Tolu Olorunda, This Is Real Music, March 16, 2009
In a recent study conducted by Virgil Griffiths, a PhD student in California, Hip-Hop music listeners are portrayed as unintelligent and intellectually deficient. The independent study, titled “Music That Makes You Dumb,” found that those who listen to Lil’ Wayne, T.I., Kanye West, Jay-z and Ludacris (the usual suspects) are, essentially, dumb. On the contrary, listening to Beethoven, U2, Bob Dylan, Counting Crows and Sufjan Stevens displays intellectual sophistication. Excuse my coarseness: B******T! We’ve been through this before. We need not pretend otherwise. For how long do we entertain these barrages of insults, before responding back?
From the early days of Hip-Hop’s christening, to this very moment, there have been those—and they are certainly in no short supply—who have tried to diminish its cultural value, and render it unworthy of critical evaluation. Their primary aim is to discredit Rap music as an art-form, by focusing squarely, and disproportionately, on the more negative elements it produces. Those detractors claim that Hip-Hop culture/music cannot be celebrated with the kind of scholarly discipline other music genres enjoy, because of its unorthodoxy and irreverence. Every conscientious musicologist is aware of this trend, as it concerns Black music. For those who think this uncritical obsession with Black art began with Hip-Hop, think again.
As far back as the early 20th century, critics of Jazz music were questioning its validity. An article dating back to August 1921, published in Ladies Home Journal, asked the question: “Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?” It began with the eerie suggestion that “an entirely different type of music might invoke savage instincts.” The writer sought to qualify her argument, with claims that Jazz “disorganizes all regular laws and order; it stimulates to extreme deeds, to a breaking away from all rules and conventions; it is harmful and dangerous, and its influence is wholly bad.” Sound familiar? Deriding it as “an influence for evil,” the article went as far as laying some unfound scientific foundation for its indictment on Jazz: “A number of scientific men who have been working on experiments in musico-therapy with the insane, declare that while regular rhythms and simple tones produce a quieting effect on the brain of even a violent patient, the effect of jazz on the normal brain produces an atrophied condition on the brain cells of conception, until very frequently those under the demoralizing influence of the persistent use of syncopation, combined with inharmonic partial tones, are actually incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, right and wrong.” It is imperative that Hip-Hop listeners are aware of this history, for it helps provide some context to the endless excuses given by those who regard Hip-Hop as musically insolvent.
Hip-Hop, since its inception, has worn a cloak of suspicion, and this makes it even more challenging to accept the sudden interest it has accumulated over the last decade. Those who, three decades earlier, characterized it as another variation of “Jungle music,” are the same suits who, today, sign the checks of many successful Hip-Hop artists. More than the question of legitimacy, however, Hip-Hop has been heavily criticized for its alleged anti-intellectualism stance. It is said to covet ignorance, unlimitedly. It’s most vocal antagonists are skillful in examining the extreme elements in the culture, and using those unfortunate seeds as the general evaluation of the fruits it bears.
What I hope to ask these esteemed scholars is if they ever heard of a Rapper by the name of Canibus. If they haven’t, it might help to familiarize themselves with him. They might be surprised to hear Canibus draw, without so much as breaking a sweat, on the essays of philosophers ranging from David Hume, to Socrates, to Michel Montaigne, to Descartes. They might find it curious to hear him mention the names of renowned physicists, such as Leó Szilárd and Niels Bohr. They might be dumbfounded by his of knowledge of historical landmarks, all the way from the Rose Line, to Mount Hermon, to the Library of Alexandria. Perhaps they might be amazed to hear his incorporation of Elizabethan poetry in his songs. I’m wondering if they might be astounded by his hypothesis that, “if you take a glass of water then add two cubes of ice,” because “you should see the cup’s water level slightly rise,” it begs the question: “if you remove every living animal out of the sea, then wouldn’t the world’s ocean water level decrease?” His theory that “this means the planet wasn’t three-quarters of water,” should invalidate all studies suggesting an intelligence-deficit in Hip-Hop listeners/artists. More important, is the reality that Canibus is but a sea in the vast ocean of Hip-Hop artistry, which, as KRS-One repeatedly contends, “reign supreme” in their philosophical depth and poetic proficiency.
