Hear Hip Hop's not-so-hidden message

Houston Chronicle ^ | 09/16/03 | CLARENCE PAGE

[bedolido]

AS marketing schemes go, the hip-hop music star Nelly risks sending a lot of mixed signals with the name of the new energy drink he's marketing.

It's called "Pimp Juice."

I could be wrong, but "Pimp Juice" does not sound to me like something that you want to put in your mouth.

Either way, you won't get a chance to find out, if certain leaders of black community organizations have their way.

In Los Angeles, three organizations called Project Islamic HOPE, the National Alliance for Positive Action, and the National Black Anti-Defamation League staged a press conference last Tuesday (Sept. 9) to urge the removal of the rapper's energy drink from store shelves.

In Chicago, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of mostly black St. Sabina Catholic Church, threatened to boycott any store that carried the drink.

In Durham, N.C., the Rev. Paul Scott, founder of the Messianic Afrikan Nation, said in news reports, "As black men we should be building a nation of strong black leaders, not a nation of super energized, drunk pimps."

The complaint: Pimp Juice glorifies the world's second oldest profession, the employment of women in the first oldest profession.

Nelly and his spokesmen beg to differ. In launching the drink on Sept. 1, he said it was named after his hit song Pimp Juice from his 2002 multi-platinum album, Nellyville. "Pimp juice is anything that attracts the opposite sex," he said. "Whatever you (are) using to win with right now, that's your juice -- that's your pimp juice, so keep pimping."

Well, maybe.

Back in the prehistoric age before there was rap music or, for that matter, laptops or cell phones, my generation had such terms as "pimp walk," "pimp style" or simply "pimpin"' some sucker who didn't know any better. But we never had any confusion as to where the word came from.

Nor, it appears, does the mainstream of hip-hop culture, which too often refers to women by the disrespectful term "ho," as in Ludacris' lyric, "I've got ho's/ In different area codes..."?)

Queen Latifah, among other hip-hop icons, tried to nip such creeping misogyny (it means disrespect for women, children, look it up) in the bud. In her uplifting tune U.N.I.T.Y., she beseeches her sisters, "You gotta let him know.../ You ain't a bitch or a ho."

Now pimp glorification has come to center stage in rapperland. The video for popular rapper 50 Cent's mega-hit PIMP portrays him as a novice pimp before the grand pimp council, presided over by rapper Snoop Dogg with his sequined "spiritual advisor," Bishop Don "Magic" Juan at his side.

I remember the colorful bishop (who also appeared onstage with Snoop and faux ho's at the MTV Video Music Awards) from my days as a police reporter in Chicago back in the 1970s. He used to be the West Side's pimp supreme until he found another of the world's oldest professions: preaching.

Juan's playful pimp-style is amusing these days but hardly the sort of role modeling that self-respecting parents want for their kids or their community. Nelly's Pimp Juice seems like the last straw to those who are upset about out-of-wedlock birth rates in black communities since the mid-1960s, rates that leveled off in the late 1990s at close to 70 percent of live black births.

Worse, soaring child abandonment rates have left millions of kids to grow up without the benefit of having both parents.

And while out-of-wedlock births have leveled off among blacks, they have begun to soar since the 1980s among whites to more than 25 percent, the level that first caused alarm in the mid-1960s when it appeared among blacks.

It is too easy in my view to blame the rise in irresponsible sex and breakdown in parenthood entirely on rap music or other media. There are many reasons why something as complex as out-of-wedlock birth rates rises.

But, it also would be too easy to say that the media don't have any impact at all.

With pop culture pumping out the message that pimpin' and other irresponsible sex is cool, it is increasingly important that parents and others offer young people some healthier messages, too.

Just as my generation respected heroes like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Medgar Evers and Mary McCloud Bethune, we should help today's youngsters find role models who can help them lift their eyes out of the gutter and aim them toward the stars.

The chief youth consultant in our house, also known as my 14-year-old son, once told me that "Kids can tell the difference between satire and seriousness, Dad."

In other words, youngsters don't necessarily follow rap stars as role models. That's true. Still, someone needs to let them know that they have other choices.

