Hip-Hop activist Davey D defends Eminem, but says he is not justified

[Lincoln]

via Paris's website.
http://206.14.217.112/thoughts/doc3446.html
Eminem, Racism & Hip-Hop
By Davey D,  November 24, 2003

Eminem? Who gives a fuck? I’ve always assumed that “nigga” leaves his lips often behind closed doors anyway - 10-year-old tape or not. Shame on hip-hop for bein’ suckered by the hype. In general I make it a rule of thumb not to comment on other artists. What we need to focus on instead is the bigger picture. The entire industry now seems to be built on the degradation of black women and the pimping of our culture. The Source is just as guilty of this as Em and a host of others. BET, MTV, Innerscope, Def Jam, Aftermath, So So Def, Murder Inc., Tha Row, Bad Boy, Clear Channel, Viacom - pick one - they’re ALL guilty. All this negative fake gangsta wanna be pimp-Gotti bullshit is as phony as it gets - especially in an industry that supposed to pride itself on “keepin’ it real.” Don’t focus on what this white boy said when niggas clown black women all of the time. Focus on ALL of these sorry ass artists and the white labels that profit by giving them a voice.
-Paris

This morning, I had an opportunity to peep the song by Eminem in which he makes some extremely disparaging remarks about Black women. To say the least, what he said, whether or not he was 16 or 21, as the Source Magazine claims, is indefensible. He should own up to it and apologize.

He should do it, not because Dave Mays, Benzino and The Source are pressuring him. He shouldn't apologize because of all the negative publicity that may erode some of his fan base and market share. He shouldn't apologize because Interscope Records, XXL, Rollingstone, Radio and video outlets that play his music, Dr. Dre and any other person or institution financially connected to Em will be questioned about their judgment or lack thereof. He should apologize because what he said was offensive and hurtful.

And while, I understand, he may have been hurting himself when he made his songs, he still should apologize. As far as I'm concerned Black women deserve to hear that. If Em does do that and he is as sincere and forthcoming with his feelings as he is in his other songs, he will be several steps ahead of a whole lot of people who dis Black women and support the dissing of Black women everyday.

For example, notice, how MTV never apologized for inviting Snoop Dogg to come on their awards show holding sistas strapped to dog leashes. That image was shown all over the world. Nor did MTV apologize for 50 Cent coming on stage with a cadre of real life pimps-which was also shown around the world. Notice how BET never apologized for that offensive stereotypical cartoon Cita? Has Bob Johnson ever apologized for the hours of videos depicting gyrating women who get beer poured on them in videos.

To my knowledge no major radio conglomerate - from Clear Channel to Radio One - has gone on record to publicly apologize for the hours upon hours of music they play that regularly degrades Black women. The words 'Ho' and 'Bitch' - which was once peeped out from songs - is heard so much that it is now left in for all to hear on the record labels official 'radio edits'.

To my knowledge no major radio outlet or video outlet for that matter has apologized for the hours upon hours of airtime they have granted to artists who have inflicted physical abuse upon Black women. We still hear R. Kelly songs, Ike Turner is lauded as a musical genius, and Rick James is a staple on your oldies station. Dr Dre is a Hip Hop icon.

Here in Cali, Sugar Free who candidly admits to his pimping background and makes no bones about returning to the game if need be gets played all the time. Alongside Sugar Free are scores of wanna be pimps ranging from Nick Cannon to Nelly. Pimping sistas is big business in the music biz nowadays and I'm not quite sure which is more offensive, Eminem's racist song or the predominantly white media executives who give the final green light as to what gets played and doesn't get played to the masses via mainstream media outlets.

All I know is that not only is anyone NOT apologizing to sistas, very few are making a concerted effort to curtail this bad behavior or even offer a balanced perspective. I'm still running into artists who are frustrated because their music is being pushed to the side by non-black program and music directors as well as a few black folks who bought into the nonsense that in order to be hip and happening in 2003, you have to be gully and keep your music pimpish. I say we use this situation involving Eminem to end the daily barrage of offensive material depicting Black women.

I'm saying all this because I think it’s important that we don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Let's not get sidetracked by a discussion around Eminem who basically said what Black artist say everyday in their music. Black women have become 'whores', 'gold diggers', 'bitches' and every other negative stereotype in our entertainment. Let’s focus on those powerful folks behind the scenes who call the shots. These are the same media folks who allow a two hour discussion about Eminem, complete with interviews from the Source owners Dave Mays and Benzino and an airing of the song during morning and evening drive time, but will shut the discussion down when the topic turns to questioning our involvement in the war, the Partriot Act, police brutality or the difference in treatment and amount of attention paid to white ‘war hero’ Jessica Lynch and Black ‘war hero' Soshana Johnson. Heck radio stations in LA that are knee deep in the discussion about Eminem couldn’t hold equally compelling discussions when Daz, WC, RBX and numerous other ‘gangsta’ rappers came together to do an anti-war song. In fact some stations like KKBT instructed their listeners to remove the song from the airwaves.

