Bo Diddley told a high school crowd that rap is disrespectful toward women:
- The 74-year-old bluesman says rap "is not a thing that's going to last as long as I have."
"First of all, you can't understand what it is and it has no meaning," Diddley told an audience Thursday at Dunnellon High School. Dunnellon is about 35 miles from Diddley's home in Archer, near Gainesville in north Florida.
"The lyrics are very disgusting because you are a person, and a person deserves respect," he said. "I have daughters, my mother was a woman, and I don't like what I'm hearing."
....He suggested students discover their talents and use them to earn a living and stressed the importance of hard work.
"You've got to hustle, man," he said. "There's a legal way to hustle."
Diddley also performed his own style of "clean" rap: "Some folks say old Bo Diddley can't rap. I'm Bo Diddley and I ain't taking no nap." [AP]
Article comments
1 - jianda
i wish someone could explain rap vs. hip hop, the difference. or that he could see the movie "brown sugar."
it's not about the music form, it's what you do with it. there are plenty of blues songs about shooting a woman dead, or evil/devil women.
rap is a mode of speech, hip hop is a dialect. CONSCIOUS hip hop is a sub-dialect. there is a diversity of life in the hip hop movement. there are feminist hip hop artists. there are gay hip hop artists. a whole MOVEMENT in fact. it's just that the media doesn't find that to be of interest, so that's not what people in the mainstream see.
i'm not an expert on it, so i could give him the cliff notes, but there are tons of people who ARE experts on it, b-gyrl for instance (www.b-gyrl.com). ah well, just sharing. :)
ji
2 - Eric Olsen
I believe it is a specific attitude that he objects to, which like you say, is only a certain percentage of the music. H eseems to be saying he has a hard time understanding the lyrics and when he does, they don't mean anything anyway.
Ironically, parents and grandparents said the same thing about him 45 years ago.
3 - jianda
ah! touche'. good point.
ji
4 - Jim Carruthers
Mr. Diddley, if that is your real name, could you please assist the constabulary with their inquiries about that chimney you built out of human skulls, and wearing a rattlesnake as a necktie isn't setting a good example for the children.
5 - James Russell
Meh. Rap didn't invent misogynistic lyrics, and frankly someone identifying as a bluesman ought to know as much...
6 - David Blakey
Fans may be interested to know that Bo Diddley, one of the founding fathers of rock & roll and the popularizer of the world-famous "Bo Diddley beat", has just launched his new website and online store. The site, which with typical idiosyncrasy he has named "Bo Bo Diddley's Turnup Root", is located at http://www.turnup-root.com/
In conjunction with his new website, Bo Diddley is currently also shaping up to release CDs of both brand new recordings as well as a series of exciting limited edition collectors' CDs of previously unreleased archive material recorded in his various home studios during the past 40 years. Right now, visitors to his website can shop online at Bo Diddley's Online Store powered by CafePress.com and purchase a range of cool-looking and exclusive limited edition items including T-shirts, sweatshirts, BBQ aprons and "Road Runner" vehicle license plate frames.
For further information, please visit: "Bo Bo Diddley's Turnup Root" at http://www.turnup-root.com/
7 - Phillip Winn
Ugh. What does everybody think? Should we keep such blatant promotional comments around, or wipe them clean? Since it on-topic, I'm inclined to say "Leave it," but I'm afraid it might get out of hand. Any other thoughts?
8 - Phillip Winn
Er, comment #7 was about #6, by the way.
9 - Phillip Winn
And on-topic, Bo is just old. Few old people appreciate rap, but it has been around long enough and spread into enough different forms of music that it should be obvious by now that it isn't going away, probably ever.
Disrespectfull or mysoginistic music comes in many different styles, and doesn't represent all of rap. However, it is sort of like Islam right now - the public face of rap is the controversial one, and the clean rappers have largely abandoned the field to the pigs. Don't write off the style, though, just apply some pressure (as Bo is doing) to help clean things up.
Better yet, if you've got some talent, keep it clean(ish) yourself, and change the face of rap form the inside. :)
10 - HW Saxton
No surprise that Bo don't dig Rap & Hip
Hop. Many older jazz & blues musicians
do not.Whether it's just a generational
thing or just a matter of taste I don't
really know.There is a certain degree of
irony at work here though.Bo's funky and
scratchy one chord guitar workouts laid
down over an undeniably African sounding
beat are a direct antecedent to modern
funk.As Big Bo's sound and style kept on
evolving through the 60's into the 70's
his music took on an extremely hard funk
edge. His late 60's/early 70's LP's are
very funky and De La Soul used a sample
of his song "Hit Or Miss" as the basis
for their hit "Buddy". This lands him smack dab in the middle of the Hip Hop
scene. Other tunes of his have been used
as samples by other artists for Hip Hop
songs including "Funky Fly,Go For Broke
and Black Soul".I hope he gets royalties
from these tunes anyway.
11 - The Young Codger
Bo's right, Hip Hop/Rap Sucks and is generally sexist.
And quite frankly, if Bo Diddley says 'invade Iraq kill Saddam' I say 'Invade Iraq Kill Saddam'. Bo Diddley is GOD and is ALWAYS right on ALL social/political issues. So hippies, take heed..."Bo Diddley had a farm (hey bo diddley!!) And on that farm he had some women (hey bo diddley!!) Women Here Women THere (Hey Bo Diddley!!) Women Everywhere!! HAHAHAAHAHAAHA!!! No really Bo IS God, his just a little geriatric, but he's doin'Ok for a youngster approaching 80.