Enough Is Enough

Damn I don’t know when it happened or how it happened but I think I am a grown ass woman now. Last night I was watching TV and I saw that the BET Hip Hop Awards were coming on in 5 minutes .For the first time I had no desire to see those ignorant, over paid, under educated, Negros perform. I was very surprised to find that my views regarding hip hop has changed so drastically. I think when I started hearing lyrics like “back that ass up”, “ shake it like a dog” “Ooh Na Na Naa Naa I'm so horny”, or the very latest “ “shawty, shawty, shawty wadsyaname is, wadsyaname iz, wadsyaname iz”…. Really….. Is this something a grown ass woman wants to listen to and call entertainment? For me the answer is no. My hip hop collection is shrinking radically, because I can’t get with what these brothers (and in some cases sistahs) are saying.


I decided to watch Law and Order, but when that went to commercial I flicked over to BET and Kanye is on the stage with pink pants on. I caught about 15 minutes of the show and many times I felt a twinge inside, similar to the one I use to feel for contestants on Show Time at the Apollo, when the contestant really could not sing. You know that feeling of being embarrassed on behalf of the contestant. That’s the way I felt watching those measly 15 minutes of the BET Hip Hop Awards.

My friends make fun of me all the time because I really do not listen to song with lyrics that are offensive to women. What really burns me up is when a song (using term loosely) calls women bitches, whores, or speak of supermanning that hoe and women be the first on the dance floor, snapping our fingers and shaking our asses. One time I was in the car with my friend and Mystical’s song “shake it like a dog” came on and I told her to turn it off, because I did not want to hear that crap. My friend thought I was taking it too far, but I did not feel like hearing garbage.

I look at rappers like Jay-Z and shake my head. I can not believe we (the consumer, no I take that back, white suburban kids) have made this man a multi-millionaire. We have provided this man with the means to sail around France in his yacht, buy a basketball team, and open up several restaurants. In the meantime our schools are failing, HIV is on the rise, black kids are dropping out of school like crazy, black men are going to jail at an increasing rate and good jobs are becoming harder to find than a needle in a haystack. All that buying power going astray, as the black community suffers power economic blows. I guess hard times makes for good rap material for the future rappers of America. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on the man but when people rap about selling drugs and they ain’t seen a piece of crack since at least 1997 need to find something new to talk about, the same with Lil Wayne and many other rappers. But their massive fortunes and spending habits really doesn’t concern me. I personally buy most of the hip hop that I do have from the boot leg man. I rather see the man on the corner make a come up than the rapper reminding me about how much weight he used to push or how many hoes he f*cks.



So BET, MTV. and VH1 can have as many award shows as they like, I’m no longer anxiously awaiting to see who will win best rapper of the year. To show you how crazy VH1 is they gave a tribute to the Wu-Tang Clan. How the hell you gone jump from MC Lyte ( a real raptress) to the Wu-Tang Clan. What about Dougie Fresh, LL Cool J, Roxanne Shante, hell even Cool Moe Dee.

Well that’s my rant for today, y’all folks have a great Thursday and I’ll talk to y’all later.