Once Upon A Time

...I tried mobile blogging and it was a big fat fail. So, I have painstakingly retyped the post from my cell phone. Bravissimo. Or whatever that means.

"This is my first attempt at mobile blogging, so please excuse me if it comes out weird (does two weeks later count as weird?-Ed.). The predictive text function on my cell helps, but my long nails are slowing me down, LOL. And the fact that I am using a phone makes me inclined to use text speak like LOL, LOL!

So apparently, Rick Ross called Eminem a honky in a freestyle. Writer/media gadfly Toure stated on Twitter that anyone who lets that slide, but got upset by Asher Roth's "nappy headed hoes" gaffe is a hypocrite. For those who didn't hear, Roth "joked" a few weeks ago that he was "hanging with some nappy headed hoes" when he was at Rutgers making an appearance or whatever someone does when they are promoting their yawntastic album.

I personally think very little of all three rappers. Ross and Roth are both living proof of the sorry state of Rap music today: a fake thug who has been publicly outed as a fraud, but is allowed and praised for continuing his web of lies and delisions of gangsta, and a suburban White college boy with an affected "urban" accent who's popish music leaves much to be desired for anyone who grew up on real Hip-Hop...unless you, too are a White boy who lacks a viable voice in Hip-Hop and has been dying to identify with the culture you envy so much.

*Pause- I could totally love and appreciate someone else's culture without ingratiating myself in to it and making it my own. But then again, I respect space.*

Roth received lengthy write ups from magazines, blogs and even the NY Times. This does not happen for most rappers dropping their first studio album. He is the great White hope, though Soundscan will tell you otherwise. Whilst a lot of White boys have been looking for their own Superhero of rap, ultimately, Roth's college lifestyle and suburban roots kill the escapist ghetto Black fantasies for White listeners. Eminem was a more viable White rap star because he still presented a tortured, urban gritty persona. He was the down-ass White boy for the colored folk and still accessible enough for the White boys.

Speaking of Em, he had his own minor controversy when Benzino outed him for using the N-word and talking greasy about Black women in some early mixtape tracks. Not surprising, like with Roth, Hip-Hop fans of all races decided that their adoration of the White emcee trumped standing up for the degradation of Black women and addressing rhe racially charged disrespect. Em and Roth are both classic examples of the tendency of folks to love the culture, but not respect the people.

Was Rick Ross wrong for calling Eminem a honky. Yes. It was a weak attempt at being insulting whilst stating an obvious fact. We know Em is White...and? Ross is not intelligent enough to present an argument about or how not Em's race correlates to his relevance. Whatever he was trying to say with that word, he wasn't saying shit.

HOWEVER-was Ross' slip as offensive as Asher's? Hell no. Ross used a word that has been historically used by an oppressed group to express contempt at the oppressor. It is a passively offensive term and it has never caused White people any great hurt. There is typically more emotion raised in the person saying it than there is in the target. Unlike nigger, which is rooted in centuries of abuse and struggle. Basically, honky is mean, but rather innocuous. No one was ever called a honky while being strung up with a noose or violated by a slave master.

Roth, on the other hand, made light of an extremely heinous incident that violated an innocent group of girls. He mocked a racially charged fiasco directed at the women of the race who he jacks from culturally on a daily basis. Again-loving the culture, disregarding the people. And what's worst, this motherfucker tried to say in his "apology" that he was poking fun at Imus himself. Right.

Both Ross and Eminem targeted Black women with their racial comments, but only the race aspect of their foolishness has been criticized. Basically, it's okay to talk about women in Hip-Hop, especially Black ones. Most rappers are big fat misogynists or at the very least, passively sexist, from your Snoops, to your Commons, to your Waynes and your Phontes. And if you think your average Hip-Hop fan would choose the dignity of Black women over a dope emcee (actually or perceived), then I have a bridge over the East River I'd like to sell you.

It was written,
Sister Toldja