"Yep, it's all about me."
Posted on 03/18/2005 10:46:37 AM PST by Cat loving Texan
Spike Lee derides gangsta rap lyrics in T.O. speech Canadian Press
TORONTO — Many black students today are failing in school on purpose because peer pressure via media images has convinced them that smart equals white and that it's cool to become pimps or "video ho's" says pre-eminent African-American filmmaker Spike Lee.
And Lee told an audience comprised largely of Ontario university students that people can vote with their pocketbooks to convince artists, record companies and media conglomerates like Viacom that the images in today's music videos or lyrics in gangsta rap are unacceptable.
"As African-Americans we let artists slide," Lee said in the Monday night speech. "(But) those days are over. I think that we have to start to hold people accountable."
Lee was invited to speak in Toronto by the Ryerson University student administrative council to help mark the International Day For the Elimination of Racial Descrimination on March 21.
While known for his outspokenness, especially on issues of race, Lee seemed to aim his heavy guns at fellow black artists. He said that while he wasn't calling for a boycott, the father now of a 10-year-old girl said he could no longer listen to the music of R. Kelly because he saw the bootleg video of the rapper with some underage females.
"These artists talk about 'ho this, bitch this, skank this' and all the other stuff. They're talking about all our mothers, all our sisters. They're talking about their own mothers, grandmothers."
"You have to have knowledge of self and knowledge of history. Because if you had that you would not use that terminology. You would not even be in that mindset. And we're in a time when young black boys and girls want to be pimps and strippers, because that is what they see. . . . Something is definitely wrong."
Lee says his grandmother, still alive at 99, saved all her social security cheques to put him through film school and he now feels blessed to be doing what he loves to do.
Sitting on a stool on the bare stage of Roy Thompson Hall, Lee held his audience rapt as he lit into what he called "gangsta rap craziness" that puts pimps on pedestals. He said parents today who let their children watch TV unsupervised, especially music videos, are guilty of a criminal act.
"That stuff is not who we really are. We're more regal than that. We have more dignity than that, despite what is sold."
Lee also stressed that while some black actors like Denzel Washington can now command $20 million a picture, they are still not in the positions of power in Hollywood that the so-called gatekeepers are, the people who decide what pictures get financed.
"I do believe that when we get in those positions, films like Soul Plane will not be made," he said to laughter and applause.
Soul Plane was a comedy about a black airline that served fried chicken and had Snoop Dogg as a pot-smoking pilot.
Lee said that when he was a kid growing up, he wasn't allowed to see Tarzan movies because of their insulting portrayal of Africans, and there was no Aunt Jemima syrup or Uncle Ben's rice products in their kitchen because of their demeaning stereotypes.
Lee was given a standing ovation at both the beginning and end of his monologue. At one point, the audience was thrilled when fellow filmmaker John Singleton, a Lee protege, joined him onstage.
Born Shelton Lee in pre-civil rights Atlanta, Ga. in 1957, the director moved at a very young age to Brooklyn, N.Y. His father was a jazz musician and his mother an art teacher who nicknamed him Spike because of his tough nature.
His first film was issue-oriented - a 10-minute 1980 reworking of the classic but notoriously racist Birth of a Nation. Lee's major breakthrough came with 1986's sex comedy She's Gotta Have It. His landmark film was the race relations-themed Do the Right Thing in 1989.
Other notable titles include Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever and the biographical Malcolm X. He has become a notoriously outspoken show business personality, especially on issues of race in American society. But in 2003 he even indulged in legal action to try and stop the specialty channel Spike TV from infringing on his name. The issue was settled last year with the channel's owners, Viacom.
This is excellent news.
Wow, I'm in agreement with Spike Lee here. Maybe I'll go out and rent one of his movies now.
The MSM again fawns over America's finest...
OMG Spike Lee sees the light, wonder if Cos got to him?
Thi is like the devil telling you sin is bad. Who does this clown think he is fooling ?
Waiting for Spike Lee and other hypocrites to denounce the suicidal/demonic lyrics in country-western and rock music.
What's that about a broken clock?
Only bothers him when it might affect his own, if it affects someones elses kids he's not too condemning of it.
Spike Lee & Bill Cosby have finally smelled the coffee!
