You ever read something that just made you say, “Huh?”

In the past year, I have seen a couple of rap videos that were both shocking and thought-provoking. One was NY Oil’s “Y’all Should All Get Lynched”, which called out rappers who engage coonish behavior and who advocate killing, selling dope or the whole thug image, in general. The second on was a parody song called “Read A Book”. It basically plays like a Lil Jon song but, calls on black people to read, raise their kids and to “…buy some land, buy some land…f**k spinnin’ rims!”

Now, according to Rainbow-PUSH:

A common definition of satire is witty language used to convey insults or scorn. The video is plenteously scornful and insulting, but not of crassness. The video insults reading, personal hygiene, family values and frugality. “Read a Book” heaps scorn on positive values and (un)intentionally celebrates ignorance. The narrator is obviously illiterate, unkempt and disrespectful. So who takes his advice seriously?

The best Hip-hop is clever, with allusions to politics, history, great music and literature. Part of the fun is finding the hidden meaning. I was prepared to forgive the crude language and lack of creativity if there was as message encouraging viewers to read and otherwise conduct themselves responsibly. I was disappointed. The simplistic repetitive rhyme and tune made it clear that the creator had not taken his own advice, i.e. to Read a Book.

Well, we must have been watching a different video. Malcolm X believed in “making it plain” when speaking to people so that they would clearly get the message you were trying to convey. This parody did just that. It was clever by turning the imagery seen in too many rap videos on its ear. My wife, who is an Algebra teacher got it. My best friend who is a long-time Programmer/Developer got it. I am a Systems Analyst and I got it. We all caught on and did not feel dumbed-down by it in the slightest.

The problem is that some in the “afristocracy” have forgotten that, sometimes, you need to do things to shake people out of their slumber, even if it’s a little crass or crude. Sometimes being clever involves resisting the urge to point one’s nose in the air and getting a little dirty.

More importantly, however, is that the creators of this video deserve credit for actually trying to say something important about our need to better educate ourselves and to be more responsible adults. If that was missed by these critics, then perhaps they should actually be more questioning of themselves than the video’s creators.

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