What intentional/unintentional critics like Virgil Griffiths fail to realize, is that their inability to celebrate the educational contributions of Hip-Hop lies in the inherent assumption that Hip-Hop’s uniqueness is a bad thing. They fail to recognize that, as Dr. Janice Hale put it succinctly, “different DOES NOT mean deficient.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay on “The Poet,” dated 1844, makes a similar point, asserting that “the same man, or society of men, may wear one aspect to themselves and their companions, and a different aspect to higher intelligences.” These “higher intelligences” have, unfortunately, convinced themselves, that Hip-Hop’s refusal to adapt to the rigid mechanical standards of organized rhythm is a signifier of its inferiority. This tragic and misleading concept, is what inspires the kind of study Mr. Griffiths conducted.
The easiest thing to do, as Griffiths proudly did, is reduce Hip-Hop to the stereotypical representations and dialogical presentations seen on entertainment TV channels, and heard on radio stations. It’s convenient to summarize Hip-Hop by the loose antics of Lil’ Wayne, Ludacris or Kanye West. It’s effortless to see Hip-Hop through the prism of the one-sided, mono-syllabic, unilateral content entertained on mainstream channels. Alongside being convenient and effortless, however, it’s also a cowardly deed, and, according to a Hip-Hop scholar, an indicator of unfettered ignorance. Wake up Griffiths, the bells are calling!
[Editor’s Note: Virgil Griffiths’s article “Music That Makes You Dumb” can be read here.
Original article
(Posted on March 24, 2009)
Comments
I don’t think it’s a matter of those who listen to Hip Hop and Rap get more stupid for having listened to it, it’s that those who listen to those genres are dumb to begin with.
This writer can cite one rapper who uses some intellectual lyrics, but that is the exception rather than the rule. He’s probably not a big seller.
There are only a handful of intelligent rap artists out there and yet fans of the genre always seem to get outraged when anyone dare attack their sacred culture as if the critics are being unfair. Walk through any music store and browse the rap section. What you’ll find is album after album of misogynistic and juvenile garbage easily discerned from the album covers featuring barely dressed women and diamond encrusted album titles with illiterate thugs holding guns or showing off their bling. The genre portrays itself as a bastion of stupidity; it’s not the critics that do this.
Admittedly there is some rock that fits into this mentality, but the percentage is small compared to the overwhelming amount of talentless and low IQ spawned trash that plagues rap music. And as for the fans of the music, all one needs to do is look at the typical rap fan, shuffling around with his pants below his crotch, mouth agape and his inability to form coherent sentences to see how unintelligent that they are. This applies to all the races that seem to be in love with this music.
Take out the overt sex, racial hatred, and violence and it’s updated shuffling and minstrel sans black face.
QUOTE: “I don’t think it’s a matter of those who listen to Hip Hop and Rap get more stupid for having listened to it, it’s that those who listen to those genres are dumb to begin with.”
I agree completely. Hip Hop doesn’t make people dumb, it caters to those who already are. It takes marginal semi-talented people, and elevates them to celebrity status. This is the case with most entertainment today. Everything is geared towards the least inteligent members of society.
I thank the writer for pointing out all the bad things about Jazz. I now have a legitimate reason for not liking it.
Rapp started out as hate white people music, then as they began making money selling to the white kids they change it to just being hate music. Here is an example of hate music from one of the pioneers of Rapp music, Ice Cube.
http://tinyurl.com/djxgdp
And here is another.http://tinyurl.com/d4zvkw
And we needed a study to tell us this?
By pointing out that the one “intellectual” rapper out there is virtually unknown, isn’t the author of this article basically admitting that the negative “stereotypes” about rap are true?
I always found it interesting how different music affects you in different physiological centres.http://tinyurl.com/6bygnl
On a side note, here’s a toy (bare with me) soon to be released that will also help you get to alpha and beta brainwaves …. http://tinyurl.com/cv557a
My brother is dyslexic and part of his treatment was a Edu-Kinesthetic program called ‘brain gym’ http://tinyurl.com/6j6jge , mentions Mozart specfically for better test results.
Fantasie Impromptu by Chopinhttp://tinyurl.com/cmm9z3
Megadeth - Holy Warshttp://tinyurl.com/cjpdd4
Infected Mushroom - Deeply Disturbed (300 Mix)http://tinyurl.com/cao46u
Glenn Miller-In The Moodhttp://tinyurl.com/chnqw8
Mystikal - Shake Ya Asshttp://tinyurl.com/6alguo or http://tinyurl.com/c2ewce
Can’t help but remind me of ….http://tinyurl.com/cgorv8
Just another side note with rappers, what is it with the prefix Lil’?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil
And for the sake of humanity, we better not be listening to hip hop ‘classic’s in a couple hundred years time.http://tinyurl.com/cmdhsq
That’s a comment froth with ignorance.
