Having said that, I feel like I could be a bit nicer on the most popular social networking tool. I tend to yell, virtually yell that is.

Created by Oatmeal

The coverage of the 2008 Presidential election was like no other, we can all admit that.

The technology blew away viewers under the age of 60. As for the rest of the viewers, well, they weren’t so fortunate,

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This post is part of an assignment for Emerson College Visual Media Arts Course 200: Media Criticism and Theory:: Section F. The assignment is to use the daily college life as a base for understanding visual pleasure-in relation to Laura Mulvey’s article, “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema.”

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The issue

During the 2008 Presidential Election campaign, Ludacris (aka actor Chris Bridges) released a track titled, “Politics,” which endorses Barack Obama while shooting down McCain, Hillary, and Bush.Here are some of the most controversial lines:

“Well give Luda a special pardon if I’m ever in the slammer

Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant

McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed

Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped

Get out and vote or the end’ll be near

The world is ready for change because Obama is here”

This song is not the first time Luda’s speech has caused uproar. Oprah has issues with Ludacris about racism and misogyny and Bill O’Reilly has repeatedly denounced the rapper for his words about women and race.

The response

Within days, of course, the Hillary camp released a statement:

“‘I think it’s an opportunity for Senator Obama to stand up, said Buell,’ who is not a regular Ludacris listener. ‘I have not heard it, I have seen certain quotes from this, I don’t know, do you call them songs? What do you call it?’

‘It’s just unacceptable. If it’s true that he is on Senator Obama’s iPod quite a bit, he’s got to distance himself. Because this guy is very disrespectful and misogynist about women. It’s not acceptable.’”

Since the Hillary camp does not approve-of course Obama’s officials have to respond:

“As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to,” said spokesman Bill Burton. “This song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics.”

Why am I telling you this? It is old news right? Well, Ludacris has a new album titled, “Theatre of the Mind,” and the track Last of a Dying Breed has the conclusion (for now) to all of this drama:

(I recommend listening to it rather than reading the lyrics, even a rap n00b should find it easy to understand what he is saying. )

They say O’reilly dont like um’,
Oprah wont invite um’,
The President announced um’,
No one will announce um’,
Controversial lyrics like I’m crying for help,
Very talented but I should be ashamed of myself,
But this is my art,
This is my music,
I’m speaking from the heart,
hit record and I lose it,
Bit my tongue for no one,
I put you on blast
And all the news channels, yall can kiss my ass,
If i dish it, I can take it,
Can hit rock bottom and I’m still gunna make it,
(why?) Cause I’m a born hustler
Natural survivor,
Seed of a Gangster,
I put that on my father,
Youtube or Google me
Turn in up and play it,
cause many people think it
i just had the balls to say it,
and risk losing everything i stand for the week,
plus i live for the freedom or speech,

My thoughts about all of this: Well I obviously have a strong opinion about this otherwise I would not have wasted several hours preparing this post. Like Ludacris, I won’t bite my tongue for anyone and I’ll exercise my freedom of speech. Bill O’Reilly and Oprah Winfrey can both suck it. It’s obvious that Oprah has issues beyond explanation because she is welcoming to Chris Rock and Cedric the Entertainer on her show with open arms, but has an issue with Ludacris-when all three of them use the same language.

I believe, just like my idol (the all knowing and all mighty George Carlin), that no word is bad. If I say the word fuck or rape or cunt, they are just sounds, signifying some sort of action. But that’s it, they only signify the action. Actions are bad, but words have no intent to harm-people have intent to harm.

With that said, rap/hip-hop is a community in which the language has been adapted in a different way. That doesn’t make the language better or worse, just different.

It is wrong for anyone to oppose language when it is used to express, because that is known as art. Ludacris has done nothing wrong. He says in response to the negative press, “many people think it/I just had the balls to say it,” and we all know this is true. I’m sure one night Obama wished McCain would just “fuck off and die,” as my friend Pete would put it. Many people have thought bad things about Hillary and Bush as well, Ludacris is not Satan in human form for speaking his mind.

On a side note: I feel like Barack Obama is more concerned with his image than I would have imagined the first African American president to be. I wanted a “proud to be from the ghetto” black president. Not a darker version of Mitt Romney. I wanted a “Chris Rock in Head of State”. Sounds crazy, but would I have to worry about the commander in chief abusing his powers for money? Hell no, Chris Rock has values and morals.

Written by a man who loves rap.