Jackson Free Press

In light of the roundtable discussion at the Jackson Medical Mall on Tuesday. Thought Id bone up a bit.. As Im sure to have my a-- handed to me LOL, I was doing a little research and came across this interesting tidbit. It seems that some women in the hip-hop community feel as if they were left out of Oprah's town-hall discussion recently. Actually what I realized is that in all of this we have yet to really hear from the women who work at the labels or work directly in the business... and the female artists that do hiphop. And I haveto say I agree with many points they make here. I guess coming from folks who actually DO this music and better understand the biz, the points are clearer. Enjoy and discuss:

Only if you were under a rock could you have missed all the recent debates regarding Hip Hop and misogyny. But one voice is mysteriously missing in all of this. Who? We'll give you a hint. Women. More specifically Hip-Hop women--from execs, media, and artists to video vixens and fans.

The most notable absence was probably on the recent Oprah Winfrey Townhall Meeting on Rap, which failed to have any even one soul representing the female side of Hip Hop. So, The A-List decided to not only address this glaring oversight, but to ask a few women from the world of Hip Hop their thoughts.

"It's typical for the media to exclude women from these critical discussions on Hip Hop," says Dr. Joycelyn Wilson (http://www.drjoycesaid.blogspot.com/), Assistant Professor of Education LaGrange College, Hip-Hop culture expert. "I'm not sure if it's because they don't take the time to find women who can speak about these sensitive issues or if they only look for women who fit a particular profile. In Oprah's case, I can only speculate why the show was put together in the way that it was. That is, Essence (editor in chief) in the crowd, Gayle (King) on deck at Spelman, conservative critic Stanley Crouch in the audience, and four men on stage, including noted male rap artist (Common). They skated over so many issues, the main one being the agency women have in all of this...One of the key issues...is the lack of representation at the table of discourse. I mean, I don't wanna hear saditty Spelman chicks speak for women like Whyte Chocolate or Gloria Velez or Superhead. I want to hear it from them."

For full story go to:
http://thealistmagzine.blogspot.com/2007/05/special-silenced-voices-on-hip-hop.html

Previous Commentsshow

Two interesting points here...one by Dr. Joycelyn Wilson (who incidentally has done stories on Banner and myself for hiphop publications) speaking on the Oprah town hall show: .."I'm not sure if it's because they don't take the time to find women who can speak about these sensitive issues or if they only look for women who fit a particular profile. In Oprah's case, I can only speculate why the show was put together in the way that it was. That is, Essence (editor in chief) in the crowd, Gayle (King) on deck at Spelman, conservative critic Stanley Crouch in the audience, and four men on stage, including noted male rap artist (Common). They skated over so many issues, the main one being the agency women have in all of this...One of the key issues...is the lack of representation at the table of discourse. I mean, I don't wanna hear saditty Spelman chicks speak for women like Whyte Chocolate or Gloria Velez or Superhead. I want to hear it from them." ..I concur and then this point by Dee Dee Cocheta-Williams, who represents Hip-Hop acts and video directors as president of A.B.C. Associates Entertainment Firm, ..."It is blatantly a disrespect that there were no women of Hip Hop represented on Oprah." Funny because watching the show I never even realized. It makes some good points about Ludacris and the two female hiphop artists agree with my belief that there is a "witch hunt" going on....

Kamikaze

May 28 2007

Kaze, is this a full article? If so, you can't post a full article. Just a link and a couple paragraph. Also, I need you to italicize the parts that are being quoted. Please fix.

DonnaLadd

May 28 2007

fixed the blog. provided link but dunno how to italicize. Tried to do it before hand...my bad

Kamikaze

May 28 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0q1ddoWsDk a link to an msnbc interview with honeymag.com editor

Kamikaze

May 28 2007

I didn't think about female rappers not being interviewed on Oprah. Kaze, did you send her an email about that? If I were able to ask a female rapper a question, I would ask her if she is doing anything about the objectification of women in the industry. To me, if she's a hip hop artist, she has the perfect platform to make a difference, but it could be more complicated than that if the bossman says no, right?

LatashaWillis

May 28 2007

Kaze, to get help with text formatting, click on the Help link in the pMachine page and click on pMcode. It's on the left side of the screen under "Appendix".

LatashaWillis

May 28 2007

What does "sattidy Spelmen" women mean???? It's a known fact that the hip hop business is not a good place for women. There's not a big pool to chose from, and not a pool that most folks know who they are. It's like trying to find a woman to speak on behalf of Chief Editors at Daily Newspapers :P

emilyb

May 28 2007

I think they meant saditty. Spelman women are known to be high class and arrogant; "Stuck- up"

