By Odeisel

Rape. The images and the emotions conjured by that word are at best unpleasant. Ask any survivor. Ask anyone falsely accused of it. The stain it leaves is indelible and even when untrue, it reeks. So when Ashley Judd, actress and humanitarian castigates Hip-Hop music and culture as “Rape culture,” your eyebrows immediately rise. Rape culture? That’s a powerful indictment, with many things wrong with it that we’ll get to in a minute. But for the sake of fairness and context, here is the exact quote:

“Along with other performers, YouthAIDS was supported by rap and hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy to spread the message…um, who? Those names were a red flag.

“As far as I’m concerned, most rap and hip-hop music — with its rape culture and insanely abusive lyrics and depictions of girls and women as ‘ho’s’ — is the contemporary soundtrack of misogyny.”

There are many ways to address this statement and get out of pocket. The way that would give her statements some credence would be to dismiss her with a “spirited eff you b___!” That would be just what the situation called for, but we’re smarter than that. To dismiss her for her ignorance is to give her a pass and Ms. Judd isn’t ignorant. She’s an accomplished graduate of the University of Kentucky with a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. A dim bulb she is not.

What we should look at, is Judd herself. What many don’t know is that Judd was cast in the Oliver Stone movie Natural Born Killers. We don’t know because her scene was removed from the final edit of the movie. When she attempted to get put on, she took a part in a movie directly linked to copycat killings and murderous rampages, including the Columbine massacre.  Various reports of people watching the movie repeatedly and then going out to emulate the grisly murders they had just watched.

Judd played a visible role in the movie Heat, appearing with legendary actors Al Pacino and Robert Deniro. Not only was the movie itself about murderous cop-shooting bank robbers, but those two actors have been part of movies that I personally enjoy, but which many Italian-Americans find offensive because they perpetuate the mafia stereotype. Maybe it’s okay to support the murder culture, but rape? I guess we have to draw the line somewhere.

The fact of the matter is, Ashley Judd doesn’t know enough about Hip-Hop to throw rocks at it. In order to hit my house, don’t you have to know what it is? There are hundreds of Hip-Hop records that come out every year, with a wide range of sentiment from a wide range of personalities. The day she made her indictment, we posted a song from Apollo Brown and Oddisee whose topic wasn’t the block, or the “hoes” that walk it. It was about welcoming the newly formed nation of The Republic of Southern Sudan, something someone who has maintained many Africa-related humanitarian efforts as Judd has should appreciate.

In the end, Judd doesn’t have any authority to castigate Hip-Hop anyway. Who cares what someone who doesn’t know anything about Hip-Hop has to say about Hip-Hop? Dude you’ve got some ugly carpet. How would you know, you’ve never been to my house? Uh I looked into your window as I drove past your house on the way home at midnight. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

Is Hip-Hop’s content occasionally difficult to digest? Certainly. But so are books and movies and other forms of media and art fit for mass consumption. Life has war, famine, pestilence and even quite a few “bitches” and “ho’s”. They are part of the human tapestry and trying to weave that blanket without them will have your ass sleeping in the cold. We exist. Our culture persists. But being an accused rapist sure does suck.

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