Having been on the Argus staff for three and a half years, I have been dealt my fair share of praise and criticism for my work; that is just one of those things that comes with the territory. This, however, is one of first times that I have been so moved as to share my own critiques of my fellow staff writers and classmates. The following is in response to both Hillary Moss’s and Rob Cohen’s pieces.
Hilary, I think that your critique of Tricia Rose’s forum depicted a fair representation of the event; you captured the essence of Dr. Rose’s concerns and thoughts in reference to the pimp/ho model (to which Dr. Rose did admit to understanding why someone would want a pimp cup), the community-destructive nature of contemporary “black music,” Rose’s own “dangerous altruism.” However, you undermined your entire piece with the following words: “Professor critiques contemporary hip-hop music, Kanye West.” You poorly represented the entire forum and your article by mentioning Kanye West in the headline. That miniscule portion of the forum was in response to a question asked by a member of the audience. It was not the central focus of the article as your headline implied. While it did grab the attention of the student body (and lead to many “thought-provoking Wespeak ramblings”), it was erroneous. (Yet who am I to judge about titles? Anyone at the Argus could tell you that I am no title aficionado. . . .) It’s too easy to manipulate text to make the reader believe what you want to believe; that is the power you have as a journalist, but you must walk the fine line of not manipulating it. I again state for the record that I think the remainder of your article did the forum justice from your perspective.
Secondly, I will address the Wespeak of Rob Cohen. Rob, this is not the first time that your actions bordered upon being more culturally ignorant and racially insensitive than you may have intended; having studied with you in the music department, I know that you are not as socially ignorant as you present yourself. However, this time you really have me wondering because, as my daddy always told me, “A tiger will never change his stripes.”
I’m not even sure where to begin. I anticipated your supposed all-knowing piece on hip-hop music and its place in the popular music context. You really came off as if you were proposing that your idea was the truth. You even claimed that Dr. Rose’s comments “were both racist and ignorant.” I fail to see the racism in her comments, but the ignorance of yours is a bright light flashing in my face. Not to mention that you stated as an aside that you never actually attended the forum; that statement seriously undermines your entire argument. Your entire piece was a speculation into a world that you do not seem to know much about.
The general tone of your article was offensive and disrespectful. Dr. Rose never proclaimed herself to be a self-appointed prophet and most would agree that having a PhD technically does qualify one to speak on the studied subject matter. Rob, we don’t even have Bachelors degrees yet, so what leg do you stand on? Where do you find the audacity to attack the “temporal distortion of Rose’s lecture” with its unnecessary racial component? Rob, I’m not sure if you knew this but, IT’S BLACK HISTORY MONTH. THE WHOLE MONTH IS AN UNNECCESARY RACIAL COMPONENT. THAT’S THE POINT.
You quote Rose as saying, “black music has shifted from offering solutions to simply reiterating common sentiments, disintegrating the cultural art form that used to be community affirming.” If you think that this is bullshit, then you should take a listen to the type of music that being pumped into your ears by the mainstream media. 50 Cent shouting, “Bitch, get in my car,” or D4L who tell me to “suck their Jolly Ranchers cause it stays so hard,” or better yet Trillville who last year asked me “What it is ho? What’s up? Can a nigga get in your gut? Cut you up like you ain’t been cut, Show your ass how to really catch a nut.” No matter what your taste in music, this is not only not community building, but misogynistic and disrespectful. You said, “some may find that the stupidity in today’s music is more flagrant or more offensive than the stupidity of the past, but that is simply a matter of taste.” Are you fucking kidding me? That’s really ignorant. Find me one record from “back in the day” that used the n-word, the b-word and the references to guns, drugs, fuckin’ bitches, and hoes ten times each in every song. That’s not a matter of taste. It’s a matter of decency and respect.
This is not to say that all rappers in the game are doing this, but as Rose said, socially conscious rap is “walking the grain against the trajectory of hip-hop music.” The ones who do have something to say are not being accepted by the mass media, and I agree with you that the powers that be are responsible for this. Yet, the disrespectful shit continues to be what’s popular. I’m not gonna lie to you, though, I still listen to that shit (you can ask Emily and Major if you don’t believe me), but I’m smart enough to know that its entertainment. However, those “ignorant children” that you speak of are not, and that’s the problem Rose was addressing.
And to answer your question about Ashlee Simpson, while she may not be destroying the white community because nobody really cares about her music, I distinctly remember when a certain Ms. Spears made her first appearance. White middle-class mothers were in an uproar because their daughters started dressing like little hoochies in their Catholic schoolgirl outfits, which were certainly “not that innocent.” When Marilyn Manson and Eminem were the hot shit, the white middle-class started blaming them for the high school shootings. Ignorance is clearly not colorblind. This is a societal and generational issue.
I’m not sure when the last time you picked up a record from the 1960s or 1970s was, but the trivial nonsense of today’s music is really on a different level than what my parents were listening to. Nobody ever said that the electric slide, the mashed potato or “doing the butt” was a solution, but at least people weren’t shooting one another or spreading infectious diseases. At least they were having a good time. In retrospect, the times that our parents lived in were the good ole days. As Caroline White said, “My parents have talked a lot about how hip-hop subjects differ between generations.” Musicians weren’t talking about bitches, hoes, killin’ niggas, poppin niggas off, getting’ dicks sucked, etc. They didn’t have to worry about drive-bys, AIDS, bird flu, cancer, oil shortages, war in Iraq, the declining job market, or any of the things that we worry about. I agree that at any point in time, shit sucked, but the magnitude of the odor of that shit gets worse every decade. Can you even imagine what our children will have to suffer? I’ve always said that as soon as you open your mouth, you’re open for criticism; I respect and accept this responsibility. The floor is now open for discussion.
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