Yo, yo, yo, squad, look out.

Be real careful here.

Alright look, I know (like Brett from Pulp Fiction) a lotta y'all got into this thing of having Hiphop sites with the best intentions.

And you had a certain type of music in mind when you started your thing.

At first, you didn't really label yourself as a "HipHop intellectual". Cuz you realized wasn't no need to say you wuz smart. You did it for the love of dope hiphop music and the fans of the genre. Cuz you realized we were all fam, squad.

But something happened. Something changed. The music that bore the label HipHop switched to something overtly negative. But you felt you still should defend it beacause it was called HipHop. But in all honesty, it wasn't the type of music that you got into this thing for.

I know that sometimes dudes on the internet or in smaller circles want the bigtime shine. I can understand that.

But yo, look at the big picture.

Step back. Look at the big picture here.

Brother-Dr. William "Bill" Cosby don't want nuntin' but good for Black folk. For real. Think about it. He ain't gotta be the biggest HipHopologist.

He sees something dangerous in the spreading of this Urban Pop bullshit masquerading as Hiphop and he is dedicated to the upliftment of Black people.

Are you really against that?

Of course egos may get involved. So on behalf of Brother-Doctor Bill Cosby, I apologize to any of you Hiphop intellectuals. The Brother is doing what he feels is necessary to bring positivity to Black people. The way he has been doing for decades. On Behalf of Oprah, I apologize to all the emcees who may have felt dissed in recent weeks.

And on behalf of the entire HipHop community, Dr. Cosby and Oprah we apologize for our insolence. We got all caught up in the bullshit and ourselves without seeing what you are really aiming for. We respect your age and wisdom. Do your thing to help bring us up. We got ya back.
--

Yo, Ain't no beef. Whenever we beef, white people get paid. And Black people get more poor. For real. No bullshit.

Don't choose sides in this. Don't let this become something to bicker over and further separate ourselves. Be careful here.

-Black People
Last Tru Champyon of Hip-Hop
Always keepin it honest and tellin the troof.

"Black People", your anonymity makes you look weak. More importantly, the hip hop blogger reference by Jay Smooth and the general description of Marc Lamont Hill and Michael Eric Dyson as hip hop intellectuals seems to have confused you.

These two guys are serious scholars who have chosen hip hop as a topic of study and, though I didn't know this in Hill's case, a focus of their Internet activity.

They are part of the future of black and American intellectual development, whether or not they ever talk about hip hop again.

Bill Cosby is an ass and he's undermining any good he's capable of doing by refusing to dialogue with people that I believe are much smarter than he is.

I really dont know where I fit in this discussion, being a brown man and all.. But the comments about Bill Cosby not mentioning the structural hurdles, prejudices and injustices that the institutions of this nation use and operate within to discriminate against those of color has a huge impact upon how people develop their outlook upon life. Just my two cents...and as far as the hip-hop intellectuals, Hip Hop has always been intellectual, hasnt it??

If we all lived in the same house, financially, mentally, socially, it would be possible to keep criticisms of fellow African Americans private. But we don't. If Cosby needs to be called out on something he mistakenly thought or believed, then so be it. The idea that Cosby's heart might be in the right place, may be true, but his actions appear, to me, to be suspect. There's an ignorance that he has about the true culprits that not only damage his good intentions, but also damages the people he incorrectly labels. He has access to a forum that will take what he says as gospel--even if it appears to be ill-informed.

The fact that Cosby refuses an open objective discussion points to the fact that he lacks the courage of his convictions. He just wants to stand in front of an audience spewing piss and venom without wanting to ber called on it. He should be smarter than this.

Again, please don't choose sides on this.

Find the positivity in both of these brother's works and build off of that.

Brother-Doctor Bill Cosby is not an ass.

There is no competition. We don't compete against each other. It matters not who's smarter than who.

Find the smallest thing that you have in common with your brother and grow from there (Yes, PochoStylez, Brown people are brothers too).

-Black People
Last Tru Champyon of Hip-Hop
Always keepin it honest and tellin the troof.

The problem that I've had with Bill Cosby's statements over the past couple of years is that they are more destructive than constructive("your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30.."). His criticism of poor/ working class, Black youth last year was unfair, in that many of those kids have no control over their environment, socio-economic class, or the kind of parenting they receive. Furthermore, most Black people, intellectual or otherwise can articulate the problems that exist in the "hood", so what point did his comments actually achieve? Was there a decrease in illiteracy? Unemployment? Crime? Increase in high-school graduates? Black male/female college gradutes? If I were to take an educated guess, the answer would probably be "No" to all of those questions.

