Kiana said she saw this over at Ta-Nehesi today but I actually sent her the link to this video last night. That’s my bad for skating on this blog game for the past few days and leaving her to hold down the fort solo. I’d ignore my emails too. But! I’m back so all’s well that ends well. 

 Now, about this video. It originally aired on Your World with Neil Cavuto in 07, but I just came across it yesterday and thought it was a perfect example of the intricately screwed up and hypocritical positions that hip hop folks frequently take. 

 

All kinds of WTF going on. I’ll start with the most obvious. Real Hip Hop being discussed on Fox News is like haute couture being featured in a Baby Phat collection. Does.Not.Compute. It was good for a laugh when Cam and Dame Dash acted an ass on O’Reilly a while back (you maaad, you maaad), but what the hell were KRS One and Kid Capri doing on Fox News trying to have a serious conversation about real hip hop?? Me, Mr. Jones and anyone else with a half a brain decided to leave Fox News to their own race-baiting, ignorant ass devices eons ago, so I’m not sure why KRS and Capri didn’t get the memo. The publicist that booked this should’ve been on Blackberry time-out till Easter at least.

 

And then there is the the random stream of hip hop and R&B videos on split screen throughout the interview. I’m pretty sure even the po-dunkyest of Fox News viewers have a vague idea of what hip hop videos look like, and don’t need to see random black women shaking their ta-tas as KRS speaks. Maybe the videos are a way for all those far-right, closeted sista-lovers watching Fox News to get their rocks off without having to actually “slum it” on BET. You can ponder on that if you want.

 

Then we get to the conversation itself, and I’m disappointed to hear the same old cop-outs and compromises from two men that I used to feel embodied what was good and decent about the music that I still love, but often can’t stomach. KRS discusses content for the intended network with Cavuto:

 

Cavuto: “Will anyone be saying the word ‘ho’?”

KRS: “Maybe”

Cavuto: “Anyone saying, ‘kill the bitches’?”

KRS: “No, we won’t promote words, or images that families will have trouble explaining to their children”

 

So families might have trouble explaining why “bitches” should be killed, but they should have no trouble explaining why a young woman is being described as a “ho,” or a young man a “nigga”?? This is the continuous beef I have with supposed “real” hip hop artists. It’s like Busta talking about A-Rab money in one track and Obama-peace-hope in another. Instead of coming up with cockamamie excuses for the contradictions he promotes to sell records, he could just admit he wants to have it both ways. The hypocrisy is beyond ridiculous.

 

No amount of “fair and balanced” coverage of community outreach can make negative and stereotypical images of black men and women any less powerful. People don’t watch the same channel all day, they flip through hundreds of them and if ignorance and female objectification is part of the snippets of black representation they see, they just might use those snippets to excuse nappy-headed hoe comments in the future.

 

A year later and the “new” network’s website looks like it hasn’t been updated since this interview. I’m not surprised.

Tags: Arab Money, Busta Rhymes, Community Outreach, Fox News, Kid Capri, KRS One, Nah Right, Nas, Neil Cavuto, Real Hip-Hop Network