This charming composition is an example of Rap songs that became popular during the late 80s:Now do we love them 'hos?Hell naw!Why is that?Because you're Snoop Doggy DogAnd you never gave a f**k about a b**ch'Cause to you b***ches ain't s**t but 'hos and tricksBig Pimpin Snoop Doggy DogHence if political commentary was made, Black women were not active participants. They were window dressing -- like the cigars Rappers smoked, the gold wathces they wore and the cars they drove.Can the devaluation of Black women be separated from the media's attack upon all women? Can the Rap's glorification of Black-on-Black violence be separated from the escalation of crime in the African American community? I maintain that Rap is the figure against popular culture's background.Having said thus, I will say that Rap is controlled and censored by a music industry that gets to say which musician's tracks gets played most often (something my son Toussaint explained as "heavy rotation") or if they get played at all. And there are positive Hip Hop artists out there who stubbornly refuse to be bought out -- artists like NAS, Common and K-OS.Yet one cannot ignore the participation of various musicians in the cultural brainwashing of their own people, and I am reminded that during slavery there were slaves who sold out their own brothers and sisters. You feel me knocking?Copyright Valjeanne Jeffers-Thompson 1997, 2009
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