Thug Life Army

After seeing Oprah Winfrey’s hip hop ‘dog and pony’ show yesterday, I am truly convinced that hip hop does not get it; the same way that Don Imus didn’t get it.

There is respect among the hip hop community for the guests that were on the Oprah show yesterday, Russell Simmons, Chairman, and Dr. Benjamin Chavis, President of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, hip hop rap artist Common and Hip Hop stand out executive Kevin Liles; but the message they brought was like watching the blind lead the blind. Everyone agreed there is a problem but everyone had a reason or an excuse for the problem.

All agreed a change was needed, but also Russell Simmons tried to defend hip hop and rappers as poets. There are a few ‘poets’ in todays hip hop. Yelling ‘YEAAAHHHH’ while parting in a club is not poetry; and Tupac (2Pac) is not here; but there are a few we could classify as ''poets''.

Common, who is one of today’s hip hop poets, tried to defend and side with his fellow hip hop artists but also stated that a change was needed, especially when it came to the perception hip hop gives of women.

To me this looked like a few multi-millionaires scrambling to do ‘damage control’.

If everyone knew there was a problem, and some of us have been pointing it out for awhile, then why wait till now to ‘act’ on the problem.

Where was the representative for BET or the representatives from the other major hip hop and rap record labels? They know there is a ‘problem’, and that some in the hip hop community have been pointing it out for years, and still they just look at numbers.

The women issue aside, what about the violence? What about the mixed messages in videos that glorify ‘hoochies’, clubbing and violence?  What about the major label artists being arrested and making appalling headlines that makes the entire hip hop community look bad.

Russell Simmons brought up the song F’’’ The Police and the controversy it caused when it was first release, so controversy is nothing new to hip hop. Controversy may not be new to hip hop or to many music genre’s over the years, but loosing artists to killings and calling women ‘hoes and b*tches’ is not controversy. What happened to the days of Motown Love songs where women where the ‘queens’ of men’s lives? Marvin Gaye poured his heart and soul out to a ‘Distant Lover’, not a Distant Hoe.

There is a problem in hip hop and many of us know that it has been a problem for more than the last 2 weeks. The Don Imus comments just rekindled the ‘rhetoric’ from those who have the most to loose.

Some like the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Al Sharpton, and others have tried in the past to point out and help in some of these matters in the hip hop community, but as soon as the ‘headlines’ fall off the front page – so does the interest in doing something about it – at least until the next episode causes another explosion of interest.

The best way for those who are interested in the survival of Hip Hop and really changing the way the culture is perceived is to forget all the multi-millionaires trying to fix it (they have to much vested), simply don’t buy CD’s. Don’t watch BET. Boycott artists endorsement advertisers, Boycott BET advertisers. Just Boycott and refuse them your money – and that is something they will understand.

When Don Imus stated his opinion on the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights Basketball Females, the community contacted Imus’ advertisers and the advertisers started to drop like flies.

If hip hop wants to turn its back on the community, it is time to turn our back on them. Not all hip hop and rap is at fault here, so pick your stance carefully – but definitely we need to send a message.