Spike Lee on Rap

Started by godardian, December 02, 2003, 05:03:11 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Print
Go Down Pages1 2 3
User actions

godardian

December 02, 2003, 05:03:11 PM
From the AP:

"Dec. 2, 2003  |  PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Continuing his criticism of rap, Spike Lee told an audience at Brown University that popular music portrays blacks in a negative light.

Speaking to an audience of more than 400 students Monday night, the director of films including "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X" repeated the complaints he's made at colleges and universities over the past year.

"I've always felt you can feel the progress of African Americans by listening to their music," Lee said. "Some of this 'gangsta rap' stuff, it's not doing anybody any good. This stuff is really dangerous."

He said some black adults equate education, good grammar and good grades with "being white," but when he was growing up, those things were seen as positive goals.

"You were not ridiculed if you spoke correct English," he said. Lee urged the audience to make their voices heard by not buying or viewing anything that portrays blacks in a negative way.

"We buy all this stuff, not even thinking about what's behind it ... Think about the power that we have," the 46-year-old said. "We can't just sit back and think it doesn't affect us. We have to do something about it. We have to be more choosy about the types of stuff we support."

Lee also urged students to follow their dreams after graduation, "or you'll be sitting around, fat, divorced and miserable because you took some job, or you took some path that you didn't really want to do."
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

SHAFTR

#1
December 06, 2003, 09:23:32 PM
I agree.
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

Stefen

#2
December 07, 2003, 08:15:16 PM
Spike Lee hit it right on the dot. gangsta rap is terrible and only make the people making it look bad so everyone else but the people who listen to it. Hip hop is a great form of music and should definetely stay around, but there is a difference between saying something intelligent and saying something for shock value to sale records.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Pwaybloe

#3
December 08, 2003, 10:15:30 AM
Yeah, yeah, yeah...

It's a fact that white people buy the majority of rap albums and hip hop entertainment.

SoNowThen

#4
December 08, 2003, 10:43:28 AM
Thus perpetuating the "ignorant black people" stereotype.

I agree with Lee. The only thing sadder than some ghetto criminal making millions off this shit noise is the massive number of middle class white teens embracing it.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

NEON MERCURY

#5
December 08, 2003, 11:35:08 AM
Quote from: SoNowThenThe only thing sadder than some ghetto criminal making millions off this shit noise is the massive number of middle class white teens embracing it.

."yo's whats you bees talkingz boutz?..that muzick speaks ta me.  When my moms don't be washing my clothez i spins dat new 50 cent to rids da pain away.  Or if my popz ain'ts lett'n me pimp the navigator i tell hims ta fucks off and i runns to mize room and playz da DMX and seeks sanctuary through hiz lyrics..So don't be hate'nn..alright ??????"

-average middle class white teenager....

Sleuth

#6
December 08, 2003, 03:21:29 PM
Quote from: NEON MERCURY
Quote from: SoNowThenThe only thing sadder than some ghetto criminal making millions off this shit noise is the massive number of middle class white teens embracing it.

."yo's whats you bees talkingz boutz?..that muzick speaks ta me.  When my moms don't be washing my clothez i spins dat new 50 cent to rids da pain away.  Or if my popz ain'ts lett'n me pimp the navigator i tell hims ta fucks off and i runns to mize room and playz da DMX and seeks sanctuary through hiz lyrics..So don't be hate'nn..alright ??????"

-average middle class white teenager....

Your best post
I like to hug dogs

Alethia

#7
December 09, 2003, 08:05:56 AM
Quote from: NEON MERCURY
Quote from: SoNowThenThe only thing sadder than some ghetto criminal making millions off this shit noise is the massive number of middle class white teens embracing it.

."yo's whats you bees talkingz boutz?..that muzick speaks ta me.  When my moms don't be washing my clothez i spins dat new 50 cent to rids da pain away.  Or if my popz ain'ts lett'n me pimp the navigator i tell hims ta fucks off and i runns to mize room and playz da DMX and seeks sanctuary through hiz lyrics..So don't be hate'nn..alright ??????"

-average middle class white teenager....

god, i know so many kids like this, i have to deal with them EVERY FUCKING DAY.

Jeremy Blackman

#8
December 09, 2003, 08:56:43 AM
I agree. Why do we all agree on this?

SoNowThen

#9
December 09, 2003, 09:30:55 AM
The 7th Seal opens.

All Xixax members agree.

Funnily enough, of all things, on Spike Lee's views on rap. :)
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

godardian

#10
December 09, 2003, 10:15:40 AM
I think we can all agree on this because what Lee is saying rings so true and makes such complete sense. My take on what he's saying is that gangsta culture imagines itself as empowering, a threat to the dominant order; Lee knows that an educated, articulate, accomplished, financially independent, culturally literate African-American (such as himself) better matches that description. Gangsta rap might be good for venting, but it's education and work that get you places, and gangsta rap- to whatever extent it might be an honest depiction- isn't about getting those things to the people who've been deprived of them.
""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

Stay informed on protecting your freedom of speech and civil rights.

Thecowgoooesmooo

#11
December 10, 2003, 12:12:34 PM
I dont agree with Spike at all on this one.

Gangsta rap may not be doing any good in your opinion, but it is explaining through an artform what happens and it explains how certain people live their lives. If for example Gangsta rap, didn't exist, then the only examples of this culture you would hear about, would be on the nightly news. That would be a total shame.

Just because you don't enjoy the music, or don't agree with it, dosen't mean it shouldn't be around. It's simply a culture explaining their unique situations through the only media outlet that is available to them. Music.


chris

Pubrick

#12
December 10, 2003, 12:29:46 PM
hmm, put me down for agree. (with spike)
under the paving stones.

Thecowgoooesmooo

#13
December 10, 2003, 12:33:23 PM
Quotehmm, put me down for agree. (with spike)


Do you care to put anything down of why you agree with Spike? ha....



chris

Jeremy Blackman

#14
December 10, 2003, 02:03:35 PM
Quote from: Thecowgoooesmoooit is explaining through an artform what happens and it explains how certain people live their lives . . . Just because you don't enjoy the music, or don't agree with it, dosen't mean it shouldn't be around.

And what is it accomplishing socially?

Now that it has established and commercialized certain cultural ideas, where else can it go but away from truth?
Print
Go Up Pages1 2 3
User actions