Update: Ignant on 60 Minutes - Cam'ron Apologizes

It was bound to happen...

Cam'ron issues an apology for his ignant appearance on 60 Minutes last Sunday. (Courtesy of SOHH.com)

"In 2005, I was a victim of a violent crime. I was shot multiple times without provocation by two armed men who attempted to carjack my vehicle. Although I was a crime victim, I didn't feel like I could cooperate with the police investigation. Where I come from, once word gets out that you've cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence. That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I'm not saying its right, but its reality. And it's not unfounded. There's a harsh reality around violence and criminal justice in our inner cities," Cam'ron said via statement.

"But my experience in no way justifies what I said. Looking back now, I can see how those comments could be viewed as offensive, especially to those who have suffered their own personal tragedies or to those who put their lives on the line to protect our citizens from crime. Please understand that I was expressing my own personal frustration at my own personal circumstances. I in no way was intending to be malicious or harmful. I apologize deeply for this error in judgment."

So...he's basically apologizing for being himself, right? Because thats how it sounds to me.

Read the original article on The Quotable here.

Something To Think About...

"Rap is really funny...But if you don't see that its funny, it will scare the shit out of you."
- Ice T; Rolling Stone, August 1992

This lady I work with bum-rushed my desk today, militantly declaring that I needed to "delete all the rap music from my iPod because Hip Hop is going down!" She apparently watched Oprah's Hip Hop Townhall last week and feels all the "booty shakin'" and "b*tches" and "hoes" is "out of line" and "has gone too far" and "Hip Hop is to blame and should be shut down!"

"Word?"

Look, "bitches", "n*****", and "nappy-headed hoes" being common-place in today's society is not Hip Hop's fault.

FACT. Simple and plain.

Hip Hop itself is too vast to lump into one bucket. The 4 (primary) elements (B-Boying, Grafitti, DJing, and MCing) aside, rap music alone is too diverse to point a blame laced finger at. The problem is that the most controversial/offensive/destructive forms of rap music dominate the airwaves.

And Hip Hop doesn't control the airwaves. Media companies do.

Remember when there used to be a balance? Remember when Ice Cube, and Digable Planets, and Bone Thugs and A Tribe Called Quest would play back-to-back on your FM dial and it wasn't a big deal - it was the norm? Remember how C. Delores Tucker, Tipper Gore and the rest tried to shut down "Gangsta Rap" back the mid-90s (pioneering the same tactics Rev. Al Sharpton plans to use during his crusade), but failed because - Gangsta Rap included - Hip Hop's message was too apparent, too tangible...too relevant?

Now? There's too many "b*tches" and "hoes" - and subsequently (like Chris Rock said) "its too hard to defend."

There are thousands of different artists out there with thousands of different perspectives who aren't bangin' the on radio, or knockin' on Mtv, or BET. And the reason they aren't is because the industry (media companies, record labels, program directors, and the like) consciously selects what will and will not be heard.

Its not that people (overall) prefer b*tches and hoes and gang culture over their own relateable lives (Kanye and Outkast are testiments to that; both multi-platinum artists with largely positive messages). It is because in the end - like my boy Will says - people like what they know (as long as the beats hot). Everyday-people will continue to say what they want to say. You can't stop a regular cat walking down the Ave from objectifying women and degrading himself. Its a losing battle. But media companies can stop offensive behavior from appearing over public airwaves - just like they stopped Don Imus.

If rap on the radio is truly too vulgar, spin more Lupe Fiasco. If thre are too many b*tches and hoes in different area codes, rock some Little Brother. If there's too much ass-shakin' on the TV station, throw a Sean Price video into the rotation.

My point is, Hip Hop is too broad to pigeon-hole. A variety of options are out there - just like they were in the 80s and 90s. The real question is, why are they no longer on radio, and video?

Just something to think about.

Carry on...

Ignant on 60 Minutes

"Even in our finest hour we got a crack-head on stage!"
- Chris Rock

To be fair, Cam'ron is not an actual crack-head (and this certainly isn't Hip Hop's finest hour) - he just makes crackish comments far too frequently (my homie Sean P's personal fav: "Call the girl poultry cause she smells like fish").

Here's his latest (courtesy of cbsnews.com). Good lookin' Khalilah.

(CBS) Rap star Cam'ron says there's no situation — including a serial killer
living next door — that would cause him to help police in any way, because to do
so would hurt his music sales and violate his "code of ethics."

Cam'ron,
whose real name is Cameron Giles, talks to Anderson Cooper for a report on how
the hip-hop culture's message to shun the police has undermined efforts to solve
murders across the country.

Cooper's report will be broadcast on 60
Minutes this Sunday, April 22, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

"If I knew the serial
killer was living next door to me?" Giles responds to a hypothetical question
posed by Cooper. "I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him — but I'd probably
move. But I'm not going to call and be like, 'The serial killer's in 4E.' "

Giles' "code of ethics" also extends to crimes committed against him.
After being shot and wounded by gunmen, Giles refused to cooperate with police.
Why?

"Because … it would definitely hurt my business, and the way I was
raised, I just don't do that," says Giles.

Pressed by Cooper, who says
had he been the victim, he would want his attacker to be caught, Giles explains
further: "But then again, you're not going to be on the stage tonight in the
middle of, say, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, with people with gold and
platinum teeth and dreadlocks jumping up and down singing your songs, either.
We're in two different lines of business."

"So for you, it's really
about business?" Cooper asks.

"It's about business," Giles says, "but
it's still also a code of ethics."

Read full article here.

Wow...I didn't realize "Stop Snitching" protected "serial killers" as well. How much more ignant can things get? This muttaskutta is seriously saying that if he lived next door to a dude who eats peoples faces for fun - all he'd do is move??? He wouldn't tell the authorities???? Worst off, he'd still sell his place to someone else KNOWING that dude next door neighbor eats faces for fun???? Attention Quotable Nation: Cam'ron Giles has officially failed as a human being.

And another thing...

First, Don Imus blames Hip Hop for his 'nappy-headed hoe' comment. Then, Oprah hosts a Hip Hop Townhall meeting to discuss b*tches and hoes and everything else wrong with rap music. And now Cam'ron (of all MCs) is representing Hip Hop on 60 Minutes?!

Sign of the apocalypse?

Speak on it...

Imus Not the Real Bad Guy?

My homegirl Murda (Mary) forwarded this "long email" to me today in regards to Don Imus's recent word-vomit. Interesting read...

courtesy of KansasCity.com (please don't sue me...PUHLease don't sue me).

Imus isn’t the real bad guy
Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.
By JASON WHITLOCK - Columnist

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

To reach Jason Whitlock, call (816) 234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com

Al Sharpton / Don Imus interview:



Your thoughts?