I personally would have respected him more if, in addition to his comments, he offered a scholarship to a private school in the area of any child/parent who expressed an interest in pursuing a "good education" (as Cosby stated is lacking by 'these people' in one of his speeches). That would have been "putting his money where his mouth is" in the purest sense of the expression. It's a lot easier and a huge boost to the ego to write a large check to a university and have some building or other campus memorial named in your honor.
To conclude, I've read Michael Eric Dyson's , "Is Cosby Right?" and Hill's articles/column and completely agree with their analysis of Mr. Cosby.

bill cosby is a comedian, not the voice of black america.

his commentary proves although his intentions may be good, he is very uninformed, and severely out of touch with the current generation, or the real problems. if every black male in america pulled their pants up and quit sagging, there would still be violence, AIDS, and poor education in our communities. as a rich man of wealth, cosby looks like a bully pointing out the obvioius symptoms, while never digging deeper, or offering any kind of real solution. but should we expect, he is a comedian. and that doctorate is honary.

Could you do me a favor and change your handle to "Black Person?"

Bill Cosby is a sad old man. Obviously unhappy, and confused. What ever respect I had for him is gone................

"Whenever we beef, white people get paid."

On that note, I love all of y'all.

Brother-Doctor Bill Cosby, The Hip-Hop intellectuals, all of you posters and you Janine.

I see troof in all of your views. And that is what I'll be focusing on.

(Can't change my handle, tho. Too late.)

Out.

-Black People

a yo peace top black people...damm good post.
i don't think either one of them brothers
are wrong just lack of understanding that
can be worked out without the beef and the
side taking that can take this to a whole
nother level of bullshit.

good shit black people

a yo peace top black people...damm good post.
i don't think either one of them brothers
are wrong just lack of understanding that
can be worked out without the beef and the
side taking that can take this to a whole
nother level of bullshit.

good shit black people

Hey, while Cosby's words may be true, I think a person who has been accused multiple times of drugging and groping women should keep his trap the fuck shut and worry about his own family -- why his son chose drug addiction and why he cheated on Camille and what role Autumn Jackson plays in all this. Cosby is a crochety old fuck who I'm not really trying to lend any credence to. He placates folks until they become vulnerable, and then he takes advantage of the vulnerability and leaves you high and dry.

this is nonsense...when special ed appeared on the cosby show, i heard he had to battle mikey d or somebody like that in front of bill cosby before he got the part. Also, big jus from company flow played elvin the last season

cv and janine, you are both hilarious

Peace to "Yo".

Thanks for recognizin'.

Ay, somebody needs to post the lyrics to Slick Rick's "Hey Young World".

"Times have changed and it's cool to look bummy and be a dum-dummy and disrespect ya mummy..."

Yo, I wanna share somethin' with y'all. It got passed on to me. And I wanna give some to y'all.

Y'all might not of heard it yet. But yo, I was born in '76 and I was an only child for a long time and people spoiled me and looked out a lot.

And one of the most valuable things anyone ever gave me were three words:

Respect your elders.

Using this wisdom, I was able to gleen (just learned that word) knowledge from say my grandmom when she might be screaming at me but telling me something that's also good for me.

I didn't talk back, pout and say, "Well I 'ont like the way you said it. So fuck you."

Or say when a neighbor might admonish (new word alert) me about how to cross the street. I listened instead of finding fault or saying, "You ain't in my family. You ain't my muva or fahver."

I listened.

Respect ya elders.

Out.

-Black People

By respect our elders, I meant Brother-Doctor Bill Cosby.

-Black People

I'm a little older than you "black people" and I've learned that respect is something you earn. If all your grandmother ever did was scold, degrade, and beat you without love, patience, and understanding you would have have never listenened nor applied anything she said. Sure, she could have beat you into submission, but that is commpletely different from respect.

You are old enough to remember Cosby's career through the 80s and 90s, so you would know that his heart seemed to be in a place of wanting to elevate the race. The difference between now and then is how he's communicating that message.

Clearly, today he does not command the same respect that he did in the past because he changed not everyone else. That is why you see some of the responses to HIS actions on this board and in the media by intellectual scholars and
independent thinkers.

I'm a little older than you "black people" and I've learned that respect is something you earn. If all your grandmother ever did was scold, degrade, and beat you without love, patience, and understanding you would have have never listenened nor applied anything she said. Sure, she could have beat you into submission, but that is commpletely different from respect.

You are old enough to remember Cosby's career through the 80s and 90s, so you would know that his heart seemed to be in a place of wanting to elevate the race. The difference between now and then is how he's communicating that message.

Clearly, today he does not command the same respect that he did in the past because he changed not everyone else. That is why you see some of the responses to HIS actions on this board and in the media by intellectual scholars and
independent thinkers.

I'm a little older than you "black people" and I've learned that respect is something you earn. If all your grandmother ever did was scold, degrade, and beat you without love, patience, and understanding you would have have never listenened nor applied anything she said. Sure, she could have beat you into submission, but that is commpletely different from respect.

