no
deal with sanitizing our community and not dealing with the inequities that we
have to face every day, the problem is going to come back. Let’s not put a
Band-Aid on this. Let’s deal with this substantively.”
This point, sparked New
York Daily News columnists, Stanley
Crouch, to stand up and announce that there is a double standard. “There’s an extraordinary double standard
here because most of the people who were in the Ku Klux Klan were what they
call ‘poor white trash,’ who were at the bottom of society. Nobody ever makes
an excuse for them blowing up little girls, for the being racist. When you get
these clowns in your guys’ arena, then suddenly, oh, these are just
marionettes. They can’t make any decisions, so the corporation decides society,
slavery. All of these things lead up to these people consistently calling
people niggers, bitches and hos as though they’re helpless guys who can’t do anything. And I’m
not buying it.”
Oprah forced to
take a commercial as it’s blatant that Kevin
Liles took major offense to Crouch
calling him a clown.
A now [somewhat] calmed down Liles, disagrees.”What I’ve
done my whole life, now that I know, now that I’ve experienced different
things, is to uplift the community, is to teach them to say different things.
Do you think I want them every single day to say bitch, ho, ‘n’ this, ‘n’ that?
I don’t want them to say that. I have NOT told an artist ever, ever to say
that. And I have gone out of my way to explain to them there’s other ways that
you can communicate the same message.”
With the issue becoming more and more heated, is there a
solution?
Bruce Gordon,
former president of the NAACP and
current CBS board members, says there
is. “The solution is not to blame. The
solution is to collaborate and find the answer together.”
Ending the show, Common
says a solution will come once everyone acknowledges the need for change. “We want to change this world and it starts
with us. The way we think, the way we speak, the way we act towards ourselves
and towards others, because when we’ve got that love for ourselves, we’re going
to look at each other no matter what color, no matter what gender, no matter
what mistakes the other person made and say, ‘I love you.” We want change
for this world. And it starts with our hearts.”
