Aug 14, 2007

A Roast for Flavor Flav?


According to the Wikipedia, Public Enemy is... "also known as PE, is a hip hop group from Long Island, New York, known for their politically charged lyrics, criticism of the media, and active interest in the concerns of the African American community.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Public Enemy number forty-four on their list of The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time."

Hey. Public Enemy is one of my all time favorite hip hop groups. Fight the Power is still a song I play, loud as hell, when I am scorching mad. In fact, I can say without a doubt that without Flav, Chuck D would be missing that extra umph. Without PE we might have not heard the black community's loud and clear message, and no one would have followed in their footsteps. No Biggie. No Tupac. No Snoop Dog. No Def Jam. A world without those people would suck big time. In fact, I truly believe that there would not be a need for iPods. If you don't have any of those guys somewhere in your playlist... man you suck.

First of all. Comedy Central has taken a great tradition and flushed it down the toilet. I did some research. First of all, Comedy Central's roasts are a rip off of the NY Friars Club. They are NOT related. The NYFC has roasted great people like Rocky Marciano, Milton Berle, Humphrey Bogart and Johnny Carson, to name a few. Apart from William Shatner, who really deserves to be celebrated because of his impact on Sci Fi (fuck off, Star Wars freaks, without Star Trek there would not be this kind of following and you know it)... they have proceeded to roast celebrities like Pamela Anderson (great role model and pioneer - screw this guy one week, screw the other the next) and finally... Flavor Flav.

I have a problem with Comedy Central's last roast of the Flav man. Funny, um, sort of. All I can say is that I have seen better. So here's my beef with last Sunday's tribute to the man behind the clock. You see, if the roast was about PE, I would have been begging on the street to get tickets. Period. But... Flavor has deteriorated a bit since his glory days.

Tell me. What has this man done in the last 10 years of his life? First of all, he had the show with Brigitte Nielsen who was truly disturbing to watch. Talk about hooking up for the sake of ratings. Then? He had a show about women who wanted to screw him. Flavor of Love was a show that demeaned women to the highest degree. They fought like cats and dogs over a man who has fathered loads of children with several women and... gasp now, they thought he would be faithful and stay with them. I strongly believe that the black community couldn't have backed that show in any shape or form. Both Flav and the contestants treated each other like garbage. One of the roasts said it best: you have made a disservice to your community. Yes, maybe they were playing a part for us to watch. But that doesn't mean that it's ok, right?

Then he proceeds to produce idiot programs like I love New York (cringe now), Charm School and a spin off was born, the sad Rock of Love. YUCK.

I sat there last Sunday watching and I thought... this is sad. The comments were down right racist, and since it was a roast, all bets were off. Do we really need to celebrate in this manner? Does it help? When we are killing the Don Imus of the world and blasting Mel Gibson for being a true bigot, it's ok to listen to racist comments because hey, it's a roast about a black man.

I don't have much more to say than this: how I wish for the NY Friars Club to wake up and smell the coffee. Dudes, they are ruining a great tradition. For the love of good insults and deserving artists who still haven't been celebrated for their lifetime contributions to either comedy, arts or film...

Fix this shit.

5 comments:

RestrictionsApply said...

Why is it that Star Trek fans are always on the defensive with no provocatin whatsoever. Are Trekkies that insecure in the greatness of their heroes?

Me said...

Well, I think there is Sci Fi prejudice as well. We have to defend the Trek against the man. (The man being any George Lucas Fan).

Can't we all just get along?

RestrictionsApply said...

Like the Shatner once said: "Make love, not intergalactic war"

Anonymous said...

You are way out in left field "DUDE." When you speak like this it doesn't help your black brothers appear any smarter, fight the power? Yah, ok.y

Unknown said...

Ok all this stuff about racism is BULLSHIT. Its a Roast, that dude is getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to specifically be MADE FUN OF. If you noticed, pretty much all the jokes sounded the same, weather it was "Flav looks like a skeleton in electrical tape" or "Flav looks like he was on a 3 year crack binge on the sun". Those are jokes, his own personal "Nigger-ish" Over-doing everything egotistical attitude provoked the jokes that were made. Im sick of this, professional black comedians get on their show's and make fun of "White Characteristics" all day long when the shows primary purpose is to present comical entertainment. When there is a show SPECIFICALLY DESIGN TO BRING DEROGATORY COMMENTS towards the "roastee" with no rules or limits. Then they whine and complain that its so racist.
How come 65% of black comedian jokes are about white people and how they "raise their kids" or how "white people share soap"? Idk how many times I've heard that. White people are a minority in our own country and its becoming ridiculous. When I am called a 'Racist' for saying 'Nigga' cause im white, But black people call us "cracker", "White Boy" and other derogatory comments all the time and nobody says ANYTHING??

I mean im no racist, I live in paterson NJ on broadway, I couldnt be a racist if I wanted too lol..

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