Hip-Hop Videos: Sexploitation On The Set

Last evening I watched a program on VH-1 entitled "Hip-Hop Videos: Sexploitation On The Set." I have to say, the program made me angry.

In the beginning of the video craze (the 80's), women walked around in videos but many people didn't pay attention to them (except for Ola Ray in Micheal Jackson's "Thriller" video) because they usually didn't have anything to do with the lyrics of the song or the video concept. These women usually received about 15 seconds of air time in each video. TODAY IS DIFFERENT! Now the lyrics of the songs match what the women in the videos are do or trying to protray themselves as (SEX TOYS or EASY). When the song talks about "ho's", the video will show women as "ho's".

Here's the description of the program:

With roughly 200 hip hop videos created each year, all of them require the staple element of voluptuous women to dance, shake, or just look hot. VH1 News wants to find out exactly who these women are and what goes on behind the scenes of these risqué video shoots.

In this special report, VH1 News interviews dozens of working video girls to discover the industry's secret sexual commerce. When a girl enters the video world, is she playing the role of sexual prop? Is she compromising herself for a little bit of fame? What are the sexual demands placed upon these girls on the video set? The relationship between the video girl and artist and director can get complicated. We'll hear from many women who refuse to date artists and see video work as "strictly business." But sometimes sex is expected. Some girls lost work because they wouldn't date a director or sleep with a rapper's ubiquitous entourage. But not all girls know how to say "No."

We'll meet some groupies and hear from the industry's most infamous video girl, Karrine "Superhead" Steffans. She'll explain how the video girl lifestyle almost destroyed her life. Today, away from the video world, she hopes other girls don't follow in her footsteps. There's another side of hip hop videos known as the world of uncut. This niche market of videos has more explicit images and are seen on DVDs and late night TV. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, we'll go on set of an independent uncut video for an artist named Big Delph. We'll also meet Vanity, Princess and Jayda, three strippers from NC, who are chosen to appear in Big Delph's uncut video. One is raising a child and the other two are just trying to survive. They all hope a music video will give them a little bit of exposure, or at least an opportunity to feel special. The show features rappers like Common, Cam'ron, Mike Jones and Luther Campbell, Trina and Jacki-O as well as former video models Karinne Steffans and Melyssa Ford and two casting directors, Ulysses Terrero and Pablo Cornejo, who audition girls for an upcoming video.

Here's my problem with today's videos. Our children (society) aren’t realizing this is JUST A VIDEO and that the actors/artists in the videos probably don’t dress and act like that 24 hours a day. Our kids are acting and dressing like that all the time. Our boys are wearing “wife beaters” in public so they can protray a rough image. Our girls are wearing jeans tight and below the waist. Our boys think they are suppose to refer to girls as "bitches" and "ho's." Our girls think it's normal to "Shake It Fast" (for you old heads, the rapper is really saying "Shake That A#@"). Our boys think it's normal to carry a 9mm whenever they go outside. Our girls think they have to give up the "STUFF" in order to make friends. Our girls think being in a video is the ultimate career move. I can go on and on, but you get my point.

Many of these videos are doing harm to our children and we're not doing anything about it. I often hear the rappers, producers, and filmmakers say it's a matter of free speech. I don't think they should be allowed to use that excuse anymore. It's amazing to me that BET, VH-1, and MTV are own by the same company. VH-1 caters to the older consumer. MTV caters to the 16-35 white citizen. BET caters to the 16-35 black citizen. Why is it that you ONLY see these rauchy videos on BLACK ENTERTAIMENT TELEVISION (BET). You don't see it on VH-1 or MTV. MTV even has a video program that shows the latest and hottest rap videos, but the same artists that make rauchy videos for BET are required to make a CLEAN version of the video for MTV. If the rauchy stuff was shown on MTV, the parents of those sububuran kids would attempt to SHUT MTV DOWN. Why do we allow it? Why hasn't the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, Mr. Dyson, Farrakan, and others join together to stop these videos from being shown on BET. I'm starting to believe that it's become NORMAL to them also.

I know what some of you will say, "don't allow your kids to see it." We live in the age of cell phones that show videos. If they don't see it in your house, they will find out about it somehow. We can avoid all of that if BET stop showing the stuff.

Please make it your business to watch this program. You should see the images that are being planted in our children's head. The program will be shown (again) on Thursday Jun. 22 12:00 AM EDT. RECORD IT because I know everyone is sleep by this time of day.

Written by COWBOY4EVER