Idolator
Last night, Fox News anchor John Gibson had Chuck Creekmur of AllHipHop on during a segment that tried to look at whether or not hip-hop lyrics were resulting in teenagers smoking pot. The transcript, like many talking-head show recaps, is a frustrating read full of circular logic on the part of the anchor, although we had to chuckle at one section:
GIBSON: I don't let the mother off the hook, Chuck. But I also think that the hip-hop industry has a lot also to do with the way young, especially African-Americans, but also white kids, behave. And this is one of those instances where I do not have to go very far in my hip-hop collection to find guys talking about these blunts, and that is specifically what these teenagers were doing with these kids.
CREEKMUR: I mean, was there rap in the video or was there something in the video that suggested that they were listening to rap and then started doing what they did?
GIBSON: These are 15-year-old African-American boys, right?
CREEKMUR: Right.
GIBSON: There is little chance they are listening to Karen Carpenter or music from my era.
What's that they say about making assumptions? Something about making an ass ... anyway. One note: If Close To You isn't in these kids' CD collections, at least they won't develop eating disorders. Right, John?
Hip-Hop to Blame For Pot-Smoking Tots? [FOXNews.com, via Nah Right]
Comments
Gibson is likely correct in his assumption...but I dont for one minute believe he has a hip hop collection to browse through...even an old school one...
When he's out drifting, it aint to the strains of "Gin and Juice" I can assure you...
I miss blaming Marilyn Manson for everything.
Regardless of how much we want to put the blame elsewhere... and this is coming from a 27 year old african-american fan of hip-hop music... at some point we gotta realize that those my age were of the last generation to get a balance of "good" hip hop (the kid & plays, salt-n-pepas, tribe called quests) and the "bad" hip-hop (the nwa's, 2 live crews, ice-t's...).
now it's all the "bad" stuff that doesn't really have much in the way of socially redeeming qualities, unless you want to live in a neighborhood full of gun toting, coke dealing, trash talking thugs.
Gibson has nailed it. There was no music in his era that endorsed or was inspired by drug use.
You kids get off my lawn!
I hope those 15 yar old African American kids were listening to Puff the Magic Dragon.
Normally all I really think about when I listen to modern mainstream hip-hop is how boring, cliched, and awful it is.
They're not discussing the issue in a constructive way. They're actually just bashing Hip Hop. The same way they bashed heavy metal in the 80's. I never see anyone asking why the kids are susceptible in the first place.
This post has made me want to re-listen to The Carpenters. Thanks, Idolator!
Luckily, I hid those bodies pretty when when I was listening to Canibal Corpse as a wee lad.
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