Monday, February 21, 2011

Kanye West's Monster

Last month, an unfinished music video of Kanye West’s latest single “Monster” leaked online, and since that time, the hip hop community and its critics have been ablaze with commentary and critique.

Always pushing the envelope, and some arguing too far, Kanye’s new video is graphic and violent, depicting dead white women hanging in a smokey alley, their necks wrapped in industrial chains, vampires devouring corpses, and Kanye also appears in bed with two dead, eroticized white women and holds a decapitated white woman’s head dripping blood.

The video, now released, can be seen here: Monster

Melinda Tankard Reist of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, among many others, started an online petition to ban the video, stating that the video represents the disturbing and misogynistic view that “men enjoy dead women as sex and entertainment. The female body is to be devoured, reduced to the same status as meat. Female bodies should be displayed before men as a great feast for their consumption.”

What is Kanye thinking? Does Monster make a political statement that eludes?

Here is a sampling of some of the commentary:

In Defense of Kanye West, That's Mr. "Monster" to You

Kanye West "Monster" Video Show Rapper Sexually Exploiting Female Corpses

Kanye West's "Monster" Video: Campy Horror Masterpiece or Misogyny?

The Meaning Behind Kanye West's "Monster" Video


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Bar Exam



















Artist: Master P
Track: Ghetto Rain (Silkk the Shocker f/ Master P)
Album: Made Men

It's da black ring from da moon and tears in God's eyes
see that's the way I felt when my lil' brother died
And some fools say it ain't no justice
and other niggaz say it ain't no peace
that's why thugs handle their business in these projects and on these streets
See my daddy made me a dealer
and my cousin made me killer
See that's why everything we do, they gonna respect us and feel us
And I'm still tryin' to understand why big daddy was with da rest
and my nephew Lance Connor on da 14th died in the car wreck
It ain't a muthafuckin' antidote for crack or AIDS
and I see so many ghetto people go to jail
and live your life and die like slaves
I got a relative on appeal doin' 25 flat
on murder, armed robbery
nigga fuck it Johnny Cochran can't fight that
And since I'm Black and I'm rich
they seem to overlook us
me and (?????) bought some first class tickets, they called
da police tryin' to book us
Ain't that a bitch, I done made millions
and I'm still goin' through a thang
That's why niggaz ask me P why the fuck you never change?