SLAMMING THE HIP-HOP CULTURE

Derrick Z. Jackson, writing in the Boston Globe, takes a meat-axe to hip-hop culture this morning, and the big corporations that profit from their vile message.

It is tragic enough that black rappers and hip-hop moguls prostitute themselves to the Fortune 500 with the very stereotypes about violence, stupidity, and sexual drive that white society used to justify slavery, colonization, segregation, and lynching. After slave rebellions, the Underground Railroad, patriotism in world wars, marches on Washington, and murders of civil rights workers, Jay-Z makes millions saying, ''I take and rape villages." African-Americans can no longer afford to coddle these people. The black czars of gutter hip-hop are the new house slaves. And Reebok's promotion of this material, along with Comcast and other media giants, is just as reprehensible....At Reebok's annual investor conference, division officials echoed (Reebok's Director of Marketing Marc) Fireman, saying, ''These kids hang on every word" of Jay-Z because ''his influence on youth culture is tremendous and what he represented 2.5 years ago he still represents today, but even more so, because he's evolved." They said of 50 Cent, ''This guy is truly a marketing machine and will have a lot of momentum. We're going to really capture and provide that momentum and be with 50." They said, ''50 Cent is very large and his influence is incredible and he's really captured a major movement and people are following him and going with him." If 50 Cent represents a major movement, we ought to spare ourselves the illusion of racial progress and bring back the Klan.

Read the whole thing.