zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric: A Must-Hear :: Davey D Takes Out Rap Misogyny, John McWhorter, and Hip-Hop Haters

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
A Must-Hear :: Davey D Takes Out Rap Misogyny, John McWhorter, and Hip-Hop Haters

From this morning's broadcast of WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show, Davey D ethers rap misogyny, anti-hip-hop media pimp John McWhorter, and hip-hop haters.

Recognize: Long before Sharpton and Constance Rice and a whole long line of civil rights generation anti-hip-hop crusaders did, Davey D and Kevvy Kev launched the first nationwide rap boycott over issues of misogyny back in 1989, when they called for the Bay Area hip-hop community to decide whether or not they wanted to hear NWA. Over the course of two weeks, the people called in and voted to stop playing NWA. Both are Bronx men who grew up with the old school and moved to the Bay Area to become heroes for many of us.

At the same time this was being aired today, rap industry execs were having an emergency meeting behind closed doors to talk about how to handle the continuing blowback from the Imus incident. We can assume that the agenda included how to handle a growing beef with the Rev Al Sharpton and two panel discussions on Oprah's show that may have caused more damage than good.

Fam, there is no reason to think that much in the way of substance will be coming out of there.

The bottom line is that if the conversation on gender and hip-hop is going to go anywhere, we have to stop letting civil rights-gen mouthpieces act like the hip-hop generation doesn't have its own history and voices, and we have to stop letting media folks go to the old names when the real work has been happening with real people down here on the ground for decades.

Davey will be telling his full story on this episode on his myspace page and website soon, and I'll post that when it's ready.

Labels: davey d, hip-hop activism, neoconservatives, rap, sexism