lol...that's funny.

I know Sharpton's been getting a lot of criticism for his late and overzealous involvement in the crusade against violence in music and the mass media's misrepresentation of hip hop. Some of it may be deserved. But isn't this exactly what everyone wanted? I mean, a few months ago in blogville all anyone could talk about was how horrible rap lyrics were (exo's post and the one about snoops new record, both reported at this site), nostalgia for golden era hip hop, and then the infamous death of hip hop. It seems nobody supports what's happening in music these days, especially when you consider its potential implications for race and gender politics.

So why not get behind Sharpton? Protests in Union Square are all well and good, but lets be honest: populist demonstrations are an excellent way to overthrow monarchies, but in a capitalist society only the dollar counts. Sharpton's idea of owning stock in major record companies is the first effective idea to combat the perversion of hip hop that i've heard yet. All the top selling music is coming from blacks and hispanics, yet whites own most of the labels and (except for s.c.) are the ones making all the real money. Does this remind anybody of anything? So black folks should be very very interested in owning the record labels that put out their music. Buy some damn stock people. Take control. Sharpton has the right idea.

Isn't that robot from "Intergalactic" just hanging around somewhere? I'm sure the Beasties would be all for its use.

That's a good topic for discussion, Joe. Has "responsible" ownership of record labels and other media produced an uplifting effect on the culture?

So far, the only stockholders revolt around hip-hop was the "Cop Killer" controversy in '92. I wonder what kind of "chilling effect" a Sharpton-instead-of-Heston-led revolt would produce?

And what of the independents? Some Black-owned, some white-owned, and many in-between; but like all small businesses, they obviously have to be connected and passionate about their product to keep money coming in. What kind of culture are they producing and prospering on? Any different from the stuff the majors are producing?

Discuss.

If you ask me, hip hop is a multi-faceted culture, that expresses everything from street violence to political awareness to womens empowerment to backyard barbeque chillin to shake ya booty and sex appeal.

I think the main difference between music that comes out on independant vs major labels is that independants offer a much more balanced "diet" of all these aspects, whereas the majors have focused strictly on what sells to the suburbs: urban gangsterism and sex appeal. Why? This image of urban communities appeals to the suburban hip hop consumer in the same way that Europeans were once fascinated by the idea that the rest of the world was full of naked savages. So major labels have stripped hip hop down to these two features. Although, we could really argue about Rocafella, which may be the only worthwhile major label hip hop business model out there, I think. But that is because it is owned by the same demographic that hip hop comes from! And if the hip hop demographic (I say this so as to not refer to any specific race) would take up some ownership of the other major companies distributing their music, they could stop this exploitation and misrepresentation of their culture. Which as we've all seen in the past weeks is actually CAUSING violence instead of just selling the idea of violence. And this misrepresentation does even further damage to race relations and the self image of urban communities in this country.

Let me be clear about 1 thing. I like a little violence in my music, I like sex raps and all that shit. But if that's all that's coming across from the companies with the most distribution power, that's messed up.

I also don't support Sharptons puritanical and across the board condemnation of all things controversial in music. And asking the FCC to INCREASE its censorship is also fucked. But I think he has the right idea as far as buying stocks and having a voice in corporate decisions. Yup.

If Sharpton was saying "we should get together and buy stock in these companies," and was gonna take some real steps to organize that, that'd be one thing..

but by simply saying "I am gonna buy into all the companies and blah blah," it doesn't encourage any collective movement, just encourages the rest if us to sit back and watch him do it.. and since that's not likely to happen, I don't see any good coming out of this..

The Imperium uses the airwaves to spread war propaganda and hatred every day. If anyone should be censored, it is Bush, Rumsfeld, and their lackeys. The Imperium is more than willing to recruit poor and minority youth to fight their bullshit wars. State-sponsored violence is not only acceptable-- it's glorified. The Establishment sees poor and minority youth as a resource to be tapped and used to promote their plans of global hegemony.

