A note to radical hip hoppers:
23Jun08
If you write a radical or revolutionary song about hip hop and the politics of media and imagery and BET comes to you and says, hey – we’ll produce a video for it, PLEASE PLEASE don’t fall for the okeydoke.
I thought Bomani’s lessons learned last summer would help folks along with the obvious, but now NY OIL seems to find himself in a similar situation.
Oh, and now he’s mad they’re not playing his video.
I mean, really? WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?! ITS VIACOM. They made the video to silence you.
See what happens when you play with the empire…
paging Dr Jared Ball in the comments!
Filed under: Upset The Setup | 5 Comments
Tags: BET, Bomani, NY OIL, Viacom, Video
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If EuRok calls of course im coming.
But for real you summarized it perfectly. “It’s VIACOM!” But there are a ton of issues/problems with all this. I tried to explain one point of view in the 4-part series I did for the Green Institute on Colonialism, Mass Media and Hip-Hop.
http://www.greeninstitute.net/?q=node/34.
One piece in particular tried to deal with the specifics of Bomani’s case.
http://www.greeninstitute.net/?q=node/33
But NYOIL is a brilliant emcee. He missed the point here a bit and misread some of the history and should know better who he is dealing with regarding viacom or the industry. A couple of real quick points:
1. People he names in the track as heroic actually DID pave the way for all this. Barry Gordy!?!? He wrote the manual on re-imaging black music for white audiences and probably had way more to do with destroying michael jackson than joe did. Gordy sent them to L.A. to change for white customers and gave away Motown and the font of so much dope black music in the process. Oprah? Please check out Janice Peck’s new book on the subject (or for yet another shameless plug, hear our show with her as guest!)
http://www.voxunion.com/?p=68
Oprah is the epitome of recycled black stereotypes customized for white people (rich white women in particular).
2. NYOIL should have asked why would BET want this particular song out of his vast and more thoughtful catalog. Even the follow up to this one mentions lynching record execs instead — white ones! where is that video? or his song Shout in the Streets (my personal favorite) where he starts with “the revolution won’t be televised…” “im Nat Turner seeing visions…” (by the way, our video clip with that fantasy being played out with violent attacks on whites with Amos Wilson breaking it all down in lecture and with some nice beats underneath got banned from youtube too).
3. History is clear, if you attack individuals and members of the oppressed (ala bill cosby, oprah, mchworter, obama — hello? you hear that bullshit father’s day speech attacking black people and black men in particular? i dare anyone to challenge me on how i raise my babies!) you will be rewarded. if you attack structures of power (King, Malcolm, Assata, Huey, etc.) you are dealt with much differently (assassination, prison, exile…)
We all really need to think seriously about how systems function and not about individuals and how we respond to those systems. In his own song he makes fun of people who pick on easy prey, now, NYOIL can answer his own concerns over song selection and video play.
Much love to my favorite blog… and one last political pitch… it is the same with obama, its not personal, but if you are reading this and planning to vote for obama please honestly answer the rhetorical question of whether or not you know who his sponsors are. do you know zbigniew brzinski or dennis ross or penny prtizker? in those three alone you have (in order) one who has written openly about the use of “cultural imperialism” (or the appearance of sameness with those you rule) to maintain US “empire,” part of the planning of iran-contra which ended up (intentionally) flooding black america with crack and a primary architect of the sub-prime scandal which has been recorded as the largest loss of potential wealth for black and latin americans in this nation’s history ($200+ billion). now, its useless to single out obama he (like those artists) are products of a system of dominance.
sorry so long a post. i got amped.
peace,
jb
oh, vote for Cythia McKinney (runcynthiarun.org)!!!
sorry again. its brzezinski
My only knowledge of Bomani is from the “Read a Book” video, his TV appearances defending it and his outlook section piece in the Washington Post. I can’t imagine describing him as radical or revolutionary. He came across in all of that as more reactionary than revolutionary. I’ve seen four video pieces by Nyoil including the original Microsoft Movie Maker version of the “Lynch” video. The original version is more powerful in that it is far rawer in the way homemade raw youtube tracts (www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVviCHesbRo) derive their power from their raw conviction. The professionally animated version looses that conviction and you’re left with a slick video that has Viacom advocate “bitch gets what she deserves”.
I’m far more in attune with the politics behind “What up my wigger.” But there is a reason that BET got behind “Read A book”, “Yall should all Get Lynched” and “We can do better”. The video wasn’t made to silence him. It was made because Reginald Hudlin clearly believes in the reactionary politics of virtue. A politics of virtue that’s all about demonizing the other. Anyone who was politically aware in the 90s knows the consequences of discussing economic and social problems through a narrative of declining moral standards. It’s a reactionary strategy to fight universal programs and social justice. We no longer share a collective goal to fight for social justice and against inequality. Instead we are a virtuous “us” fighting an immoral “other”.
Marcus Garvey or Farrakhan preached a message of empowerment that stressed the importance of dignity, morality, etc. Bill Cosby demonizes the “immoral” and suggests that they need to be triaged. The difference between empowering and triaging is a big one. One is revolutionary and the other is reactionary. There is a difference and that difference has political meaning and consequence. Neither “Read a book” or “Yall should get lynched” are Jeru the Damaja’s “You can’t stop the prophet”. “You can’t stop the prophet” is about encouraging the pursuit of knowledge not demonizing those who fail to. One is revolutionary and the other is reactionary.
Viacom didn’t make the video to silence Nyoil. Hundreds of protestors showed up in front of Debra Lee’s house to protest “We can do Better”, “Read a book”, 106 and Park and images on BET that demonize blacks. That’s what silenced this.
Rereading that I should say that I do have real mixed feelings about the BET protestors. There is something truly fucked up about watching buses with hundreds of protestors park in front of John Negraponte’s house in order to walk over to protest in front of Debra Lee’s house. There are levels of evil and guy who encouraged death squads is on a level far worse than woman who greenlit College Hill. Protesting the latter distracts us from the evil of the former. Plus I was raised watching nothing but the “Box” and think I turned out more or less O.K.