When I first heard that Bill Gates was teaming with Viacom for an initiative to boost graduation rates, I thought, "Good for Bill." But there was just one problem.
Viacom.
For those who aren't hip to Sumner Redstone's Empire, Viacom is the media conglomerate that owns just about every video channel on cable, that includes VHI, MTV and yes, Black Entertainment Television.
http://www.viacom.com/OURBRANDS/Pages/default.aspx
This is the corporation responsible for bringing America such intellectually stimulating shows like "Flavor of Love," "I Love New York," "For the Love of Ray J" and "Rock of Love."
(I would list all of BET's contributions but blogs have limited space.) Let's just say that a couple of years ago some exec at BET thought that playing a carton rap video called "read a book..read a m****f**** book was going to be the catalyst that would increase enrollment at historically black college's 100%.
How can someone promote education but at the same time be the chief culprit dumbing our children down?
Let's look at it.
Who taught Lil Tyrone how to wear his pants saggin' down to his ankles?
Viacom!
Who taught Lil Tanesha how to do the stripper dance.
Viacom!
Viacom doing a a show to promote staying in school is like the tobacco industry doing a stop smoking campaign. It's like a drug dealer doing a "Just Say No" commercial. It's like a condom company doing a ....
Well, you get the picture.
I guess BET will come out with a new ghetto version of "School House Rock "with the "Conjunction Junction Dude" getting high with the "I'm Just a Bill" kid, while the "Skate a Figure 8" chick gives them a lap dance.
Paul Scott writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com
Showing posts with label MTV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MTV. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Reppin' for "Rap" arations
Reppin' for "Rap"arations:
Survivin' tha Hip Hop Holocaust
Paul Scott
"But then again I got a story that's harder than the hardcore cost of the holocaust. I'm talking about the one still goin' on. "
Can't Trust it-Public Enemy
I turned on the TV one evening just in time to catch the middle of a rant by an irate reporter fussin' about how something or another was the worst atrocity to happen to mankind. I thought that baby girl was about to have a total mental meltdown as she passionately argued about people in tha hood dying because of years of being abused and how that it was time for decent Americans to stand up and demand amends...I was just beginning to think that white America finally got it and they were about to apologize for the horrors of the 400 year treatment of African people in this country. But naw, she wasn't talking about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, she was just sharing her gripes about Hip Hop...
Every since the media found out that Hip Hop CD sales were down a few years back and their cash cow was finally running out of milk, there have been numerous shows about the "evil empire" of Hip Hop and how it is destroying the moral fabric of this country (as if a country built on slavery and cotton picking had any moral fabric to start with) . Talking heads from Paula Zahn to Anderson Cooper transformed themselves into hip Hip Hop historians, like they were really walking around in 1982 with boom boxes and Kangols.
The Don Imus comments of 2007 only added fuel to the fire of anti-hiphopism, as the culture was now the reason for racism. But if Hip Hop is really the scourge of society that white America claims that it is, then shouldn't somebody, somewhere be breaking a brotha off a lil somethin'?
It is time that we hit the entertainment industry up for some "Rap"arations.
While some folks who have dedicated their lives to securing compensation for the descendants of our enslaved ancestors may consider this statement almost sacrilegious, there is a strong connection between the two struggles. Just as our ancestors were stolen from Africa and exploited by slave traders, Hip Hop was stolen from Africans in America and exploited by CEO's of major corporations. Our failure to teach our young people about this correlation has been one of the major drawbacks in our addressing the Hip Hop dilemma. Our children have no knowledge of the complexity of the Black liberation struggle, so when we use words like "mentacide", "colonialization" and Maafa, we might as well be talking Greek instead of Swahili.
Our people, in general, also lack a thorough knowledge of history so it is impossible for many to conceptualize the scope and severity of the Maafa and that impedes their ability to connect the dots between the past and the present. However, with a knowledge of our history one would be hard pressed to ignore the relationship between the atrocities of 1619 and the condition in which we find ourselves in 2009.
Either the Hip Hop Holocaust is part of the legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Maafa) or just another phase of a holocaust that never really ended. Even the most hard core Hip Hop head cannot deny the fact that the corporate exploitation of Hip Hop has had a devastating on African people world wide. From the gun shots flying through hoods across the country courtesy of impressionable young Brotha's who think that killing a Black man is a rites of passage in St. Louis to the five year old Sista in South Philly who thinks that all she will ever be is someone's bitch to Brotha's and Sista's in Sierra Leone who think that "nigger" is a universal term of endearment based on the bootleg CD's that took the round (middle passage) trip back across the Atlantic, our people are suffering while white men in business suits get rich.
