It's About Damn Time

Someone sent me a link to a story I was planning on posting about ANYWAY......shouts to my best friend.....but I wanted to state my opinion first....

I have been on "strike" from listening to certain artists who I don't think have a lot to talk about (shoes, clothes, degrading women, selling drugs to the same community you came out of...) - there are several that I'm thinking of (click here here or here for a list of articles you can read that agree with my current position.

Recently, there has been an outpouring of anger about a radio shock jock who called a black women's basketball team a bunch of nappy headed hoes and then went on to justify his words...well, not justify, but explain them, by saying that black artists call women much worse things than that. Guys...he was 100% right. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't excuse a 100 year old white man known for calling a black reporter covering the white house the cleaning lady from his racist and ignorant comments, but he's right. Black artists over the past 10 years or so have slowly been pushing the envelope to the point where it doesn't exist anymore. If anyone in power says anything negative about it, they cry Free Speech - ironic, since I'd be willing to bet not one of them are familiar with the Constitution that they are so quick to hide behind.

But, I digress.

The reason I'm blogging today is that someone in that industry finally took a step in the right direction. One of hip hop music's creators saw that things are going a little too far...and decided to do something about it. Russel Simmons wants to remove offensive words from hip hop music. Mind you, it's only three words, but those three words could very well make a difference. Not a huge one...since we're still glorifying things like selling cocaine, having casual sex, and putting money before everything else in your life, but at least it's something.