Recently, I saw a xweet comparing Christian rap to turkey bacon, and while I find pork disgusting, I still get the sentiment. You want your rap music to sizzle, to pop your ass right in the stomach if you aren’t wearing the right attire. You want grease, you want goo, you want danger to your arteries. You want to feel as if you’re ingesting something that you know is wrong, but you can’t help but fulfill yourself on the fantastic ass fantasy.
*Record scratch* but what if it’s not a fantasy at all? What if the bacon is just as deadly as everyone warned you about, including the butcher?
@loly.offiicciiaall Gangsta rap #fyp #fy #fypシ #foryoupage #viral #white #black #nick #her #theboys #boys #rap ♬ origineel geluid – k.075
There is a genre of reels and TikToks of people showing themselves listening to trap music/gangster rap (I always say gangster rap in a white news reporter’s voice in my head) as they make their way to Target, their cushy 9-5 jobs, or their way to pick their children up from private school. Rap is a form of escapism for the listener, whether they are a hardcore fan or a casual one. While hip-hop and rap’s grit have always been touted as a cathartic message of the streets, that narrative is also a coat of shiny paint on some of its more insidious and broken elements.
Rap has always been misogynistic and violent—not all rap—but usually the greasy, fatty, real bacon kind.
Rapper 50 Cent, a marketing mogul who is solidly climbing up the ranks to be one of Black Hollywood’s most powerful players, is producing a documentary on his nemesis, Diddy. From the looks of it, it seems to be a documentary about the decades of abuse Sean “Love” Combs has inflicted on others. While this may seem to be a valiant effort on Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s part, it really is an extension of his trolling campaign, especially when the mother of 50’s youngest child, Sire, was alleged to be a sex worker on Diddy’s payroll.
When the news surfaced, 50 remained quiet until it really bubbled to the surface, where he commenced trolling her on Instagram with, “You little sex worker.” Daphne Joy, the woman in question, fired back bringing up previous allegations of physical abuse, as well as rape.
Daphne Joy Narvaez is not the only woman in Jackson’s past who alleges maltreatment. Shaniqua Tompkins, mother of 50’s eldest son, Marquise, alleges he beat her in front of their son. Apparently, Jackson not only abuses the women in his life but also purchased a sex tape of the mother of one of Rick Ross’ children from her ex-boyfriend. After doing a voiceover where he body-shamed her, he uploaded the revenge porn to his website. She subsequently filed and won a lawsuit against him. 50 Cent does not respect women; he is just as flagrant as Diddy in some regards; he is just better at marketing than Combs.
As Drake and Kendrick Lamar trade insults about who likes underage girls and who likes to beat women, they are not alone in a long list of men in hip-hop culture who have abused women, girls, and boys for decades. Even in its infancy, hip-hop has had an undercurrent of abuse. Afrika Bambaataa, one of the originators of hip-hop has been accused of molesting young boys from at least 1980 until at least 1995. While numerous men have come forward alleging molestation, he has yet to see punishment. “Backstage, underage, adolescent, how you doing?” is a line in “Do Me” by New Edition spinoff group Bel Biv Devoe. 90’s R&B singer and Guy group member Aaron Hall, who was named in a lawsuit late last year, where he was alleged to have raped a woman with Combs in the 90s, also impregnated Gloria Velez when she was 16.
He is 14 years her senior.
Velez also accused the rapper Uncle Luke of 2 Live Crew of grooming her when she was in high school, a claim the “Me So Horny” and “Nasty as We Wanna Be” rapper vehemently denied. This is the same Uncle Luke who made many appearances at Freaknik, an event for college students. R. Kelly’s crimes do not even need to be delineated, but it is widely known that his predilection was for teenagers and he was alleged to have a sex cult with women held against their will. While this was known for a while, many industry insiders still looked the other way in hopes of a hit record.
Rick Ross also came under fire for his lyric, “put molly in her champagne, she ain’t even know it,” the lyric was one of the first egregious lyrics to get backlash. Even Diddy’s artist, Biggie penned the line, “Raven-Symoné call date rape,” about wanting to do the obvious to the entertainer, in his song Dreams, she was 8 at the time.
For decades, people have rapped along to lyrics about rape and having sex with women who are underage and under the influence, with little recourse. There is a certain level of fantasy involved in listening to hip-hop. It is hard to believe that so many rappers push weight, have women any way they want, and kill people. Many, not all (definitely not including turkey bacon) rap about these things, but when those same rappers are in jail for murder or are on trial for RICO charges, why are we so incredulous that the desire to abuse women, a crime much easier to get away with, isn’t the one most readily indulge in? My favorite rapper is Lil Wayne, so I am no better than anyone else, but would I defend him if he were accused of sexual abuse—ehhhh—it probably would not be in my best interest to do so.
These men are millionaires, some billionaires, and while it is easy to understand that women would absolutely flock for the chance to f*ck, consent is something that can be revoked at any time and sometimes men find when a woman can’t legally or won’t consent to be that much more enticing for them. If you are able to get anything you want, the prospect of something not wanting you is seen as a challenge and conquering that challenge is that much more exhilarating for some.
These men are surrounded by people who don’t say no, even if they have to force someone’s mouth to say yes.
Since they tout a lifestyle of being able to do whatever they want with little consequence, maybe we should believe them because not believing them would be just as smart as consuming real bacon and being shocked to find out it is really dangerous.