And this “Canibus” probably has about 3 listeners right? Other than when he performs at the campus coffee shop for the enlightened college liberals who feel their IQs jump a few digits for their enlightened multicultural experiance.
I am always a bit queasy about being overly critical of what others find valuable in musical artforms…but it is most difficult to resist when “Hip-Hop” is the subject at hand. Hip-Hop isn’t so much a unique music genre at all, but rather a sort of contrived street-theater soundtrack - a sort of ghetto karaoke, if you will. Rarely are any instruments whatsoever even employed, and the “rapping” that accompanies these electronic urban noisescapes, is often delivered by tone-deaf half-wits, who can barely stay in time with the beat. Hip-Hop is essentially simplistic dance or “club” music with urban “peotry” of a sort, rambled over the top.
Three chord rock or country music at it’s most rudimentary takes more talent than that on its worst day!
21th century pop music has fallen prey to a decadant youth, deluded into perceptions of grander, while to lazy to learn an instrument, or even basic music fundamentals. Silence would be more memorable than what is currently being produced by the majority of artist today.
He’s right… I am indeed surprised to learn that “Canibus” quotes essays penned by Socrates. Interestingly, though, Socrates never actually wrote any essays that Philosophers are aware of, and all of our knowledge of his ideas comes from either his students or his detractors. It is also noteworthy that the author of this piece did not refute any claims in the original article, but merely attempted to provide counterexamples.
I agree that rap music is a black art form—like clitoral mutilation.
Years back, a friend dubbed a cassette for me, with songs by Rammstein alternating with selections from The Klezmer Allstars. I became so aggressive, listening to that Jewish/German testosterone music I had to give the tape back. Talk about road rage!
When I’m chauffeuring the grand-babies, I’ve learned to keep Bach playing softly. The kids behave way better than If I’m listening to Reba or Toby. Anyway, based on these experiences, I totally believe that Jazz could have inspired imperfect behavior back in the ’20s. Ladies’ Home Journal may have been on to something.
It is my personal belief that Rap music is preferred by people who are stupid to start with, AND that it enhances their stupidity. Rap is no more than stringing together simple statements and short phrases. It is about choppy little thoughts. It is so different from Country Western, which is mostly witty, and involves complex ideas and long narratives.
It is nonsense to even discuss rap as a form of music. It is not. Free-form poetry, perhaps - although certainly bad poetry. But music? Obviously not. It has no melody. For that matter, it doesn’t even really have rythm, just incessant beating. What musical talent is required for it’s production? Scratching an old LP? Pressing the on/off button on a drum machine?
One can say this much of rap however: The begrilled, bling-encrusted, hat-on-sideways, hanging-pantsed nitwits who shout obscenities into a microphone and style themselves artistes - in short, these sinister clown-thugs of rap - are a hundred times more embarassing than the capering “darkies” in black-face who performed in the minstrel shows of yore.
I do think that Hip Hop is stupid, but I agree with above correspondent that it caters TO the stupid first of all, not MAKES people stupid. However I think that it certainly does not have any positive influence whatsoever on their already stupid listeners - it only encourages them to be even worse. Look at all that pathetic graffiti everywhere and the inability to speak English without several swear-words punctuating every sentence.
Classical music or whatever genre you may fancy to be of ‘higher’ cultural value does not encourage such ridiculous behaviour. I have never seen DEBUSSY sprayed on a wall.
Saying this, a lot of ROCK music also encourages similar stupid behaviour amongst its devotees - there’s lots of them, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses, Iggy Pop (a leader in Idiot-land), various metal and punk bands (actually, just about all of them), all of those stupid complaining ‘grunge’ bands and to top the lot, Aerosmith and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I don’t know about ‘way back when’ in the Jazz era starting this brain-rot, but you can trace it back to the Rock ‘n’ Roll era (even though it was meant to be fun in the 50s and after all, we have to remember it was post WW2, fun was wanted) it certainly did get nastier during the drug-drenched era of the so-called ‘Summer of Love’ where drug use was normal behaviour.
Only Europeans created complex music, because only Europe developed polyphony (in 11th c. Paris).
