While living the simultaneous existence of a progressive, liberal, environmentalist, feminist, pinko, hippie, freedom-hater and that of a hip-hop fan I came upon a rather interesting complication lately. Namely, I really like a song right now that seems to celebrate violence against women. Consider me conflicted.
This I realized the same week that I spent a lot of time in one of my classes arguing with people who think that Hip-Hop with violent lyrics is abhorrent and ought not to be tolerated because it inevitably does damage to society. See I’m of the opinion that the more art there is, the more we as a society express, the better off we are. You’re never going to make some art that pleases everyone, so it’s best not to bother, but I don’t trust anybody to censor what I experience in art. I don’t trust the religious right. I don’t trust the anti-everything sort of feminists. I don’t trust anybody. I’ll do the censoring, and if I ever have kids I want to be the one deciding what they can and can’t experience and at what age new doors are opened. That’s my job as a parent and I have more faith in my own ability to put difficult ideas into context than that of the state or any other group. That’s pretty much the policy. No censorship of anything.
But I also don’t like people talking about beating women up. I don’t approve. Do I think less of myself for wanting to dance to the Ying Yang Twins new hit "Wait"? The jury is still out. I did, however find a very interesting conversation about it here.
Well, I’ve gotten myself into another bad relationship. This time it’s with "Wait (The Whisper Song)," the Ying Yang Twins’ fantastic, awful new single. It’s an arresting record, no? I mean, there oughtta be a law. But before we get to the subject of why crunk so often turns sexual contact into a form of brutalization (and makes us like it), let’s talk about the music.
You can see the video on the Twin’s website here.
(Originally posted on Lefterer.com)
Posted: June 12th, 2005 under Politics.
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