Thanks, Marsh. Someone Agrees.
This has all gone too far and gotten way out of hand. Imus made his over-hyped “nappy-headed ho’s” comment, and the media proceeded with a snowstorm of coverage. Imus was kicked off of the air after advertisers pulled out funding, met with the Rutgers basketball team who forgave him, and went into hiding to avoid all of this negative media coverage. He knows what he did was wrong and has apologized already, yet the media keeps milking the story until there will be nothing left to cover. But despite the media making him look like he was the first person on the radio to make a racist comment, the main aspect of the situation that angered me was not the fact that he made the comment to begin with. I already knew Imus was a moron, and I did not listen to his show because of my previous experiences of listening to him with disgust. I knew something would come along and knock him out, and it came in the form of a racist comment. I think racism is disgusting, but aside from that, this situation has been used to target one of my true and innocent loves: hip-hop.
The latest development in Imusgate is that program director Helen Little of WWPR-FM, otherwise known as Power 105.1 FM (one of two hip-hop stations in New York City), talked to the NY Daily News about their station’s reaction to this behavior. She announced that her station is going to be removing any songs from their programming that have misogynistic and degrading lyrics in them. I will allow her quotes to do the work: “The station won’t sound that different, because we weren’t playing a lot of that anyway”; “What we are doing is holding labels and artists accountable”; “Let’s not get it twisted… What Imus said has nothing to do with hip-hop”; “We are not saying you can’t make the music. [We just] won’t play it.” Why should rappers have to change their lyrics just because Imus is an idiot? Why should they be punished? That’s just reallocating the blame, and it’s completely unfair.
Now take a deep breath. If this angers you as much as it does to me, then we’re on the same page. For something like Imus’ racist remark to cause this type of response is absolutely ludicrous. Hip-hop culture has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of this fiasco, with Rev. Al Sharpton lambasting rappers for talking about “ho’s” and degrading females in their songs. Sharpton is accusing rappers of making this type of talk repeatable by people like Imus, and blames them for simply talking about what they know and incorporating aspects of their culture into their music. Rappers aren’t specifically targeting women and degrading them in their music; it’s just part of the culture. That’s no excuse for them saying it, but when a rapper like Jay-Z says the word “ho” or “bitch” in his rhymes, he’s not intentionally putting down women. These words are merely the tools of a culture with which to make music. Since that is how hip-hop culture evolved, and if millions of people love it and live for it regardless, then hip-hop is just like any other culture: it will negatively affect a minority of those involved, and the rest will take it as it is. Hip-hop culture has always been under fire for its existence, but it only gets this type of attention when a white radio host makes a joke in poor taste.
I’ll get back to the issue of hip-hop in the crosshairs another time, but let’s first look at what would happen if Power 105 practiced what it preached. Now, I’m merely guessing that half of its programming would disappear. Basing this projection on the top-10 most played songs and combing their site, I am absolutely correct in that assertion. This is because almost half of the songs are by men, and the other half are by women. Now, if a woman says something like “ho” or “bitch,” then clearly it’s ok. But as for the men? Well, the only ones that will still make the cut will be wussy R&B singers like Robin Thicke and Ne-Yo. So say goodbye to Diddy, Mims, R. Kelly, and Chris Brown. All of them are treating women like objects in their songs and videos, and Power 105 will simply not have any of it (only unless the artists go back into the studio and record the songs so that they praise women).
Am I being unrealistic in my projections, or is Power 105 being ridiculously P.C. about this whole event? They do not need to change their programming because of a bad comment made by a bad radio personality. Power is one of the two radio stations in the New York area that plays hip-hop, and for one of them to scale back their programming on account of a totally tangential incident is way too political and selfish. Are they purposely attempting to isolate their listeners by abstaining from playing the top hits? How do they plan on accomplishing this censorship? To base your station around hip-hop and cut out some of its most prominent artists is hypocritical. You cannot call yourself a hip-hop radio station unless you play what artists should be played, even if there is payola involved. By chopping out some of their most successful artists, their station is basically doing something that will further isolate listeners from terrestrial radio stations. After all, no one wants to just hear Mary J. Blige and Robin Thicke all the time. Sometimes, yes, but always, no. Radio needs musical personalities, and those shining stars usually take the form of the Mims’s and R. Kelly’s. It’s their edginess that rakes us in. But if the station wants to be run by hypocrites, then let them dig their own graves.
But I’m not going to just let that end there… What do you take me for? Next comes the discussion of what to do about the old school rap hits. What about those old school artists? Say goodbye to any record by the Notorious B.I.G. Don’t get your hopes up that an old Jay-Z track will ever make it on the radio. Remember “Big Pimpin’?” Jay will be pimpin’ no more. And au revoir Tupac, while we’re at it. Do you see what I’m getting at here? This type of action is whitewashing over hip-hop’s history for the sake of a watered-down and boring future. And this is all because Imus said “nappy-headed ho’s,” right? Wow. The media has a very, very, very powerful effect on today’s society, and it’s terribly unfortunate that hip-hop had to be the one to take the brunt.
The overall lesson in this situation is that Imus should not have been such a racist. We all know that. But hip-hop is not what caused Imus to make that remark. The term “ho” has been around since the 1960’s, according to my roommate’s slang dictionary. The New York Times even used the word back then. And just to connect the dots for all of you, hip-hop wasn’t around during that time. It wasn’t even in its baby stages. So if you’re going to blame hip-hop for inspiring Imus to use the term “nappy-headed ho’s,” then you really should be blaming the people that invented the word in the first place. After all, it was those people who made the word available for hip-hop artists to use it in their songs. So cheers, blame-game. Hip-hop has yet again taken the heat for a comment that had nothing to do with hip-hop. Now, New York City has to be subjected to “So Sick” by Ne-Yo for eternity. Thanks a lot, Imus.
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