Melishia

May 29 2007

Come on Melishia. Don't do this to Spelman women. It just isn't fair and better than that, it is not true. I spent a small fortune for a Morehouse education for one of my sons. It was a great experience for him. We are people who care about ourselves as parents and wanted to give our kids the exposure THEY wanted. These kids are no better and no worse than anyone else. Bill Cosby's kid who was killed was a classmate of my son's. Cosby comes out pretty strong against some of the language and visuals of hip-hop. It does not have to be dirty or degrading for women to be a great dance beat and a positive visual. There are students from both Spelman and Morehouse who worked hard to pay for their education There are many students who are brilliant and received scholarships and could have gone to any school in the World. Let's stop putting labels on eachother. We are loosing too much ground. What you have described is a title given to a WITCH with a (B). TRANSLATION: Saditty means one who is well educated, respects themselves and others and are hated by that 65% of the population who would rather knock you down than to lift you up.

justjess

May 29 2007

I dont think Melisha was saying that herself..I think she was answering emilyb's question from above about what it meant or how people generally categorize Spellman women.

trusip

May 29 2007

Yeah, me, too, trusip. She's translating. ;-)

DonnaLadd

May 29 2007

how did it go last night? I wanted to be there but it didn't work out...was there a debate? discussion?

Izzy

May 30 2007

That's what I was wondering. I saw that Kamikaze got some face time. :-) I don't know about WJTV, but WAPT said the event was sponsored by the NAACP and the JFP. WLBT said it was sponsored by the Links. Who are the Links? I'm not surprised that they didn't mention you guys, but the NAACP???

LatashaWillis

May 30 2007

Okay, I take it back. They did give credit at the end of their article on the Website.

LatashaWillis

May 30 2007

Thanks for the link, L.W., - appreciate it.

Izzy

May 30 2007

No prob.

LatashaWillis

May 30 2007

I thought it was nice. I wasnt in love with the format. And I would have liked to have not felt rushed...Perhaps if we could have had it in a setting with no time constraints. We didnt get to over half of the questions. And only one or two panelists got a chance to speak after each statement. So the discussion definitely could have gotten more lively. but it was a good start and kudos to the folks who put it together. Infinte I think did an excellent job of representing for women who do hiphop. And the panel was diverse but the discussion to me, was rushed. Its hard to confine that topic into just and hour and a half.

Kamikaze

May 30 2007

Kaze, maybe a series of forums can be done over several months.

LatashaWillis

May 30 2007

I'm sorry I didn't get there. The paper wasn't out, yet, and it was my cover story, so I had no choice. But Natalie went in my place. There were a lot of people on the panel, which is interesting, but doesn't lead to a lot of deeper discussion. Let's just plan another one, Kaze, with a smaller number of panelists. And I agree: kudos to Irene and the folks who put it together.

DonnaLadd

May 30 2007

yes, thanks to Irene, Infinite, Kaze & all who bring this issue to the table for discussion. I will try to make it to the next event.

Izzy

May 30 2007

I attended the forum last night. As mention already, the ladies who put it together (new incoming members of Links, Inc.) did an excellent job. Donna I have to say, Natalie did an outstanding job in her presentation. What we use to say back in the day is "she has her head screwed on right." The discussions were good but a little sugar coated to me. The panel members were all polite (which they should be) but for sure everyone was trying not to step on toes. Hip Hop is a problem. No other era of music curses and has such a negative impact on our young folks than this music. This is my opinion.

maad

May 30 2007

maad, I know what you mean about Natalie. She's amazing, and represents the paper as well as anyone here can. I hope she will for a long time to come!

msaldana

May 30 2007

Oops, I just posted as Matt. But that was Donna talking about Natalie. I'm on a different computer. Sorry.

msaldana

May 30 2007

Maad I think we made some good strides. It was a little polite but that was cool. I think we all agreed that all of those elements play a part in the problem and must all accept some of the blame equally. I think it was good that some of the other esteemed panelists acknowledged that this has been a problem long before hiphop existed and one that everyone needs to address. You can include rock music and hardcore blues music as culprits as well. To focus on one area would do the subject a disservice and I was glad we ALL agreed on that fact. You cant single out one single entity. hiphop, the media AND us as people or a human race played a part for what we reap now. As representative Johnson and Natalie said so eloquently we're dealing with a problem thats stemmed in slavery hundreds of years ago. It was cool. And more effective to me becuase it didnt turn into an all out attack on JUST hiphop.

Kamikaze

May 30 2007

As stated---my opinion!

maad

May 30 2007

Kaze, L.W did either of you hear NPR this week - News and Notes did a piece called "Hip-Hop's Hersotry" with MCLyte, MoneyLove & an academic, Tricia Rose. The women talked about (among other things) the ways in which roles for women MCs and hip hop artists have become more narrow, rather than less. here's the link

Izzy

Jun 15 2007

I don't get to listen to the radio that much right now. I'll check it out.

LatashaWillis

Jun 15 2007

I think you might like it. The host Fariah Chideya, has done several segments recently, including an interview with Russel Simmons. You can use the arrows at npr.org/tellmemore to scroll backwards and fowards through the days, which show the segments on each day. I didn't hear the one with Simmons but heard it was very "charged." I caught the very end of it where he offered her a bracelet as a gift & she had to refuse as it's value was over the $50 limit she could legally accept. He said something like, I've given every radio dj in the country one of these. Makes you realize how corrupt radio is, but that's another subject.

Izzy

Jun 15 2007