Thug Life Army

In a recent post titled ‘Go to HELL Hip Hop and Rap’, we gave the side of a black female to an article we posted by Glen Ford who is the Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report. Com. The title of his article is ‘Hip Hop Profanity, Misogyny and Violence: Blame the Manufacturer by BAR Executive Editor Glen Ford’.

The Don Imus controversy has caused a ripple effect of emotions and opinions in the hip hop community. Seems the opinions are varied and there are many good points being raised by the ‘real’ hip hop community members; not the so called leaders like Russell Simmons who ‘tap danced’ around the topic; trying to keep ‘everyone’ happy.

Here are a few of the responses we received.

Response to "Go to Hell Rap and Hip Hop" editorial.

Corporate America needs to take partial responsibility for widely distributing and promoting Gangsta rap music. No one forced these young brothers to do rap that demeans black women as well as themselves.

On the other hand, no one forced Corporate America to sell this kind of music. I once saw an article in Village Voice saying that conscious rap groups like dead prez are sometimes banned from performing at certain clubs because the owners feel that dead prez'' music is inflammatory. Yet, rap groups that rap about hurting someone and being materialistic are given a wide berth by Corporate America's entertainment forces.

Dead prez raps about corruption in the federal government, black history, discipline, eating the right foods, and improving your community. Common raps about good health, spirituality and loving relationships yet music magazines like Blender call him a "wimp."

Corporate America, with the help of spiritually lost black folks, pushes rap music permeated with negative stereotypes about black people.  We can''t put it all on the white man and we can''t put it all on the black man. As Chancellor Williams so accurately described in his classic work, Destruction of Black Civilization, the blame can be put on Africans, Europeans, Middle Easterners and Asians. – by Shade Jefferson Ford

The Hip Hop Community: Death to the Mainstream

I just finished reading the article of "Go to hell hip hop and rap."  I respect anyone's opinion on any subject but I think the problem with our society now is that we continue to push the limits of what's acceptable. 

I''m 30 and I could NOT have imagined watching or listening to what is being shown on television and radio with my parents. We think that we are ready but as a society, we are not. 

Of course hip hop is thrown in the fire every time that there's a problem in society, so that's nothing new. The true problem is the mainstream. Once prominent businessmen saw the profitability of hip hop, a lot more things became "acceptable" to say and do. 

It seems to me that the underground has died. I know that there are still underground rappers but they now believe that they can be on the radio without hardly editing the words or the content. 

I love hip hop and always will, but I shouldn''t have to turn to the jazz station when my kids are in the car because somebody talking about "cleaning her nookie..."  I like the song but it shouldn''t be on the radio or they need to make a better radio version. 

In conclusion, hip hop is music; music will always be criticized because music is a form of expression. Thugs want to hear thug music, positive brothas want to hear positive music, and freaks want to hear music dealing with freaky stuff. There is a market for everything but we need to quit fooling ourselves and thinking that we are ready as a society for it. If we don''t want people to say certain the "disrespect" us, then we need to do better to what’s being put in the mainstream.  Real Talk. - Reggie "CityReg" Edwards, Indianapolis, IN.

These responses, and others we have received, show that hip hop could have much bigger appeal – if the artists and the corporate arena would understand what the consumer wants.

Hip hop is far deeper than making ‘chedda’ or an artist ‘makin mine’. Hip hop is a culture and the premise of that culture was ‘keeping it real’.

Phrases like ‘keeping it real’ are just that in hip hop now – something someone will throw out once in awhile in a track, it really has no other bearing on the culture.

Tupac Shakur (2Pac) use to emphasis ‘One Nation’, with the concept of that being we are all one people – facing the same problems and the same life struggles, sharing the same dreams and emotions. Hip hop is not ‘One Nation’ any longer. It seems everyone is out just for themselves – especially corporate America. Let’s face it corporate America can always find another movement to ‘pimp’.

The hip hop community is split on which direction we as a culture need to go to insure that hip hop will not just become a faded movement.

Whenever a ‘movement’ of change happens, it is always - yes always - put in ‘check’ by the powers that be. It happened to the movements of Malcolm X, MLK Jr., The Black Panthers, and many other movements and people who could see change and how to obtain it.

As hip hop is ‘used’ by corporate America to make money and to sell everything from hamburgers to automobiles, the hip hop community needs to figure out who is the pimp and who is the ‘ho’; and we have to decide if we what to be the corporate ‘ho’s’.

Hip hop needs to get its own act together and once that is done we, as a proud community, can take control on how we are perceived and represented in the ‘main stream’.

*Thanks to those who weighted in on this topic. If you have a comment please send it to Administrator (at) ThugLifeArmy.com .

If you would like to read ‘Hip Hop Profanity, Misogyny and Violence: Blame the Manufacturer by BAR Executive Editor Glen Ford’ please click HERE.