Page is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist specializing in urban issues. He is based in Washington, D.C. (cpage@tribune.com)

[AppyPappy]

I've found it ironic that people who complain the most about rap listen to country music which sometimes focuses on cheating and bluegrass which has frequent references to moonshine.

[Dallas59]

All Rap Music Suxs...IMO

[madprof98]

And while out-of-wedlock births have leveled off among blacks, they have begun to soar since the 1980s among whites to more than 25 percent, the level that first caused alarm in the mid-1960s when it appeared among blacks.

Yeah, but they've "leveled off" at about 70% (SEVENTY PERCENT) illegitimate--even after 40% of black babies (most, presumably, the offspring of single women) are aborted. This may well be where the country as a whole is headed.

[Pikamax]

Pimps seem to be the rage these days. Dressed in costume, New York Yankees pitcher Jose Contreras, left, and catcher Michel Hernandez sign autographs for fans before boarding buses for the airport following the Yankees 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2003, at New York's Yankee Stadium. The dressing-up is an annual baseball tradition that rookies must endure before the end of their first season. AP Photo/Kathy Willens) New York Yankees (news) Hideki Matsui struts to the team bus in a leopard skin outfiit after the Yankees 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (news), Sunday, Sept. 14, 2003, at New York's Yankee Stadium. Rookies traditionally dress up as part of their initiation onto the team. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

[ArrogantBustard]

I could be wrong, but "Pimp Juice" does not sound to me like something that you want to put in your mouth.
ROFL!!! Ummmmm.... Mr. Page? May I introduce you to Miss Lewinsky?

we should help today's youngsters find role models
Like, maybe, Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, Walter Williams ...

[ArrogantBustard]

I could be wrong, but "Pimp Juice" does not sound to me like something that you want to put in your mouth.
ROFL!!! Ummmmm.... Mr. Page? May I introduce you to Miss Lewinsky?

we should help today's youngsters find role models
Like, maybe, Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, Walter Williams ...

[Zack Nguyen]

The collapse of black culture prefigures the rest of America's, I am afraid. 70% illegitimacy cannot occur simultaneously with economic success and educational achievement.

Where are the churches? Can a black Freeper answer this? A huge number of AA's attend church (I do not know how many are saved Christians) and yet illegitimacy soars. Are the churches not doing their job?

[TastyManatees]

Pimp Juice

[11th Earl of Mar]

So where is Part II? I cannot believe that Clarence Page writes an article like this without blaming President Bush.

[Paradox]

In Los Angeles, three organizations called Project Islamic HOPE, the National Alliance for Positive Action, and the National Black Anti-Defamation League staged a press conference last Tuesday (Sept. 9) to urge the removal of the rapper's energy drink from store shelves.

Hey, give these guys credit for trying to rectify a deepening cultural problem. They "get it". Bottom line, if they dont fix the culture, things will only get worse for them.

[banjo joe]

With pop culture pumping out the message that pimpin' and other irresponsible sex is cool

The march to socialism. It's for the (illegitimate) children.

[bicycle thug]

Here's someone else who fits this music's image and ambiance;

(I don't know who his date in the picture is.)

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

(I don't know who his date in the picture is.)

Here, now! That's no way to talk about the junior senator from New York! :)

[cyborg]

A FReeper asks...Where are the churches? Can a black Freeper answer this? A huge number of AA's attend church (I do not know how many are saved Christians) and yet illegitimacy soars. Are the churches not doing their job?

[cyborg]

If the people who are making records like Pimp Juice went to church maybe they wouldn't. Why would a black FReeper know more than you anyway?

[rdb3]

All Rap Music Suxs...IMO

All Country Music Suxs...IMO

[F16Fighter]

"I've found it ironic that people who complain the most about rap listen to country music which sometimes focuses on cheating and bluegrass which has frequent references to moonshine."

Huh?? You think this is an anology that works? Are you delirious?

[Salo]

You're both right. ;-) IMO.

All Rap Music Suxs...IMO

All Country Music Suxs...IMO

[cyborg]

Why not? Not even country music, but heavy metal is worse and more on par with gangsta rap. Besides only FR can we have more of a discussion about the EEEEEVILS of rap and illegitimate babies, rather the years of heavy metal music and all their nasty little groupies and country music with all the boozing and drunkness and screwing. Entertainment has always been filled with vice and perversion.