By Armani Valentino
“All I want for my birthday is a big booty girl.” A little after 10:30am this morning; while driving to the office, these were the words that I heard come across the airwaves on my local radio station.
The song is the latest radio release from 2 Chainz featuring Kanye West, both 35 year old men. And”...Tasheed Epps aka 2 Chainz, actually has a daughter and is respected by his family and peers. Both of these rappers are two of my favorite rappers for different reasons. However, when I sat in the car in jaw dropping disbelief that the artists could make this song, the record label could submit it to radio, and that the radio stations would actually play it, totally left me dumbfounded.
This is when I said, “Enough is enough!” There hasn’t been a group effort from the hip-hop generation concerning the continuous decline of “class & creativity” of the songs on the air, let alone the total disrespect and disgrace of the black woman. While many may complain in our private conversations and feel that there is nothing that can be done about it, I think the days for our generation thinking like that are over.
There have been too many people that have put their lives on the line for us to keep letting this happen on my watch and say absolutely nothing about it.
The words following the first words I mentioned were, “When I die bury me inside the booty club.” In 2007, when I lived in Oklahoma City, I went to 5th Street Baptist Church. This is the church where Kanye West held his mother’s funeral services and the church that his late grandmother attended. As I listened to the song, I thought to myself, “There is no way his mother or grandmother would be pleased with this song.” I don’t know any respectable man or woman that would be pleased with this from their child.
This is the same guy that was well respected for being one of the voices in the hip hop generation that we could depend upon to remind us of who we are, and how we should be steadily increasing our life and service to others. A perfect example of the Kanye West that his true fans loved would be his songs, “All Falls Down, Jesus Walks, Through the Wire, & many others.” And while this is not about Kanye West or 2 Chainz individually, this is about entertainers from our generation being able to hold to some standards. It is also about having some limits on just how far we’ll go for another dollar.
It seems to me that our generation, the hip-hop generation, has become totally desensitized to the public disgrace of women and black women in particular. It also seems that as long as a paycheck is attached to something we are willing to say and do anything; even at the detriment of others.
Black women feel disrespected as a whole, and I definitely see why. This disrespect also negatively effects the black man’s position in the world and the perception of us as a whole in the eyes of civilized society.
Balance must be restored. If we continue like this, I don’t see things getting any better for us as a community. And instead of young men desiring a woman for intangible qualities like those of Michelle Obama, their desire will be A BIG BOOTY GIRL. Enough is enough!
Armani Valentino is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He is also a national bestselling author of the book 99 Questions You Must Ask a Man Before Sleeping with Him & Definitely Before Having SEX and 7 other books, publisher, playwright, writer, director, & producer. For more information on Armani and his books you can visit www.armanivalentino.com.