What we need are more political rap artists like PE to stir up revolutionary fervor against the capitalist apparatus.

I think African American culture is ruining most of the black skinned worlds reputation.These so called preacher or 'rappers" should look at some Martin Luther King speeches and see how far violences and degrading women will get them.Every 30 seconds in South African a woman or baby ib rape. African Americans make up 41% of the prison population and are leading the rest of American in new Aids cases. 71% of black kids are born out of wedlock wake up people don't hide take responsibility.

Jay--You're right that Sharpton is not being very community oriented in his actions. But why couldn't there be a community organization of concerened people that did buy stocks in record labels and then voiced their opinions as shareholders? Then the voices of dissent would be coming from within the corporate structure as opposed to outside of it.

kinda like a virus

I agree with Joe on not supporting Sharpton's across the board condemnation of all things controversial in music, but I totally agree with Sharpton's push to stop SUPPORTING and encouraging violence. It seems to me the first step to stop the violence is to condemn it, not glorify it.

We should all take a look around us. What's being put out by Hollywood, movies, radio, and TV is progressively manifested physically among society. It used to be that we'd see most of that in our younger generation, but now even most adults are responding to the star struck illusions of the entertainment business. We really don't consider the things we allow to enter our minds. When you play a rap song that grammatically intensifies and in some cases, glorifies pictures of violence, sex with multiple partners, drugs, etc., over and OVER Again and AGAIN, whether you're aware of it or not, your thoughts are slowly being molded into a pattern of something like "maybe one day I'd try this" or "I guess it's not so bad for other people." Either way, your initial standard has been lowered and that can never be good. Case analogy: If you sit in a dumpster long enough, eventually you'll begin to smell JUST LIKE IT. You can't avoid it, unless you choose not to sit in the trash in the first place. And if you'd like to keep your perspective in a sure position of what's wrong and what's right (black and white), and not be another person that creates all their own shades of gray and compromises truth just to catch the wave of toleration like most of the people around you do, then think about the things you allow to enter your mind. Better yet, think about the things we have come to allow to enter all the minds in our society! In short, rap needs a positive alternative because God KNOWS that people aren't going to EVER stop crawling in dumpsters. At least we can put air fresheners in there to supress the bad odor. Check out www.crucialbeats.com.

You guys, I teach at a school where the kids are being influenced by the rap lyrics. We need to start caring about our community. I love the music but, the words are hurting our black minds.

HI MY NAME IS TAMMY AND I STRONGLY AGREE WITH MR. SHARPTON'S VIEW ON VIOLENCE NOT JUST ON RADIO BUT TELEVISION ALSO. WE HAVE GOT TO SET A STANDARD FOR OUR CHILDREN. REMEMBER THEY ARE OUR FUTURE, AND IF THEY ARE BEING INFLUENCED DAILY BY DRUGS, SEX, AND VIOLENCE (LIKE IT'S OK TO DO THOSE THINGS)THEN WE ARE IN A WORLD OF TROUBLE. WE NEED TO FOCUS ON POSITIVE THINGS I FOR ONE AM TRYING VERY HARD TO GET STARTED A (24 HOURS A DAY 7 DAYS A WEEK GOSPEL RADIO STATION) AND THERE IS NO SUPPORT HERE IN AKRON, OHIO. WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING POSITIVE HERE LIKE THAT IN AKRON ESPECIALLY FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY WHICH SEEMS TO BE THE MOST INFLUENCED BY RAP LYRICS AND GANG VIOLENCE. BUT HERE IT IS YOU CAN TURN ON JUST ABOUT ANY STATION AND HERE AS MUCH RAP, SEX, VIOLENCE, DRUGS, AND MURDER AS YOU WANT TO. IF WE PUT AS MUCH MONEY, TIME, AND EFFORT IN DOING WORK FOR THE LORD, AMERICA WOULD BE A MUCH BETTER PLACE TO LIVE. AND OUR CHILDREN WILL GROW TO BE MUCH BETTER ADULTS. THANK YOU TAMMY BENSON

