I don’t stay up on the world of rap music, but it was hard to ignore the recent media storm caused by an “artist” who goes by the moniker “Lil Wayne.”
His recently leaked song was so over the top that even the hip-hop industry—known for its casual use of sex and violence—reacted. The song, referencing a sex act and a part of the female anatomy, contained the line, “beat that [blank] up like Emmett Till.”
His recording label apologized. Apparently, although violence against women is commonplace in rap lyrics, it’s
still taboo to mock the Civil Rights movement.
Many musicians, such as Stevie Wonder, took the rapper to task, as did Till’s family. Said Till’s cousin, “He wouldn’t even be out there rapping these stupid lyrics without the sacrifice Emmett made.”
If you’re unaware of what she’s referring to, Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who, in 1955, was savagely beaten, tortured, and killed by two white men in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman. My wife’s grandfather was one of the prosecutors in the trial, despite the great risk to his life and livelihood as a white man prosecuting a black lynching in deep Mississippi. The jury, in a kangaroo court, acquitted those men, who later confessed.
But it was the courage of Till’s mother to hold an open casket funeral that finally exposed the deep evil of racism in the south. The horrific images of Till’s body were published in
Jet magazine and provided a major spark for the Civil Rights movement.
