Posted by
Fresh Bread on Friday, April 13, 2007 6:31:34 PM
Have you been inundated with the Don Imus fiasco? You know, how his bad mouth got him in trouble when he called The Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos."
Now that was certainly wrong and so I am not going to try to justify such talk because I can’t. But what gets me is how there is so much bad press on what Imus said and so little to nothing said about the language in rap songs.
For example, the No. 1 rap track is by a new sensation who goes by the name of "Mims." The "song" is "This Is Why I'm Hot." It has topped the charts for the last 15 weeks. Here's how the lyrics go:
This is why I'm hot
Catch me on the block
Every other day
Another "b" (word) another drop
16 bars, 24 pop
44 songs, "n" (word) gimme what you got . . .
. . . We into big spinners
See my pimping never dragged
Find me wit' different women that you "n" (word) never had
For those who say they know me know I'm focused on ma cream
Player you come between you'd better focus on the beam
I keep it so mean the way you see me lean
And when I say I'm hot my "n" (word) dis is what I mean
The No. 2 rap track in the nation this week is by rappers Bow Wow and R. Kelly. The "song" is called "I'm a Flirt," and it's been on the charts for 12 weeks:
Ima b pimpin
I don't be slippin
When it come down to these hos
I don't love em
We don't cuff em
Man that's just the way it goes
I pull up in the Phantom
All the ladies think handsome
Jewelry shining, I stay stuntin'
That's why these niggas can't stand em
Ima chick mag-a-net
And anything fine I'm bag-gin it
And if she got a man, I don't care
10 toes and I wanna be, cause I gotta have it
All this leads me to reflect on what the bible says in Proverbs 11:11: “The influence of good people makes a city great. But the wicked can destroy it with their words” (NCV).
It doesn’t matter if a black person says something racial about the black race or a white person says something racial about the white race as a way to justify themselves. The results are the same: “Society is being torn apart by our choice of words.”
We cannot accept a double standard and say that the rap super-stars are legit in using racial slurs because they are black and besides, it is art. It is amazing how much some people will go out on a limb to look and sound stupid to justify what is wrong. A racial slur coming from a pig would still have the same affect.
If there is one thing we can all learn from Imus it’s this: “Whoever is careful about what he says protects his life. But anyone who speaks without thinking will be ruined” (Proverbs 13:3).