Note from BBT: In our own timeframes of personal development, there will come times when we must be willing and able to consider opposing opinions that go against our beliefs, better still when such openly opposing beliefs are already part of your train of thought, lurking somewhere in the mental vault. For years, there have been times when I’ve gone along with something even though in the not so deeper areas of my soul I knew I couldn’t co-sign on certain things.
I’ve always felt this way about American gangsta rap. I remember my first experiences with the genre back in the late 80s and early 90s. Some of the violent lyrics I heard were often shocking to my system. I remember many years ago riding in a car with a work colleague, Frank, who was listening to the 1991 classic gangsta rap CD, Efil4zaggin, which, spelled backwards became Niggaz4Life by west coast rap group NWA.
On the way home, the first track I heard in Frank’s car was the song ‘One Less Bitch’ in which rappers Dr. Dre and MC Ren graphically detailed how they killed women. As Frank drove, bobbing his head to the beat, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wassup with these lyrics?’ The groove which featured a classic sample of a Barry White track was sonically hypnotic. That was perhaps the trap with gangsta rap; the lyrics were pure evil, but the beats were slammin’.
The release would go on to become the number one album in America one week after its release, which meant a whole lot of kids, teens and adults, across the color line, were listening to this album. Later that year, another CD’s lyrics would strike me the same way. The first solo album of Geto Boys rapper Scarface entitled Mr. Scarface Is Back. Again, hard funk beats paired with explicit lyrics depicting violence, murder, dope deals and sex.
Before these albums were released in the early 90s, another rap group that pushed the envelope on explicit lyrical content was the Miami-based group known as 2 Live Crew. Anyone who is familiar with 2 Live Crew knows that their music was basically pornography put to music. Whether we’re talking gangsta or sex rap, we all knew that this music was x-rated, definitely not meant for minors and possibly having negative influences on young, impressionable minds.
But more than that, as these types of albums went from being underground to within a few years and certainly within a decade, going mainstream, one has to step back at a certain point and wonder what the effect of such music would have on society as a whole. Clearly, there were those who rejected this type of music and labeled it as trash.
In fact, on the aforementioned Efil4zaggin album, NWA seemed to revel in the manner in which some people vehemently rejected the content of their music. The beginning of the track ‘Niggaz 4 Life’ featured a montage of voices decrying NWA’s music. The voices are heard saying that the music and way it talks about women was ‘bulls*it’ and that they didn’t want their kids listening to this type of music. But the fact is that, in the entertainment business, people who are willing to use vulgarity, present adult-oriented content, dress and talk provocatively are often rewarded with lots of money, fame and rewards.
I’m not gonna front as if I didn’t participate in this slow, moral decadence going on in the music industry as I watched and bobbed my head just like everyone else did, even as my conscience would never really let me fully enjoy it. Some time in the mid 90s, as I started to research politics, journalism, the music, film and television industries, I started to understand what was going on.
Somewhere along the way, I began to catch on to the fact that everything and everyone that were placed in front of our unsuspecting eyes were players in the scheme for destroying the moral fabric of society. That included any sort of social, political, musical or media-oriented movement that seemed to just pop up out of nowhere. Often times, these things are presented as something ‘cool’ or even positive, but upon closer inspection, frequently they were the exact opposite, and if one isn’t careful, the degradation, hedonism, evil, x-rated, foul and deceptive can easily become the norm.
Several weeks ago, I posted a story about the singer Anitta becoming the first Brazilian to win a Video Music Award. I had to admit that Anitta’s commercial success was astounding as she had even managed to outearn a number of prominent American entertainers, no small feat for a woman from a Latin American country. But on the flip side of Anitta’s success and the culture for which she represents, there is a portion of Brazilians who are none too thrilled with the singer’s success.
Funk music in Brazil emerged out of the 1980s black dances in the poor peripheries of large cities such as Rio de Janeiro. These favela slum beats would soon adapt Miami bass style rhythms, mix them with highly sexualized lyrics and become all the rage in these poor communities. As the music and culture originated in mostly black and poor neighborhoods, it was an easy target for a Brazil that belittled and denigrated anything associated with the black population.
