Here's the transcript http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21293963/page/2/
DR. POUSSAINT: They took part of the N-word and put part of the white word and called themselves wiggers.
MR. COSBY: But you see, when youth does that, you have to understand that youth—these are, these are kids, they, they don’t have the responsibilities that, that we have. They don’t have to have a job. They don’t have to support a family. They don’t have to buy insurance. They—so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling. It’s the people who make these records. It’s the, it’s the guy in the boardroom. I have another friend of mine who said to me, “I, I write rap lyrics.” He said, “And I went to a man”—I mean, “I went to work, and the guy said, the executive said to me, ‘I want lyrics about rape. Rape is good.’” He said, “And I looked at the guy, and I said, ‘You’re talking about my mother.’ And the guy said, ‘Well, if you don’t want to write it, then I’ll get somebody else who will.’” But, see, all these things, this dopamine-raising level. Alvin has a very interesting viewpoint on whether or not kids are listening to the lyrics. Because if you, if you challenge them, you say, “Why are you listening to that?” They say, “I’m not listening to the words. I just like the beat.”
DR. POUSSAINT: Which is nonsense. They’re listening to the—they got to hear the words. And the, the young, young girls will be dancing to words that degrade women and degrade them and they’re dancing to it. It shows you how much values have been corrupted, you know, by some of the media influences, and the young people can’t distinguish between what’s right and wrong. It’s like the, the bad stuff has become normal, and then they even see it as part of their culture instead of something that’s abhorrent and, and, and, and hurtful to their, to their lives and to their community.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 14 October 2007 17:58 (sixteen years ago) link
I know! I can't tell how many times I've gone to my office to work hard at my job of writing rap lyrics and found on my desk a memo like this from some Caucasian executive: "Rape sells. Especially mother-rape. Give me 16 bars on it by noon or you go back to the mail room." Please withhold my name until I can secure federal whistle-blower protection.
― mulla atari, Sunday, 14 October 2007 18:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Ten points for Cosby shoehorning "entropy" and "inertia" into his sentences.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 14 October 2007 18:17 (sixteen years ago) link
I have another friend of mine who said to me, “I, I write rap lyrics.” He said, “And I went to a man”—I mean, “I went to work, and the guy said, the executive said to me, ‘I want lyrics about rape. Rape is good.’” He said, “And I looked at the guy, and I said, ‘You’re talking about my mother.’ And the guy said, ‘Well, if you don’t want to write it, then I’ll get somebody else who will.’”
This obviously happened to Eminem.
― da croupier, Sunday, 14 October 2007 18:26 (sixteen years ago) link
If only Tim Russert had asked him who that exec is...
― curmudgeon, Monday, 15 October 2007 14:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Cos' take on this shit is both OTM and brave, for a gazillion reasons.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 15 October 2007 14:53 (sixteen years ago) link
brave yes, otm not really. its taking a much more nuanced situation and trying to find the bad guys in a very specific place. the real 'bad guys' wd actually require a much more sweeping indictment of american culture & systematic white privilege and oppression
― deej, Monday, 15 October 2007 14:56 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm with Cosby until he gets feisty about hippety-hoppety lyrics.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 15 October 2007 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link
He needs more nuance, although I must say I'm bored with the UGK cd lyrics('n' this and 'b' that) and not too crazy about the sentiments expressed there (whether it has great soul music samples or not)--That "2 kinds of B's" song. But I guess I am supposed to excuse them because those type of sentiments have long been expressed by folks of all colors,classes, and creeds; school systems and housing have long been segregated resulting in the parents of many of the participants on the UGK cd, and the participants themselves having difficult lives, Texas' Republican governors; and well those soul samples sure sound good.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 15 October 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link
why what stops you there?
― blueski, Monday, 15 October 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm amazed that a comedian who understood the value of irony and timing as well as anyone in his generation is this tone-deaf about how music and lyrics work.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 15 October 2007 15:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Bullshit. The "irony" argument may have been passable with "Cop Killer" 15 years ago -- it isn't now.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 15 October 2007 16:36 (sixteen years ago) link
plz explain how cop killer is ironic but kanye sampling daft punk & lil wayne rapping about man-purses is hurting the community
― and what, Monday, 15 October 2007 16:38 (sixteen years ago) link
who the fuck thought cop killer was ironic
― deej, Monday, 15 October 2007 16:38 (sixteen years ago) link
doh xp
― deej, Monday, 15 October 2007 16:39 (sixteen years ago) link
we simply must not allow young black men to continue to crank dat soulja boy - lets take it back to the carefree, ironic days of 'aint no fun' and 'black korea'
― and what, Monday, 15 October 2007 16:42 (sixteen years ago) link
lol
― J0hn D., Monday, 15 October 2007 17:41 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah like no one complained about those songs.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 15 October 2007 18:10 (sixteen years ago) link
(I mean come on Ice Cube took a LOT of shit in the press for Black Korea, Doggystyle was specifically brought up for criticism in the House of Reps, etc.)