"But that is because it is owned by the same demographic that hip hop comes from! And if the hip hop demographic (I say this so as to not refer to any specific race) would take up some ownership of the other major companies distributing their music, they could stop this exploitation and misrepresentation of their culture."
Check out the album by The Infesticons "Gun Hill Road" the brain child of performer/poet/rapper Mike Ladd on the Big Dada/Ninja Tune label. It tells a sci-fi story spoofing a cerain ubiquitous "hip-hop" media mogul (re)activating giant robots in order to "jiggify or make jiggy" hip-hop/rap music/culture. Too bad Big Dada/Ninjatune is owned by two pasty skinned blokes or "Europeans (who) were once fascinated by the idea that the rest of the world was full of naked savages."

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In the 1970's I attended Junior High and High School. I was picked on, made fun of or beat up almost every day. The teachers did not do shit! I was afraid to go to my parent's about it and embarrassed to tell anyone else. It caused me to fear people and to hate school so I started skipping school because of fear and embarrasment and ended up in a reform school because I would not attend school. There I was living with other kids, some alot bigger and older than me and still I took abuse from mean kids who liked to beat me up all the time. After I was released from reform school I told myself that was it. I quit high school before my 10th grade sophmore year. I had never heard of Rap misic back then or kids shooting other kids at school. My father had lots of guns back then but I never messed with them. I think if the situation I was in then were to take place in this day and time, listening to the lyrics of Rap music, seeing all the violence on the media about so many kids taking guns to school and killing people I really think I might have hurt someone back then. I never have liked Rap music but I had never heard of it untill I was in my 20's. I thank god that I was not exposed to that kind of lifestyle because even though the bullies that hurt me and made me hate school to the point that I ruined my education by dropping out of school and screwed my mind up so bad that it still affects me today, I still think it's wrong to take someones life. Kids today look up to these Rap stars and want to be like them so bad that they will act just like them, using the foul language, alcohol and drugs and fooling around with guns. I might be wrong about this but I just think that these days if someone is going through what I went through back then and looks up to these Rappers as a role model might just be on the verge of losing it and possibaly taking someones life. I think that no matter how good the music sounds, it is wrong to promote murder, alcohol and drugs, and all other types of violence that are in the lyrics of this style of music, "ALL MUSIC". These people have to know what kind of example they are setting for our childeren.

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I think that rap music is bad and dangerous and that not all of them are dangeous. But the way the producer,directoar, and singers make out the gurlz to be like hoes and i do hope that the singers, producer, director notice how they are changing some things that are not supose to be changed. Some adults think that if the womens in the video lo9ok like that and act that way that there wifes have to do the same thing. In those videos singers are sending back some bad languages trhat kids could learn easily that any other kid. I hope tere is someone else there that agrees that if there is less bad or dangerous pictures or massages and less gurlz trying to show of their body their would not be alot of sexualabusement. The gurlz in those videos have to whacth out what they were because somethings more oftenly happens that way. People you need to learn how to take care of yourself and don't worry about any one else that is going out with your favorite singer because there is a 75% persent chance that that person is going to get raped by that singer if he is not a gentle men. I'm telling or sending this comment because there is a place in the world that i got touched in the wrongspots and i regret not telling a adult what he is done to me and to other gurlz but now that person has been couht and he would never i guess do that thing again. because the is called sexualarrastment and almost like abusing a youing person i now by not telling a adult that i was pertecting that person and making him even more anxus of keeping doing that to any body in the world. just remember take good care of yourself. if there any one that whants to help those gurlz realize what there are doing to there self is just plain wrong e-mail me at ELMPNT@aol.com. PLEASE HELP ME TO LET THOSE GURLZ REALIZE THAT WHAT THERE DOING IS BAD FOR THEM AND MAKES THEM LOOK READICULOS AND NOT COOL.