Post by outgirl on Apr 30, 2004 12:48:34 GMT -5
A Response to Hip Hop Critic Stanley Crouch
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This is a response to Hip Hop critic and NY dailey News Columnist Stanley Crouch
p076.ezboard.com/fpolitic...=491.topic
Mr. Crouch,
I wanted to take a moment to respond to your recent column, "Hip Hop Takes A Hit-Black Women Fighting Back." What frustrates me most as a 30-year old black hiphop journalist/promoter is mainstream america's inability and unwillingness to look at the greater picture which drives cultural problems.
To simply praise Black Women for "standing up" to degrading images in hip-hop by boycotting black men is to not only simply see part of the problem but doing so also further feeds into America's longstanding pyschotic view of black men as corrosive good-for-nothings.
If you check with Russell Simmons, SoundScan and Billboard, you'll know that 70-80% of all 'black music' (i.e. hiphop, R&B, Soul, Motown classics, etc.) are purchased by white and non-black consumers and have been for years. On the flipside, the distributors, the retail chains (including Tower, Target, Wal-Mart,Virgin Megastores, etc.), the radio stations (Infinity Broadcast, Clear Channel, Radio One, and the video channels (including Viacom which owns,VH1, BET, MTV, MTV Europe, MTV2, etc.) are white-owned. Combine that with the mainyl white power structure in Hollywood and Madison Avenue and you have a paradigm of predominantly white and non-black consumers dictating their tastes in black imagery, black culture, and black music to white/non-black marketers, retailers and manufactures who are more than happy to oblige.
If you go back to Motown, for all of its great music Berry Gordy was very open about his motives when he said: "We are not making 'black music'. We are making music for everyone." That mentality combined with Motown's infamous 'Finishing School' was all about making black artists and black culture presentable and acceptable to White America. What you've seen in the last decade plus of black music is mainstream consumers being very honest about what they will accept from black entertainment and black culture. They want the the worst, most sensationlistic, most derogatory versions of us and they are willing to pay top dollar to anyone willing to give it to them.
Now this isn't to let the Nellys, Ludacrises, R. Kellys or (insert misogynistic black artist here) off the hook. But theses artist have little input in the scope of what's presented and consumed by the masses. These artists have to 'pre-sell' their videos to video channels before they can be aired. They have to pre-sell their music to retailers and distributors before fans get access to them. What you have going on is an infrastructure which encourages, rewards and quite often demands the "n*gg*rs, thugs, pimps, and hoes" parade that hiphop and black music has become within the last decade or so. Again, they are responsible for their own choices, but to simply put this all on the artists is myopic at best.
If you rewind to hiphop's so-called golden era of the late 1980s-to the early 1990s, you'll notice a couple relevant dynamics: First, hip-hop and black music in general was more diverse in scope. Black females from Whitney Houston to Anita Baker to Queen Latifah to MC Lyte to Monie Love were creating music and images based on their talents and inner beauty as black women and as artists without nudity, negativity and degradation. Secondly, black women in vidoes for the most part, kept their clothes on. In fact, strippers and 'video hoes' were mostly white and mainly a staple in 1980s hair bands and rock bands such as Poison, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Motley Crew, etc. Secondly, black music, specifically hiphop was largely supported by blacks and inner-city latinos. Consequently, mainstream america's tastes and desires weren't an issue in the music and culture. In fact Chris Rock once joked that "To all the white people who complain about rap music: It's NOT FOR YOU. Do You think Run-DMC consults Dick Van Patten before they make an album?"
But times change. Hihop is now 'universal', not to mention a multi-billion dollar indsutry. And Nelly's core audience, the one that made him a 20 times platinum plus rap star, is white and non- black women. To be honest, blacks have supported these artists as well, but theses artists know that while black consumers may bring street cred, it's the mainstream consumers and marketers that pay their bills and buys them the houses and jewlery. As the saying goes, you ride the horse that brung you. And hiphop and black music didn't become a multi-billion dollar industry because black folks by CDs and tapes.
Also, if you recall last year's Eminem "Black Bitches" song fiasco (tapes surfaced with a 20-something Eminem singing about black women as black bitches and niggers), even when blacks complain and get outraged, the affects are minimal because blacks are no longer the sole authority and keepers of our own culture and music.
In the end, is it necessary for our sisters to take black men to task for our roles in these derogatory images? Yes. Is it necessary for black artists to check themselves on the types of music and lyrics and imagery they're creating? Yes. But do we need to look at the bigger picture and take a more sophisticated approach to solving the problems of black stereotypes in America? Yes.
I'm glad you wrote your column because I agree with parts of it. But my biggest fear from all of this is that we will have a new form of black-on-black crime emerging; one in which blacks will simply point the finger at other blacks as a solution to problems that blacks didn't solely create, are not solely responsible for perpetuating and most importantly, cannot stop solely on their own.
