>i called him out as a reactionary & said this was a bullshit
>attack.
>
>for those of us who claim love or respect for hip hop, why
>are we so slow to criticize?

the problem with the analyzations so far are that they tend to put hip hop in its own vacuum...which already handicaps and skews any discussion to one side with hip hop being used as the scapegoat. i dont know too many people that have tried to tie in the societal violence in general to hip hop's celebration of violence..the same can be said of mysoginy, and any of the numerous other ills that plague the artform...its a small reflective sample...i dont know that hip hop needs to be analyzed before a serious assessment of the violent culture that birthed hip hop...the problem with that though is if you dont analyze, its as if hip hop has been accepted regardless of right or wrong..

>
>you know, the violence question is a hard one. since we are
>blamed for so much & are accused of being the most violent
>folks around these days (usually by the most violent people
>history has ever produced), it becomes very difficult to
>take it one. even if we don't agree with the analysis that
>gets thrown at us, where are our own? do we (young, hip-hop
>loving people) try to broaden the understanding of what it
>means to be violent? do we dig deep into just how culture
>effects us individually or as a people? how many of us say
>that nina simone's music is inspiring or that donny
>hathaway is healing, but the minute people talk about
>shooting in music we act like it has no effect. it's weird
>& *ahem* dishonest. i know my comaprisons might come off as
>a little flimsy here, but you get what i'm saying.
>
>nina & donny's music disappeared for the same reason we now
>got 50 platnumizing. culture is one of the best forms of
>warfare out there. i just think it would be a shame if we
>don't examine it more closely.