Jazz also qualifies as complex music (like almost all popular music worldwide, it is based on the Europoean system of tonality and polyphony).
One of the things that really shocks me about whites these days is their utter indifference to their own cultural heritage.
Concerning blacks, it amazes me that they would ignore the heritage of jazz and soul & listen to something as moronic & repetitive as hiphop.
Like great literature, complex music is for people who want to stretch their minds, not just follow the same mental rut until they are comfortable and stupid.
This supposed conclusion confuses correlation with causation.
Hip-Hop or Rap seems little more than chanting or rhyming to a steady beat or with electronically sampled background music. Most Rap lyrics are belligerent, mostly obscene boasting by the rapper. I find it both irritating and obnoxious at the same time. It is the nadir of creativity. I’m not a big Jazz fan but, at least, one must be a talented and well trained musician to be good at it.
Jazz doesn’t strike me as complex music. In fact, once you learn the rules of playing in harmony with the tune, it’s mind-numbingly simple pop music.
Classical strikes me as complex, or experimental electronic music like Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream. Everything else seems to be for teenyboppers and morons, which is why it outsells classical.
My neighbors wife is a public school teacher(white)who actually buys her daughter hip hop CD’s.
I am still trying to decipher Canibus’s little nugget of insight involving the ocean and the ice cubes which the author is heralding as the pinnacle of hip hop deep thought. Although I wasn’t gifted with Canibus’s genius level IQ I don’t see the point.
Is the deepest philosophical revelation of the hip hop universe simply that solid objects will displace liquid? Isn’t this the same truth that all 3 year old children learn when they fill their cereal bowl with milk first, then add their cheerios, causing milk and cereal to spill all over the breakfast table?
Who in their right mind would be “astounded” by this? A little child maybe?
Also this makes it seem like Canibus doesn’t understand that the commonly repeated statement that the world is 3/4 water is only referring to the surface of the earth. The world’s deepest ocean depths are only a few miles deep while the earth has a diameter of roughly 8,000 miles and is in fact mostly iron and silicon and such.
If anything this article convinced me that rappers are probably slightly stupider than I initially assumed, you would think out of the lot of them at least one or two of them might have had the occasional glimmer of intelligence, this is looking doubtful though if this Canibus is the shining genius of the lot of them.
A lot of you gentelmen are severely underestimating rap. Much of it nowadays is highly articulate; almost on a graduate school level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9SArTdvSbY
Write rap lyrics down on a piece of paper, and you immediately realize you’re looking at small, disjointed, truculent tribal chants from a self-absorbed moron.
Rap is just low-minded noise in psuedo-rhyme.
Most of the great progress in Jazz was done by European-Americans anyway. Jazz was the miscegenation of European and African music. There’s not much to the African genes except the syncopated rhythms.
And here I always thought it was genetics to blame… at least as far as a certain minority population goes.
Alright, hip hop isn’t known for its brilliant lyrics or innovative melodies, but guess what — most pop music, black and white, doesn’t have a stellar record in that regard. Until Dylan, most lyrics in pop music were almost painfully simplistic and juvenile, and most still are. And many old folk songs glorified violence and lawbreaking in their own way.
Not that I’m standing up for hip hop — I can’t bear to listen to the stuff — but many of the objections here could be equally applied to any other genre of popular music from 1950-present day.
“Classical strikes me as complex, or experimental electronic music like Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream. Everything else seems to be for teenyboppers and morons, which is why it outsells classical.”
Classical seems frozen in time. Trying to Recreating something as it was hundreds of years ago. I don’t doubt it’s better than most of today’s music but isn’t the height of classical music reconstructing a wooden instrument exactly as it was 400 years ago?
Wake up Griffiths, the bells are calling!
Actually, moron, bells don’t call, they ring. Horns call or cry or sound, bells ring or tinkle, drums roll, tubas blast, violins weep, cymbals crash.
I am not a musician, but I have seen the Rap lyrics published here on American Renaissance. Rap is a cultural incitement to violence, perhaps even the most prominent one, found in the current black culture. Their videos are outright demonstrations of the Thug life, including overt calling for home invasions and a race war on Whites.
Music it is not. As another poster has said, Rap is far more akin to jungle drums.
If anything this article convinced me that rappers are probably slightly stupider than I initially assumed,
I sort of wonder though, how many physicists and other scientists have died as or are multi millionaires? it would seem that most if not all rappers/hip hoppers are.