We demand "Rap"arations!
While the major focus of the demand for "Rap"arations will be, of course, focused on the entertainment industry, in reality, there are many people "eatin" off not only the exploitation of Hip Hop but also the death and destruction in the Black community. From the malt liquor companies who used rappers to push their "genocide in a bottle" (40 oz Malt Liquor) in the 90's to the blood diamond merchants on the African continent making millions from tha bling, they all owe us "Rap"arations.
Even the clothing companies who have made young Black children think that in order to be hip, they have to wear $200 sneakers that cost $12.50 to make are liable. How many young Brotha's and Sista's are in the grave right now because they refused to give up the $400 jacket to a stick up kid who just had to have it?
Time to pay the piper!
The argument that many white folks keep parroting for not paying reparations is that "no one alive now has suffered from slavery." This is not true in the case for "Rap"arations, as there are victims of the Hip Hop Holocaust in 'hoods across the planet, from the mother of three trying to make it on her own while her man does a 20 year bid to the father who saw his son take his last breath courtesy of a drive by from a Brotha who was acting out a rap video. We have all been touched.
Give it up or turn it loose!
The black community should demand "Rap" arations from the Fortune 500 companies that have made their fortunes from the suffering of African people. The victims of the Hip Hop Holocaust should contact the mega corporations like Viacom, Universal, EMI, Time Warner etc to demand that they issue former apologies (admissions of guilt) for the role that they have played in the destruction of the black family. These corporations should give substantial reparations to health, education and other social programs to help remedy the damage that they have created.
This is 2009 and we ain't talkin' about 40 acres and mules, we're talking youth programs and schools.
Paul Scott writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com. http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Survivin' tha Hip Hop Holocaust
Paul Scott
"But then again I got a story that's harder than the hardcore cost of the holocaust. I'm talking about the one still goin' on. "
Can't Trust it-Public Enemy
I turned on the TV one evening just in time to catch the middle of a rant by an irate reporter fussin' about how something or another was the worst atrocity to happen to mankind. I thought that baby girl was about to have a total mental meltdown as she passionately argued about people in tha hood dying because of years of being abused and how that it was time for decent Americans to stand up and demand amends...I was just beginning to think that white America finally got it and they were about to apologize for the horrors of the 400 year treatment of African people in this country. But naw, she wasn't talking about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, she was just sharing her gripes about Hip Hop...
Every since the media found out that Hip Hop CD sales were down a few years back and their cash cow was finally running out of milk, there have been numerous shows about the "evil empire" of Hip Hop and how it is destroying the moral fabric of this country (as if a country built on slavery and cotton picking had any moral fabric to start with) . Talking heads from Paula Zahn to Anderson Cooper transformed themselves into hip Hip Hop historians, like they were really walking around in 1982 with boom boxes and Kangols.
The Don Imus comments of 2007 only added fuel to the fire of anti-hiphopism, as the culture was now the reason for racism. But if Hip Hop is really the scourge of society that white America claims that it is, then shouldn't somebody, somewhere be breaking a brotha off a lil somethin'?
It is time that we hit the entertainment industry up for some "Rap"arations.
While some folks who have dedicated their lives to securing compensation for the descendants of our enslaved ancestors may consider this statement almost sacrilegious, there is a strong connection between the two struggles. Just as our ancestors were stolen from Africa and exploited by slave traders, Hip Hop was stolen from Africans in America and exploited by CEO's of major corporations. Our failure to teach our young people about this correlation has been one of the major drawbacks in our addressing the Hip Hop dilemma. Our children have no knowledge of the complexity of the Black liberation struggle, so when we use words like "mentacide", "colonialization" and Maafa, we might as well be talking Greek instead of Swahili.
Our people, in general, also lack a thorough knowledge of history so it is impossible for many to conceptualize the scope and severity of the Maafa and that impedes their ability to connect the dots between the past and the present. However, with a knowledge of our history one would be hard pressed to ignore the relationship between the atrocities of 1619 and the condition in which we find ourselves in 2009.
Either the Hip Hop Holocaust is part of the legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Maafa) or just another phase of a holocaust that never really ended. Even the most hard core Hip Hop head cannot deny the fact that the corporate exploitation of Hip Hop has had a devastating on African people world wide. From the gun shots flying through hoods across the country courtesy of impressionable young Brotha's who think that killing a Black man is a rites of passage in St. Louis to the five year old Sista in South Philly who thinks that all she will ever be is someone's bitch to Brotha's and Sista's in Sierra Leone who think that "nigger" is a universal term of endearment based on the bootleg CD's that took the round (middle passage) trip back across the Atlantic, our people are suffering while white men in business suits get rich.
