Legendary jazz trumpet player Wynton Marsalis criticized rap music containing degrading lyrics, saying it causes more damage to the black community than statues of Confederate soldiers.
In a podcast interview with The Washington Post, Marsalis said he believes the “pipeline of filth” that is rap music shows “how we’ve lost our grip on our morality in the black community… using pornography and profanity and addressing ourselves in the lowest, most disrespectful form.”
“’You can’t have a pipeline of filth be your default position’ and not have it take a toll on society,” Marsalis told The Post’s Jonathan Capehart, going on to draw a comparison to minstrel shows of the early 19th century.
“It’s just like the toll the minstrel show took on black folks and on white folks. Now, all this ‘nigger this,’ ‘bitch that,’ ‘ho that,’ that’s just a fact at this point. For me, it was not a default position in the ’80s. Now that it is the default position, how you like me now? You like what it’s yielding? Something is wrong with you — you need your head examined if you like this.”
The Pulitzer Prize winner, who played a role in removing Confederate statues from New Orleans, said he feels profane rap lyrics denigrate black culture.
“My words are not that powerful. I started saying in 1985 I don’t think we should have a music talking about niggers and bitches and hoes. It had no impact. I’ve said it. I’ve repeated it. I still repeat it. To me that’s more damaging than a statue of Robert E. Lee.”
“I feel that that’s much more of a racial issue than taking Robert E. Lee’s statue down,” he said. “There’s more niggers in that than there is in Robert E. Lee’s statue.”
On Wednesday Marsalis clarified his comments on Facebook, saying he wasn’t talking about ALL rap.
A number of (NOT ALL) hip hop musicians have gone on record saying that the marketplace and the industry encourages them to make their material more commercial by adding violent and profanity laced, materialistic and over-the-top stereotypical images and concepts to their work. They too know that this mythology reinforces destructive behavior at home and influences the world’s view of the Afro American in a decidedly negative direction. If you love black people how can you love this? Hmmmm…..Because someone will pay to go on a safari (and watch you) doesn’t mean they admire the hippos.
He added that he reserves the right to critique because to lose that right “is a step back towards slavery.”
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