Are Video’s Like Nelly’s “Tip Drill” To Blame For The Behavior Seen In The “Kids Freak Fest!” Video?
Are Nelly’s “Tip Drill” and The “Kid’s Freak Fest!” Videos Related? Did one birth the other?
If you want to know Nelly’s response please view the following video:
Hip hop artist Nelly has a message for all you silly women fretting about girls seeing his “Tip Drill” video: it’s all your fault.
OK, so that’s not exactly what he said in the December issue of “Sister 2 Sister” magazine, but it’s pretty darn close.
For those of you who may have been out of the hip hop video loop that includes “Tip Drill” — and the controversy surrounding it — here’s a brief summary. Think of a hip hop or rap video with plenty of scantily clad women shaking booties and simulating sex acts. In other words, think of your standard hip hop or rap video.
Then think of one that goes waaaayyy beyond those. You’ve got “Tip Drill.” Some women at Spelman College found the images of their gender so offensive in the video that they asked Nelly to pass on his scheduled appearance at the school earlier this year, even though the hip-hop artist was coming for a cause unquestionably worthy: to get black folks signed up as bone marrow donors.
Nelly, for the life of him, can’t figure out what all the fuss is about. “Tip Drill” is, according to Nelly, “adult entertainment.” His daughter can’t watch it, and neither should yours.
At first brush, this sounds almost reasonable. Nelly’s point was driven home to me when I chatted with a class of eighth graders at a Baltimore middle school recently. Trying to engage the students in something I figured they knew about — the hip-hop world — I asked if they had heard of the controversy with Nelly, “Tip Drill” and Spelman College.
They hadn’t. But about 10 of them — only one a girl — said they had seen the video. Figuring I was rolling the dice with my sanity, I decided to push for more answers.
“Where did you see the video?” I asked all those who had raised their hands.
“BET Uncut,” answered one.
“BET Uncut,” said a second.
BET Uncut was the most frequent answer.
“And what time does ‘BET Uncut’ come on?” I asked.
They correctly chorused “3 o’clock in the morning.”
“And where are your parents when you’re watching this?” their teacher asked.
“Asleep,” they answered.
There are quite a few American parents asleep at the switch when it comes to what their 13- and 14-year-olds are doing at 3 o’clock in the morning. So Nelly may have a point when he chides those parents who would let their daughters watch “Tip Drill.”
Why he didn’t show the same concern for whether their sons watch the video perhaps indicates the problem those Spelman women had with Nelly and “Tip Drill.” This guy may be able to sing, but he doesn’t seem to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
What those Spelman women were saying is that they found “Tip Drill” filled with degrading images and stereotypes of black women. Is Nelly really saying degrading and stereotypical images are acceptable as long as we keep them away from the kiddies?
Let me draw an analogy here. In my writing class at Johns Hopkins University — which usually has mostly white and Asian students — I showed some 1940s cartoons that viciously stereotyped black people. I did it to show the students that the racism black folks had to overcome wasn’t just manifested in some segregation laws on the books. It seeped into the entire culture.
Perhaps those young ladies at Spelman should invite Nelly back, strap him in a chair, lock him in a room and have him watch some of those old cartoons. They can throw in the worst of the movies from that era that cruelly stereotyped black folks in the same way.
Then they should ask Nelly if those stereotypes are perfectly fine because he’s watching them and not his daughter.
Women have had to endure not only sexism but sexist stereotypes through the years. Those stereotypes aren’t any less offensive because we keep them away from children.
I suspect most of the black women at Spelman don’t even have daughters. The issue for them isn’t who watches “Tip Drill,” but the message in it. All they’re asking of Nelly is what he doesn’t seem to have: a little empathy.
Try walking a mile in their pumps, playa.