We demand "Rap"arations!
While the major focus of the demand for "Rap"arations will be, of course, focused on the entertainment industry, in reality, there are many people "eatin" off not only the exploitation of Hip Hop but also the death and destruction in the Black community. From the malt liquor companies who used rappers to push their "genocide in a bottle" (40 oz Malt Liquor) in the 90's to the blood diamond merchants on the African continent making millions from tha bling, they all owe us "Rap"arations.
Even the clothing companies who have made young Black children think that in order to be hip, they have to wear $200 sneakers that cost $12.50 to make are liable. How many young Brotha's and Sista's are in the grave right now because they refused to give up the $400 jacket to a stick up kid who just had to have it?
Time to pay the piper!
The argument that many white folks keep parroting for not paying reparations is that "no one alive now has suffered from slavery." This is not true in the case for "Rap"arations, as there are victims of the Hip Hop Holocaust in 'hoods across the planet, from the mother of three trying to make it on her own while her man does a 20 year bid to the father who saw his son take his last breath courtesy of a drive by from a Brotha who was acting out a rap video. We have all been touched.
Give it up or turn it loose!
The black community should demand "Rap" arations from the Fortune 500 companies that have made their fortunes from the suffering of African people. The victims of the Hip Hop Holocaust should contact the mega corporations like Viacom, Universal, EMI, Time Warner etc to demand that they issue former apologies (admissions of guilt) for the role that they have played in the destruction of the black family. These corporations should give substantial reparations to health, education and other social programs to help remedy the damage that they have created.
This is 2009 and we ain't talkin' about 40 acres and mules, we're talking youth programs and schools.
Paul Scott writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com. http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
NWSF Bullet: News Flash... Cable TV in Danger !
So, I'm flippin' through the channels and this alert comes across the screen. At first I started to grab my coat and run to Home Depot to buy a new shovel because I thought it was a weather alert warning me of a coming blizzard.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2008/12/viacom-threaten.html
But naw, it was just the networks warning me that as of midnight 18 channels could be missin' from my cable box when I wake up in the morning if I don't rush to the phone, immediately and call Time Warner Cable and tell them....
Well, the alert really didn't tell me what to tell them but anyway, if I don't do something soon, something wicked this way comes!
The alert listed a whole bunch of Viacom stations that will disappear like Cinderella's coach at the stroke of twelve if I don't take drastic action.
Spike, MTV, Comedy Central...the list goes on...
Now, I thought to myself what does this mean in terms of quality African American programming ?
Let's see...There are really no more quality Hip Hop videos on MTV and I haven't seen The Boondocks on Comedy Central in a while...
So the answer to the question of "what this means to black folks, like me..."
Absolutely, nuthin' !
Maybe, if they removed some of these channels it would give more of our children time to engage in the lost past time of reading a book. Or at least maybe it will make room for a TV network with some quality black programming...
So, on behalf of the Black community I release the following statement to the cable networks...
"Crash and Burn!"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2008/12/viacom-threaten.html
But naw, it was just the networks warning me that as of midnight 18 channels could be missin' from my cable box when I wake up in the morning if I don't rush to the phone, immediately and call Time Warner Cable and tell them....
Well, the alert really didn't tell me what to tell them but anyway, if I don't do something soon, something wicked this way comes!
The alert listed a whole bunch of Viacom stations that will disappear like Cinderella's coach at the stroke of twelve if I don't take drastic action.
Spike, MTV, Comedy Central...the list goes on...
Now, I thought to myself what does this mean in terms of quality African American programming ?
Let's see...There are really no more quality Hip Hop videos on MTV and I haven't seen The Boondocks on Comedy Central in a while...
So the answer to the question of "what this means to black folks, like me..."
Absolutely, nuthin' !
Maybe, if they removed some of these channels it would give more of our children time to engage in the lost past time of reading a book. Or at least maybe it will make room for a TV network with some quality black programming...
So, on behalf of the Black community I release the following statement to the cable networks...
"Crash and Burn!"