As we think about some these things, we should also pay close attention to how this plays out and see what sort of double standards emerge. To this day Chuck D and Public Enemy are still getting flack for statements made by Professor Griff over 10 years ago which were deemed anti-semitic. There was never any forgiveness. Cypress Hill saw their records get banned by Bay Area radio stations after one of the members of an opening act to their tour 10 years ago asked a San Francisco audience ‘if they were men or fags’. Def Jeff found himself shut out from doing nightclubs when he shouted ‘all the people with aids be quiet!’. The list goes on. Will Eminem’s offensive remarks be overlooked and forgiven? Will radio stations stop playing his songs? Will his videos be banned? If Em’s callous remarks from 10 years can be forgiven will we finally forgive Public Enemy or even Jessie Jackson for racially insensitive statements they made 10 and 20 years ago? Will Bill O’Reilly, who often expresses his concern about the divisive and offensive aspect of rapper's material, lead the charge to boycott Eminem? Will he instruct all those working class viewers to boycott Eminem like he did with Ludacris? We can’t have it both ways.

If the issue is really about Em making disparaging remarks about Black women, will all of us in Hip Hop challenge ourselves and demand apologies from every artist who disses Black women? Will we hold their feet to the fire? Will we finally end the mass pimping that dominates the game right now? Better yet, forget the artists - will those of us who can decide what to play or not to play stop playing this offensive material? Maybe it’s me, but after hearing one on-air discussion about Eminem and his offensive behavior toward Black women, a few minutes later I heard an R. Kelly song. I kept thinking to myself, didn’t he pee on an underage black woman in a child porno video?

Something to think about...

[Darksider]

good post

[R-Tistic]

Hmmm...a lot of that is real. It seems like he has a bit of the same views that I have on the situation. I don't think it should just be ignored and forgotten about, but at the same time there's been many different situations where rappers have been just as guilty as Eminem but nothin happened. Also, the same way Bill O'Reilly protested Ludacris, will he protest Eminem, as this article says? That was an interesting point.

Also, the part about how the industry prides itself about "keepin it real" yet 98% of the rappers have a false image, is real as hell.

[The Watcher]

hiphopsite posted up email responses from other artists commenting on the situation

correct me if im wrong, but didnt Em apologise the moment it was released in that MTV article?

[Mua ha ha]

Yeah, that's what I was going to say... he did apologize for it. Even though he said that he was upset, blah blah blah, he still apologied. So he did "own up to it and apologize".

[LyRiCaL_G]

i dont think eminems racist, who knows, he may have been but.........homies grown up alot.............but that shit he spit was stupid as fuck, no doubt........i mean does all whtie bwoys make racist comments about a gal who broke up if they aint the same colour..........as i said befo, dude shouldnt have said that shit, groupies can argue all day but its truth.......

peace

[Kaidy]

Something to think about...

Indeed.

I thought that was an excellent point on how the commercial radio stations can hold a big discussion on an Eminem song but sweep far more important world matters under the rug. There's clearly a far bigger picture here.

And that whole point about pimping and hip hop is so true. To be honest I can live with Suga Free, he's lived that life and he's a good entertainer. But all these nerdy mufuckas talking about pimping just to make money and/or look hard is just getting completely out of hand and setting a terrible example to the youth.

Good article, thanks Lincoln

[Lincoln]

Something to think about...

Indeed.

I thought that was an excellent point on how the commercial radio stations can hold a big discussion on an Eminem song but sweep far more important world matters under the rug. There's clearly a far bigger picture here.

And that whole point about pimping and hip hop is so true. To be honest I can live with Suga Free, he's lived that life and he's a good entertainer. But all these nerdy mufuckas talking about pimping just to make money and/or look hard is just getting completely out of hand and setting a terrible example to the youth.

Good article, thanks Lincoln

Word, that's the most important part of the article IMO.

[7even]

How dares a rapper, who mentions terms like "cracker" frequently, to judge other people when it comes to discrimination of black women?!

[M Dogg™]

How dares a rapper, who mentions terms like "cracker" frequently, to judge other people when it comes to discrimination of black women?!

where did that come from?

[Don Seer]

davey d juss tryin to get his fuck on..



hehe.. naww seriously... he has a very good point about the glorification of pimps thing... eminem isnt the only one at fault, the difference is he's white... if he'd dissed white women then there would have been no problem...

[7even]

How dares a rapper, who mentions terms like "cracker" frequently, to judge other people when it comes to discrimination of black women?!

where did that come from?

you wanna front? listen to paris tracks, you see where it came from.

[Don Rizzle]

another thing ppl forget tho eminem neva intended to release the song unlike the rappers out there saying shit on their albums.

[Shin]

How dares a rapper, who mentions terms like "cracker" frequently, to judge other people when it comes to discrimination of black women?!

ähem alter... cracker ist ja wohl keine diskriminierung.... diskriminieren kann man nur potenziell schwächere...

[7even]

How dares a rapper, who mentions terms like "cracker" frequently, to judge other people when it comes to discrimination of black women?!

ähem alter... cracker ist ja wohl keine diskriminierung.... diskriminieren kann man nur potenziell schwächere...

denkst du, dass du schwächer als ich bist? ist nicht dein ernst oder

fact is... reversed discrimination isn't more justified than regular discrimination to me.. today ppl act like dissin white ppl is aight since we had slavery or white supremacy... but I never owned a black person, or shit.. and I feel offended by rappers who use offensive terms towards white people or even diss them in context.. to me it aint justified at all racism is not determined by color, full stop