There is a reason why the Hip Hop industry is called “entertainment” nobody is forcing anyone to look at these videos or participate in these videos. Parents have to take responsability. Do you let your children watch porn? I don’t think so. So why are you not monitoring what your children watch. There are many different lifestyles out there. It is wrong for one man to judge the other because of his lifestyle. There is one supreme judge and his name is God. At the end of the day everyone has to face him.
You are right, Hip-Hop should just be entertainment. However, in the African-American community it has long since abandoned that description and has become our cultural standard bearer. Our children live and breathe hip-hop. Do most of us let our children watch porn? No!, but porn usually does not come on basic cable…unless it is in a rap video.
It is not about our individual children. I can remove every television from my home and my children will still be affected by our garbage media. Why? Because their friends will have been exposed to it. If we think that protecting and raising our children stops at our own doorsteps, you are sadly mistaken.
Imagine living in a neighborhood where your neighbors all have filthy yards with junk and garbage piled up so high that it spills into the road. However, your yard is well manicured and kept up and the road in front of your house is clear of debris. You have done your part to take care of your family. Or have you? Would not your neighbors’ filth still affect you and your family? You can’t turn a blind eye to what your neighbors are doing. Your children will still see that filth that you protected them from when they go down the street. Some of the kids in those other houses may be their classmates. They will talk eventually. Try selling your house. You will find that the value has gone down with the neighborhood. However, some of this could have been avoided if ordinances had been passed and enforced…if a neighborhood association had been started.
What does this have to do with Hip-Hop? Everything. No matter how well I raise my kids, in America, they will be judged by how well you raise yours. I can run a clean ship but if yours is infested and filthy then my value is also diminished. We need to police our entire community and pass ordinances that protect and serve the best interests of us all. Your success is my success and vice-versa.
So if main stream Hip-Hop is garbage(which it is) and this garbage is negatively affecting our community(which it is) then we need to pass some ordinances to clean up our community(African American culture). We can’t just turn a blind eye and expect our neighbors(parents that let their children watch anything) to clean up on their own.
I am simply amazed at this video…I had to pause/rewind it several times because I KNEW I didn’t see what I thought I saw! Then once I saw that there really was half naked women in this video, my thoughts were, “Oh this must be something only online or on a video, etc” because I JUST KNEW none of the video channels would play such a video. Imagine my surprise as I read the above article by Gregory Kane and found out that BET has/had an “Un-cut” show on at a 3am time slot! I had no idea! Even when I watched and listen to the Kids Freak Fest video, I was “comforted” (for lack of better word, but who would be comforted at that baby girl and that little boy doing what they were doing!) to see that these kids were not American children, but from somewhere else judging by their words didn’t sound like they were speaking English…which just goes to show you that children/people from all over the world see a picture of us as a black community that enjoys hip hop, and that’s what they want to emulate because things are supposedly “so much better” over here. I am one of those parents that fully believes in blocking inappropriate ratings on my cable tv and for that matter have time blocks on the cable as well. I have a 15yr old, 12yr old and 5yr old sons and a 9yr old daughter and refuse to leave the parenting of my children up to BET (which needs to be just ran out of the country for their racist, bigot, and embarressing views of African Americans), VH1, MTV, or any cable channel or satelite company! We as parents have got to step up and for real get back to old school with our children. We have to educate our childrens to respect themselves and others! We have to scare our children as well! Let them know that reprising behavior like that shown in this video typically ends up with folks in jail! That men and women often lie and at times will even say anything to send someone to jail, accuse innocent people or to make some money. I like hip hop, but there are certainly songs/videos that I would never let my children hear/see because they are not socially mature enough to understand the consequences that come with adult rated behavior (sex, rape,drugs, etc). Nelly is not alone in this! I can’t believe we went through a period of folks singing/rapping songs about their love for the strippers! Are you serious??!! Clearly I must be getting old (35!) because, that blows my mind. Do we not have anything else to rap about? I continue to pray for my children and for all children. God does not like ugly! Nelly does have a point, when we start standing up to this kind of behavior, and saying no to it, then it will stop. Start in your own home, your own family otherwise, these kids aren’t going to make it.
