Momento Musical

Faço uma ronda pelos canais de música. Num deles está a dar o novo vídeo de Eminem, "Shake That".


Get buzzed, get drunk, get crunked, get fucked up
Hit the strip club don't forget ones get your dick rubbed
(...)
I met a bad bitch last night in the D
Let me tell you how I made her leave with me
Conversation and Hennessey
I've been to the muthafuckin mountain top
(...)
Shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me
Come on girl, shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me
Ohh girl, shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me
Come on girl, shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me
(o resto da letra está aqui)

Tento outro canal. Encontro "Candy Shop" de 50 Cent.


Got the magic stick, I'm the love doctor
(...)
Wanna show me how you work it baby, no problem
Get on top then get to bouncing round like a low rider
I'm a seasoned vet when it come to this shit
After you work up a sweat you can play with the stick
I'm tryin to explain baby the best way I can
I melt in your mouth girl, not in your hands (ha ha)

I take you to the candy shop
I'll let you lick the lollypop
Go 'head girl, don't you stop
Keep goin 'til you hit the spot (whoa)
(...)
Drippin wet with sweat man its on and popping
All my champagne campaign, bottle after bottle its on
And we gon' sip til every bubble in the bottle is gone
(o resto da letra está aqui)

Mais zapping e encontram-se facilmente outros vídeos e letras deste tipo. Parece um concurso para ver que intérprete/banda consegue enfiar no seu clip mais rabos, peitos, carros grandes, insultos homofóbicos e frases com segundos sentidos (primeiros sentidos?) sexuais e, frequentemente, sexistas. (Sexual e sexista não são, obviamente, a mesma coisa, mas nestes videoclips e letras as fronteiras são muito ténues, como ilustram os excertos acima.)

Esta questão do sexismo e homofobia nos videoclips, em particular de rap e hip-hop, tem dado que falar e inspirado vários projectos de crítica e intervenção.

O realizador americano Byron Hurt criou o documentário "Beyond Beats & Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture". Explicando o que o motivou a fazer este filme, diz:
"I love hip-hop, man. But I hear the hyper-masculinity, the sexism, the violence, the homophobia and the materialism and I say, 'Man, this ain't cool. We gotta demand a lot more from hip-hop.' (...) I was home at the crib and I was watchin' video after video of rappers posin', posturin', throwin' money at the camera, mad women around them dancin', and I was like, 'Yo, I need to do a film that breaks all this stuff down.' "

O documentário foi apresentado no Festival de Sundance no início deste ano. Podem ler mais sobre ele aqui.

A revista americana Essence, dirigida a mulheres negras, iniciou em 2005 a campanha Take Back the Music. De acordo com o manifesto, os objectivos desta campanha são:
"- provide a platform for discussion about popular music's more extreme images of Black women;
- explore the effects of such imagery on our children, especially our girls;
- seek greater balance in how Black women—and Black men—are portrayed in popular music and culture;
- encourage readers to examine their own attitudes on the subject;
- promote artists who deliver positive alternatives so that readers can vote with their dollars;
- give readers a blueprint for how they, too, can get involved in our campaign in whatever ways make sense for them."

Aqui podem ler mais sobre esta campanha. Aqui podem ler testemunhos de artistas, realizador@s e investigador@s.

A coordenadora da campanha, Michaela Davis, declarou: "We're not trying to tell people what to think about this; we simply want to encourage them to think.”
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