Walk This Way

Run DMC’s mash-up of Aerosmith’s classic, “Walk This Way,” is one of my all-time favorites.

Today, I will put on my high-heel sneakers (Don Imus notwithstanding, I’m not wearing a wig-hat on my head) and join the Rev. Al Sharpton, New York City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy and Tamika Mallory, director of the National Action Network's Decency Initiative, in the March for Decency.

Mallory said:

I am leading this march as a mother and as a young black woman who is part of the hip-hop generation. We must reshape the positive culture in music, and redefine images of women in media. We will no longer tolerate misogyny and racism as a mainstream form of entertainment for our children.

Glen Ford, executive editor of the Black Agenda Report and a pioneer in hip hop radio programming, observes:

Hip hop music is also a product, produced by giant corporations for mass distribution to a carefully targeted and cultivated demographic market. Corporate executives map out multi-year campaigns to increase their share of the targeted market, hiring and firing subordinates - the men and women of Artists and Recordings (A&R) departments - whose job is to find the raw material for the product (artists), and shape it into the package upper management has decreed is most marketable (the artist’s public persona, image, style and behavior). It is a corporate process at every stage of artist "development," one that was in place long before the artist was “discovered” or signed to the corporate label. What the public sees, hears and consumes is the end result of a process that is integral to the business model crafted by top corporate executives. The artist, the song, the presentation - all of it is a corporate product.

Hundreds of women are expected to protest sexism, racism and homophobia in corporate hip hop. The march steps off at 5:30 p.m. at Sony BMG Music.

For more info, click here.