Why does rap music get a social pass regarding degrading of women?

Bamabuzzard said:

Was listening to our local talk radio this morning on the drive to work. The topic was Cee Lo Green and his recent rape accusations. But the conversation then turned to rap music and the lyrics commonly used in the songs. The host had a local African American lawyer (also a women's activist) on the show and asked why it seems rap music gets a pass in society when it comes to degrading women. She agreed that it does and that it is utterly despicable at how so many people just accept it as part of the rap/hip-hop culture. She read some lyrics from several songs and I was floored. I can't even put them on the board. They're that bad. The local lawyer and women's activist said those lyrics are very common in the rap culture and it breeds an attitude toward women that needs to be stopped. She said the first thing that needs to happen is people need to stopped supporting them with their money. Second thing that needs to happen is it needs to brought to the national stage and put on display for society to see what's being put in these songs that our kids and young people are listening to.

What are you thoughts on today's rap/hip hop music and how it is impacting attitudes toward women by those who listen?

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4Q Basket Case said:

For everyone who hasn't already: Please, please read "Black Rednecks and White Liberals," by Thomas Sowell.

As you would expect from Sowell, it is exceedingly well researched.

Essentially, it says that in the middle of the last millennium, there was a culture in Central England that had a lot of the same characteristics as the rap / thug culture of today -- breakdown of the family, rampant illegitimate births, disrespect for women, heavy drug use (in the form of alcohol, the only widely available intoxicant of the time), hostility toward education, etc., etc.

So why don't we still have it? Because it died a self-inflicted death. Those behaviors are wholly inconsistent with long-term success, whether as a culture or as an individual.

Why don't we see the same thing today? Because we reinforce the behavior by shielding the practitioners from its natural consequences.

By the very actions that are ostensibly intended to help (I am more cynical-- I think they're actually intended to consolidate personal and political power, but that's a discussion for another thread), the liberal subsidy actually perpetuates a permanent underclass that is not just unemployed, but unemployable, and therefore incapable of pulling itself out of its current plight.

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mrusso said:

If anything is said that goes "against" these practitioners you are labeled a racist.

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Bazza said:

Painting with a broad brush here but IMHO the "Hip Hop" culture has done more damage to the black community and specifically black youth than any other force since I can remember - and maybe beyond that.


Talk about clueless - as a society - we really are.

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GreatDanish said:

I think I disagree... I'm not sure, though.

I think the degradation in rap music really began with NWA and 2 Live Crew (and their contemporaries). Women bought their albums instead of denouncing it. I think the degradation of women was already going on throughout the culture when it hit the popular culture market.

In other words, I think the culture got this attitude before rap really affected it. Hip hop has probably given it more legitimacy, but women were already degraded before the music hit the scene.

Why does it get a pass? I think people tried to fight NWA and 2 Live Crew, but despite the public outcry, gangsta rap continued to thrive - I remember Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were in NWA and they are still popular, and not just in the hip hop world.

It almost seems like the public just gave up fighting it. And the communities that embrace hip hop have continued to do so. The communities that don't embrace hip hop have just given up trying to fight it.

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