You are old enough to remember Cosby's career through the 80s and 90s, so you would know that his heart seemed to be in a place of wanting to elevate the race. The difference between now and then is how he's communicating that message.

Clearly, today he does not command the same respect that he did in the past because he changed not everyone else. That is why you see some of the responses to HIS actions on this board and in the media by intellectual scholars and
independent thinkers.

I'm a little older than you "black people" and I've learned that respect is something you earn. If all your grandmother ever did was scold, degrade, and beat you without love, patience, and understanding you would have have never listenened nor applied anything she said. Sure, she could have beat you into submission, but that is commpletely different from respect.

You are old enough to remember Cosby's career through the 80s and 90s, so you would know that his heart seemed to be in a place of wanting to elevate the race. The difference between now and then is how he's communicating that message.

Clearly, today he does not command the same respect that he did in the past because he changed not everyone else. That is why you see some of the responses to HIS actions on this board and in the media by intellectual scholars and
independent thinkers.

I can dig where you comin' from, Keepin it real.

I look a little deeper into this stuff.

-Black People

I think the saying "Respect Your Olders" in todays modern world seems some what out of date. In a world with computers, the internet, a larger acceptance of our fellow man (coz we're all made of the same thing) and not to mention, such a change in the value's of todays youth, i think the idea's and concept's of yester-year are now out dated. And yes, in the worlds of the mafia "Respect is earned, not given". And "Black People" is right, everyone go out and buy Slick Rick's "The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick"!!
Cosby is making comments on a generation and culture he knows nothing about, coz times have changed since the days Fat Albert. And at the rate that we're humping, we'll all be the same colour one day :).
R&R C.D.K.

The problems Bill Cosby is addressing are far from being simply black issues. It isn't just 'young black men' refusing to live up to their familial responsibilities & dealing drugs, etc -- It is men of all colors and creeds all over the country. But his calling children 'Dirty Laundry' (among his other divisve gems) is just uncalled for.

What really disappoints me is that Dr. Cosby won't sit down and have a real dialogue with those who wish to point out flaws in his cursory diagnosis of a complex series of social problems. He'd rather pop off and not condescend to acknowledge the blowback.

That's sad.

My wife and I live in a predominantly black neighborhood in the north side in Richmond, VA. The city schools are poorly funded, teachers are fleeing the city for better pay in the mostly white school districts of the suburbs. The other night as I was driving home I saw six kids all under the age of ten sitting on a bus stop bench at 11:30 on a friday night. I thought, "where the hell are their parents??"

A kid that I have been mentoring just barely avoided joining a local gang (He told me "I just want someone to WANT me around") and every night I hear shots fired or somebody getting killed or arrested because the only way to get by around here is to 'play the game' and there is no one to show them a better alternative.

We've got a whole generation coming up with no guidance-- no one to tell these kids to stop looking at their shoes & notice the limitless sky above. No one to tell them they matter. No one to foster their natural curiosity and inquisitiveness. That shit dies real quick when your life is a fatherless void strewn with broken forties and pointless beefs.

The 'Coz' can make proclamations from on high all he wants, but if he cares so much, why doesn't he roll up his sleeves and help be a part of the solution?? Tell the kids they matter, not that they're 'Dirty laundry' and so forth!!

Oh, and btw, if it's true that "when black people beef, white people get paid" Where's my check?? The interest on the Kool Moe Dee/LL Cool J Feud is all I'm after, yo.

...I'm kidding.

...unless there really is money coming my way.

There isn't, is there??

Damn.

God Bless The Whole World,
Scott Wichmann

I think its funny that people are getting worked up over a man (bill cosby) that once did hardcore drugs and alcohol. Sure, he is the perfect black man...

"Scott Wichmann" is right, its not just the black community thats rapped up in the drugs and crime, in the States the black community are only 10% of the population. And i have been checking the mail everyday for my "Blacks are Beefing again" cheque, but alas, its yet to arrive... Mabye they included it in the my tax return cheque, hmmmm. Anyways, i do see a solution to the youth problem, alot'a times when this problem has the spotlight thrown at it people seem rather speedy to point the finger at rap music, which is really nuthin more than a cheap scape goat. The real problem is the mentality in which the music gives to people. Now i listen to rap music, im 17 and arn't exactly living in a suburban paradise, yet im not caught up in drugs or crime.. Youth these days seem to assume the music is telling them to get caught up in it. This can be changed, with a solution that people have been talking bout for a long time, larger government funding into the less rich sections to build youth centre's and encorouge the idea of local team sports in school and such. Being in an enviroment where people are killed and drugs are just a way of life, is a very strong impact on a child, whats needed is these sports and youth centres to help children and teens express the raw emotion and energy caused by this in an expressive and/or constructive way. Hiphop is large in such communitie's, i think if they had workshops in these youth groups (running on government funding of course) on teaching children about hiphop, not only the culture but how to expres them selfs using it, i think drastic changes will happen. The problem is, billions is being poured into pointless things like weapon's, and the wars that ironicaly justify these weapons. The government dont think it needs to be done, aslong as they get the vote.
People needa stop emulating the music and realise its there to help express yourself.
"I try to stimulate but kids emulate,
And mimmick every move you make - 'Slim, you great!'" - Eminem, Stimulate.
R&R C.D.K.

