and another thing…

my thoughts on recent happenings in the world:

1.  beyonce’s bow down: she’s not a feminist and anyone who thinks she is should revisit their definition of feminism.  beyonce’s a woman who makes music for the alleged purpose of women’s empowerment (guess we all forgot about bills, bills, bills); however, it’s usually just silly ramblings.  for example, a diva is NOT a female version of a hustler and girls DO NOT run the world.  with that in mind, don’t give celebrities convictions that they don’t have.  bow down is a banger and the best anti-hater anthem of 2013.  period.

2.  rick ross condone’s date rape: “put molly all in her champagne/ she ain’t even know it/ i took her home and i enjoyed that/ she ain’t even know it” drugging a woman for the purpose of exploiting her sexually is rape.  of all people, ricky rozay, the former corrections officer, knows this, but in a music genre that glorifies misogyny and violence, we shouldn’t expect anything different.  i understand the outrage, but already had low expectations of rick ross and his entire mmg clique.  we can’t really expect any socially just commentary from a man who sweats bacon.  let’s move on.

3.  talib kweli and dream hampton’s twitter battle: rapper talib kweli criticized rick ross’s half-ass apology for the above lyrics.  in an interview rick ross claimed that he never used the word “rape” and his words were misunderstood.  kweli called him out saying he needs to issue a real apology.  dream hampton thought he should have come harder and went in via twitter (see the previous link).  dream, have several and return to the mid-90s with your shallow analysis.  talib is the only rapper who has taken up this subject in a real way, and the fact you went to twitter to wage your criticism was just a publicity stunt.

4.  ll cool j’s “accidental racism”: in the song, country artist brad paisley sings, “[i’m] just a proud rebel son with an ‘ol can of worms/lookin’ like Iigot a lot to learn.” ll cool j eventually responds, “if you don’t judge my do-rag… i won’t judge your red flag, if you don’t judge my gold chains… i’ll forget the iron chains.” ll, call cornel west, who himself has bars, the next time you chose to tackle race, especially in a song with a white man.  one of the primary tenants of white supremacy is to “let bygones be bygones,” despite white people’s refusal to truly deal with race and racism in america.  black folks should NEVER forget our chains.

and that’s all i have to say about that…