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Scared Spit-less
Scared "Spit" less:
Why Hip Hop Fears the Powers that Be
Min. Paul Scott
The date is September 11, 2007. The conference room of
the Hyatt Hotel is packed as 50 Cent and Kanye West
engage in a debate over who’s CD will out sell the
other. Although, Kanye West has been known to kick a
serious rhyme or two, it’s not about that this go
round. It’s about who is going to get it poppin’ at
the club next weekend and which CD is going to shake
up the world. Half the crowd is screaming G-Unit,
while the other half is throwin’ up the Rock-a-fella
diamond. But in the end who wins the competition for
Hip Hop world supremacy? The Conservative Think Tank
meeting across the street devising ways to silence
black voices....
For the last few months, there has been a buildup
surrounding the same day release of the Kanye West and
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson CD’s to rivale that of the
Ali/Frazier fight. I am expecting any moment to see
Don King on TV talking about how "magnanimous" the
event will be.
The obvious question is that with Hip Hop being under
the gun since the Don Imus "nappy headed ho" thing
last April, why isn’t Hip Hop more interested in
devising a counter attack?
Am I missing something?
In Atlanta, right now, the powers that be are pushing
for laws banning saggin’ pants at the same time the
talking heads are trying to blame Michael Vick’s dog
fighting rap on DMX.
So why do Hip Hop artists choose to major in the minor
instead of tackling the hard questions ?
The answer is simple. It’s called fear.
Men ain’t supposed to be scared of nuthin’.So in the
larger than life, testosterone driven world of Hip
Hop, of course, this is over exaggerated,
This is not to say that black men don’t have the right
to be a little edgy. Just look back at our history.
It was not unusual for rebellious black men in the
19th and early 20th centuries to be hanged in front of
their wives and children. Not to mention the
COINTELPRO Program of the 60's in which those who
dared to speak out had their lives snatched.
It must be noted that those assassinations were not
for the victims but to plant a seed of fear in
generations to come so that if they even thought about
rebelling against authority, visions of black
mutilated bodies would flash before their eyes.
This is the historical source of our fears. No one
really wants to be a martyr, especially amongst a
people who don’t have such a good track record in
honoring their heros.
Or maybe the rappers are scared of "revolutionary
career suicide" to borrow from a phrase coined by Huey
P Newton.
America has shown very little tolerance for those who
have been blessed with the treasures of capitalism who
use their fame and influence to challenge the very
system under which they gained their wealth.
Do the rappers of today really want to suffer the same
fate as Paul Robeson who was blackballed for being a
"Commie", Billie Holiday who was banned for singing
about that "strange fruit" hanging from southern trees
or Craig Hodges of the Chicago Bulls who was
blacklisted for rockin’ a dashiki to the White House ?
Hip Hop has not been spared the wrath of the
establishment as rappers such as Professor Griff,
Sister Souljah, Ice T, Ice Cube experienced "Hip Hop
high tech lynchings" during the late 80's/early 90's.
Who wants to risk losing a fleet of sports cars and
houses in the Hamptons when it is much easier to bury
your head in a bag of weed and pretend that all is
right with the world?
Recently, it was revealed that the government has a
program called "Talon" that was keeping an eye on anti
-war activists including members of that peaceful,
turn the other cheek religious group, the Quakers.
Now if the Feds kept a file on that dude on the
oatmeal box, what kind of file do you think that they
have on the brotha on the cover of a CD burnin’ a
flag, raising his middle finger and yellin’ F**** the
Police?
Also, while Hip Hop headz were quick to wear T-Shirts
that said "Free Pimp C" and "Free Lil Kim", how many
are going to sport t-shirts that say "Free the Jena
6"?
Despite all the tough talk that rappers spit at each
other, when it comes to speaking truth to the powerful
decision shapers most have a fear of Bill O’Reilly
grabbin’ them by their collars in a back room and
saying:
"Listen, we can handle this like gentlemen or we can
get into some real street stuff...’
But that ain’t everybody. Some of us are not afraid to
speak truth to power in 2007. Durham NC rapper Big
Swagg, hook master Mr. Cox and yours truly, the TRUTH
Minista have teamed up for "Drums of War" a Hip Hop
diss track aimed at those who are dissin’ Hip Hop.
(You can download it at
http://www.hiphopstrikesback.com )
Let this be the "Fight the Power " of 2007! The new
anthem that is going to make Hip Hop stand up! The
song that is going to shake the very foundation of....
OK, I’ll be happy to just give Bill O’Reilly
nightmares about a group of "gangsta rappers" tying
him up and making him watch 48, uninterrupted hours of
BET.
TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s blog is
http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com He can be reached
at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
Why Hip Hop Fears the Powers that Be
Min. Paul Scott
The date is September 11, 2007. The conference room of
the Hyatt Hotel is packed as 50 Cent and Kanye West
engage in a debate over who’s CD will out sell the
other. Although, Kanye West has been known to kick a
serious rhyme or two, it’s not about that this go
round. It’s about who is going to get it poppin’ at
the club next weekend and which CD is going to shake
up the world. Half the crowd is screaming G-Unit,
while the other half is throwin’ up the Rock-a-fella
diamond. But in the end who wins the competition for
Hip Hop world supremacy? The Conservative Think Tank
meeting across the street devising ways to silence
black voices....
For the last few months, there has been a buildup
surrounding the same day release of the Kanye West and
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson CD’s to rivale that of the
Ali/Frazier fight. I am expecting any moment to see
Don King on TV talking about how "magnanimous" the
event will be.
The obvious question is that with Hip Hop being under
the gun since the Don Imus "nappy headed ho" thing
last April, why isn’t Hip Hop more interested in
devising a counter attack?
Am I missing something?
In Atlanta, right now, the powers that be are pushing
for laws banning saggin’ pants at the same time the
talking heads are trying to blame Michael Vick’s dog
fighting rap on DMX.
So why do Hip Hop artists choose to major in the minor
instead of tackling the hard questions ?
The answer is simple. It’s called fear.
Men ain’t supposed to be scared of nuthin’.So in the
larger than life, testosterone driven world of Hip
Hop, of course, this is over exaggerated,
This is not to say that black men don’t have the right
to be a little edgy. Just look back at our history.
It was not unusual for rebellious black men in the
19th and early 20th centuries to be hanged in front of
their wives and children. Not to mention the
COINTELPRO Program of the 60's in which those who
dared to speak out had their lives snatched.
It must be noted that those assassinations were not
for the victims but to plant a seed of fear in
generations to come so that if they even thought about
rebelling against authority, visions of black
mutilated bodies would flash before their eyes.
This is the historical source of our fears. No one
really wants to be a martyr, especially amongst a
people who don’t have such a good track record in
honoring their heros.
Or maybe the rappers are scared of "revolutionary
career suicide" to borrow from a phrase coined by Huey
P Newton.
America has shown very little tolerance for those who
have been blessed with the treasures of capitalism who
use their fame and influence to challenge the very
system under which they gained their wealth.
Do the rappers of today really want to suffer the same
fate as Paul Robeson who was blackballed for being a
"Commie", Billie Holiday who was banned for singing
about that "strange fruit" hanging from southern trees
or Craig Hodges of the Chicago Bulls who was
blacklisted for rockin’ a dashiki to the White House ?
Hip Hop has not been spared the wrath of the
establishment as rappers such as Professor Griff,
Sister Souljah, Ice T, Ice Cube experienced "Hip Hop
high tech lynchings" during the late 80's/early 90's.
Who wants to risk losing a fleet of sports cars and
houses in the Hamptons when it is much easier to bury
your head in a bag of weed and pretend that all is
right with the world?
Recently, it was revealed that the government has a
program called "Talon" that was keeping an eye on anti
-war activists including members of that peaceful,
turn the other cheek religious group, the Quakers.
Now if the Feds kept a file on that dude on the
oatmeal box, what kind of file do you think that they
have on the brotha on the cover of a CD burnin’ a
flag, raising his middle finger and yellin’ F**** the
Police?
Also, while Hip Hop headz were quick to wear T-Shirts
that said "Free Pimp C" and "Free Lil Kim", how many
are going to sport t-shirts that say "Free the Jena
6"?
Despite all the tough talk that rappers spit at each
other, when it comes to speaking truth to the powerful
decision shapers most have a fear of Bill O’Reilly
grabbin’ them by their collars in a back room and
saying:
"Listen, we can handle this like gentlemen or we can
get into some real street stuff...’
But that ain’t everybody. Some of us are not afraid to
speak truth to power in 2007. Durham NC rapper Big
Swagg, hook master Mr. Cox and yours truly, the TRUTH
Minista have teamed up for "Drums of War" a Hip Hop
diss track aimed at those who are dissin’ Hip Hop.
(You can download it at
http://www.hiphopstrikesback.com )
Let this be the "Fight the Power " of 2007! The new
anthem that is going to make Hip Hop stand up! The
song that is going to shake the very foundation of....
OK, I’ll be happy to just give Bill O’Reilly
nightmares about a group of "gangsta rappers" tying
him up and making him watch 48, uninterrupted hours of
BET.
TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s blog is
http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com He can be reached
at (919) 451-8283 info@nowarningshotsfired.com
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