Monday, May 12, 2008

I'm buying this book!!!!

I'm not one for gossipy tell-all books, but in the following case, I am going to make an exception:

Terrance Dean, a former executive at music channel MTV, has penned a memoir of his life and times in the hip hop industry as a gay man. It is an explosive exposé of a thriving gay subculture in an aggressively male business, where anti-gay lyrics and public homophobia are common.

I don't know how I feel about Dean naming names, but I support the book for several reasons.

Hip-hop is a microcosm of African-American hypocrisy regarding the lgbt community.

With all due respect to my brothers and sisters, we are talking about a genre of music that encourages baby mama dramas, makes stars out of women for doing nothing but jiggling their butts in a video, and propagates ignorance of speech and attitudes amongst black men.

We are talking about a genre of music that creates and supports images of masculinity so extreme that you couldn't measure up to them if your blood was replaced with testosterone.

Some vestiges of hip-hop add to the problem of homophobia in the African-American community, pure and simple.

Oh yeah, that is right. Kanye West spoke out against homophobia in hip-hop. He even got on the cover of several magazines because of it.

Natually that led me to find the tallest mountain in the United States so that I could stand on the very top, twirl my finger in the air and go "whoop te do."

This book will give hip-hop and my African-American community a rude shot in the arm. And trust me when I say that both need it.

I may buy five copies, all hardback editions.

See, I bet you all thought I was going to write about Crystal Dixon again.