Understanding the struggle for recognition and respect of Afro-Brazilians, part of me supported the funk beats and culture, but similar to how my conscience spoke to me as I enjoyed gangsta and sex rhymes in the American music scene, some parts of the funk culture coming out of Brazil didn’t quite sit well with me either. Over the years, I’ve read hundreds of insulting comments about funk, with phrases such as ‘funk é lixo’, meaning ‘funk is trash’ becoming not only a catchphrase, but the names of whole blogs dedicated to trashing the genre.
If you’re honest with yourself and stand by whatever it is that you believe, there comes a time when you must at least hear what opposing views have to say about certain topics. If you’re not willing to challenge your views, perhaps it is true that deep down, you know you really can’t defend your position. I have never been a fan of Brazilian funk in terms of its musical quality, just as I have never been a fan of Miami bass. Besides that, looking at the lifestyles of some of the people that participate in the culture of these genres, I must again ask, where is all of this going and should we allow our children to be seduced by it?
I’m just asking the question. Below, one blog that has consistently pointed out the issues they have with artists such as Anitta and what they represent go in on her. If you’re an Anitta fan, you may not like this critique, but I believe that the more critical side of any analysis should also be heard. Lest someone think I am simply ‘picking on’ Brazil, when I think of what’s going on in the US, there are clearly aspects of the conversation that apply to folks like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion. The point that I’m making here is all the more relevant when we consider the fact that Cardi B. herself won’t even allow her own daughter to listen to her music.
Check it out below…there will be more from where this comes from as I begin to take a deep dive into topics that I hadn’t previously touched upon on this blog.
Anitta’s music video: a terrible example to educate girls but which modern women feminists turn a blind eye
Posted by Mulheres Contra o Feminismo
We posted about the vulgarity of funkeira Anitta in a past post and how we should never be proud of this kind of woman representing us. Once again the feminist funkeira (funk artist) shows her vulgarity, she allies her image to the Brazilian woman and feminists use her commercial success to show off her vulgarity, which even influences younger girls who stop dedicating themselves to their studies and spend more time getting lost with sex clips on social networks. Unfortunately, things from the “empowered and feminine” Brazil.
But as almost always, the ego and collective feminist hysteria of the modern woman causes aunts, mothers-in-law, wives and genitors to push dubious feminine behavior from child murder to supporting vulgarity and sex tourism under the rug. Of course, the support happens as long as the perpetuators are women because many imbeciles believe more in catchphrases like “A girl’s place should be wherever she wants”, “I am against my husband in this sexist society” and support feminists who indoctrinate their daughters, granddaughters and nieces, when in fact they should support their husband, their father and decently educate their daughters away from Instagram and other social networks, without pushing it under the rug for feminists like Anitta and the like.
Unfortunately, it seems that the modern woman’s feminine ego, as always, makes them run away from responsibility and reasoning but instead blame men for the bullshit that the same women do.
Anitta has been supporting feminism for a long time, spewing out the vulgarity of Brazilian women (who worldwide outdo themselves compared to other women) and has been in the spotlight for being popular among women who even complain about being objectified. Of course, sex sells but if a man were so vulgar when objectifying women, he would either be condemned or loved (like the marginals who sing funk songs during the garbage called carnival or at dances in the periphery).
Anitta, who behaves like a badass when she says she wants to hire women for sex, like a good feminist, seems to be defended by modern women who turn a blind eye and let their daughters, granddaughters and nieces watch clips and interviews of the vulgar funkeira.
To no surprise to any rational person, Brazilian women around the world continue to have a reputation as prostitutes. And this with the support of women, some of whom even pretend to be conservative or religious.
This happens abroad where I lived, but here in Brazil, Brazilian feminism is surpassing itself every day.
I must congratulate my fellow Brazilian women, childish, vulgar and lacking in responsibility, who surpass themselves in making me and some others feel ashamed both in Brazil and abroad.
Source: Mulheres Contra o Feminismo
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