wynton marsalis says rap is more damaging than confederate statues…

Appearing on columnist Jonathan Capehart’s “Cape Up” podcast, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis opened up about his antipathy towards rap and hip-hop saying that there’s more harm down by that kind of music than there is done by Confederate statues. “I feel that that’s much more of a racial issue than taking Robert E. Lee’s statue down”, “There’s more niggers in that than there is in Robert E. Lee’s statue.” Well, then.

It’s not that there isn’t a far point to be made when we talk about the violent imagery in hip-hop. Hip-hop, like other genres, can be toxic. Even “conscious rap” is littered with problematic ideology. Why the need to equate hip-hop to institutional anti-blackness? Isn’t that the same thing as bringing up “black on black crime” during conversations about police brutality and white supremacy?