“Study Says Hip-Hop Dumbs Listeners Down.”
That’s absolutely false, of course.
Hip-hop just taps into the mental level of its listeners, who are just naturally “dumbed-down.”
How To Write a Rap/House/Disco Song
LYRICS:
Simply take one word or phrase from each of the three columns below, in order to make one line. Repeat randomly four times. Repeat process again twice to make chorus. Repeat last line 17 times. Don’t worry if they don’t make sense.
Column 1
Move it
Triple Beat
The City Streets
Program a drum machine in neverending 4/4 time. Add occasional snare.
BODY:
Add monotonous bass in one key. Overlay with punchy sounding synth. Get previously unknown singer to talk the lyrics so as not to test the range of the vocal chords.
PRODUCTION:
Put above ingredients together on master tape. Press discs. Give the label a suitably techno-funk sounding name, like “Mixmastermeatbeaters”. Sell 5 million copies to unsuspecting public. Win MTV Award.
The sad thing is the public will *think* you’ve been creative…
Better still, this process can be automated via a lyric C program, a random synth base and music generator, and the discs mastered directly by computer control.
This relieves the composer of decisions regarding which phrases and notes to use in production. By pressing the key, more than 100 CD’s a week can be generated.
This I have done, below is a sample composition guaranteed to make megabucks:
“Get down” by Mixmastermeatbeaters
Get down the joint is jumpin’ you’ll be humpin’
(chorus) Get down to triple beat shake your meat
Pump the jam to triple beat you’ll be humpin’
(chorus) Get down to triple beat shake your meat
Pump it up get around in the city streets
Note that this is indistinguishable from the human generated version.
“I sort of wonder though, how many physicists and other scientists have died as or are multi millionaires? it would seem that most if not all rappers/hip hoppers are.”
Most but not all hip-hoppers are multi-millionaires? You can’t be that stupid, no one is.
“Note that this is indistinguishable from the human generated version.”
I beg to differ, I like rap in many cases, and if you went on stage in front of 20,000 ghetto blacks in Oakland, The Bronx, or Chicago with those lyrics, there would be an uprisng and the crowd would beat you to a pulp.
Rap might not actually cause listeners to become less intelligent (they’re just stupid to begin with), but it certainly appears to cause them to become deaf, given that they all seem to feel the need to crank the volume on the drivel to the point where it is measurable on the Richter Scale. Do people who listen to classical music, country & western or rock & roll feel the need to do this? Almost never.
I often find myself singing along with rap when stopped in traffic, however, making up my own lyrics. The only printable word, of course is “oogabooga.”
This only proves what we’ve all known for a long time. Facts, statistics, and science are racist.
How could a study possibly be true when it conflicts with one man’s opinion?
Most but not all hip-hoppers are multi-millionaires? You can’t be that stupid, no one is.
You don’t get out much, do you.
I like rap in many cases, and if you went on stage in front of 20,000 ghetto blacks in Oakland, The Bronx, or Chicago with those lyrics, there would be an uprisng and the crowd would beat you to a pulp.
If you are white and did so, the liklihood of this happening anyway is very high.
“Classical seems frozen in time. Trying to Recreating something as it was hundreds of years ago. I don’t doubt it’s better than most of today’s music but isn’t the height of classical music reconstructing a wooden instrument exactly as it was 400 years ago?”
I can’t agree with you. You must not be familiar with such contemporary classical composers as George Crumb, Tan Dun, Karel Huza, etc. Much great classical music was also written in the 20th century by such composers as Puccini, Britten, Martinu, Stravinsky, Janacek, Strauss, Vaughn Williams, Bax, etc. I wouldn’t call reconstructing 400 year old instruments the height of classical music.
Another contender for the ‘water is wet’ category. Anyone with two cents worth of brains and honesty is able to realize that listening to that vulgar noise is degrading to the authorities, women, parents, and the listener’s IQ.
Those who, three decades earlier, characterized it as another variation of “Jungle music,” are the same suits who, today, sign the checks of many successful Hip-Hop artists.
Well yeah, duh, it sells. Purveyors of heroin may be more than willing to get rich off of it, but they still call it “junk.” Not much can be said for the intelligence of those who buy it, either.
