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When Will Rappers Take Responsibility For Irresponsible Lyrics
Written by CNM247_Admin // April 09, 2013 // A$AP Rocky, Hip Hop News, Hollywood Sausage, Latest News, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Question of The Day, Rick Ross
(CelebNMusic247-News) When Will Rappers Take Responsibility For Irresponsible Lyrics
We all know controversy sells, but irresponsible lyrics, racism and disrespect to women are not the answer!
Over the past weeks hip hop music has come under fire since Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and LL Cool J have all started some type of controversy with their lyrical content. The only problem is the each of these rappers irresponsible lyrics have caused a hip hop lyric backlash.
Lil Wayne still hasn’t apologized for comparing his rough bedroom antics to Emmett Till’s murder, while Rick Ross is under fire for his date rape lyrics featured in Rocko “U.N.E.O.” – And now LL Cool J can be added to the list for his his Accidental Racist single with Country singer Brad Paisley, because it is apparently coming off as a racist song!
We understand that the US is the land of freedom of speech, but freedom of speech does not say anything about promoting disrespectful statements or irresponsible and influential lyrics.
Here is the definition of the term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.
With that said, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross are two of hip hop’s most wanted in regards to irresponsible and influential lyrics. Both rappers are guilty of beligerant disrespect to individuals. Lil Wayne disrespected the Till family – when describing his bedroom manor and comparing it to the gruesome death of Emmet Till.
His verse is as follows from the remix of Future’s “Karate Chop” single:
“Pop a lot of pain pills/Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels/Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till…”
For those of you NOT familiar with how irresponsible Lil Wayne’s lyric truly is, we have added the details of what happened to Emmett. He was only saying hello and acknowledging a pretty woman in 1955, something that we forget and take for granite today, because racism on this level is no longer tolerated. But in 55 things like this was happening all the time in the south. It’s the little things we may not know, be aware of or have not educated ourselves with. When you listen to Weezy’s lyric it displays his ignorance of not knowing the history behind the lyric. As a black man he should be more responsible!
Here is what happened to Emmett:
Emmett Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store. Several nights later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam arrived at Till’s great-uncle’s house where they took Till, transported him to a barn, beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound (32 kg) cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. His body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later.
The family was so upset that Emmett Till’s family has penned an “Open Letter” to Lil Wayne for disrespecting his memory.
What is truly sad is Lil Wayne is offering no apologies to the Till family!
While Rick Ross has ignited a women’s group to protest the over-sized rapper for his lyric in Rocko’s – “U.O.E.N.O”
“I die over these Reeboks, you ain’t even know it/Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it/I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it…”
What Ross describes as a misunderstood lyric, is a straight up description of date rape, and no matter how he tries to justify it, it will still come off as a date rape lyric. NOT only is he having a backlash with women they’re trying to get him fired from his Reebok deal with a petition. Although Talib Kweli clarified his feeling towards the God Forgives I Don’t rapper, the conscious rapper Kweli weighed in on the MMG rap star and his unforgivable lyric towards women.
The best he can do is own up to it and apologize to the Ultraviolet women’s group and to all women for his irresponsible lyrical usage.
As adults Lil Wayne and Rick Ross need to be able to display respect.
Just because our country is founded on the principles of Freedom of Speech does NOT mean you’re able to influence people (young minds) with negativity or harmful actions. What Ross and Wayne don’t take into concideration is that they both influence their fans and sometimes those influential lyrics may make too much sense to a fan. Which leads that follower to do the action within the lyric. Now I am not against hip hop and Freedom of speech, but when you become a celebrity or rap star you take on the responsibility of being a mentor of sorts.
Fans tend to look up to what you do and how you do it, while some other fans want to be like the rapper they listen to that they live out the actions of the lyrics. What rappers need to understand is that they become accountable for their lyrics and respecting the basics is essential. Freedom of Speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, as with libel, slander, obscenity, sedition (including, for example inciting ethnic hatred), copyright violation, revelation of information that is classified or otherwise.
With that said – we will also bring to light the newest addition of lyrical mishaps with LL Cool J and Brad Paisley‘s “Accidental Racist single.”
LL Cool J and Brad Paisley may be trying to point out some valid issues within the US social structure, but the controversial song is NOT coming off like an awareness single. Instead the song is reading racism. [FULL LYRICS HERE]
I’m just a white man comin’ to you from the southland
Tryin’ to understand what it’s like not to be
I’m proud of where I’m from but not everything we’ve done
And it ain’t like you and me can re-write history
Our generation didn’t start this nation
We’re still pickin’ up the pieces, walkin’ on eggshells, fightin’ over yesterday
And caught between southern pride and southern blame
They called it Reconstruction, fixed the buildings, dried some tears
We’re still siftin’ through the rubble after a hundred-fifty years
I try to put myself in your shoes and that’s a good place to begin
But it ain’t like I can walk a mile in someone else’s skin
Cause I’m a white man livin’ in the southland
Just like you I’m more than what you see
I’m proud of where I’m from but not everything we’ve done
And it ain’t like you and me can re-write history
Our generation didn’t start this nation
And we’re still paying for the mistakes
That a bunch of folks made long before we came
And caught somewhere between southern pride and southern blame
[Verse 5: LL Cool J]
Dear Mr. White Man, I wish you understood
What the world is really like when you’re livin’ in the hood
Just because my pants are saggin’ doesn’t mean I’m up to no good
You should try to get to know me, I really wish you would
Now my chains are gold but I’m still misunderstood
I wasn’t there when Sherman’s March turned the south into firewood
I want you to get paid but be a slave I never could
Feel like a new fangled Django, dodgin’ invisible white hoods
So when I see that white cowboy hat, I’m thinkin’ it’s not all good
I guess we’re both guilty of judgin’ the cover not the book
I’d love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air
But I see that red flag and I think you wish I wasn’t here
But its NOT just rappers with irresponsible lyrics – A$AP Rocky and Waka Flocka are now under fire for just talking too much, since both are under fire for making questionable remarks about black women.
Here is why:
Waka Flocka said white women are popping and black women aren’t the “baddest” anymore when thequestion came up about his thoughts on interracial dating.
Then during an interview with The Coveteur, ASAP Rocky angered many black women when he suggested only lighter skinned women can wear red lipstick.
So we ask – where does it stop? When will rappers take responsiblity for their irresponsible lyrics and remarks?
What do you think?
Do you find their statements and lyrics blatant disrespect and ignorant?
