![]() I don’t care if they went on to have their own drive or not. However, the point could have waited until after the bone marrow drive was over. What those students did was a step in the right direction and can serve as a guide for how future generations can confront these issues head-on. However, things will only change for the better if we run towards our fears and truly confront the internal roles that we play. We often talk about a plethora of issues in the Black community. ![]() And they did it despite how unpopular their stance was. They took a stand on an issue that is harming our community. That is why what the Spelman students did is so important. Nelly isn’t pressed to truly think about this issue because our lived reality continuously reinforces his sentiments. It was here before Nelly and it’s thriving after his short reign at the top of hip hop charts. We know through our lived experience that almost every mainstream rap song and music video is embedded with the domination of women mentality. The truth is, Nelly (as he not so eloquently pointed out) is not the only one. More specifically, if Black women dare to speak up for the ill treatment of women and girls, we’re viewed as somehow betraying our community. Treating women like property and refusing to acknowledge the right of Black women to voice their concerns outside of supporting male centered thinking is the norm. Nelly is refusing to acknowledge the ghost of his Tip Drill video and what it stood for because he doesn’t have to. It’s deeper than Nelly would like to think. Just take a look at this trailer for the documentary Very Young Girls. This normalization says, “It’s okay because they’re made for this.” Consequently, Black women are often blamed for the sexual abuse that they endure. The degradation is so normalized that more often than not, Black women and girls have a hard time getting support after being molested, raped, and forced into prostitution (sex slavery). And the promotion of this objectification through both song and video, participates in upholding a wide spread normalization of the degradation of specifically Black women. They do not speak for all of us, yet unfortunately they are viewed as a representation of Black women. Yes, those are Black women in his videos that willingly consented to being objectified. Should we only care about his sister and not the other millions of Black girls and women that are being objectified and hyper-sexualized?īefore you go there, let me say this. For some reason, he can’t see that yes this is connected. The same bodies that he was seeking bone marrow from. Those students weren’t attacking his bone marrow drive efforts, they wanted him to confront the public spectacle that he created off of Black women’s bodies. I’m surprised ( I don’t know why) that after all this time Nelly still doesn’t get it. ![]() He believes that they should have left the issue of his misogyny alone and just focused on bone marrow. However, he recently appeared on the Huffpost Live show where he basically blamed the students of Spelman for the death of his sister. Over the past few years, the dust has settled and Nelly has slowly reemerged in the spotlight. His sister also lost her battle with Leukemia. It tarnished Nelly’s career and he hasn’t recovered since. However, the Spelman students did host a bone marrow drive of their own. He pulled his funding from the bone marrow drive and it was a huge media fiasco. They invited him to speak on the issue and have an open discussion about it. But his plans were foiled when a group of Spelman students confronted him on the issues of misogyny and the hyper-sexualization of Black women in his music videos. About ten years ago, Nelly was set to launch a bone marrow drive for his sister at Spelman College. Hip Hop artist Nelly has reignited a 10 year old firestorm about his notorious Tip Drill video. America.“It mus be that a** cause it ain’t your face. ![]() It raised discussion about sexism, exploitation, the global effect of hip hop, and even spawned the BET Special: Hip Hop vs. It seems like there was a lot of controversy and fallout from this video and I think it marks a period in time for hip-hop music. They've since broken up and his imprint in the music industry has dwindled. Jermaine Dupri - The video was released during his relationship with Janet Jackson. One of the bathtub dancers (?) - Married and divorced Ruben Studdard Nelly - Still releasing music, although he's never again reached his level of popularity I believe it came out in 2003, so after almost 10 years where is everybody now? Are the dancers still dancing? Are the rappers still rapping? Here's what we know so far: : It was really the video that brought BET Uncut into the mainstream, and according to some, destroyed Nelly's career. Just watched the Tip Drill video and was reminded of my younger days when this blew my mind.
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