So there's this documentary by Byron Hurt on PBS' Independent Lens series. I wasn't sure what it would entail, and although I'm not a huge hip-hop fan, the musical side of me wanted to see it.

I was mortified by a few of the things in the film. A lot of the stuff I got. I don't fully understand it, but I got where they were going with certain things. I think anyone can see how hip-hop perpetuates stereotypes and keeps men dumb. They VERY harsh on BET itself, and Chuck D. called them a cancer on black men. While being interviewed about the images on BET, the president of BET Stephen Hill, simply walked away without answering the question. What was the question? "What do you think, as a black man, about the images of black women and the stereotypes perpetuated in hip-hop music videos?" At first he passed the buck to the performer, saying they just play the videos that are sent to them.

So all that didn't totally shock me. What did shock me was some BET weekend in Daytona or something like that, and guys were full on grabbing women's asses as they walked by. Strangers, grabbing strangers. It was "open season" (as Byron Hurt said) on these women. Yet some of the women, the ones with no self-respect, played into the video vixen role, letting men video tape up their mini-skirts, and lift their dresses to get a peek at whatever was under there. I wanted to put a bullet in every one of them.

Then the idea of homo-eroticism in videos was brought up. One gay rapper, Tim'm West, said that when LL Cool J is shirtless and licking his lips, it ain't just women looking at then. When LL Cool J is shirtless, flexing in a pool of water, with a "10" belt buckle on, it ain't just women looking at it. Everyone from 50 Cent, Ja Rule, Nelly, and a host of others have been shirtless, greased up, and looking like gay porn gods on the cover of Vibe magazine and in other places. I had to laugh, because as the documentary explored homophobia in hip-hop, they're certainly playing into it the eroticism a bit.

The whole documentary was quite fascinating.

I know it premiered in February 2007, but they reran it tonight. I'm not sure if the local PBS station here, or the network at large, ran it. It might rerun again before the week ends.

Has anyone seen this? Thoughts on it?

i'm glad that attention was brought to this state of the hip hop, as noted by ernestsewell, it was aired in 2007. it's since then evolved into an even more bizare state. where are the urban youths being led?


so true wow!

go to you tube to view parts 5 and 6

Gotta come back to this thread

ernestsewell said:

I did a post about this when it first aired in 2007.

Some of the best quotes came from Chuck D...

The dominant image of Black masculinity in Hip-Hop is the fact that someone can be confrontational, but confrontational with the wrong cat. Like they're not ever confrontational with the cats that will claim, you know, i'll wipe your whole neighborhood out. Because they're almost like they're trained not to even see them. It's like my beef is with this cat right here that looks just like me.

The rise of the culture of Black animosity is something that adds to the street credibility factor. It's like almost to the point where Tupac and Biggie were used as martyrs for this new endorsement of Black animosity.

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The national story is Black death. Whether it's through film, whether it's through recordings, whether it's just through news is the bottom line and the Black, no pun intended, moneymaker. Black death is the pimp by corporations and young people think that the street credibility is, you know, is the thing that is gonna ride them to some kind of profitability in life.

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The only thing that can turn the tide is Black men. Before anybody says i'm a rapper I tell 'em first of all yo, i'm a man. A man tells his business situation like, "We can't do that. We won't go there. We can't." It's a slap in the face to me and my constituency, my family where I come from and all. That's a man. And that what's been lacking in the music business and the film business is that we haven't had men represent Black people.

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And things haven't gotten any better.


Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Records

mainstream hiphop sucks

i mostly blame the people who buy into it

its ironic how women complain about rap lyrics when most of the overtly sexual/disrespectful songs are enjoyed by the same people