Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

  • Today, yours truly will take a look at Rick Ross. No, not "Freeway" Rick Ross, infamous L.A.-based drug dealer with possible but not concretely proven CIA connections. I'm talking about William Roberts, the former corrections officer who appropriated Rick Ross's story and image to launch his own commercial rap career.

    I've actually listened to a few of Rick Ross's songs and they come off as the typical formulaic pablum that epitomizes commercial rap music: a few lines of verse about the money you're making, a few more about your material possessions, some mentions about your drug dealing/gangster past and how you still retain the capacity to kill in spite of your current profession, some lines about your sexual prowess and conquests, all topped off with a few shoutouts to your allies in the commercial rap business, packaged to either a machine-generated beat or a "sample" of some 70s/80s/90s R&B or soul tune, slowed down or sped up to invoke "fair use" and avoid royalty payments.

    In normal circumstances, Rick Ross wouldn't interest me. Except he's caught some flak over the lyrics in rapper Rocko's "U.O.E.N.O," an onomatopoeia for “you don’t even know.” Crafty wordsmiths, these folks.

    In particular, these two lines:

    Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it
    I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain't even know it

    Uh oh. Did "the Boss" just suggest that he slipped something (most likely MDMA or GHB) in her drink and then had sex with her, presumably while she was unconscious or too drugged up to notice?

    People say it's just lyrics. He probably meant nothing by it. At least that was Rick Ross's argument at first:

    I wanted to come down to the radio station. There is certain things you can’t tweet, you have to verbalize. I want to make sure this is clear, that woman is the most precious gift known to man, you understand? It was a misunderstanding with a lyric, a misinterpretation where the term rape wasn’t used. I would never use the term rape. As far as my camp, hip hop don’t condone that. The streets don’t condone that. Nobody condones that. So I wanted to reach out to all the queens that’s on my timeline, all the sexy ladies, the beautiful ladies that have been reaching out to me with the misunderstanding. We don’t condone rape and I’m not with that.

    It's the type of mea culpa that usually comes in printed or online press releases. If anyone was expecting a heartfelt apology, waiting for it would be akin to waiting for Godot. Or for the next C-Tran bus at Southlake Mall.

    Unlike that severely-underfunded and ultimately axed bus service, the criticism kept coming. As Talib Kweli and others took Ricky to the woodshed over his lyrics and as Ultraviolet started a concerted effort to shorn the rapper of his promotional deal with Reebok, Ross issued two more relatively weak appeals to his critics and fans:



    His fans will forgive him. Chances are they're only upset at everyone else being so hard on Ricky. To understand why, it means realizing how Rick Ross's lyrics (and those of other rappers) are both a reflection and a product of the culture that enables and glorifies the activity described by those lyrics. It's an echo chamber that amplifies itself many times over, with little to no opportunity for any positive message to break the cycle. Not that the people who are actually making money off of this stuff (music executives and their shareholders) mind - it'd probably be bad business to interrupt the cycle.

    But interrupt someone must. These lyrics reflect and reinforce a rape culture that promotes an overall view of women as sex objects who are duty-bound to either "give up the pussy" or have it taken, whether by fraud, deception or force. These sentiments echo throughout the rap subculture, to be internalized by fans who live vicariously through the imaginative storytelling of each song or through observing and emulating the actions of rappers and others around them.

    In the end, Rick Ross's apologies don't mean much. When things die down as they usually do in today's world of accelerated media cycles, he'll go back to doing the same thing he's been doing and get rewarded handsomely for it. At worst, he might lose his deal with Reebok, but that'll probably be it. Dismantling rape culture won't happen from the top, at least not solely on backhanding rappers who step over the line. On this issue, the line's been crossed hundreds of miles ago.

    Whenever the question of how to end rape culture comes about, solutions are always expected to be brought forth and put into play by the womenfolk. That's over and done, as it should have been a long time ago. Asking women to continuously shoulder the burden of preventing rape and blaming them when it happens while giving men implied card blanche on the issue is something that should end, posthaste.

    In other words, the beginning of the end of rape culture will happen once us menfolk finally understand and internalize one thing and one thing only: don't rape.

    Translation: the pussy is not yours to take.

    P.S. If you have kids, don't let them consume commercial rap in their formative years. Yours truly spent most of his childhood blissfully unaware of rap while being exposed to copious amounts of jazz, R&B, soul and soft rock. The impact it made on my growing up was drastically different than the kids next door, who were basically given free rein to listen to commercial rap.


  • The above is a collaboration between country-pop singer Brad Paisley and noted R&B/hip-hop artist LL Cool J. Take a moment and listen to the lyrics. If you happen to be of the corn-fed good-ol-boy persuasion, try your best not to shut it off as soon as LL Cool J's vocals appear.


    For those not familiar with American history, the above is the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, as used by the primary force of the Confederate States of America. As it became increasingly well-known as the rallying visual of the Confederacy, the red, white and blue heraldic saltire found its way on the second national flag of the CSA sometime around 1863.

    For generations after the end of the American Civil War, the battle flag evolved into a versatile symbol for many people. For many, it's the symbol of proud southern heritage. For some, a soothing balm to lessen the historical sting of defeat (i.e. "The South Shall Rise Again"). For others, it's a reminder of the Confederacy's failure as a splinter nation and an encapsulation of the odious practices that went on even before the idea of a confederacy was ever broached. It's also been used as a symbol of rebellion and defiance - take note of Georgia's addition of the saltire to the state flag in 1956 as a "fuck you" response towards Brown vs. Board of Education, for instance.

