MR

from hitsdailydouble.com http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/rumormill.cgi

HIP-HOP SUMMIT: You think it was easy setting up this meeting with everyone's BlackBerries on the fritz? Reacting to criticism of rap music by Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the wake of defrocked shock jock Don Imus' inflammatory comments last week, the Hip-Hop Action Summit Network's Russell Simmons and Dr. Ben Chavis called for an emergency session of Urban music luminaries at WMG boss Lyor Cohen's Upper West Side digs. Among those on hand were Atlantic's Craig Kallman and Julie Greenwald, EMI Music's Big Jon Platt, Sony Urban's Lisa Ellis, BET's Stephen Hill, WMG's Kevin Liles, Universal Motown's Sylvia Rhone, manager Chris Lighty, SRC's Steve Rifkind, Shady's Paul Rosenberg, MTV's Judy McGrath, UMG's Peter LoFrumento and Chaka Zulu. The group will announce their response within the coming weeks. (4/18p)

and this:

SHARPTON DOESN’T LOVE L.A.: The Rev. Al Sharpton has canceled plans to honor Island Def Jam CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid with the james Brown Memorial Culture Impact Award during the National Action Network’s annual four-day confab, which started today at the Sheraton in N.Y., according to a report in AllHipHop.com. Sharpton’s move comes as rap music continues to bear the backlash for racist comments made by Don Imus which prompted his firing. According to Sharpton, he has withdrawn the award in the wake of criticism over the content of some rap lyrics and intends to target corporations that support what he calls "gutter" rap. IDJ artists who presumably fall under that category include Jay-Z, Ludacris, Young Jeezy and Fabolous, among others. (4/18p)

Will be interesting to see what comes of it all, if anything

Cat

Probably nothing will come of it. Those corporations and rappers will fill up Fat Al's collection plate and tell him to go the fuck away.

I hope it comes to something Cat. These people(rap artists) are doing more harm to the ideal of racial equality than Don Imus could ever do, and at least as much as any redneck racist in the deep south.

Anyone catch Oprah last night? She had Russell Simmons, Dr Ben Chavis, rapper Common and I think it was manager Chris Lighty. She also had her friend Gale via teleconference with 8 female students from Spellman University. Every time the young women said that they disagreed with the message of the hip-hop music today Russel Simmons and Chris Lighty rolled their eyes and waved their hands as if to dismiss them. Their blatant disrespect for those women, who obviously were intelligent enough to be attending such a fine University, was disgusting. A woman from Brooklyn, who said she lived in the hood (her words), made a statement about being a parent to all the children in the neighborhood and teaching them respect and not to use offensive language in front of her child. Russell Simmons again dismissed her too. Oprah tried very hard to get the four men to admit that they were part of the problem by allowing the use of offensive words in rap music. They finally did, but it seemed to be just to make Oprah be quiet.

Oprah summed it up quite well "all about the benjamins" It's up to the consumer to stop buying this music if they find it so offensive.

Oh Sherrie is 100% correct ! NBC and CBS should be ashamed of any connections to the music through their various companies.

squirt1 wrote:Oh Sherrie is 100% correct ! NBC and CBS should be ashamed of any connections to the music through their various companies.

And just why is that?

You do know Journey was a CBS client at one time.

I'm not gonna speak for Oh Sherri but my take is, CBS was Imus' employer. They fired him for "racist"remarks but their record company branch promote rap songs with lyrics far worse than anything Imus said.

chf34jmac wrote:I'm not gonna speak for Oh Sherri but my take is, CBS was Imus' employer. They fired him for "racist"remarks but their record company branch promote rap songs with lyrics far worse than anything Imus said.

NBC and CBS were his employers.

The difference in CBS firing Imus was that he was on PUBLIC airwaves, while their rapper arm of the company is producing CD's that require people to purchase them.

Hopefully something will come of this meeting amongst these rappers. The Spelman woman made these rappers look as terrible as the lyrics they sang about. The rappers had no defense for their protrayal of woman as hos and bitches. apparently when having to deal with women who are bright, articulate and intellligent they are left defenseless. i read somewhere and i agree, rappers like ludacris, snoop dog and others of this genre need to be on a show to say their side of the story or at least be able to man up to their version of women they seem to promote. Let these accomplished women have their say and dispute what has been said, and maybe the dialog can begin.

Marabelle wrote: and maybe the dialog can begin.

Thanks for mentioning this Marabelle.

This is such an important point ...... this is a beginning.

Cat

CatEyes wrote:

Marabelle wrote: and maybe the dialog can begin.

Thanks for mentioning this Marabelle.

This is such an important point ...... this is a beginning.

Cat

I believe a change is going to come. It may not happen overnight, but the climate is already changing. The era of the shock jock and gangsta mentality have run it's course.