As far as this supposed uber-intellectual who names himself after a plant known for its ability to render brain cells useless (in my youth I leaned this from lots and lots of experience): wow. Ice cubes displace water? Really? You don’t say? Boy, it sure is a good thing we’ve got rappers out there to tell us this stuff. If rappers can grasp concepts this deep, all by themselves, then surely they must be the intellectual betters of us all!
As for the author: no refutation of the original study, just a bunch of whining and one very weak counter-example. There are a few rappers out there who have some brain power, but go to any dance club which features hip-hop and you’ll hear a lot more of the “to the windows to the walls ‘til the sweat drip from my b***s” brand packing the dance floor.
I like rap in many cases, and if you went on stage in front of 20,000 ghetto blacks in Oakland, The Bronx, or Chicago with those lyrics, there would be an uprisng and the crowd would beat you to a pulp.
And do you think they wouldn’t do that anyway?
Rap definitely appeals to its listeners’ more base instincts. I don’t think this is a bad thing in and of itself: Slayer does the same thing for me, and I’ve delivered and taken enough damage in mosh pits to prove this. But as many here have already noted, rap’s listener base consists largely of the unintelligent/thug-minded. An example:
In my town, there are lots of bars. On my street, there are three. One of them specializes primarily in country and various forms of folk music, another plays mostly jazz over their speakers, and the third is split- during the afternoon and earlier hours it’s mostly rock, then flips to hip-hop at night. The clientele of all three are mostly white.
The first two have been operating nearly incident free, and completely violence free for years. The third however, is frequently plagued with problems and visits from the police, and exclusively during the late night hours when the rap DJs are spinning.
Further, you can walk through the place and see the brain void. There are no shortages of dummies at any bar or niteclub I’ve ever been to, but they comeout of the woodwork for the hip-hop joints.
“I sort of wonder though, how many physicists and other scientists have died as or are multi millionaires? it would seem that most if not all rappers/hip hoppers are.”
I’m guessing you watch a lot of MTV Cribs, with that attitude. First off, most of those houses/furniture/jewelry/cars are rented. Because of the “bling” culture in hip-hop, most of these “artists” live well beyond their means and end up broke after they burn through all the money from their one hit single. Look at MC Hammer.
Secondly, your assertion that “most if not all” of these performers are millionaires demonstrates an extreme gullibility. Was “Chamillionaire” wealthy before his hit single? Do you believe that the unemployed gangsta-type driving his broken-down 1993 Tercel with brand new $4,000 rims, fake-gold chain and medallion, and fake rolex is rich? You shouldn’t believe everything people tell you, especially when they’re trying to promote themselves.
Finally, for every Jay-Z, Sean Coombs, or Marshall Mathers, there are ten thousand “aspiring” hip-hop artists who end up flipping burgers, mopping floors, or going to jail. People who can play the guitar, the saxophone, or the piano can always find work, but no one will pay to see a 35 year old failure talk about how tough his neighborhood is.
As for few scientists and engineers becoming millionaires, I am an ex-scientist who now works as a welder and car mechanic from home.
The house is paid off.
Tupac Shakur’s current “residence” has also been paid for, but I wouldn’t care to trade places with him.
I’m guessing you watch a lot of MTV Cribs, with that attitude.
I watch little TV with the exception of FOX News, History Channel and the sort and haven’t watched MTV since 1983 but I have lived with and among these types and I know them! As pointed out in the past, familiarity breeds compempt.
When some friends of mine were staying with me in 1998, I was appalled that they allowed their son to own and listen to rap CDs. I put my foot down on that issue, and absolutely refused to allow them to be played inside my home. I might have to listen to that crud when some jerk stopped at a light next to me wants research stations in Antarctica to hear it as well, but inside my own home, I don’t have to tolerate it.
The same will go for my daughter - and any other children we might be blessed with - when they are teenagers. No hip-hop. Ever.
Dearest Tolu Olorunda:
I thought about what you said and I was just making my way to the local record store to purchase Canibus’ latest CD. Sadly, along the way, I tripped over my pants that were hanging way too low and I ended up being hospitalized.
Don’t worry though, I didn’t sell out and embarass the millions of Canibus fans everywhere. I told my fellow patients I was being treated for gunshot wound, so they still gave me NUFF respect.
“I beg to differ, I like rap in many cases, and if you went on stage in front of 20,000 ghetto blacks in Oakland, The Bronx, or Chicago with those lyrics, there would be an uprisng and the crowd would beat you to a pulp.
