Copyright 2006 Daily News, L.P.

http://www.nydailynews.com
Daily News (New York)

October 22, 2006 Sunday
SPORTS FINAL EDITION

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 41

LENGTH: 548 words

HEADLINE: ALL RHYME, NO REASON FOR RAP WORLD'S MODERN MINSTRELS

BYLINE: BY ERROL LOUIS

BODY:

Like it or not, the precious First Amendment right to free speech gives
every one of the hip-hop minstrels currently being hyped by cynical
record labels and television execs a constitutionally protected right to
act like complete jackasses before a national audience.

It also gives the rest of us the right to speak up and denounce such
buffoonery as what it is: a direct throwback to the days of burnt cork
and blackface, when fortunes were made from America's seemingly
bottomless appetite for demeaning images featuring black folks
shuffling, cutting up, dancing jigs and generally behaving like fools.

As recently pointed out by Byron Crawford, a blogger for the hip-hop
magazine XXL, industry-backed racial clowning is so popular that it now
constitutes its own subgenre: minstrel rap.

"Record labels are rushing out to sign the most coon-like Negroes they
can find," Crawford wrote, citing the popularity of "Chain Hang Low," a
song by a St. Louis teenager named Jibbs that is all the rage on the
record charts and on YouTube, the online video service.

The song is an anthem to flashy jewelry set to the tune of "Turkey in
the Straw" (Do your chain hang low? Do it wobble to the flow?/ Do it
shine in the light? Is it platinum? Is it gold?).

As a New York Times music critic recently noted in a review of Jibbs'
song, "Turkey in the Straw" is actually an altered version of a
19th-century minstrel song called "Old Zip Coon" (Ole Zip Coon he is a
natty scholar/ For he plays upon de Banjo "Cooney in de hollar").

Jibbs is neither the first nor the biggest star in the world of minstrel
rap. 50 Cent's album and movie "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " carry an
unmistakable echo of a hit minstrel song from 1856 called "Root Hog or
Die" - a tune based on a folk saying that carries pretty much the same
meaning as 50's title. Even the lyrics barely need tweaking to sound
like modern minstrel rap: (I'm right from old Virginny with my pocket
full of news/ I'm worth twenty shillings right square in my shoes/ It
doesn't make a dif of bitternance to neither you nor I/ Big pig or
little pig Root, hog or die).

Other modern minstrel rap tunes include "Chicken Noodle Soup" and "Fry
That Chicken," both of which have videos showing kids dancing little
jigs while grinning and eating soul food.

It's sad to see musically untrained youngsters shucking and jiving for a
bit of money and fame. Most could never dream of succeeding in a serious
artistic setting like a church choir, dance ensemble or jazz band,
places that require study, discipline and hard work. Many would be
swiftly laughed off the stage.

Those who think that trafficking in racial selfabasement for cash is a
harmless business should remember the controversial, tragic career of
Lincoln Perry, whose stage and movie performances as Stepin Fetchit - a
mumbling, dimwitted servant billed as "the Laziest Man in the World" -
were popular in the 1920s and '30s.

Perry's minstrel act made him a millionaire movie star, but he ended up
bankrupt, condemned by black audiences and all but forgotten by the time
of his death in 1985.

Today's minstrel rappers are unwittingly racing down that same path -
fooled by false financial promises, too lazy to hone their talent and
condemned, like all who ignore history, to repeat it.

elouis@nydailynews. com

GRAPHIC: The minstrelsy tradition of Stepin Fetchit is resurrected in
the music of rapper Jibbs.

LOAD-DATE: October 23, 2006

Okay....now discuss

Black people are buying into the pimping of their own as well as others pimping us. Obviously, we have no problem with it, or it would have ceased by now. I am done bitching about it.

Jibbs "Chain Hang Low"

Stymie said:

Sad but true.

uPtoWnNY said:

this ain't true, when a whole bunch of black kids are dancing people seem minstrel, instead of just kids having fun.Black people need to stop having this attitude towards others, but i love how we as blacks will call other blacks coon, and then turn around and get mad over the word nigga being used

I could careless for all these dance rap singles coming out because they are single artist, nobody will buy there LP, and they will flop and get dropped and be gone.

Stymie said:

I don't completely agree.

It seems there are many black folks upset about it other wise you wouldn't have article after article with BLACK people being pissed.

Black people aren't the only ones buying this mess. Revolution, protest, outrage, boycotting, etc isn't in the make up of the kids today. We haven't shown the them the power they have collectively. I say this because I've had conversations with my daughter about her understand the power of dollar and that when she buys music, she is saying that she agrees with its content, etc.

Most of the kids I talk with about the music today are driven the beats. Too many times I'll go, WTH did that song just say and one of my daughters friend will say, oh Miss Rhonda, we just like the beat, you can dance to to.

And a reminder again, Black folks aren't the only ones buying hip hop and supporting this.

and on some odd level King is right. We have to be careful to not dog out some of the stuff the kids are just having fun with like "chicken noodle soup" and view that as some "niggerish" display. Yes, I do believe there is a major issue with the step and fetch it attitude BUT we can't throw it all in the pot.
[Edited 10/27/06 5:50am]

CinisterCee said:

This is one of the worst top 10 singles of all-time.

Rhondab said:

I can't stand Chicken Noodle Soup but I will concede that I have no problem with it because it is, in my opinion, just fun for the kids. I do happen to think that more people don't have a problem with the way we are presented than do, because it continues on. Others are exploiting us but they wouldn't be able to do it if we didn't put oursleves out there like that.

Stymie said:

Kinda like what came first....the chicken or the egg...

KingKrazy said:

co sign, the whole drama over chicken noodle soup is ridiculous as far as i;m concerend, wasnt nobody thinkin about shuckin and jivin when it was thoguht up and even i didnt notice it until i read about it online