Rapper Lil’ Wayne (Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr.) is embroiled in a controversy over lyrics referencing murder victim Emmett Till, whose death by lynching in 1955 served as a galvanizing agent for America’s civil rights activism.
The lyrics– specifically, a 16 bar verse– come from a remix that Wayne, 30, participated on with Epic/Sony recording artist Future, on the single “Karate Chop”.
Despite the fact that the single was never officially released (it
was apparently leaked via the Internet) the public criticism has been so
vehement that Epic Records responded by indicating that the company is taking “great efforts” to remove it from public access. Surviving members of the Till family have publicly demanded an apology.
vehement that Epic Records responded by indicating that the company is taking “great efforts” to remove it from public access. Surviving members of the Till family have publicly demanded an apology.
At least one prominent musician has publicly taken issue with the lyrics. “You can’t equate that to Emmett Till,” said Stevie Wonder.
“You just cannot do that. … I think you got to have someone around you…
even if they are the same age or older — is wiser to say, ‘Yo, that’s
not happening.”
In 1955, Till was a 14-year-old boy from Chicago visiting family in
the Mississippi Delta when a chance encounter with a passing white woman
eventually led to Till’s kidnapping from the family home a few days
later. He was eventually found dead, brutally beaten and his head
misshapen. Two men put on trial for the murder were acquitted,
and—protected by double jeopardy—infamously admitted to their own guilt
in a later interview. In the years to follow, poems, songs, and an
ongoing assortment of civil rights gatherings and demonstrations
referenced Till as a martyr for the civil rights cause.
This is an ongoing problem in hip-hop and other urban-culture
entertainment, where certain celebrities seem to be oblivious to
history, and fan culture seems to be more and more accepting of an
anything-goes creative aesthetic, even if it seems to fly in the face of
common sense and heretofore basic standards of respect. When pushback
occurs for anything offensive that is done or said, the party in
question tends to claim a persecution complex, or that his “freedom of
speech” trumps all, regardless of the inanity of what he is being
scrutinized for. Even certain personalities have come to think of
themselves as “social activists” by virtue of their celebrity status–
despite never participating in any sort of public demonstration or
protest, phone call campaign, letter-writing campaign, local government
meetings, or really anything that might have a genuine context
reflective of an involved citizen.
Buying holiday turkeys, winter coats or even computers for a classroom doesn’t make somebody MLK or Malcolm X. Being reckless in one’s travel habits and getting busted for possession-based gun and drug charges doesn’t make somebody H. Rap Brown or Huey Newton.
In 1955 Jim Crow-era New Orleans (where Wayne is from), he could have
easily met the same fate as an Emmett Till, whether in his teen years or
now at age 30. Hip-hop’s younger generations have made ritual of
giving props to “the homies that didn’t make it” via pouring liquor and
wearing T-shirts emblazoned with photos of the recently deceased. If
Wayne, Future and others were really cognizant of giving honor to the
dead, they would not be so casual in engaging in throwaway punchlines
that mock those whose bloodshed helped clear the way for the relative
freedoms that are enjoyed now.
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