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Ludacris (yawn) slaps at Hillary’s Gender

By Carmen D. on Thursday, July 31st, 2008, 6:29 am Comments

You know, back in the day rap lyrics were clever. Rhymes stretched vocabulary and the imagination. These days anything goes. And anything coming out of the mouths of big name hip-hoppers (or company hired producers) frequently has more to do with generating controversy and bad taste than with anything of analytical substance.

The current case in point? Ludacris insults Hillary Clinton in a track called ‘Politics as Usual’:

Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant.

What the hell does that even mean? There were so many aspects to observe about the primary campaign. Why did he have to take sleepy route and denigrate her gender? Oh, I know. It’s the misogyny, stupid!

Obama’s campaign blasted “Politics As Usual,” which is on the “Gangsta Grillz: The Preview” mixtape with Atlanta spinner DJ Drama.

“As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to,” campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail statement. “This song is not only outrageously offensive to Sen. Clinton, Rev. Jackson, Sen. McCain and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics.” Source

Pobre Obama. Obama has met with Ludacris and mentioned that he sees ‘Luda’ as talented and “an astute businessman.” Maybe. But Ludacris is proving to be a crappy ally. ‘Cause one thing is for sure, this song is sure to fire up the PUMA’s in ways John McCain could not have dreamed.

With friends like this…

  • Hey RDB, welcome to the conversation. I thought I HAD blogrolled you. I'm a fan already! Thanks for reaching out.
  • Nice spot u have here, hope u don’t mind the drive by, do chk me out one day

    rawdawgbuffalo and if u like what u read, maybe u will come back, even Blog Roll Me
  • Tyler, as always you lay out a very important way to look at this situation. I admit, that I was mostly annoyed by the misogyny, but had FEAR about how Luda's actions would impact Obama. I can see how MY fear was projected into my analysis of the situation and what I gave emphasis to in my post. Thanks for the insight.
  • I think its no different than a country artist who is in Bush's ipod who may have met him several times.

    I think we do ourselves a disservice to parrot the dominant narrative. I think all of us have to beware of how our behavior reflects on the race, but I think we don't want to get into a situation where Obama has to apologize for everything a brotha or sister says over the next 4 (hopefully 8) years.

    This is a very fine line, I know. But in this instance the issue for me is much more about Luda's constant, flagrant display of misogyny, not that this misogyny can be loosely linked to our candidate. I think in this case we miss the point AND further entrench harmful aspects of representational blackness.

    We should begin as a people to draw distinctions between behavior that truly impacts us all and behavior that is representative of something else. This is an issue of sexism, not race. But that's me.
  • Debbie Parks
    We all have friends to agree/disagree with.

    We also reserve the right to gain knowledge and "get smarter"

    May time allow us wisdom.
  • Tyler, in the Rollingstone article Obama said he was a fan of Ludacris, had his songs on his ipod AND that they had met and talked several times. Maybe not friends exactly, but enough contact to be surprised. Don't you think?
  • You know...Luda was dumb.

    But why is every blog I'm reading on this topic saying "with friends like these..."?

    Let's not embrace the dominant narrative and link black men any more than they need to be. Barack and Luda aren't friends.

    This reflects poorly on Obama because all black men are the same, right? I know that's what they'll say, but let's sing a different tune.

    The issue here is the misogyny, not Obama. I know Fox News and nem will make this a huge deal, but as thinkers we should draw distinctions ourselves. Otherwise, what we join the chorus instead of building a counter narrative.
  • The heck is wrong with this dude? You would think with as much political beef as he's had, Luda would be a lot more aware of what his words can mean to the Obama campaign.
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