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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Music / News Today in Bullshit: Dead Emmett Till Earns a Level of Respect the Still-Living Tina Turner Does Not

Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 1:00 PM

'Hurtful' Lil Wayne Lyric Prompts Apology From Epic Records

Epic Records has apologized to the family of Emmett Till after Lil Wayne made a crude reference in a leaked track to the 1955 beating death of the 14-year-old boy, The Associated Press reports.

Wayne contributed to a remix of Future's "Karate Chop" that leaked last weekend and included the lyric, "Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till" – referencing the Chicago teen who was infamously tortured and lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting Mississippi in 1955. After Till's family objected to the line, the Rev. Jesse Jackson contacted Weezy's management company, the Blueprint Group, on their behalf.

Epic issued a statement yesterday night apologizing for the song: "We regret the unauthorized remix version of Future's 'Karate Chop,' which was leaked online and contained hurtful lyrics. Out of respect for the legacy of Emmett Till and his family . . . we are going through great efforts to take down the unauthorized version." The label eventually plans to release a version of the song that "will not include such references."

However, as even middling rap fans know, beating something up "like Ike beat Tina" is a classic hiphop simile that has never inspired an apology from anyone.

Sure, Emmett Till wasn't married to the angry mob that murdered him, but let's not blame the victim. Let's not blame anyone—I like offensive similes in my hiphop. But Epic Records' apology to the family of Emmett Till smacks of promotion for the record by Lil Wayne, which is gross.

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Comments (10) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I don't think their apology smacks of self promotion as much as double standards. Spewing hate speech against gays, women, Asians and Jews is pretty common is hip hop. Oh, and cops. Did Asians ever get an apology from the record company that put out music celebrating buring down Korean businesses? Did cops get an apology for all the music celebrating killing cops? Did gays and women get an apology for all the hate speech, every bit as hateful as the Till reference, that has been spewed openly for the last 20 or more years? Killing gays and women, raping and beating women is not censored but this reference is?

Posted by whatthef101 on February 14, 2013 at 1:19 PM

Funny, I was just reading in Ta-Nehisi Coates about the "toxic messages about adult masculinity" that poor kids are constantly exposed to. I'm not talking about "video games/rap music/comic books/Kardashians cause violence", but just the constant exposure of kids to total jackasses like L'il Wayne and Chris Brown, and the lack of male role models who do stuff like work, read books, know who Emmett Till (or Ta-Nehisi Coates) are, and so on.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 14, 2013 at 1:25 PM

@2 This brings me to something akin to the tastelessness of the joke to it's qualitative value ratio.

Does the lyric "Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till" impart enough wisdom to excuse the execrable nature of the rhyme?

I'd love to think it was a moment of teaching, but I doubt it even creates a teachable moment.

Posted by Kids, You Know People Who Were Adults When Till Was Lynched on February 14, 2013 at 2:00 PM

Often forgotten is that the #1 target of hip-hop hate speech is black males. No apologies there, either. Self-loathing is a muthafuka that metastasizes like cancer.

Posted by Jerry M. Ander on February 14, 2013 at 2:10 PM

Tina Turner is a public figure. Emmett Till was not.

Posted by treehugger on February 14, 2013 at 3:38 PM

Why is Lil Wayne popular? He's short, buttfuck ugly. Is his music good?

Posted by sirkowski

on February 14, 2013 at 8:11 PM

I agree that the lyric about Tina Turner is unacceptable, but that doesn't mean Emmett Till's family didn't deserve an apology.

In grad school, I took a weekend seminar with the author who co-wrote Mamie Till-Mobley's book about Emmett. Her son was kidnapped and brutally murdered for an imagined offense. I don't think I made it through more than half the book without crying. She's still alive and has to live with that memory every day, so to have rapper make light of it is bullshit she doesn't deserve.

None of this is to say that Tina Turner, or any domestic abuse victim, deserves to have her story treated so lightly either, but she's a public figure who survived the abuse and chose to tell her story as an adult. I put that in a way different category than knowing that Emmett Till's mom has to read about this and know how whoever writes Lil' Wayne's music used her son's memory.

Posted by J from Oregon on February 14, 2013 at 9:39 PM

Damnit. I misread Google. Mamie Till-Mobley died a while ago. My apologies. If I could delete my comment, I would.

Still. Anyone else remotely related to Emmett Till should be pissed on her behalf.

Posted by J from Oregon on February 14, 2013 at 9:41 PM

http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/news/uplo…

Posted by Matthew Richter

on February 14, 2013 at 9:55 PM

@8, no reason to apologize. We keep the dead alive in our hearts by remembering them.@5 is wrong; Emmett Till was a martyr and a major world figure and will be remembered long after everyone has forgotten who Tina Turner was.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 14, 2013 at 10:32 PM