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 15 October 2007 18:11 (sixteen years ago) link
also Cop Killer is excusable not because its ironic but because its good storytelling and hey, you know, fuck cops.
jokes, bruv?
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 15 October 2007 18:51 (sixteen years ago) link
so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 15 October 2007 18:55 (sixteen years ago) link
I like the part where he complains about giggling on buses. Bill Cosby hates the laughter of children! times done changed.
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 18:58 (sixteen years ago) link
I have a friend. Her name is Jessica Pope, and she spoke at a—or two or three of the callouts. She’s a graduate of Swathmore. She’s African-American. She’s from Memphis, Tennessee. And she spoke to the people and she said, “I want you to think of your children like you think of, of a genie in the lamp.” In that we all know the story of the genie in the lamp. There’s a genie, and she also equates genie with genius, genie/genius. So in order to have the genie come out of the lamp and grant you your three wishes, you rub the lamp. You rub it, the genie comes out and grants you three wishes. She then says, “Think of your child that way. Rub your child. Stroke you child like this magical lamp. The genie/genius will come out.” And then I add to it, and the other two wishes you can put in your hip pocket and save for a rainy day.
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:00 (sixteen years ago) link
It’s cursing and it’s calling each other niggers as they walk up and down the street. They think they’re hip. They can’t read; they can’t write. Fifty percent of them. They, they, they take it into the candy store. They, they put it—they put themselves on the train and on the buses, and they don’t even care what color or what age somebody else is. It’s about them and their cursing and grabbing each other and laughing and giggling and going nowhere.
I thought there was a bungled 50 Cent reference in this but then I realized it's a quote from 2004.
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Results 1 - 10 of about 168 for bill-cosby crotchety-old-man.
― dad a, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:12 (sixteen years ago) link
ya see Theo, YA SEE
― sanskrit, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:25 (sixteen years ago) link
haha every time I read one of these quotes I imagine it in the voice of Bathtub Cosby.
― will, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:28 (sixteen years ago) link
lol @ "they take it into the candy store"
― Alex in Baltimore, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Shakey Mo did you get a sarcasm immunity shot or something?
― J0hn D., Monday, 15 October 2007 19:39 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.internerd.com/frinky/images/screenshots/sarcasmdet.jpg
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:41 (sixteen years ago) link
I just don't get how pointing out that hip-hop's basically always had violent/mysognistic elements in it somehow invalidates Cosby's critique.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:45 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.heffadesign.com/COVERS/Single_Promo/images/50Cent%20-%20Candy%20Shop.jpg
― bnw, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link
I mean we all know what musical era Cosby would like to dial back to (civil rights era/bebop)
x-post
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 15 October 2007 19:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Kinda with Shakey here: I don't really understand the LOLs/shocka aspect of Cosby being among millions of older Civil Rights-era black Americans who are annoyed by how what's considered "black culture" looks these days -- he's not even that batty in how he talks about it. (Batty, sure, but not that batty.)
― nabisco, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link
What do you expect, nabisco? This is ILM we're talking about; pretty much any time Bill Cosby gets brought up, it's in the context of young white guys getting defensive about listening to black people call each other "nigger".
― HI DERE, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:07 (sixteen years ago) link
who's getting defensive?
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Up until just now, not you.
― HI DERE, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Whatever. I just think one can find rappers lacking as role models and still find Cosby's rants incredibly batty, crotchety, what have you.
I'm kinda curious about this loaded statement: They, they put it—they put themselves on the train and on the buses, and they don’t even care what color or what age somebody else is. Why does the race of your fellow bus patron matter?
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:16 (sixteen years ago) link
The writers for Law & Order: SVU?
― mulla atari, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Two strands here. I think Ethan was responding to this:
...and he was right: what "'irony' argument"? There isn't & wasn't one, as far as I know; there was and remains a personified narrator trope, in which I believe, that can be advanced to explain a song like "Cop Killer," I think persuasively.
The other strand is white men on ilm explaining each other how neither "nigger" nor "bitch" are at all degrading when the musicians they like use them, and that strand I won't be touching with a ten-foot pole.
― J0hn D., Monday, 15 October 2007 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link
can we name names on this latter strand?
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link
bebop is pretty rad
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:18 (sixteen years ago) link
^^^this
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:18 (sixteen years ago) link
haha Dan you wanna field that one?
― J0hn D., Monday, 15 October 2007 20:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Also, he's old.
The other strand is white men on ilm explaining each other how neither "nigger" nor "bitch" are at all degrading when the musicians they like use them
Prof. Isiah Thomas of NYU says that the word "bitch" is Negro for something much less offensive than the white man thinks.
― Cunga, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:20 (sixteen years ago) link
-- HI DERE, Monday, October 15, 2007 8:07 PM
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:29 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm just gonna let that sit there.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:30 (sixteen years ago) link
thanksbighoosakathesteedriver.jpg
― deej, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link
i don't get it what you mean hoos.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 15 October 2007 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link