And it's a black issue with cream!
Take the first step, Spike -- stop calling them "artists."
Unfortunately the HIP HOP CULTURE is predominate in the USA today both Black and White communities including too damn many movies etc
Yeah, Spike Lee was AWOL when Axl Rose said the "N" word and Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" video featured a girl wearing a KKK-like wardrobe.
Will Spike Lee be dissed like Dr. Cosby was for speaking the truth about black education?
That was a good song but creepy video.
Wrong, Spike. If black "gatekeepers" thought that a film like "Soul Plane" would make money, you can bet they'd get it financed. If you think black execs are more likely to take the moral high ground than non-black execs, you're sadly mistaken.
It's about the benjaminds in hollywood. Besides Tom Arnold was funny in that movie *lol*
Spike Lee & other critics of "gangsta rap" HAVE NOT listened to the music, are basing their opinions off of media images and stereotypes, and are simply jealous because younger blacks are making a hell of a lot more money than they ever dreamed of or did.
I have listened to rock/metal and some country, and let me tell you, some of the lyrics would make rap seem like the theme song from Sesame Street.
"Yep, it's all about me."
Yeah, his politics s-ck, but if I had to agree with the politics of all my favorite filmakers, I'd have to limit myself to Peckinpah and (the later) Sam Fuller, which would make for some considerable monotony in my film watching.
Getting back to the point, Spike says something that needs to be said more often. I see too many kiddies throughout every ghetto and lower middle class enclave in this country imitating these "gangstas" and going nowhere in life. Its a shame.
Spike Lee? Didn't he used to make movies, like .... DO THE RIGHT THING?
Maybe there is hope for him yet.
Watching the black members of Congress yesterday brow beat the panel of baseball playing heroes for being "bad role models" because of steroid use, I had to laugh out loud at their hypocrisy.
With the parents of steroid-using teens testifying about the influence of baseball players on their children, I wondered where were the parents of all the dead, innocent kids who were affected by the Rap culture currently polluting the country.
Waiting for Spike Lee and the "black community" to denounce Ice Cube's 1994 song that denigrates white women.
Ease back white b-tch/I don't play that
Just because I got on my L.A. hat/
Walking/Stalking in my big black boots/
Is my jingo/Now you want mandigo/
Big black and handsome/I should hold your devil ass for ransom/
Sort of like Patty Hearst/But I burst first, b-tch/
I'm coming from the land where the choppers roam/So f--k you and your copper's home/Skinny hair, no dairy-aire/fronting and faking with your silicone pair/
Absolutely no comparison. NWA actually received a letter from the FBI about their "F--k tha police" song.
It's too bad he waited until he had his own 10 year old daughter to start speaking out on this stuff.
I think this is great news, but I confess to mixed feelings. It looks like black liberals are slowly waking up and I'll bet they'll jump on the conservative bandwagon and call it their own. Meanwhile black conservatives like Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Larry Elder, Walter Williams, J.C. Watts etc... have been called Uncle Toms for decades for saying the exact same thing and they will never get their due, except maybe in a history book a hundred years from now.
Look,Spike,The Coz and all the black"do gooders"have virtually NO clout with the little"boys in the hood".I'm out in the middle of it almost every day.Du Bois talked about this missionary"talented tenth"of black intellectuals that were needed to"lift up"the race.Sharpton,Cosby,Lee,etc are just modern. day missionaries looking down askance at the masses.
Thats not to say that most kids from the black community are bad or dangerous.Quite the contrary.Most are pretty decent kids and very talented when they apply themselves.But the raw"Soul Plane",sagging pants,blunt smoking style is here to stay in the music and language.
Not that I'm FOR that.Quite the contrary again.But I deal in reality,not wishful thinking 100 miles away from the action.
* Murdering his spouse
* Trying to kill his father
* Eluding law enforcement
* Killing someone "just to watch them die"
* Attempting to kill his employer
* Robbing his employer
And so on.
Yes, it's about time someone went after Johnny Cash.
Cube has since cleaned up and settled down now with a family and a decent film career.
Johnny Cash = Gangsta Country. We need more singers like him and Merle Haggard instead of homos like Toby Keith.
Spike-TV Rocks!