    For black Americans, it's a symbol of white society's disdain and utter hatred of blacks under any capacity other than bonded labor and occasional entertainment. Throughout the Southeast U.S. and even points further north, the battle flag's been the rallying brand of people and groups dedicated to curtailing and exterminating the rights of black citizens, from the Ku Klux Klan to the seemingly innocuous and benign "concerned citizens" groups.

    To many black Americans, the battle flag is akin to the old "Whites Only" signs of the Jim Crow era - wherever one's flown, hung, printed or posted, it's simply means one thing and one thing only to most blacks: "You're not welcome here."

    That's what "Accidental Racist" is all about - a white guy who wants to show off his southern pride but winds up representing all the ills that come with his choice of symbol. At the risk of "Godwin"-ing this blog post, I'll just say that outside of underground hate groups you won't hear of anyone belting a polemic tome bemoaning the stigma of the Nazi flag when they were only trying to show off their National Socialist pride. He bemoans how people see him whenever he decides to embrace the battle flag of the Confederacy as a symbol for southern pride.

    Later in the song comes LL Cool J to not only compare Brad Paisley's suffering of stereotypes to his own, but also to beg "Mr. White Man" to overlook his appearance, disregard stereotypes and see LL for LL himself, similar to what Paisley's asking of his listeners. Speaking of LL's vocals, here are his main verses, courtesy of Sharon W.:

    Dear Mr. White Man, I wish you understood
    What the world is really like when you're livin' in the hood
    Just because my pants are saggin' doesn't mean I'm up to no good
    You should try to get to know me, I really wish you would
    Now my chains are gold but I'm still misunderstood
    I wasn't there when Sherman's March turned the south into firewood
    I want you to get paid but be a slave I never could
    Feel like a new fangled Django, dodgin' invisible white hoods
    So when I see that white cowboy hat, I'm thinkin' it's not all good
    I guess we're both guilty of judgin' the cover not the book
    I'd love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air
    But I see that red flag and I think you wish I wasn't here

    "Dear Mr. White Man, I wish you understood." That's LL's refrain.

    Truth be told, most black Americans have little to no desire to understand their white counterparts' wish to embrace a symbol representing some of the worst excesses of racial antagonism, violence and discrimination, just as Mr. White Man has little to no desire to understand his black counterparts in any way, shape or form that doesn't comply with their own idea of black Americans.

    "I guess we're both guilty of judgin' the cover not the book." Doo-rags, gold chains, sagging pants, oversized white T-shirts and expensive designer athletic shoes are attire that's usually associated with "Ghetto culture" and criminal behavior, as far as the majority of white Americans are concerned. Most whites become distinctly uncomfortable upon seeing a black male dressed this way.

    Likewise, most blacks become distinctly uncomfortable upon seeing a white male sporting anything with the battle flag on it, thanks in large part to what that symbol represents to them. They have no way of discerning the wearer's true intentions for donning it, nor can they simply take them at their word if they directly ask why they chose to don it. Weary, suspicious looks and a desire for avoidance are a given for both scenarios.

    Sadly, "Accidental Racist" goes a ways to equate doo-rags and sagging pants as equal to Confederate imagery, which they aren't, no matter how many black-on-white or black-on-black crime stats anyone throws at the argument to make it stick. Contrary to what today's media and what most white Americans would suggest, there's no black analogue to the Ku Klux Klan. And for those wondering, the Black Panthers and other radical black groups come nowhere close to the Klan's historical track record for violence against blacks and other minorities. LL Cool J punts the ball by claiming a variation of "Both Sides Do It," equating black urban dress to one's embrace of the battle flag. Gold chains do not equal iron chains, LL.

    Personally speaking, I wouldn't have minded if the Union made a more concerted effort to disinfect the South and the U.S. as a whole of Confederacy instead of letting bygones be bygones, similar to how it was impressed upon the German government to disinfect the country of Nazism. I genuinely believe Reconstruction was America's last chance to settle the issue of race, namely by honoring its commitment towards freedom and equality when it came to black Americans. By not grabbing the bull by the horns when we had the chance, we have to accept feel-good pablum like "Accidental Racist" that does little to nothing when it comes to confronting racial animosity.

    But hey, at least Brad and LL are shoo-ins for a Grammy nomination or two, right?

    EDIT: After this, I looked at other responses to "Accidental Racist." Here's a decidedly non-diplomatic take from Illuminati Zozo:

    You know what the most fucked up thing about “Accidental Racist” is?

    It’s how fucking one-sided it is

    It puts the blame for a white man sporting a Confederate Flag as being racist squarely on the shoulders of black people for perceiving it that way instead of “letting go of history”

    instead of actually soul-search (well, we know white people don’t have souls, but whatevs) and choosing to relinquish imagery that everyone has a god damn right to judge someone for rocking.

    Even worse is LL Cool J’s coonery on that track.

    We, as black people, don’t need to apologize for gold chains, du-rags or saggy pants - white people were the ones who arbitrarily decided that shit was bad as a way to demonize. White people are the ones who created a cultural climate where a god damn fucking teenager wearing a hoodie gets hunted down like a dog in the night and fucking MURDERED.

    You know who decided the confederate flag was a bad thing? Fucking white people when they decided to fly that shit as they demanded their right to keep slaves. Fucking history teaches us to abhor those symbols.

    If that wasn't enough, then I don't know what else to tell ya.
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