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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
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You know this shit is really tough for me to get my head around personally.
I listen to this stuff (and much, much worse stuff than Vince, who's downright repentant compared to a lot of the gangster rap we grew up with), and it almost never makes makes me feel anything other than the song's groove... I don't feel horrified or stunned, and I think of myself as a pretty sensitive and non-violent person.
But whenever someone else takes issue with a rap lyric, I usually do have to admit that the shit's pretty goddamn offensive. Watching that woman recite the "hoes need abortions" line was decidedly unpleasant. If these lyrics were coming from the mouth of a friend of mine, I'd be horrified.
But I'm not horrified by the music. Certainly not Vince's. Love it in fact. But once those lyrics become once removed from their context as expressive, open-to-interpretation elements of a man's art, they start to freak me out a bit.
I genuinely don't know why this is. Again, not shocked or even unsettled by the music itself, but show me a white person saying those words and I'll get pretty fucking disturbed.
I think it must have to do with the fact that I know hip-hop is supposed to be this way. It's uniquely suited to be an outlet for musings on violence, drugs, sex, and social unease. I expect it. But I still find the phrase "hoes need abortions" pretty ugly and terrifying when it's outside of the context of music.
For me that video was 100% more upsetting than "Norf Norf."