The Rap on Hillary Clinton

If you haven’t seen it already, I urge you to look at Washington Post columnist Colby King’s column on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) hypocritical stance regarding the firing of shock-jock Don Imus.

Clinton, you’ll recall, helped lead the charge against Don Imus for his deplorable and now-infamous remarks regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team. I didn’t like Imus’s comments and I thought they were racist and indefensible. What I didn’t realize, as Mr. King points out, is that Mrs. Clinton raised more than $800,000 at the home of a rapper called Timbaland — a fellow who makes Imus’s comments look like child’s play.

As I read Mr. King’s column I realized that Timbaland’s vile lyrics are just the type of negative and destructive words that perpetuate an image of African-Americans as violent, poor drug dealers who regard human life and the status of women in low regard. Consider the following that Timbaland has to offer — I’m quoting directly from King’s column from the Post this past Saturday:

Here are lyrics from the track “Come and Get Me”:
“Nigga your time is up, I ain’t come to kid you
I knew you niggas was dumb, but how dumb is you? …
I’m a ride-or-die nigga, I be tearing [expletive] up
We ain’t like them other fools, who don’t compare to us
All the hoes love a nigga, they be backing it up
But me I love money I be stacking it up …
I’m rich I can pay to have you six feet deep (nigga)”
And from his track “Kill Yourself”:
” . . . Most of u rap niggas is hoes to me,
Wherever you from
The question I ask
Is do you think I give a [expletive] . . .
You mad at me? Cuz I’m getting rich,
We’ll put the pistol to your head and empty the clip, pop nigga!”
And how about this little ditty, “Considerate Brotha,” from an earlier recording:
“. . . Hoes coming up short? Hoes finna get cursed out!
. . . Slam the mask out of these hoes and they say, ‘What is that, velvet?’
And they betta meet they quota, betta yet betta meet they deadline . . . I’m a pimp all around
A pimp of the town — we pimpin’ ’em up, hoes down!”

Are you kidding me? I think that for a politician from either side of the political spectrum to actively speak out against Mr. Imus and then collect nearly $1 million from an artist who spews such hurtful and hateful language is truly the zenith of hypocrisy. I am tired of the moral outrage expressed by politicians when it only suits their own political agenda. Not only do I think that Sen. Clinton should give the money back if she was so offended by Mr. Imus’s remarks, she should call for increased pressure on record labels and others in Hollywood who seek to profit at the expense of negative stereotypes of blacks. That won’t happen, of course, given the desire of many politicians to ring the cash register known as Hollywood rather than stand up for what is wrong — even when it hits them where it matters most: their bank account.

This is only part one on my discourse on this subject. I’ve been steaming all weekend. Next, I’ll tackle how the so-called leaders of the black community, namely Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson, have been painfully silent on speaking out about these destructive lyrics when they could have demonstrated real leadership.

For now, Mrs. Clinton, take a stand and give the money back.