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  • » Name: Anthony Springer, Jr
  • » Age: 24
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Viewing Posts Tagged "Little Brother"   View All

Holding Hip Hop to the Fire


April 16, 2007 | Tags: don imus, Little Brother, Hip Hop, Davey D, XXL, The Source, Michael Eric Dyson

I ask the same question of the Civil Rights generation that I pose to mainstream news outlets:

Where the hell have you all been?!?!?

I swear this is the final Imus related blog; I really needed to get this one out.

Folks are running around here acting like we, the good citizens of Planet Hip Hop have no soul (no pun intended), or lack any moral foundation. Obviously, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Beyond the surface of the entire self righteous chest thumping that’s been done since the infamous “nappy headed hoe” comment, everybody calling for the great “Hip Hop clean up” is guilty of one of two things:False reporting and shitty observations.

Hip Hop has been self critical for YEARS.

In music, television, the web and print, journalists, emcees, anchors and activists have taken folks to task. We did it before Imus and we damn sure will be doing it after he fades away into obscurity. Anybody that faithfully reads DX knows that we constantly hold the industry accountable. From the music to the executives, we call “bullshit” when we see it. As do our competitors and Hip Hop historian, Davey D.

Before Little Brother was “too intelligent” for BET, The Roots dropped What They Do, Jeru the Damaja had Ya Playin Yaself and other emcees assailed “the studio gangster”, pointed out how fake the game was and took issue with misogyny (U-N-I-T-Y anyone?).

On a scholarly level, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and others have a number of pieces objectively looking at Hip Hop and how it affects the masses.For all things negative that can be said about The Source and XXL, they’ve done the same. Even Black Exploitation Television occasionally questions what’s going on in the game.

Let’s keep it 100: the claim that Hip Hop is not capable of policing itself is false. The only folks buying into that are those outside the culture, including mainstream media outlets and washed up Civil Rights leaders (yes, I’m talking about Sharpton and Jackson) and the people that follow them like the second coming of Moses.Everybody wants to ride the moral bandwagon on our culture now because it’s convenient.

While I don’t disagree that some of this music is harmful and degrading, I take great offense at the folks acting like they’re bringing something new and fresh to a discussion that we’ve been having within the culture for quite some time.

I’ll be tipping the wagon over when it rolls through, is anybody with me?


The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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