Nothing on the Billboard charts excuses the remarks made by Imus, but there is plenty of fodder for a parallel discussion about popular culture...it's tough to hear the words that fill the airwaves (and the coffers of the entertainment industry) without wondering if something has gone very wrong with the way a lot of folks define themselves and their relationships with the world around them.

For my newspaper column, I listened to the lyrics of Billboard's top ten rap tracks and tried to contextualize the Imus affair.

Listening to rap lyrics

by Edward Cone
News & Record
4-22-07

The No. 1 single on Billboard's rap chart last week was "This Is Why I'm Hot," by a young fellow who calls himself Mims. It's a catchy ode to the rapper from the rapper, detailing the many reasons why Mims believes he is hot, including his ability to transcend regional preferences and appeal to fans in different areas of the country, his stylish wardrobe and habit of driving fine automobiles, his prowess as a recording artist, and -- this would seem to be both an indication of his hotness and a result of it -- his popularity with women.

I've heard "This Is Why I'm Hot" for a while now, but I decided to give its lyrics a closer listen after radio show host Don Imus got canned for calling members of the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Pretty much nobody defended Imus for making the comment, but plenty of people sought to contextualize (or deflect attention from) his remarks by claiming that rap lyrics are full of misogyny and language that would be considered racist if uttered by a white person.

Nothing on the Billboard charts excuses the remarks made by Imus, but there is plenty of fodder for a parallel discussion about popular culture. It's hard to generalize about a genre as diverse as modern rap, and even harder to draw conclusive meaning from the lyrics of popular songs. That said, it's tough to hear the words that fill the airwaves (and the coffers of the entertainment industry) without wondering if something has gone very wrong with the way a lot of folks define themselves and their relationships with the world around them.

Mims doesn't call anyone a ho in his breakthrough song, but he does make a positive reference to "pimpin'" and address his peers as "niggas." And "This Is Why I'm Hot" is one of the tamest songs on the Top Ten list (you can watch videos of the songs at YouTube and find lyrics via any Web search service).

Elsewhere on the chart, "I'm a Flirt" is the innocent-sounding title for an N-word-laden song full of boasts about fancy cars and jewelry. "Throw Some D's" invokes the crack cocaine trade, along with "niggas," "bitches," "hos," handguns, jewelry and Cadillacs. "Go Getta" and "2 Step" refer to women as bitches; "Rock Yo Hips" is a leering shout-out to a stripper. And "Pop, Lock and Drop It" features a narrator who seems confident that displaying his wealth will make him attractive to women in a nightclub.

It's depressing stuff, the misogyny and materialism, not to mention the glamorization of 9 mm handguns of the sort used to such horrific effect last week at Virginia Tech. At least it seems depressing to me, a middle-aged white man who has listened to rap on and off since The Sugarhill Gang became the first rappers to hit it big when I was in high school.

I'm bothered not just by what rappers say but why they say it. The lyrics and the popularity of the genre aren't happening in a vacuum; they reflect something about the realities of a larger culture that is coarse, consumerist and often violent. Public Enemy's Chuck D famously said that rap is like "CNN for black people." Maybe part of the problem is that these days, the best-known member of the socially conscious Public Enemy is Flava Flav, who once rapped about the harsh reality of life in poor neighborhoods but now does clownish "reality" shows on corporate television.

Then again, rappers like to pose and play roles, and many songs may be less like documentaries and more like comic books and video games and professional wrestling. Are fans making those distinctions, or are they buying the whole package? My two suburban teenagers -- hardly a valid statistical sample but members of a key marketing demographic for rap music -- seem capable of singing along with Fat Joe and Lil Wayne about "mak[ing] it rain on them hos" (i.e., showering strippers with cash) without embracing the implied values of the song. Do they get its drug-dealing references? Probably, but since I make them listen to Lou Reed sing about heroin on the way to school in the morning, I have no standing to complain.

Back to the part that helped get Imus fired: It's really hard to understand how this stuff all fits into the rest of the culture. Millions of people are listening to music produced and sold by mainstream businesses, but many of the consumers dare not speak the words they are purchasing. My daughter and I loved "Gold Digger," the Grammy-nominated single by Kanye West, but I would be shocked to hear her singing it verbatim, as it repeatedly rhymes its title with the N-word that she abhors.

I'm close to being a free-speech absolutist, and my gut reaction to a lot of the controversies around pop music tends toward "shut up and dance." Even so, there is plenty to think about when the dance is done.

© News & Record 2007

Edward Cone (www.edcone.com, efcone@mindspring.com) writes a column for the News & Record most Sundays.

   

Comments

[sean coon]

just a couple of thoughts on the generalizations...

[Debra]

Imus didn't get canned because he said what he said. He got canned because his advertisers fled in droves. He's said worse; shoot, worse is said nearly every day by the comedian Rush Limbaugh (and Hannity and O'Reilly, etc.). But as long as the media company airing the "offensive" remarks makes money, its all good.

Its not a free speech issue; Imus is still free to say anything he wants; he's just not getting paid for it anymore (or at least right now -- I predict he'll be back before long because he can still make money for a media company).

Comparing what Imus said and what happened to him to rap music is a false premise (not that you did, Ed). Imus was a radio host who was ostensibly covering politics and other important issues in America (his protestations that he was just doing a comedy show notwithstanding); he had a greater responsibility to control the tone and words being used on his show.

Rappers are artists (whether you care for their particular art form or not doesn't matter) and artists have much more freedom and latitude to create art that may be offensive to some (even to many). If its too offensive, it won't sell -- the marketplace will put an end to it (which is part of the reason why you don't see white supremacist rock CDs carried in retail stores -- too offensive for the marketplace).

[mick]

Could you please give us some of these "nearly every day" offenses by Hannity, ORiley and Rush?

[mick]

I didnt think so.