Snoop Dogg Defends Rap Music
Snoop Dogg responds to claims that Don Imus' comment was no worse than what is broadcast on the radio by Rap Music Artists:
It's a completely different scenario. [Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about hos that's in the 'hood that ain't doing shit, that's trying to get a nigga for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthafuckas say we in the same league as him.
This is the most insidiously evil argument I have heard.
Snoop is claiming:
1) They only accuse women of being whores if they deserve to be called whores.
2) Rap Music is an art, and the "art" of Radio Personalities shouldn't be given the same latitude as his art because his art is better.
3) White people are not allowed to use the same language as black people.
1) Imus' original point was that the Rutgers team was wearing tattoos and dressing like thugs compared to the Tennessee team, so in his judgment the team "deserved" to be called whores. Who gets to be the almighty judge as to whether someone deserves to be called anything? Al Sharpton?
2) Any claim that one form of "art" is better than another is obviously without merit. One artist does not deserve any more freedom in his art than another, PEROID.
3) I'm repeating myself, but there's no way you can tell me it's fair that one person can say certain words and have no repercussions and another person will have serious consequences based SOLELY on the color of his skin.
Update: Where do I go to sue Snoop for calling me a "muthafucka?" I've suffered severe mental unpleasantness because of this degrading and disgraceful insult.
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8 comments:
"But women aint nothing but bitches and hoes"
The true quote would be "Life ain't nuthin' but bitches and money."
"Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks" is the one I'm thinking of. I forget who it was but my roommate used to listen to it in the early 1990s when I was in college.
Anyways Duggle, I love your take on this whole thing, and frankly I think the most moving argument you've made was a few days ago when you made the very valid and very meaningful point that Imus's comment was specifically differentiating between the black women on Rutgers and the black women on Tennessee. That he was not making any kind of a generalization about black women in general, and in fact in the very same sentence was saying something nice about the Tennessee black women is I think very significant to anyone trying to claim he is a racist.
That said, I think that to use a phrase like "nappy headed" is to invite claims of racism, and Imus should obviously be smarter than to say that. Just like you wouldn't want to make a reference to slavery or the "n" word if you were on the air. I mean, it's not like you could say "now this black man, he's not an "n word", but this black man is totally an n-word" and expect not to have repercussions. So what Imus said is, IMO, racist just by using the word that he did.
And one other thing, and I know this is something which nobody else seems to agree with, but why doesn't it bother me that certain groups can say certain words, but others can't. I don't care about that. I'm a white jewish man, but it doesn't bother me that if Chris Rock or Snoop Dogg says the n-word nobody cares, but if I say it then I'm labeled a racist. I wish I knew why that fact bothers people so much. I figure, if black people have been persecuted as they have been for as long as they have, then they're entitled to have some words that only they can say. Same way that I don't care if one of my jewish friends calls some kid "such a jewboy" or something, but if a jew-hating muslim bitch said that about a jewish kid I know, I would think he's a filthy animal. And I'd probably be right about that, if that's the way he's talking about a jewish guy. I guess I just don't see what the big deal is about some people being able to say certain words and be fine, while other people saying the same words makes them a racist. I think to a large extent, that is true about some words and with some groups, and that just doesn't bother me like it seems to bother so many people.
Anyways I love your commentary on all this.
I suppose I might agree with you that it's okay for people of a certain race to use some words and not okay for another race to use that word if you could come up with ONE word that a white person can say with impunity that a person of any other race is not allowed to say.
I probably still wouldn't though. And I doubt you'll find any person serious about expressing his thoughts to an audience that is okay with people saying "these words are not available to you because of nothing you've ever said or done, but simply because your skin is the wrong color." Those broadcasters and writers are simply not thinking the subject through to it's logical conclusion.
Yeah I don't know, I certainly understand your feelings on this, but I guess I just don't feel the need to have one word that only white people can say, in order for me to feel ok with black and asians and gays and whatever having some words that only they can say. Maybe it's because whites have always been the non-oppressed majority in this country, or maybe it's just because I don't really care about that in general, I don't know. But I do think you make some good points, especially about Imus saying the black women on Tennessee were not nappy headed hos. Strange that Sharpton and Reverend Jesse never mentioned that aspect of things during this whole witch hunt.
Hey, me and Dugs agree on something!
Anyway, I have some old VHS tapes of Rodney Dangerfield's 1988 stand-up comedian show with racial humor that would make Michael Richards cringe. Amazing how political correctness has actually sent this society BACKWARDS as far as free speech goes...
Insults (implied or direct) are a dime a dozen, and I don't mind seeing people get punished for them.
When I get in an arguement with someone, and they say, "Go **** your Mother", you should see the look on their faces when I say, "Sorry pal, she died of blood cancer (myelodysplasia) years ago, so no can do"
Idiots.
Point to the money (ads and CBS) not the gangstas.
Imus got called out because of money, plain and simple. He did/said something that made the record needle scratch and caused a thundering silence (from which he lost his job).
Nothing more or he'd be answering to the government.
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