Besides, I know many women such as the one referred to in Ice's rant...
Yes - and not much different then literally decades of other country, folk, blues & rock/roll artists.
Strange how no one gets in an uproar about them.
I understand what you're saying, I just made my comment about Lee seeing the light because up until now he's done nothing, nothing, nothing, except promote this kind of behavior in movies, etc. but now that his daughter is 10 apparently he doesn't want her exposed to this behavior, funny how times change eh spike?
Do you expect us to take this seriously as an argument? The media images and stereotypes are deliberately created by the marketeers to sell this "music", which is what let's these "younger blacks" make so much money. The issue is the social impact, which is what Mr. Lee is addressing. And sorry, I HAVE listened to the "music" and I think he's right.
I have listened to rock/metal and some country, and let me tell you, some of the lyrics would make rap seem like the theme song from Sesame Street.
Maybe so, BUT... I would argue that this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. The offensive lyrics in rock/metal and some country are generally not part of the mainstream for these genres. On the whole though, that isn't true of rap. Mainstream rap celebrates the social lowest common denominator (drugs, sexual promiscuity, misogyny, gangs) and in so doing, completely denigrates African-Americans.
The only way to stop rap musics influence is to get the pant-sagging white boys to stop buying it. Then Viacom would actually feel a dent.
The only difference between the content of some of your saltier/violent folk/blues/country songs and the music of today is the more explicit use of four letter words. I don't remember the use of "f-ck" in "nothing can be finer than a climb on Carolina in the morning..." (Hint: Carolina wasn't a mountain).
True,but then again many of Spike's movies are full of raw language and ghetto romanticism-recall the "Tawana Brawley told the truth"graffiti in Do the Right Thing-
I must say he did an excellent job with Malcolm X and Get on the Bus is a classic favorite of mine and don't sleep on Crooklyn either.
But Girl 6?Whew!
Dime bag Darrell was not carrying guns and acting like a thug. He was playing on stage when a mental case came up and killed him. fifty cents is a thug low life who has shot people and been shot at. You should never compare Darrell to a low life who by the way was not killed.
When I was in HS, it was the f--king white jocks who used to listen to hip hop.
You can make all the excuses you want. The only reason cube is not rapping about the white devil is because he makes more money being a movie star.
They are all racists.
Has anyone noticed that when the article mentions the ones that are downtrodden and seemingly lost, thay are referred to as blacks while Spike Lee is referred to as an AA? I've noticed that a lot in articles like this. The not-so-fortunate are blacks and those like Lee are AA. Why is that?
Fooling a few foos, that's all. NSNR
Actually it is, those sneaky liberals.
Naw, it's because ole Spike has a ten year old daughter, so now all the gangsta talk has to stop, poor Spike, too bad he didn't see the light years ago, he could be idolized as someone who cares, LMAO!
pre-eminent African-American filmmaker Spike Lee
I guess the ball is in your court Spike.
"I eagerly await someone turning attention towards a particular music artist who sings about:
* Murdering his spouse
* Trying to kill his father
* Eluding law enforcement
* Killing someone "just to watch them die"
* Attempting to kill his employer
* Robbing his employer
And so on.
Yes, it's about time someone went after Johnny Cash."
So I guess we better get murder/mystery novels off the shelves, too. Full of violence and nasty stuff. /sarc
Look, there is a difference between writing tragic songs about murder, death and betrayal and writing songs GLORIFYING such. Many a blues tune was about such but I would hardly think of them as glorifying it. Shakespeare wrote many messed-up tragedys but he didn't pimp them as the "hip" way to live.
Modern Rap glorifies and encourages every bit of it. Saying the "N-word" or cursing in a song or misinterpreting a Nirvana video (the girl's KKK costume turned into a witch outfit, hardly an endorsement) is NOT the same as encouraging young people to abuse women, do drugs and commit acts of violence, and make money anyway they can, which is exactly what rap does.
This moral relativity crap is killing me.
All I want to know is how Africans who are not black feel about it? LOL
get "School Daze" about black fraternity/sorority life at a black university. comedy/musical/drama... good flick
Funny - I don't remember Johnny Cash discouraging the cheers of inmates at Folsom Prison when he performed "Cocaine Blues" and "San Quentin" there.
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