Raunchy rhymes

By: Alena ScarverThe news: Don Imus, former radio host of “Imus in the Morning” was fired by CBS after referring to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy headed ho’s” after losing in the NCAA tournament.

Behind the news:The word “ho” and other derogatory language that demeans women is found in the lyrics of many popular contemporary rap songs. In many of the songs, women were viewed as objects for sexual gratification.

The Chicago Reporter reviewed lyrics from 40 toprated music videos in the rap genre on Yahoo! Music during the week of April 16 using two popular Web sites listing lyrics and found that 14 of them contained the word “ho.” Fat Joe’s “Make It Rain” used the word 16 times, while its remix version mentioned it 11 times. The other 12 songs used the word up to seven times.

And language that degraded women as sexual objects appeared in half of the videos. In Huey’s “Pop, Lock, and Drop It,” for example, the rap artist fantasizes about having sex with a scantily clad woman he barely knows. The song takes listeners through his attempts to lure her in by promising fast cash; the woman shows no reluctance and dances provocatively for him.

“African-American men and women do not benefit from this [behavior],” said Suzette Speight, associate professor of counseling psychology at Loyola University Chicago. “It is imperative to ask when watching music videos, ‘Why are these types of messages being sent to me? Should I agree with this message?”