Thanks for that.

Great article by Stanley "The Grouch" Crouch...

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Having grown up in the midst of many intelligent, down-home and courageous black women, I was appalled for 20 years by the silence of the women who were being demeaned and turned into sex toys so consistently in the worst hip-hop imagery. Where were the descendants of those black women who gave so much of the heat to the civil rights movement and made so many sacrifices for it?
Why didn't anyone have the moxie, in the spirit of Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer, to take on the $1.5 billion rap industry? Perhaps because, in our culture at this time, cowardice is more common than the common cold.

Yet when, in 2005, Essence started its "Take Back the Music" campaign to question this hate-filled and decadent material, 1 million hits came to its Web site in the first month. Yes, the campaign festered for awhile because of a lack of funding - but at a recent music festival in Atlanta, it began wobbling back to its feet. Eight thousand people in attendance seemed ready for war against dehumanizing images.

Well, time will tell (perhaps literally). Essence is, after all, owned by Time Warner, which makes more than a few pennies from hip-hop material.

But even if this campaign should peter out, the day is far from lost. Warming up in another corner is Yvonne Bynoe, author and lecturer. Having had more than enough, Bynoe wrote a remarkably intelligent defense of Oprah Winfrey on Davey D's Hip Hop Daily News (Daveyd.com) last month. Go there, I urge you, and read it yourself. With the letter, titled "Do Blacks Really Need Oprah to Be Down with Hip Hop?," Bynoe earns a place as a Thomas Paine in the movement against female degradation.

In reaction to the rappers like Ludacris who complain that Winfrey - the American Queen of Goodwill - has disrespected them or failed to support their careers, her rebuttal is so well thought out, so articulate and so full of righteous anger that I am sure that 50 Cent and Ice Cube suffered skin burns if they read it. Or could read it.

The young lady knows their work well, sees the illogic of their assertions and lays them out in a row like dead fish in the market. Unlike so many critics who tiptoe into such territory, Bynoe shows no inclination to be silenced by a flag of false ethnic solidarity. With confidence, she slaps aside all the manipulative ploys that rappers use against any who dare question their insipid material.

Of the attacks on Winfrey, Bynoe writes, "The underlining sentiment is that if she is unwilling to set aside her values and opinions, then she can't be down for black people. This position assumes that what is good for black entertainers is good for black folks, and that notion is arguable. There are many media outlets that expose U.S. rap artists to the global marketplace. However, Oprah is virtually alone in her ability, through her selection of guests, to provide the world with a broader view of black Americans and their achievements. For most of us, particularly black women, who are frequently equated with the images of half-naked, gyrating females found in the rap music videos, a countervailing portrayal is welcomed." Uh-oh.

Beware, you gold-and-diamond-toothed dogs, they are coming for you. They are young, educated, good-looking and fiery, meaning that they cannot be dismissed as old, out-of-touch, frustrated hags.

The dogcatchers are on the way.
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...I just had to print it.


Has anyone read Yvonne Bynoe's rebuttal?
http://p076.ezboard.com/f...=499.topic


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

DAMN, great article. I'm gonna have to read what Bynoe said

Sometimes Mr. Crouch annoys me with his conservative and elitist views, but when it comes to the ills of our community, he's on point.

uPtoWnNY said:

Agreed. Especially when he gets on his high horse about what is or isn't Jazz.
Although he can be a bit crotchety, I celebrate Crouch's unabashed conservative voice.
It lets folks know that Black people are not some social/political monolith who all think/act/dress the same.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

Absolutely. I respect Mr. Crouch as much as I respect more more liberal columnists like Les Payne, Errol Louis & Sheryl McCarthy. They all bring something to the table. Unlike some black conservatives, Crouch is not afraid to hammer the GOP for their "redneck politics". He's always said the GOP drops the ball on issues of race.

uPtoWnNY said:

Thomas Sowell comes to mind. He may have and I just haven't read it anywhere.

He's written some very good things on economics though.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Stanley Crouch has the pinkest lips I've ever seen on any human. I read his articles/musings, though he can be very bitchy when it comes to jazz.

JesseDezz said:

Are you kidding? Stanley thinks fusion sucks!

TonyVanDam said:

That's what I mean - anything that's not jazz sucks, according to Mr. Crouch. Sort of reminds me of Wynton Marsalis.

JesseDezz said:

Oh please don't get me started with Wynton. THIS jazz artist like to make jazz for the coffeehouses only. He never could learn to break new grounds with his music like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, or even Chick Corea.

theAudience said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...ley_Crouch

Since the early 1980s Crouch has become critical of the more progressive forms of jazz and has been associated with the neo-conservative attitudes of Albert Murray. An ardent proselytizer for the music of Wynton Marsalis, he writes the liner notes for all of the trumpeter's albums. Crouch was summarily dismissed from JazzTimes following his controversial article, "Putting the White Man in Charge", in which he asserted that white critics elevate white jazz musicians beyond their abilities.

Crouch has a tendency towards violence against his critics and detractors. At the First Annual Jazz Awards, Crouch was invited to present an award, and while reading the nominees made disparaging comments about two of them: Dave Douglas and Matthew Shipp. After the show, the jazz critic Howard Mandel (who was largely responsible for creating and organizing the Jazz Awards) confronted Crouch about his earlier comments. After a short argument, Crouch punched Mandel and then was confronted by Matthew Shipp himself who called Crouch "an Uncle Tom and a fucking loser". However, the two were quickly separated and a brawl was avoided. [1] In 2004, Crouch approached critic Dale Peck—who had written an unfavorable review of Crouch's first novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome—in a Greenwich Village restaurant and slapped him in the face warning him, "Don’t you ever do that again. If you do you’ll get much worse." Crouch has also punched jazz writer Russ Musto and Village Voice letters editor Ron Plotkin and put fellow Voice critic Harry Allen in a choke hold leading to his dismissal.

EDIT: Stanley is a hypocritic!

It's funny how one of the best writers and commentators on the most revolutionary form of American music -- a black art form -- completely dismisses an entire genre of black music without having more than casual familiarity with it.

However legitimate his beefs may be, his complete ignorance of hip-hop severely compromises his credibility.

P.S. Stanley -- Many jazz musicians, at least many jazz musicians upon whom you are so kind to bestow that title, weren't exactly models of modesty and decorum.

PurpleRighteous1 said:

Yes it was, indeed!

For some reason I can't access the original link, but I going to keep trying. This is an essay worth serious dialogue here...

Good stuff. Thanks 4 the post.