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  • » Name: Amanda Bassa
  • » Location: VA
  • » Member Since: 09/21/07
  • » Bio: student, future change maker, and everything you wouldn't expect me to be.
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The Undisputed Truth

Hip Hop Did It Again


November 29, 2007 | Tags: Hip Hop, Sean Taylor

I knew it. I KNEW IT! I’ve been telling myself that somebody out there would try to blame hip hop somehow for Sean Taylor’s death.

I saw this coming.

So, as I was browsing some posts on a website I tend to frequent, I noticed somebody had put up a link to a news story at foxsports.com. My curious ass clicked on it. Hell, here, you can click on it too: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7499442?MSNHPHCP>1=10637

The whole article is a little controversially written, but being that this is a hip hop site, let’s just focus on the hip hop element of it.

“You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men.”

OK, so Mr. Whitlock (the author of the article) didn’t say “hip hop killed Sean Taylor”. But the article was kind of centered around Taylor’s death for a large portion of it. Since Taylor was a black male who got killed, then logic says that hip hop played a role in killing Sean Taylor – at least that sentence would make it seem that way. The guy has balls, I must say, because that was a bold statement.

You know what makes me think that I’m right to be pissed at this? My own mother said that the statement was out of line. Yeah, I’m bringin’ mom dukes into this one. I love her, but she ain’t hip hop. She doesn’t know much about the culture because she didn’t grow up around it, and she’s too busy for me to truly enlighten her to it. She’s learning though, I give her props. What I’m getting at though, is that my mom could give a shit less about hip hop (except she respects it since she knows how large a part of my life it is), and would normally ignore a statement like that. The fact that it got a reaction out of her? That means that what he said was definitely at least a little bit out of line.

Anybody out there that wants to criticize hip hop and blame it for society’s ills? Go the fuck ahead. But just wait. Somebody out there is going to shut you down soon, once and for all. Somebody out there is going to prove to you that there is positivity and inspiration embedded within this culture. And I don’t care if it’s me, my mother, anybody reading this blog, or whoever. Somebody out there is going to do it. And I’ll be smiling when they (or I, perhaps?) do.

Until then, I say we find this guy Jason Whitlock’s e-mail address and start flooding it with examples of rap music that doesn’t “celebrate murder, ignorance and incarceration” as he so lovingly phrased it. Prove him wrong. Show him that there’s more to hip hop than Soulja Boy (which was his only specific reference to an artist that promotes the aforementioned negativities, if you didn’t read the article). Remind him that other cultures, music genres, movements, and parts of American history also had their negative sides, but yet aren’t getting blamed for fucking up our society. Maybe I’m being a little irrational right now because, well…I’m a girl and some would argue that I’m just genetically programmed to get a little crazy sometimes. But damn…

Please, if you read no other words of this blog, at least hear me out on this. Every one of you that comes to this site is (well, I’d hope) a fan of hip hop. A person that somehow keeps the movement alive, even if it’s by buying albums or going to an occasional show. Or maybe you’re a b-boy, a graffiti artist, a DJ, a producer, a lyricist…whatever it is, hip hop is a part of you. It’s a part of your heart; a part of who you are. And people like Jason Whitlock are holding something that’s a part of you responsible for people’s DEATHS. I refuse to even indirectly be blamed for the problems of society when I do all that I possibly can to speak out against those issues (which in my eyes do not include hip hop culture as a whole) and help to solve them. And I refuse to let any other innocent person who claims hip hop as a part of their lives be accused either.


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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