COONIN' IN THE
21ST - OH, SO THAT'S WHAT'S UP!
By Gregory Kane Baltimore
Sun music critic Rashod D. Ollison has noticed it. So has New York Times columnist Errol Louis.
Even editors at The Source magazine -- supposedly the hip-hop bible -- have noticed it.
What they all noticed was the melodic similarity between the rap hit “Do Your Chain Hang Low” and the 19th-century minstrel song called “Ole Zip Coon.”
The former is a recent hit by the rapper Jibbs and has these inspiring lyrics: “Do your chain hang low/Do it wobble to the flo’/Do it shine in the light/Is it platinum/Is it gold?”
Jibbs might have been channeling whoever wrote the lyrics to “Ole Zip Coon,” which go something like this: “Ole Zip Coon/He is a natty scholar/For he plays upon de banjo/‘Cooney in de hollar.’”
If Jibbs’ unconscious 21st-century lapse into 19th-century cooning were the only example of a rapper perpetuating racist stereotypes about black folks, we might consider ourselves fortunate. But the truth is Jibbs isn’t the worst offender.
Some rappers, through their videos, have fostered on America and the world some of the worst images of black folks ever to come down the pike. Even some of the rappers’ video hoochies have gotten in on the act.
How bad is it?
One of my white students at predominantly white and Asian Johns Hopkins University wrote an essay in which she revealed she’s taking a course called “The American Autobiography.” When the professor asked the class how many had read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” only three students raised their hands. When the professor asked how many had read Karrine Steffans’ “Confessions of a Video Vixen,” 10 hands shot up.
THIS DISCUSSION GOES TO THE HEART OF WHAT'S GOING ON WITH US FAMILY!
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