"who you callin' a b*tch?!"

unity, queen latifah (1993)

i had to step back into time and shed light on this truth because nowadays i think that we get so caught up in the "hip-hop" scene that some of us *and that is a small percentage of us* forget that the degrading content in music from artists such as lil wayne, drake, snoop dogg, j.cole and many more isn't healthy for our community. sure the money, riches and poppin' bottles of that "ace of spades" sounds like these rappers are living the life, but do you really think that they feel good about talkin' all that talk?
 
i thought about this topic after listening to music made by a classmate of mine. i will not say who or what the name of the song is, but i will say that i was not too comfortable with him referring to women as b*tches and being "strictly about his paper." number one, i'm not knocking you for producing the art of music, but my friend: we live in the year 2010--it's time that we move away from calling women out of their name just for the sake of spitting a flow. it's so common now days to hear the word "b*tch" or "h*" in a rap song that we've become immune to the fact that these words are not only poison to the youth that are soaking it up like sponges, but also detrimental to ourselves. within the hip-hop community, women of color already deal with being hypersexualized and undervalued thanks to the many music videos and songs that specifically depict women as such, but hearing the words from those songs on a daily basis isn't quite appealing either.

dictionary.com defines the word "b*tch" in three-fold: 1. a female dog; 2. slang:  a malicious, unpleasant, selfish person, esp. a woman. 3.   a complaint.

first of all, what's up with the, "especially a woman" part?  never have i ever been cool with anyone, male or female, calling me the b-word. i also think that the term is completely inadequate as a term of endearment and while i may slip up sometimes and refer to females that i do not know the term, i have to become more conscious about the negativity and the ugliness behind the word. that goes the same of the n-word too.

in order to make ourselves better, we've got to do better y'all. like tupac said in "changes",  

"let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live & let's change the way we treat each other...the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive."

there are so many more words in the english language that we can use in order to explain the way we are thinking our thoughts. it's time to start thinking OUTSIDE of this whole idea of "fitting in" and "going with the norm".  i will say, hip-hop has made strides since it began back in the Boogie Down Bronx years ago, but there is still a long way to go. the ultimate goal of hip-hop and the culture wasn't to tear one another down, but to uplift each other and provide unity, peace and prosperity.


so i say this again, "who you callin' a b*tch?!"

☮ and ♥, 

-*csc.