while government-funded youth centers and sports programs are ideas with good intentions, i don't think that'll solve the problems. the solution begins with education. if there is going to be government-funded programs, why not something more practical such as an accelerated math or science class? an SAT or college prepratory class?
and how about more positive role models who don't happen to be rappers or athletes? or role models who don't chastise people just because their name is chaniqua or raheem, because they were shot for having a pound cake in their hand, or because they run well-intentioned, well-written hip-hop sites, Mr. Cosby?
he does he dare hold the poor black class accountable and not MTV?? BET? Nike? Sony?
show the children the nice cribs of doctors, lawyers, technicians, and professors; and let them know that can be theirs while living a fulfilling life.
the children glorify the life of rapper\producers, but nobody wants to be nor are they shown the appropriate steps to become a studio engineer.
i'm not knocking youth centers, but another gym, another aspiring basketball player at this point is not as viable a solution as a library, a computer lab, or even a theater.
also, with this so-called president and a republican congress, chances of government-funded youth centers within the foreseeable future, at least on the federal level, are dim.

in answer to the question: bill cosby is wrong and it is he who has lost his mind.

With all do respect, a math or science program will not do a thing. Im young, and i know the last thing me, or any of my friends want to do is be in a library or even in a class... Math and Science is the first classes EVERYONE doesnt show up for or even pay attention in (considering they do go). What you need is sumthing that the children will go for, which shuld relate to the culture of hiphop and what their enviroment stands for, things like Street Ball (version of basketball), and my previous idea of hiphop workshops. A better eduacation system can come in later when the children have come to realise that the drugs and the money isnt going to get you anything, but using is as a first offensive wont really do anything..
And Mr Cosby isnt doing anything for anyone, however i was watching OPRAH a while ago (dont ask why) and it had Bill Gates who was using a large chuck of his money towards ensuring teen's futures by building schools, only with a more hands approach allowing the students to get more practicle in their work. I also hear that he's dropping alot of his Microsoft company to someone else so he can devote more of his time towards the eduacation problem throughout the world, coz this effects EVERYWHERE. If Cosby mabye took a lesson from Gates, he might stop bitching about the problem and do sumthing about it!! Mabye he doesnt realise that we're not all rich like him.....
R&R C.D.K.

Bah. Dyson put his finger to the wind as he often does, found the direction was blowing against Cosby and saw yet another way to make a buck off Black people, fired off a shoddy book. Seriously, he's no better than Cos -- or no worse.

There's a way, an Art in criticizing without dismissing, in disagreeing without resorting to public bitchin. There's a cogent way to make a point without diminishing the points & purpose of another.

Yo! Some of our esteemed Black men really need vital lessons in finessing that shit. Even some Doctors and Intellectuals cats could use a refresher course.

One.

...and if music makes kids go bad, why is there such a crystal meth problem in rural, predominantly white areas that are dominated by country?

Dyson and Hill are both posers using hiphop as a vehicle to boost their carrers. They know nothing positive comes from using the word NIGGA. They both need an abusive stepfather ass-whoopin'.

Dyson isn't innocent either. This poser talks about being a "street-fighter" in a business suit...this bitch isn't living on the streets so why is he preaching to the black youth that it's okay to live that way? WE DON'T NEED DYSON TO DEFEND THE POOR BECAUSE HE'S IN THE SAME TAX BRACKET WITH COSBY.

PISS OFF, DYSON!!! YOU PUNK-ASS PHILLY POSER!!!

Dyson is a mixed nut, former dead-beat dad, angry that his brother got locked up so he plays it off like he's a ghetto Malcolm X, brokedown ass fried chicken-eatin' wanna-be hiphop Martin Luther King.

Hill likes to cosign the ramblings of these self-centered, house-negro, Uncle Tom, sell-out, spineless rappers who are rich and famous like Dyson.

They need to stop the maddness fo real. Nuttin positive about the shyt these posers are pulling. I wouldn't go as far as calling them hustlers...because they don't have as much game as Cosby, but at least the Jell-O pudding man is playing the game straight.

Peace to the real brothers and sisters who are about making it better for all of our people.

All you posers can eat a phat one.