Marilyn Manson was right. Everybody is.

A friend sent me the link to this article, which was much better than I expected, given the subject matter. I've had little to no opinion on this Imus matter, other than wondering why he's catching all this flack now.

Some interesting stuff:

Some defenders of rap music and hip-hop culture, such as the pioneering mogul Russell Simmons, deny any connection between Imus and hip-hop. They describe rap lyrics as reflections of the violent, drug-plagued, hopeless environments that many rappers come from. Instead of criticizing rappers, defenders say, critics should improve their reality.
"Comparing Don Imus' language with hip-hop artists' poetic expression is misguided and inaccurate and feeds into a mindset that can be a catalyst for unwarranted, rampant censorship," Simmons said in a statement Friday.

Simmons has a LOT to protect, so his word is IMO automatically suspect, in spite of the fact that I believe he's a very savvy and intelligent man. How does he seperate the 'poetic expression' of a rapper's misogyny from Imus', though? What's the difference? They're both artists selling a persona, right? I think he's fooling himself so that he can continue to reap huge rewards from the music industry. It'd be interesting to see what percentage of his money comes from suburban white kids that miss the subtle distinction between beatin' hos down and the pained, poetic depiction of a society which is reflected in the song lyrics of a sensitive artist trying to share his experiences. Additionally, that "critics should improve their reality" bit particularly sticks in my craw coming from a person who has done much to feed the echo chamber of black youth. He's absolutely right, we should all focus more on helping to improve that reality, but given the hugely disproportionate air time offered to that segment of society (how many people actually have to live through that type of experience compared to the percentage of records sold containing lyrics based on that experience?) and the great unlikelihood that censors and women's lib groups are actually going to reshape the inner-city, it's at best an empty but eloquent turn of phrase.

In 2004, students at Spelman College, a black women's college in Atlanta, became upset over rapper Nelly's video for his song "Tip Drill," in which he cavorts with strippers and swipes a credit card between one woman's buttocks. The rapper wanted to hold a campus bone marrow drive for his ailing sister, but students demanded he first participate in a discussion about the video's troubling images. Nelly declined.

Nelly's a straight up pussy. As if it isn't enough that he has a woman's name, he had the gall to talk about women like that, then ask to do a bone marrow drive at a women's college, and then refuse to face a bunch of smart women who would surely have made him look in debate like the low-grade jackoff that he is.

"It's only when we interface with a powerful white media personality like Imus that the issue is raised and the question turns to 'Why aren't you as vociferous in your critique of hip-hop?' We have been! You've been listening to the music but you haven't been listening to the protests from us."

Crouch said that change in rap music and entertainment likely won't come fast, because corporations are still profiting from the business — but it's coming.

The superstar rapper Snoop Dogg also denied any connection to Imus. "(Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports," he told MTV.com. "We're talking about hos that's in the 'hood that ain't doing ---- that's trying to get a n---- for his money."

The woman quoted is right about the debate being granted access to the nation's consciousness only once a white personality is involved. Blacks should be thankful Imus said what he did - it offers a new frame for what many if not most whites in this country see as a tired, old, hypocritical discussion about misogyny and racism. That said, it's a shame that we need it.

I alternately think Snoop Dogg should be thrown in jail or the Capitol Building. A very interesting, but mostly disappointing, guy. Smart, capable, and a voice (if diluted by drugs and his weak clinging to his history) that blacks could rally around, but basically Malcolm and Martin should be spinning in their graves. What you've said about the crabs in the box rings true with him; the sad thing is that given his talent, brains, and PILES of money, he doesn't have the guts to stand up and say, 'You know what, I DID come from gangs and hos and pimps and guns, and a lot of these songs are about that, but YOU don't have to - You can get out of that, and here's how I'm going to help you." Much like Simmons, he makes some statements about empowering black youth (mostly the athletic ones, of course, further chaining blacks into a stereotype (a lot could be studied in the black entertainer/white audience niche)), but largely continues to make piles of money on a message that carries, among other messages good and bad, those of rampant misogyny, violence, and hopelessness. Snoop's justification is revealing: 'We're not talking about those girls doing something with their lives, we're talking about the hos trying to get a n---'s money.' What exactly is the difference between a hopeless woman willing to do what she has to to get a 'better life' and a hopeless man willing to do what he has to to get a 'better life?' One is f***ing while the other is killing. Should that woman really be denigrated for that? Let's keep a little perspective on who Snoop's n---s are; they're certainly not people doing something with their lives as are the women he was excluding from his list of hos.

I reserve the last of my scorn on this subject for Imus' listeners, like Snoop's and Nelly's, who were not only too easily entertained, but too vapid to realize it. Marcus Aurelius said, "Prefer the hard." If you're older than fourteen, don't stand in line to give money to people who think so little of you that they would continually serve up the weakest and easiest slop of racism, misogyny, or plain old-man, addle-brained, simple-mindedness that they can. Expect a little more of yourself, for f**k's sake.