This does not mean I do not appreciate it as an art form. At its best, it is challenging in a way that no art form has been since be-bop. It has changed the way we view issues of musical authorship, of the relationship among lyrics, rhythm, tonality, and a whole host of other "traditional" musical categories. It has also focused attention on those who create it - inner-city African-Americans. Its roots in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and its spread to other minority communities (significantly south central LA) pushed this new art form into communities with very specific attitudes, grievances, and vocabularies. Thus, the premiere LA rap group NWA offered the following song from their first release, Straight Outta Compton (NPT, you might want to get your smelling salts):
Living in a city that has a long history of official violence against blacks, one can imagine the rage and frustration that comes from being considered a criminal simply because of the color of your skin. We may blanch at the violence and rage, but we should also understand it is very real, and a perfectly reasonable response to a history of police violence and corruption.
Is rap, are rap artists, as bad as Don Imus? Indeed, one African-American journalist says he is worse. Earl Ofari Hutchison, writing at Atlernet.org says:
While Imus's "nappy headed hos" slur has been plastered all over creation, the "B" "H," and expletive-laced rant that Snoop unleashed against Imus, has barely got a squint of mention.
His R rated words are so vile they can't be printed in adult company.
First of all, lest we all faint from the horrid R-rated words, let us all calm down and remember that Snoop's characterization of Imus as "another tired old white guy", juxtaposed against the hippest, young black man around (himself) is part of what is missing when we get the vapors from racially insensitive remarks, "vile" profanity, and the like. Imus is a tired old white guy, and Snoop is, while perhaps not as cutting edge as he once was, certainly among the more creative hip-hop artists of the past fifteen years. The rules for what is and is not acceptable behavior and word-choice (including the infamous "n" word) are different. Not only that, they should be different. These are two different persons emerging from two completely different backgrounds and historical contexts. They should be judged differently, because there is no one final arbiter of who is correct and who is not, I think it entirely reasonable to hold an artist who struggled to get himself out of a world of violence and criminal activity, but still carries much of that baggage with him to a different standard than an aging white man who hob-nobs with some of the most powerful and influential politicians and journalists in the country. The latter, Don Imus, has no business, even in jest, appropriating African-American street slang to demean a group of successful young women. As soon as Snoop has the kind of power and influence Imus had, and as soon as he says something equally offensive - and both conditions have to apply here - I will be the first to raise all kinds of hell about it. Until then, there simply isn't any comparison.
I think Hutchison is wrong in saying that Snoop Dogg is worse than Imus. Middle and Upper-middle class blacks have always had a problem with the popular entertainments that came from working and under-class African-American life. They thought jazz and the blues were barbaric, and worked overtime to separate themselves culturally from their more crass, vulgar, and earthy fellow citizens of color. So, along with racial problems, we also have intra-racial class bias at play here, another factor with a long history. I think Hutchison's sniff at Snoop's vocabulary is only understandable within the larger framework of a rising black middle class wishing to distance itself from its own past. I pass no judgment upon Hutchison for doing so; I am explaining, neither defending nor condemning. I have no dog in this fight, except of course for the fact that, as an American, this kind of racial, class, and cultural conflict tends to effect us all in the end. I do not agree with Hutchison for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I do not think that art is as central to questions of power in society as politics and the media are. That is the main reason why I do not equate the rantings of Don Imus with the lyrics of Calvin Broadus - it's like apples and oranges.
For those who might wish to disagree on any number of points I have made here, all I can say is that any attempt to make all words mean the same things throughout all time to all people doesn't work. Words don't mean the same thing at the same time to two people having a conversation; why in the world would anyone think that Don Imus calling the Rutgers' Women Basketball team "nappy-headed hoes" and Snoop Dogg referring to women as "hoes" and "bitchezz" are equivalent? One is a white guy trying to be sneakily racist; the other is a black guy trying to forge an art form from very rough materials the only way he knows how. I don't like the characterizations of women that rap artists use, but I do understand there is a world of difference between Don Imus and Snoop Dogg.
