*Due to network coverage of what has become the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, much of the nation didn’t get to see Monday’s episode of the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” which attempted to assess the state of hip hop post-Don Imus.
Tuesday’s “Oprah” continued the discussion with Russell Simmons and Dr. Ben Chavis of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, as well as music executive Kevin Lyles and rapper Common – all of whom acknowledged the problem of misogynistic lyrics in rap music, but said the blame must be placed on the dire social and economic circumstances surrounding the offending rappers, not the artists themselves.
Critics of the panel’s “blame society” philosophy were featured on Monday’s “Oprah” and scattered in the audience for Tuesday’s follow-up program; among them columnist Stanley Crouch and former Essence editor Diane Weathers. Both share the viewpoint of Rev. Al Sharpton, who plans to launch an all-out war on the urban purveyors of offensive music during his four-day National Action Network convention this week.
"We're going to warn the music industry they're next," said Sharpton, according to the New York Daily News. "I'm going to tell them my momma wasn't no ho, and my daughters ain't no bitches!"
Meanwhile, Simmons and Chavez are scheduled to host a meeting today to discuss hip hop’s responsibility in the wake of the Imus scandal. Lyles, Jay-Z, Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, Chris Lighty, Steve Stoute, Craig Kallman, Steve Rifkind and other urban-music players are expected to attend the gathering to be at the home of Warner Music CEO Lyor Cohen.
While many of those scheduled to participate in the meeting view Rev. Sharpton’s stance as misguided, other opponents write him off as an opportunist.
"He's crying about rap lyrics. At the same time, he's calling all the major music labels to get them to donate $50,000 apiece for a table at his convention tribute to [Island Def Jam chief] L.A. Reid," a source involved in the planning told New York Daily News columnists Rush & Malloy.
Conservative talk show host Larry Elder has also spoken out about the perceived hypocrisy among such politicians as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, who put rappers on blast for offensive lyrics while gladly accepting their money during big fundraising events. Clinton, for example, was feted March 31 in Miami by rapper/producer Timbaland.
"Timbaland himself has put out stuff that says the 'b's' and 'h's,'" Elder said. "He has produced acts that say b's and h's. And Barack Obama had a fundraiser with David Geffen whose (former) company was involved with Snoop Dogg, who also uses that kind of language. It's completely inconsistent and completely hypocritical."
Simmons’ issue with Democratic presidential nominee Obama has more to do with the senator’s recent comments about rap lyrics, which came soon after MSNBC and CBS fired Imus for using the term “nappy headed hoes” on his radio show to describe members of the Rutgers University basketball team.
At a fundraising dinner for the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus in Columbia, S.C., Friday, Obama said: "We've got to admit to ourselves, that it was not the first time that we heard the word 'ho.' Turn on the radio station. There are a whole lot of songs that use the same language … We've been permitting it in our homes, and in our schools and on iPods."
Obama added: "If it's not good for Don Imus, I don't know why it's good for us. If we don't like other people to degrade us, why are we degrading ourselves?"
Simmons says Obama is flat-out wrong in comparing Imus’ comments to those heard in rap music.
"People who are angry, uneducated and come from tremendous struggle, they have poetic license and they say things that offend you," Simmons told ABC News. "You have to talk about the conditions that create those kinds of lyrics. When you are talking about a privileged man who has a mainstream vehicle and mainstream support and is on a radio station like that you have to deal with them differently."
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