Read a book, read a motherf@#%ing book

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By Megan Grittani-Livingston
August 28, 2007
10:55 AM

Filed under: Quillblog, Advertising, Angry mobs, Covers, Reading

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After U.S. National Book Critics Circle president John Freeman had finished freaking out over declining levels of American readership, bookselling blogger The Written Nerd looked at the stats from a more reassuring angle:

The [U.S. National Endowment for the Arts] survey states that 56% of Americans read any book in 2002 (that’s ANY book, not just “literary works,” which the survey focuses on).

The Associated Press/Ipsos survey says that 73% of Americans read any book last year (i.e. in 2006).

Therefore, if these two respected organizations are to be believed…

AMERICANS READ MORE LAST YEAR THAN THEY READ FIVE YEARS AGO.

Ah, numbers. So many different ways to interpret them. Good thing words aren’t like that!

Anyway, Freeman’s article raised the spectre of how to attract more people to reading:

Now that cigarettes are becoming less and less palatable in an actor’s hand, put a book there. If the NEA wants people to read, strong-arm a copy of William Carlos Williams’ The Doctor Stories onto Grey’s Anatomy. Companies which spend millions of advertising dollars articulating their brand could say a lot more for less by using books. Why doesn’t The Gap stock copies of On the Road?

The Black Entertainment Television network, as pointed out by GalleyCat, is helping out with that angle – sort of. BET’s new animation department has produced a music video that it says celebrates literacy and black pride.

Its cartoon rapper bounces on a piano, riffing on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and in his first line bellows, “Read a book, read a book, read a motherfucking book!” He goes on in a similar manner to encourage listeners to brush their teeth, care for their children, drink water instead of booze, and wear deodorant. Sound advice, to be sure, but it’s all accompanied by a plethora of profanities and stereotypical rap-video images.

A Los Angeles Times article covers the mixed reactions to the clip – some see it as a funny satire of the hip-hop industry; others find its rampant use of negative African-American stereotypes offensive.

The article also describes the parts of the video that most startled Quillblog:

In one scene, a gangster uses a book as a cartridge in an automatic weapon, while another shows a woman shaking her rear with “BOOK” printed on her low-riding pants.

Nothing says “reading is fun” like guns and booty-shaking, right?

(Thanks to GalleyCat for the link.)

Vigilante

I really…REALLY…hoped you were joking.

Society is collectively doomed.
http://www.davemcintyre.ca DGM

No joke. That “Read A Book” video is 100% real.

http://www.jossip.com/media/read-a-mother-fucking-book-20070824/

One more step down the road toward’s Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, I suppose….
http://www.davemcintyre.ca DGM

Actually, let me amend my above statement. I watched the video again just now, and I believe the video itself, apart from the swearing, is perfectly acceptable as a satiric comment. People should be reading books and taking care of their kids and using deodorant, and the fact that they have to be reminded indicates a real lack of intelligence, or at least a lack of respect for yourself and others. It’s not quite on the intellectual level of, say, Bill Cosby calling out rappers and other entertainers for dumbing down the black community through bad grammar, but the point that the video makers trying to make is a valid one. However, if this video is intended as a serious argument, then that would indicate a real lack of intelligence on the creators’ part. And I don’t think for a moment that these artists are dumb.
Caribbean Lionesse

Ok, let’s get this out of the way.
I am a black Caribbean woman. An educated black woman with my master’s degree from a prestigious university.

I am usually offended/sickened/fed up with the imagery and lyrics in most hip hop music videos- they usually just gratuitiously perpetuate this horrible, degrading stereotype of black people. A rapper could be rapping about something as innocuous as his bling or as vicious as his drug-dealing past but no matter the message, they always seem to need to swaddle it in images of booty-shaking women, ridiculous, vulgar displays of wealth (spinning rims etc) and coarse language. Seriously, why do you need to scream ‘bitch’ or ‘nigga’ at me if you are just telling me to get down and dance in the club?

However!

Read a Book does not fall into this category. That is because anyone with a brain (and who has heeded its message to read a book) can see it is a satirical parody of the state of hip hop.

I find it absolutely hilarious. The night I saw it on a friend’s blog, I watched it like 5 times in a row, screaming with laughter. It is SO funny and spot-on in how it skewers the ignorance and ridiculousness proudly and sincerely paraded in rap by pathetic morons like 50 Cent and those who should know better like Lil Jon (who also has a master’s degree- I know- who would have guessed it?).

By pairing lyrics like “not a sports page, not a magazine, but a book nigga!” with the image of booties bouncing with the word ‘book’ emblazoned across them, Bomani Armah and his director Tyree Dillihay are basically holding up a mirror to hip-hop and saying “do you see how ridiculous you look?”

Furthermore, how am I going to be mad at someone who exhorts us to ‘buy land’ instead of spending our money on materialistic foolishness such as rims? How is this not a positive message? People need to get a sense of humour and an understanding of the use of satire and other forms of subversive wit and appreciate this song for what it is.

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