You’re riding down the street. It’s summertime. Windows are down; bass is turned up. The radio is playing the most popular tracks back to back. “U.E.O.N.O” comes on. Rick Ross’s verse starts. You hear, but don’t listen, and you sing along: “Put molly all up in her champagne, she ain’t even know it/I took her home and enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” You know all the words and sing along to that and many other songs, with similarly questionable lyrics that you don’t actually give real attention. You get home and read your local news: “Young man charged with rape after drugging numerous girls with the date rape drug, also known as MDMA (Molly).” “That’s messed up,” you may say, because it is, but you turn on your iPod and choose “U.E.O.N.O.” to begin your Genius playlist without a second thought. Later in the week you go to a lounge with your friends — laughing, joking, and having a good time. You realize someone is missing. You ask where so-and-so is. “You didn’t know? She met a guy at a bar and he drugged her with molly and raped her. She’s fine, now though.” You immediately feel moved to advocate for justice for so-and-so. “U.E.O.N.O.” is playing in the background.
Through all of this you may never take a minute to even draw a connection between the heinousness of the lyrics you sing and the events going on around you be it on the local news or in your backyard. Of course the lyrics don’t make the situations happen but don’t you think it’s ironic how we care more about these situations when they happen close to home versus when we see them on a TV show? It’s also ironic that we praise these artists and their lyrics when they talk about these things that, if they were to happen in our daily lives, would cause a disturbance in our happiness.
[Image: TheEntertainersHub]
Ike and Tina Turner
Popular artists like Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus, role models for women young and old, expose more of their body parts and their twerking abilities than substance, like Beyoncé’s essay on gender equality. Every woman wants to be seen as a respectable lady, and men want their wives, girlfriends, sisters, and daughters to be worthy of respect and treated in kind by others. So why does society bring more attention to the debased elements of mainstream culture that we abhor than those we wish to promote within our communities? Why are we so OK with these women being sexually explicit, publicly, instead of holding them accountable as role models for future generations of women?
A recent Huffington Post article mentioned how Bey brought the Beyhive from “Survivor” to “Independent Woman” to “Irreplaceable” to “Drunk in Love,” citing Jay Z’s Anna Mae and Ike Turner reference. Even though younger generations have no idea what that means, if you were born in the ’80s or earlier you have some inkling of the poster couple for domestic violence, and how hard Tina Turner worked to get out of that relationship and association with Ike. No self-respecting woman wants to be an Anna Mae to any man. So why do we sing along with lyrics that objectify them and denigrate their positions? Being in love or in a healthy relationship, as we are well aware that Beyoncé is, is a beautiful thing. Beyoncé has shown us that all that she flaunts is reserved for her husband and she is not going to stray from her position of a woman demanding and deserving of respect. However, removed from their context, the messages in her songs can be misconstrued by young girls who don’t understand that this mature sensuality she flaunts is to be reserved for a committed situation and not for the world, especially if they want to gain the respect they deserve.
[Image: Strangeline]
It’s not hard to understand why girls are sexually active so early or why they choose to focus on looks and materialism instead of working on their character. It’s not hard to see why young boys objectify women and we have to take extra efforts to encourage them to dress in opposition to the stereotypes that they view in the media, the same media that reports statistics that suggest that there are more young Black men in prisons than college (even though that claim is incorrect). When we who know the difference listen to the radio, the youth, who aren’t mature or old enough to know the difference, listen as well. When we turn on “106th and Park,” they watch, too. Just because we let them listen to the edited version doesn’t stop them from being exposed to the suggestions or from even searching these artists on the web and wanting to emulate them.
Some kids try to grow up too fast, and as members of society who want more for ourselves, we should be more mindful of the messages we allow them and ourselves to be exposed. We say statutory rape is wrong and buy R. Kelly’s albums without a second thought. It is well-known that he knowingly had relations with underage girls (and had the audacity to film it), but no one says he should get help or writes petitions against him. They just keep two-stepping — in the name of love. Just about every rapper talks about committing a wide range of crimes from Scarface to Kanye. Granted, elements of Hip-Hop artists as new age griots include the telling of stories as warnings and also to simply show the artist’s story-telling ability — but there is a difference between creative story telling and glorifying a lifestyle that, in all honesty, is not all peaches and cream. Aren’t we supposed to be taking precautions to promote progression to get out of the hood mentality? We need to start asking ourselves what do we want to focus on — the good or debased elements of life — and how it contributes to morality in our communities.
We as a community and consumers of media have to decide what to focus on and what we expose ourselves to, in order to properly sway the future to a virtuous and productive path exempt from the decrease in respectability we see more of every day. We don’t want a future of pimps, hos, and their lookalikes — we want respectable businessmen and woman and we need to change what we watch and listen to in order to shape our futures in that direction.
[Image: BET]