Hmm...that's a very good question. Let me ask these h@#$...

"Has hip-hop gone too far in degrading women?"

I'm going to say no, no it hasn't. Hip-hop could go farther if it tried to really push the envelope. It currently rests right near the apex of hyper-masculinity. Let me ask CNN this:"At what point had hip-hop gone 'far enough' in degrading women?" 2 Live Crew? NWA? Sir Mix-A-Lot? I would argue that Nelly's 'credit-card swipe through the buttocks'-move was a brilliant deconstruction of the state of African-American male/female relationships. In one succinct, viciously beautiful masterstroke, Nelly crystallized the ambivalence the black man feels towards the black woman. Reverence and exploitation; lust and revulsion; love and hatred--primal forces as entwined and inseparable as strands of DNA. All that defined with one puerile yet potent gesture.


"Tip Drill" isn't just another trashy rap video; it's a visual thesis. Do they award Nobel prizes for performance art?