Subscribe
NewsOne Featured Video
CLOSE

I almost fell out of my chair, had a seizure, and dropped in to a massive coma, when I read recent comments by the rapper Lil Wayne about his protege Nicki Minaj.  In a recent conversation with MTV, Weezy had the audacity to say that he believes that women should be respected.

SEE ALSO: Man Bites Police Dog

“That’s a female; first and foremost Nicki Minaj is a female. I don’t know what anyone else believes, but I believe females deserve the ultimate respect at all times no matter when or where or how,” Lil Wayne said to MTV.

Want to Keep Up With NewsOne.com? LIKE Us On Facebook!

Weezy made his peculiar remarks in response to a beef between Nicki and Hot 97 over comments made by DJ Peter Rosenberg, who insulted Minaj in front of the Hot 97 audience, which is a no-no for anyone seeking to get Minaj to perform for their event.  The comments led to Wayne pulling Minaj out of the Hot 97 Summer Jam.  As a result, Weezy jumped out to defend Minaj’s honor in public.

Maybe his extensive use of drugs and alcohol created such a deep state of delusion that he rewrote his entire life story on a second’s notice.

Anyone with any ounce of familiarity with the music of Lil Wayne is keenly aware that this man makes the bulk of his money by reminding women that they “ain’t sh*t” at every available opportunity.  Maybe Wayne forgot to drink his purple cough syrup this morning, because his comments were clearly from another planet.

For Wayne to say that women should be respected is like Adolf Hitler saying that he can’t wait to celebrate Hanukkah.

In the song, “We Be Steady Mobbin’,” Lil Wayne spits this verse:

“I swear you can’t fuck with me

But I can f*ck you girl and make her nutt for me

Then slut for me, then kill for me, then steal for me

And of course it’ll be yo’ cash

Then I’ll murder that b*tch and send your body back to yo ass”

When a man with lyrics like these says that “women should be respected,” we are slapped in the face with the truth of how the disrespect of Black women has become a multi-million dollar industry.  Financed by White American dollars, Lil Wayne has become one of the most-powerful mega-pastors in all of Black America, giving Black men the tools for self-destruction and recklessly tossing his weight around like a fat kid in a China shop.

As he seeks to replicate his dysfunction to as many Black youth as possible, Wayne doesn’t realize how many millions he hurts by using his power in such an irresponsible fashion. He hates himself and doesn’t care if he lives or dies.  This translates to the fact that he probably hates you too and cares nothing for the consequences of his actions.

Even more ironic is that the mixture of corporate wealth and misguided talent has turned the world into Lil Wayne’s b*tch; for, he has convinced millions of Black women to shake their butts while listening to a man rap about the fact that he would gladly murder them.  We cannot disconnect such toxic messages from the growing rates of sexual assault, violence, and disease transmission taking place in the Black community.  In other words, musicians like Lil Wayne remind us all not to give a f*ck.

I don’t hate Lil Wayne, and I actually respect his creativity.  I can understand fully why people love his music, and I am only able to critique it because I know it so well. I don’t think he should stop making music, because he is one of the greatest commercialized artists in history. But some of us may want to use our power of consumption to help artists like Wayne to understand that teaching young boys to murder women and each other is not the best way for them to use their gifts.

Lil Wayne is a product of a torn and racist society.  He is what Malcolm X was before he learned to use his power for good instead of evil.   He is every bit as brilliant, energetic, and empowering as Minister Louis Farrakhan, but this power is aimed in the wrong direction, like a man’s gun being pointed at his own mother. Wayne was taught at an early age that there is pride in killing other Black men and encouraging them to kill one another. He was taught that Black manhood is inaccurately defined by disrespecting women and that Black males should engage in the constant consumption of drugs and alcohol.

The White man taught him well.

Maybe Lil Wayne should replace his bottle of purple syrup with a bottle of truth and reality. As Nicki Minaj sits next to him in skin-tight outfits pretending that she is the only woman that Lil Wayne sees to be valuable, she may want to acknowledge that she only has value to Wayne because he can rent her out on stage like a pimp does a prostitute.

Lil Wayne saying that a “woman deserves to be respected” is arguably the saddest and most inaccurate statement in hip-hop history.

Sound off!

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.