Peace
Hadji
writer
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a response to Hip Hop critic and NY dailey News Columnist Stanley Crouch
p076.ezboard.com/fpolitic...=491.topic
Mr. Crouch,
I wanted to take a moment to respond to your recent column, "Hip Hop Takes A Hit-Black Women Fighting Back." What frustrates me most as a 30-year old black hiphop journalist/promoter is mainstream america's inability and unwillingness to look at the greater picture which drives cultural problems.
To simply praise Black Women for "standing up" to degrading images in hip-hop by boycotting black men is to not only simply see part of the problem but doing so also further feeds into America's longstanding pyschotic view of black men as corrosive good-for-nothings.
If you check with Russell Simmons, SoundScan and Billboard, you'll know that 70-80% of all 'black music' (i.e. hiphop, R&B, Soul, Motown classics, etc.) are purchased by white and non-black consumers and have been for years. On the flipside, the distributors, the retail chains (including Tower, Target, Wal-Mart,Virgin Megastores, etc.), the radio stations (Infinity Broadcast, Clear Channel, Radio One, and the video channels (including Viacom which owns,VH1, BET, MTV, MTV Europe, MTV2, etc.) are white-owned. Combine that with the mainyl white power structure in Hollywood and Madison Avenue and you have a paradigm of predominantly white and non-black consumers dictating their tastes in black imagery, black culture, and black music to white/non-black marketers, retailers and manufactures who are more than happy to oblige.
If you go back to Motown, for all of its great music Berry Gordy was very open about his motives when he said: "We are not making 'black music'. We are making music for everyone." That mentality combined with Motown's infamous 'Finishing School' was all about making black artists and black culture presentable and acceptable to White America. What you've seen in the last decade plus of black music is mainstream consumers being very honest about what they will accept from black entertainment and black culture. They want the the worst, most sensationlistic, most derogatory versions of us and they are willing to pay top dollar to anyone willing to give it to them.
Now this isn't to let the Nellys, Ludacrises, R. Kellys or (insert misogynistic black artist here) off the hook. But theses artist have little input in the scope of what's presented and consumed by the masses. These artists have to 'pre-sell' their videos to video channels before they can be aired. They have to pre-sell their music to retailers and distributors before fans get access to them. What you have going on is an infrastructure which encourages, rewards and quite often demands the "n*gg*rs, thugs, pimps, and hoes" parade that hiphop and black music has become within the last decade or so. Again, they are responsible for their own choices, but to simply put this all on the artists is myopic at best.
If you rewind to hiphop's so-called golden era of the late 1980s-to the early 1990s, you'll notice a couple relevant dynamics: First, hip-hop and black music in general was more diverse in scope. Black females from Whitney Houston to Anita Baker to Queen Latifah to MC Lyte to Monie Love were creating music and images based on their talents and inner beauty as black women and as artists without nudity, negativity and degradation. Secondly, black women in vidoes for the most part, kept their clothes on. In fact, strippers and 'video hoes' were mostly white and mainly a staple in 1980s hair bands and rock bands such as Poison, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Motley Crew, etc. Secondly, black music, specifically hiphop was largely supported by blacks and inner-city latinos. Consequently, mainstream america's tastes and desires weren't an issue in the music and culture. In fact Chris Rock once joked that "To all the white people who complain about rap music: It's NOT FOR YOU. Do You think Run-DMC consults Dick Van Patten before they make an album?"
But times change. Hihop is now 'universal', not to mention a multi-billion dollar indsutry. And Nelly's core audience, the one that made him a 20 times platinum plus rap star, is white and non- black women. To be honest, blacks have supported these artists as well, but theses artists know that while black consumers may bring street cred, it's the mainstream consumers and marketers that pay their bills and buys them the houses and jewlery. As the saying goes, you ride the horse that brung you. And hiphop and black music didn't become a multi-billion dollar industry because black folks by CDs and tapes.
Also, if you recall last year's Eminem "Black Bitches" song fiasco (tapes surfaced with a 20-something Eminem singing about black women as black bitches and niggers), even when blacks complain and get outraged, the affects are minimal because blacks are no longer the sole authority and keepers of our own culture and music.
In the end, is it necessary for our sisters to take black men to task for our roles in these derogatory images? Yes. Is it necessary for black artists to check themselves on the types of music and lyrics and imagery they're creating? Yes. But do we need to look at the bigger picture and take a more sophisticated approach to solving the problems of black stereotypes in America? Yes.
I'm glad you wrote your column because I agree with parts of it. But my biggest fear from all of this is that we will have a new form of black-on-black crime emerging; one in which blacks will simply point the finger at other blacks as a solution to problems that blacks didn't solely create, are not solely responsible for perpetuating and most importantly, cannot stop solely on their own.
Peace
Hadji
writer
