Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Stop Snitching On 60 Minutes


(Start snitching, before it's too damn late.)

I finally managed to hold back the vomit long enough to watch the 60 Minutes Stop Snitching segment that is tearing up the Interwebs.

It was hard to sit down and watch this shit knowing how ignorant it would be.
Regardless, I'm glad that hip-hop is getting put up to the fire now.

To think that all this self-examinaton is coming from Don Imus' firing?
Shit, I wish more old white men would start insulting black people if that's what it takes to get the mirror up.


Part 1,



Part 2,




Meanwhile many of the most popular rappers have been snitches when it helped them out.

From Dallas Penn,

  • FISTY SCENT turns states’ witness against KENNETH ‘Supreme’ McGRIFF
  • LIL’ WAYNE is the biggest snitch in the rap game
  • CAM’RON talks to police about his beating incident at Rucker Park
  • BUSTA RHYMES goes to the police about his violent B.M. (babies’ momma)


  • But here is Dead Prez skirting the issue and playing the favorite role of the modern Negro, hapless victim.




    I always knew Dead Prez was into ridiculous conspiracy theories and anti-establishment, but they just lost all respect after that bullshit interview.

    Despite the title of this blog, it's clear to anyone that the anti-snitching movement is a complex issue stemming from several issues:

    • A deserved apprehension of the police by the black community.
    • The failure of police protection.
    • A misguided sense of anti-authoritarianism based on centuries of systematic oppression.
    • The refusal to acknowledge hypocrisy.
    • Sloppy group-think and the comfort of playing the victim.
    • The denial of (c)rap music's power.

      And most importantly,

    • The slow assimilation of prison culture into hip-hop culture

    The rapping ex-convicts who flooded the rap game in the 90's and the 00's and the studio gangsters who ride the coattails of their image would like you to believe that being a witness to a crime and not wanting crack addicts in your neighborhood is the same as someone who turns on their criminal associates to dodge a bid.

    If they can get all the little jigs to soak up this ignorant code while doing a Chicken Noodle Lean With It, Pop Shake and Snap dance on BET, then they can murder a rival in broad daylight or firebomb a community advocate's house in Baltimore, (Remember when white people used to be the firebombers? Those were the good old days.) and have no one say a word.

    Angela Dawson shouldn't have been snitching right? Then her, her five children and husband would all be alive if she just shut up right?

    Kelefa Sanneh
    , the bitch-ass rap apologist who gets paid to make most disgusting hip-hop palatable for the Upper East Siders who read his reviews, chimed in on the issue:

    • But it wouldn’t be surprising if the big record companies eventually decided that brash — and brilliant — rappers like Cam’ron were more trouble than they were worth. (Cam’ron’s last two albums haven’t sold well.)...

      ...What if hip-hop’s lyrics shifted from tough talk and crude jokes to playful club exhortations — and it didn’t much matter? What if the controversial lyrics quieted down, but the problems didn’t? What if hip-hop didn’t matter that much, after all?

    I could and may write an entire post detailing why I despise his criticism, but i'll just focus on the fact that people like Kelefa and Tom Breihan extol the most despicable elements of hip-hop as "brilliant" but when the heat is on they are quick to deny the power of the institution that pays their bills.

    That is dangerous cowardism.

    Convenient statements by Hu$tle $immon$, fresh off of promoting blood diamonds and telephone psychics, and about banning the words, "bitch, ho and nigga/er" after he earned his millions pimping those very words mean nothing.

    The power of rap needs to be acknowledged and addressed in a way that doesn't involve banning naughty words. I'm too much into that whole free speech thing to go down that line.

    The solution is to get to a point where so many rappers aren't tripping over each other to be as fucking negative and nihilistic as possible. That's what I learned from the Top 25 Rap Album list.

    It's about a balance of the images.

    Mixing the light fluff of "This Is Why I'm Hot" and with "Kill a Nappy-Headed Snitch Ho" ain't quite balance.

    11 comments:

    1. Get 'em! And if you read my review of the new Prodigy record at Stylus and the one at Pitchfork, the only real difference is that ol' boy felt the need to spell out the n word. That's pretty much the guy in a nutshell.

      ReplyDelete
    2. It's funny how all the complainers never come out to support the positive stuff. Did anyone support Mos Def after he got locked up for doing "Katrina Clap"?

      These folks never heard:

      Don't curse the darkness, shine the light.

      ReplyDelete
    3. This is some real shit.

      I still think that these kids' ignorance has less to do with rap's inherent power and more to do with

      1) ineffective parenting/guidance. Somewhere along the line, they did not learn that what's on TV, CDs, and the movies is fantasy. That's the job of parents, but when the parents are fucked up too, well... These people have no respect for abstract rules or authority, no empathy, and no concern for anyone else in their communities.

      2) the "hater" defense that has taken over black discourse like a bad rash, essentially silencing black folks' public criticism of black ignorance and wackness. You point how Tyler Perry is a coon--HATER!; R Kelly has a PhD in molester-in kids (and his music is trash)--HATER; try to get some dealers/murderers off the block--HATER!

      ReplyDelete
    4. Co-sign parental accountability.

      ReplyDelete
    5. I, too, shall have to cosign on the parental tip--especially about the lack of guidance as it concerns people other than oneself.

      There should be fewer "babies mommas" driven to snatching dredlocks out of the heads of their disrespectful exes and more black men taking care of their women and children. I bet we would see the turnaround, then.

      ReplyDelete
    6. Another issue that should be raised here is the rampant materialism the infests the black community. Cam'ron is looked up to by these jigs cause he's rich. That all that matters now, why I should listen to somebody like Geoffey Canada who is part of the community everyday and probably lives a modest lifestyle when Cam'ron has his 2 Lamborghinis and jewels. A whole generation of black kids have grown up with the idea that its all about getting as much money as possible, morals, ethics, education, love don't mean anything to them, get paid. We worship money and all of the meaningless shit it can get you.

      ReplyDelete
    7. Another thing think of audacity of Cam'ron. Sumpreme was supposedly involved in the murder of 50's mother and shot him 9 times. I'm supposed to believe that if someone murdered his mom he isn't going to tell the cops about. Whatever.

      ReplyDelete
    8. M-1 went out.

      To defend non-snitching by law abiding citizens is a joke.

      The only way you keep quiet is that if you know the cops are in on it. The Shield isnt all fiction.

      ReplyDelete
    9. Yeah, "Hater Players" pretty much spelled out the reverse psychology of this shit correctly, and now both of them are too wack to spit something worth listening to when we need it the most. Dammit.

      ReplyDelete
    10. Co-sign to all of y'all.

      eauhellz - On the parental responsibility

      go14 - On M1's coonery.

      The lack of acceptable black criticism and all that.

      ReplyDelete