Thursday, January 20, 2011

A Woman's Worth

I got an email question that I want to address. This person, who wanted to remain anonymous, wants to know why I "dog" today's music. Essentially they feel like I love music from the past and don't give the proper credit to the "music" that is being produced today.
Now, before I go on- I listen to all kinds of music, so while this entry will highlight one kind of music in particular, know that this critique is of all genres. I have several reasons why I think that the "music" being produced today is garbage: it is self serving, it has no meaning, people rock out to the beats and don't listen to the words, the words are ridiculous and stereotypical, etc. The number one reason I am not too fond of today's "music" is that it is demeaning to women.
OMG- I can hear the sighs now... and I don't care. I was setting up this weeks Soulful Saturday yesterday and I was listening to "Keep Ya Head Up" by 2Pac. I am not always hit by lyrics of rap songs, but this verse hit me hard:

You know it makes me unhappy (what's that)
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?

I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies

And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up

Now Tupac was sexy as it comes, but these lyrics were weird coming from someone who started and promoted the "video girl" image; had songs like "I Get Around" and was charged with sexual assault. However, the lyrics are profound. Why do we take from our women, why we rape our women, Do we hate our women? Damn. Do we? Our music is now overrun with seemingly oversexed women, or women that can't find and keep a man, T-Pain (also known as Teddy Pin Her Ass Down), and Lil Wayne (and all of Young Money Entertainment)- to name a few... Really? Now I have to admit, when I heard the remix of "I'm in love with a stripper" I laughed. Because that shit is so outlandish I couldn't help myself. You have super old Too $hort rapping that he wants to "f*ck the baddest bitch in the club" Um, ewww. If she really was the baddest bitch in the club, he would get no play- at all. There is cash being thrown all over the place and women with their clothes off. In other videos, there are women complaining that their man is a dog, another woman is vandalizing her man's car, another video has Young Money saying that they can make my Bed Rock (doubtful- to say the least). That is the standard in today's music videos and lyrics. Drake wants to f*ck every girl in the world (and performed that song on an Awards show- which children on the stage). I mean, we have to demand more than that. Right?! I don't care if you are a rapper and can "make it rain" in the club. When men do that, I want to smack them. I am worth so much more than $100- in singles... and if you want to buy something for $100, head to the bar and buy a round of well drinks for you and your boys, because you will be with them for the rest of the night.

I like music that talks about socially relevant things, and love songs that are more than just about sex. I think that we are dangerously close to having a generation of children who do not understand that this behavior is harmful. Every day on YouTube there is a new video of a small child (usually little girls) who has all of Beyonce's new dance moves down to a tee. Does that child know her numbers, alphabet, name? Can she read? There are so many more important things to life than being the new hot thing for 15 minutes, being able to "make it rain" in the club, having a body like Nicki Minaj, or being tatted up like Lil Wayne. We have to watch what we allow into our daily lives and into the minds of our children-- including the way that women are treated, as a whole, in real life or in music videos.

Music is beautiful and there is not a day that goes by that I don't listen to it. But I do not (will not) promote music that makes women look less than the princesses we are meant to be, makes Black men look like thugs or makes education look lame. We all deserve better than that and if we demand more the artists and the industry will give us more.

**I will answer any other email questions you have... hotblackandbitter@gmail.com**

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love it! Good post!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...