Al Sharpton Leads Protest over Rap Lyrics
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nonconformist
Miserable
As a white person, I find rap abhorrent as it raises the social status of blacks, and once these neegras get uppity there ain't no keeping them down no how.
Mulholland
Happy New Year!!!!
Am I the only one that sees this as a good thing? He's not saying ban rap, he's just putting pressure on producers and artists to use a little more caution. This is simply an exercise of freedom of speech. And what's the deal? Why do most of the right leaning posters revile Al Sharpton?
Trajan12
Deity
I'm not right leaning and I revile him, an understatement. Because he is an attention whore masquerading as a civil rights leader and does a grave injustice to real civil rights leaders.
It's not that he's saying it it's that what he's saying is long overdo. Which doesn't do much for his reputation of being one to capitalize on issues for his own agendas.
Mulholland
Happy New Year!!!!
Michael Moore revile or Hitler revile?
Trajan12
Deity
Hmm Michael Moore with a hint of Rosie O'Donnel, and just a pinch of Fidel Castro revile.
The guy is a deuche, plain and simple. You have to put this recent act of placing pressure on rap artists/producers in context with everything else he's done.
Al Sharpton told Jesse Jackson to help him get the black community (yes, Al Sharpton still sees things in terms of skin color) to boycott Burger King because they don't respect the black customers, or something like that.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95438&page=1
The Imus affair everyone already knows about.
Al Sharpton in a nutshell: sits around looking for things that are potentially racist and offensive towards blacks.
All he cares about is the black community and nobody else, and is too blind to see his own racism. I cannot stand the guy, personally.
Trajan12
Deity
You think rap is raising the social status of blacks?
CaptainF
The Professional Poster
Isn't it just great? The great majority of the nerdy folk on this site love to talk about their super-underground indie rock dispositions, then whine about how they think hip hop sucks because of what they hear on the radio.
And even then that is debatable!
Well, yeah
Mostly he only cares about himself/immediate family. Crazy guy nonetheless.
Che Guava
The Juicy Revolutionary
You think rap is raising the social status of blacks?
Well, the select few that make it in Hip Hop and get all that purty jewelry and spinning rims on thier cars...
But on topic: good hip hop does. It can be a powerful tool of raising awareness of issues within the black community and outside of it as well. Not sure where Smack That! fits into that though....
Americans are slowly turning into a bunch of PC crybabies. Imus should have had the right to say what he said, and so should the rap artists. If people don't like it, they'll stop watching the show, or buying albums, end of story. Let free market decide, not some pathetic special interest groups.
You're right, they should have the right to say it, they just don't have the right to cry when they get taken off the air for saying it.
You think rap is raising the social status of blacks?
Yes, the rappers.
Interestingly enough, the free market is deciding on both. Imus will come back in a lower tier spot in the marketplace because the free market pressure from the advetisers at his old job made it a risky proposition for his employers to keep him in such a high-profile, high-paying spot in the market.
As for rap, the more mainstream the label, generally the less "offensive" the rap. So an artist that wants to push the edge on his music is going to have to do it with a riskier, smaller label.
It may be fueled by PCness, but the decision to get rid of Imus was made by the companies that hired him. Isn't that also a place in the free market? They may have figured they'd lose ratings for getting rid of him, but not nearly as much than if they had and people continued to organize and give them bad publicity.
Sounds like the market worked. And if he's brought back on some other show, it may work again.
Japanrocks12
tired of being a man
I don't like sharpton, and I don't like rap either. Although, I like criticizing Sharpton, and I like dancing to some rap. Where do I stand in all of this. For one, a certain type of music should never be banned unless it explicitly presents some sort of mindless or evil agenda (and how often do you come by that?) misogynistic lyrics? I think not, I think its a representation of views found on the street. Sex and drugs? Oh come on, this extends far beyond rap. You might as well ban the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and virtually every band of the 60's, 70's and 80's while you're at it
mangxema
I
Isn't it just great? The great majority of the nerdy folk on this site love to talk about their super-underground indie rock dispositions, then whine about how they think hip hop sucks because of what they hear on the radio.
Hey now... I like hip-hop in general; a lot of my [extremely] diverse musical tastes have hip-hop elements in them. Some songs are even surprisingly deep!
Thats exactly what happened. The free market decided it wasn't worth spending ad dollars on the Imus program, lest it create negative PR for their companies. The government had nothing to do with it...Imus had the right to say what he said.
The free market is exactly what cost Imus his job. It looks like this was elaborated already by Mr. Roger and Mr. Town.
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