{"id":176431256,"date":"2014-01-20T00:40:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T06:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176431256"},"modified":"2014-01-20T00:40:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T06:40:58","slug":"pov-the-beat-bang-theory-how-corporate-hip-hop-profits-from-rape-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2014\/01\/20\/pov-the-beat-bang-theory-how-corporate-hip-hop-profits-from-rape-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"POV: The Beat Bang Theory: How Corporate Hip-Hop Profits From Rape Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Clutch\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Chief<\/a>

Chief Keef<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The Beat Bang Theory: <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

How Corporate Hip-Hop <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

Profits From Rape Culture<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\nBY\u00a0KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0<\/i>most disrespected person in America is the Black woman<\/i><\/em>, the\u00a0<\/i>most unprotected person in America is the Black woman<\/i><\/em>, the\u00a0<\/i>most neglected person in America is the Black woman.\u201d<\/i><\/em>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Malcolm X<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


\nWhen the laser sharp backlash finally grew too intense to ignore, Reebok severed ties with spokesperson\u00a0Rick Ross<\/b>\u00a0for his failure to sincerely apologize for glorifying rape in the song \u201cU.O.E.N.O.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the good news.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bad news is that the fraternal twins of misogyny and violence are as necessary to corporate Hip-Hop\u2019s survival as Black men are to the Prison Industrial Complex \u2013 and it didn\u2019t take long for Chicago rapper\u00a0Chief Keef<\/b>\u00a0to grab the baton from Ross to ensure that it lived to see another day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conveniently leaking the lyrics to his latest song, \u201cYou,\u201d at the height of the Ross controversy \u2013 no doubt to prove that he\u2019s \u201chard\u201d and not intimidated by feminist wrath \u2013 Chief Keef, born Keith Cozart, spit the following bars:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chief<\/span><\/p>\n

My first instinct was to address the lyrics themselves \u2013 and the shattered community structure and subsequent lack of character from which they derived. But I swiftly came to the conclusion that deconstructing the words of a 17-year-old boy whose pathetic perception of manhood is so inextricably linked to his penis as to be a tired clich\u00e9 would be an exercise in futility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why?<\/span><\/p>\n

Because Chief Keef is nothing but corporate Hip-Hop\u2019s latest poster boy, a generic figure interchangeable with many young Black men on the streets with mediocre talent, incessant bravado and dreams of stardom with no viable options in sight. He is a pawn about as pivotal to the eradication of entrenched rape culture in Hip-Hop as a minimum wage drive-thru worker at McDonald\u2019s is to reducing pink slime in their cheeseburgers.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is merely another Pinocchio \u2013\u00a0Look, Ma! I\u2019m a real man!<\/i>\u00a0\u2014 manufactured and sold as an MC to a frustrated, young urban populace looking for a hood hero. So to be effective on any level, any dialogue or course of action must focus on Geppetto \u2013 in this case, Interscope Records. While I abhor censorship, there is nothing free about speech when rappers are bought and paid for and young Mr. Cozart is a caricature of Black masculinity repurposed by Interscope to line their own pockets.<\/span><\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t an artist, he\u2019s a calculated risk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as his cohort, Def Jam rapper\u00a0Little Reese<\/b>, was lightly chastised by\u00a0Russell Simmons<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0for beating a woman like she was one of Michael Vick\u2019s dogs and still allowed to keep his recording contract, as long as Chief Keef makes money, Interscope couldn\u2019t care less about how many women he raps about murdering and raping.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though\u00a0certain conscious rappers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0may disagree, it is not authentic Hip-Hop culture \u2013 semantics be damned \u2013 when Black men are paid to prey on Black women. There is absolutely zero cultural value in replicating a global rape epidemic within the narrow confines of Hip-Hop vernacular. Corporate Hip-Hop has revealed itself to be a diamond-encrusted plantation where Black men are nothing but hedonistic slaves bound by whips and chains. It\u2019s a place where rape culture is embraced, cultivated and financed, and women are drugged, told to \u201csuck d*ck\u201d or die. To paraphrase my words from an essay penned for\u00a0TheGrio<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Violent words \u2014 hit, bang, beat, cut, smash \u2013 have been re-appropriated to refer to pleasurable, consensual sexual activity. It is not surprising, then, that\u00a0sixty percent of Black girls<\/span><\/a>have experienced sexual abuse before the age of eighteen. The Beat Bang Theory (double entendre intended) dictates that masculinity be defined by the authority \u2014 indeed,\u00a0the right<\/i>\u00a0\u2014 to objectify, dehumanize, violate and destroy women, all while rocking a microphone.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chief Keef and other young men like him are aggressive symptoms of a cultural cancer that has metastasized throughout our communities. And like any illness that is allowed to recklessly proliferate, the money is in the medicine, not the cure. This beat-laden pathology being pedaled as music is a complex pyramid scheme based on cultural theft and exploitation that can no longer be protected and preserved by those who profit from the facade.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is nothing short of dangerous hypocrisy that\u00a0Black Entertainment Television<\/strong>\u00a0can have Rick Ross \u201cRip The Runway\u201d rapping about \u201criding clean and fucking hoes,\u201d turn around and introduce a Lil Wayne song on \u201c106 & Park\u201d with lyrics such as \u201ckilling them bitches I hope all dogs go to heaven<\/span><\/a>,\u201d then with a straight face swear on a stack of bibles that \u201cBlack Girls Rock.\u201d And as long as rape culture generates revenue, sincere macro-level efforts to empower women will never exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

The undeniable fact is that these pimps masquerading as corporations \u2014 and the Black-faces of patriarchy who love them \u2014 are proud stakeholders in the degradation and endangerment of women and they must be held accountable. This is not love. This is war for the security of our daughters and the souls of our sons. That must, in no uncertain terms, be the non-negotiable line in the sand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whose side are you on?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n