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.

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….

Society is collectively doomed.