Now here’s a revelation guaranteed to warm the cockles of your heart: Sean Carter says he will no longer use the dreaded “b” word. What’s that? Cockles not heating up yet? Thought not. I’m betting those cockles won’t even get lukewarm if I tell you that Sean Carter is better known as the rapper Jay-Z.
Carter is married to singer Beyonce Knowles in what might be a classic case of a woman out-punting her coverage, to use a football analogy. At any rate, the marriage appears to be a happy one.
In early January, despite my best efforts to avoid the news, I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Carter are now the proud parents of a brand new baby girl called Blue Ivy Carter.
(I had this silly notion that what went on in the private lives of Mr. and Mrs. Carter was none of my darned business, but apparently I’m wrong on that score.)
Now that Carter is the proud papa of a baby girl, according to news reports, he’s nobly announced that he will no longer use the dreaded “b” word when referring to women.
Makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t he?
Yeah, thought not about that one, too.
Now, as the proud dad of an only daughter, I can attest that having a girl child can, and has, adjusted many a guy’s attitude about women.
But I’d stopped calling women the dreaded “b” word long before my daughter was born. In fact, I never started it. Perhaps a little full disclosure might be in order here.
Although I just turned 60 this past Dec. 29, I’ve been a fan of rap music for years. I’m sure there are other rap fans my age and even older, but I’ve never run across any.
I could say I have several favorite rappers, but the truth is that when I rank them, I put Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G., at No. 1. I put the late Tupac Shakur at No. 2.
After that, I just say there’s everybody else. But make no mistake: I don’t even consider Carter, Jay-Z, good enough to make my “everyone else” list.
My disdain for Carter and his music stems, mainly, from one song. It gets my vote as the worst, the most inane, the most worthless rap song ever.
And yes, it does indeed have the “b” word in it.
This hot mess is called “I Got 99 Problems, But A B***h Ain’t One.” In the song, Carter raps about his problems as a young black man with law enforcement.
Had he left it at that and thought of another title, the song might be almost bearable. But he felt it necessary to add the “b” word to the title, the better, I suppose, to give it some kind of “street cred.”
Many rappers love “street cred.” That’s why Carter isn’t afraid to tell the world that he used to deal drugs on New York’s streets. That revelation gives him “street cred.”
Rapper Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, once boasted that he was shot nine times during his drug dealing days. More street cred for Jackson.
And using that “b” word gives rappers “street cred” too. That’s why Carter slipped it into the title and refrain of “99 Problems.” But here’s Carter’s other problem.
The damage has already been done, sir. You simply can’t undo years of disrespecting women in song and verse with an announcement that you’re no longer going to use a certain derogatory word about women just because you now have a daughter.
All those women Carter called the “b” word are somebody’s daughters too. Did he ever think of that?
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
