Oprah VS. Hip Hop

I'm banning Oprah. I loved her for a little while. When I was a stay at home mom I liked to turn on her show in the afternoons during nap. A black woman with so much power NOT showing every bit of her body to get that power! Amazing!!! But then, I noticed her demographic and her downright prejudice and hatred towards hip hop.

I love hip hop. A lot of the radio "hip hop" (and I use that term loosely) is total junk (like all music that gets played on the radio) but the underground hip hop is great. I love hip hop no matter its language too, German hip hop has been known to get me all happy inside and nothing is better than a dark-skinned French man smoothly speaking on the topic of his choice while I listen smoking in the dark. And of course, Americans. The Black man has so much power already and to add hip hop to it, I love it. A man can be sexy and built and just yum but you add a power with words, loving hip hop, being hip hop, and I'm in love. Just ask the husband He's an underground hip hop artist and I love it. I've never wanted to have public sex more than when I'm watching him perform or record.

But Oprah hates hip hop. She denies it, of course. A quote from an MTV article follows: "I am a woman who has worked very hard for my status in the world and as a human being," she [Oprah] added. "I don't want to be marginalized by music or any form of art. ... I feel rap is a form of expression, as is jazz. I'm not opposed to rap. I'm opposed to being marginalized as a woman." I don't understand how that is proving that she doesn't hate hip hop. With that comment, and other ones like it, if you can add two and two you can tell that she is basically saying that rap marginalizes women.

Ice Cube had this to say in an article by Associated Press reported on MSNBC (who got the information from the FHM magazine interview he did). "For 'Barbershop,' she had Cedric the Entertainer and Eve on, but I wasn't invited," says the 36-year-old rapper, referring to his 2002 movie. [Ice Cube was the star of the movie] "Maybe she's got a problem with hip-hop." Cube adds: "She's had damn rapists, child molesters and lying authors on her show. And if I'm not a rags-to-riches story for her, who is?"

Yet and still, she denies it. She's had publicity stunts of interacting with a few famous faces. But the proof is in the pudding, in other words, her show and her comments from the past. She frequently puts down artists and won't even ask most to her show (though she'll have so many white artists that it makes me sick how big of a sellout she is). She groups them in as I've only heard other middle-aged white women do, with accusations that "they" (hip hop artists) only talk about violating women, drugs, and violence. That is so not true. And it pisses me off that a Black woman with so much power and influence can't trouble herself to look past the fame and get to the real hip hop. She is perpetuating the myth of hip hop without even bothering to check out the real stuff, the underground movement. Will Smith (though fine and sexy and a great actor) is not hip hop.

CARDiAC http://www.myspace.com/makeshiftcardiac is hip hop.

Heretic Skeptic http://www.myspace.com/hereticskeptic is hip hop.

Special Awps 130 http://www.myspace.com/137990141 is hip hop.

Non-Specific http://www.myspace.com/nonthegbdiplomat is hip hop.

Scoob http://www.myspace.com/gfscoob is hip hop.

Big Doug http://www.myspace.com/mrmcginnis is hip hop.

But she doesn't give these artists a chance when she tells the world of middle class women what they already think they know: that hip hop is all about bringing women down and it must be avoided at all costs. It disgusts me that she has turned against Black men so hard with such little evidence. There are so few famous hip hop artists compared to the actual population of them. There are shades of hip hop and yes, one of the shades is like she describes. But they aren't ALL like that and her downright prejudice, ignorant comments and actions have lead me to my ban. I will not watch that show. I will not buy that magazine. I hope that all you true lovers of hip hop will do the same. "White" music does not equal "good" music and Oprah would be a better woman if she would remember that.

I'm not saying that I hate "white" music, in fact there are some genres that I love. Rock, alternative, and I have become very good friends. But none touch my soul like hip hop.