"Why Firing Imus Doesn't Matter"

[N0 Thanks]

Jerry L. Barrow (former editor of Scratch) speaking on HipHop & Imus.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Why Firing Imus Doesn't Matter

I'll be brief, since so many people have chimed in on this topic at length. The critical issue here is censorship, but not of Imus, but of the voices in society that do more than malign and hate. Much of the counter argument to singling out Imus focuses on hip-hop music and the lyrics that call women hoes and bytches on a regular basis. As someone who has reported on the hip-hop industry for ten years, I sincerely believe that that is not the problem.

The problem isn't the negativity, its the censorship of the positivity. In any form of entertainment you have your varying degrees of taste. Film has everything from cartoons to porn. Music has classical and jazz to punk and grunge. Comedy has your Bill Cosbys and your Andrew Dice Clays. We can't hope to destroy the extremes that may not suit our personal tastes. The problem is that in recent years there has been no real POSITIVE or less abrasive hip-hop to counter the smut. Say what you want about Will Smith and MC Hammer but I at least had something to play at the BBQ within earshot of my parents that wouldn't offend. For every "Indian Girl" from Slick Rick we had "Buddy" from De La Soul or "Say No Go" an anti-drug use song. And if a male rapper insisted on getting down on women, there were at least 5 Roxanne's waiting in the wings with an answer record to set him straight. Today there is no such balance. It's all slow ridin, smokin, drankin and mackin hoes. (note, I do smoke and drink myself but don't necessarily want my musical tastes limited to those themes). The labels are effectively censoring anything positive because they wont sign anyone with anything of note to say. Those kinds of groups can't book an arena for a tour. They can barely find distribution for their music. The labels argue that it isn't "relevant" but if people are 1)not made aware of such music 2) can't find it in the stores then how on earth can they go out and support it?

Has hip-hop created an environment that has desensitized us to the comments that Imus made? Yes, but dig deep and you'll see it is the same companies that paid Imus that are paying and promoting the rappers you blame. Until that changes you can fire ten Don Imuses and steamroll a thousand "Gangsta rap" CDs in the streets and it will be business as usual.

[MyNamezJon]

cool... agree wit some points... i read that master p startin a label to promote positive artists only... i dont think u can put 100% blame on corporations for not signing enuff positive artists. their sole purpose is to make money, not worry about wat contributes to problems in black america.

its a shame that imus had to say wat he said for people and the media to take note of the state of hip hop. hip hop is now a scapegoat and hopefully the artists that r signed will devote more of their lyrics to promote sumthin that matters