Young black mother I agree with you 100% we need to start a
campaign to run BET out of the country.I encourage each and
every one of you to purchase Pastor G.Craig Lewis DVD’S on the dangers of Hip Hop and sit down and watch these video’s
with your children and understand why all these things are
happening. Go to the web site EX MINISTRIES.COM and invest
in those video’s. You can buy them for about $20 a piece or
you can get 4-part series for about $85 plus shipping,believe
me its well worth your time and investment,because your dumb
down government control Preacher will never tell you this on
Sunday morning.These Rap Artist are satanically driven or most have or even participated in some form of devil worship,
and perhaps some may still be actively involved. Most lead a
life style of darkness behind the scenes that not noticed in
front of a camera unless you know what to look for. Watch the
hands signs that they flash in front of you. Do your research
black people and learn. Rap music is drug-driven,race-driven,
greed-driven and violence-driven. The wealthy mavens of the
the record industry-for example, Ted Field, heir to the Marshall Field of Marshall department store fortune and owner
of Interscope Records who also once had a stake in Deathrow
records and Edgar Bronfman, millionaire owner of Seagrams
produce Rap filth and will simply accept nothing else. These
young artists, many of them highly talented, living as they
do in communities where there are no jobs,families are ripped
apart,surviving where everything is bottomed out, are easy
prey. Self-hate is all consuming. The desperate need for money and the life status it brings reigns. And another thing
they love to get in front of camera and talk about how much of a family man or woman they are and how they try to be a
role model for young men and young women when looking at that
disgusting video its totally opposite of what family life should be.
Kdogg, I have always believed the saying “it takes a village to raise a child” therefore at no time would I assume that once my house is fixed “who cares” about the rest. I am heartbroken and I belive many feel this way but we have to start the repair now…I am a mother…and I have had the experience of sending my son to school and he came home telling me his friends are talking about sexx…yes he spelt the word sexx because he was not sure if it was approproate to say it. I understand the effects our surrounding can have on every aspect of our lives but I will still say this is not the time to judge and place blame…this is the time to take action…if the records are not listened to or bought these entertainers cannot make money…if certain radio and television stations are not looked at anymore and they loose their rating, this will be a wake up call for them but one person can’t do it…we need an alternate…somthing to make blacks understand that there are other ways and other means to success. I know I am rambling on but I did not want you to think that I believe when my house is fixed then all is well…absoloutely not, my child still has to leave my home at some time or another…but a lack of support for what we know is wrong will make a difference.
Smooches what you need to understand is that the parents are
responsible for their children and quit relying on the gov-
ernment and the public school system to raise your children.
The problems is too many parents are living in la-la land and
and are more concern with their career and gaining material
status here in the U.S. rather than being home in the afternoon to meet your child when he or she return home.There
is more to life besides owning a Benz,Lexus,or a big fine
house on a hill somewhere etc. Our family has been destroyed
simply because the center of Caucasian entertainment is violence, murder,sex,and mental illness.The absence of this
type of entertainment is alled boredom. This definition of
K-Dogg and Big Red are definitely on the right track. I’m sick and tired of everyone wanting to blame the parent. That’s pure b.s. See, we’re good at marching unto Washington, D.C., Lena, Louisiana when are civil rights are in question. But why do we turn the other cheek when our own brothers (and sisters) disrepect our culture? Like K-Dogg mentioned, “Do most of us let our children watch porn? No!, but porn usually does not come on basic cable…unless it is in a rap video. It is not about our individual children.”
Basically, our so call brothers and sisters work more ill-will towards our community than good. Oh sure, they give back to the communities - hell that guilty conscience of having your sister doing tricks in your videos, etc… should make you give back every penny you’ve made off your community. Now tell me, who is the real Uncle Tom? BET, are you listening as well?
It’s the MOTHER’S AND FATHER’S fault,