By Erica Rose
The January 2011 issue of Essence Magazine poses a major question about rapper/artist Lil Wayne and that is “can Weezy start over now that he has a second chance?”
For all of you who are not familiar with Lil Wayne, a.k.a Weezy “F” Baby, whose real name is Dwayne Carter ; he has been a very popular artist since the 90’s and started out on the record label Cash Money. Since 1999 Lil Wayne has been a solo artist with hits in the hip-hop community such as “The Block is Hot” and “Go DJ!.” On February 9, 2010 he was jailed for a gun possession charge from 2007 and was given a 1 year sentence in prison. He was then released after 8 months on November 9th of this year.
Before Lil Wayne went in to prison most, if not all, of his music objectified and insulted women and their sexuality. Songs like “Lollipop” talks about women doing unspeakable acts for him and the song “Mrs. Officer” is about a female police officer that stops Lil Wayne’s vehicle and has sex with him. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve been pulled over for a speeding ticket that has never happened to me. In fact the female police officers that I have personally met are very professional.
What bothers me most about this particular artist is that I know so many women who support him, as well as men with wives, girlfriends, and daughters. I constantly see on television an artist that respects Lil Wayne’s “talents” or on my Facebook page a person that has bought his album and thinks that it is the best ever. Why don’t people see what I see; a man that has little respect for women.
So to answer the question “if Lil Wayne can change or start over,” I say he can but why should he? Lil Wayne has sold over 6.5 million albums, proving that he is popular. On the day of his release, fans stood outside of the prison to celebrate his homecoming. He has yet to give a statement post-release expressing his regret about being jailed, and about changing the content of his music.
In the 1840s the Women’s Suffrage movement began to ensure that women were treated humane and equal to men. Over the years women have fought for the right to vote, work, and to not be objectified. Following artists like this can be a setback to the work that women have done. When many musicians such as Lil Wayne address women they label them by their body parts and speak about what they can do for them sexually, which is a total contradiction to the feminist movement.
An artist such as him will not change on his own, we have to change him. We ladies cannot support him. We need to go to fan sites such as LilWayneHQ.com on Facebook and explain to him (and his supporters) that we are women not objects to be conquered and that we want to be respected. Most importantly, we need to stop buying and listening to his music. If we don’t stop supporting him then we leave the door open for artists like him to capture our daughters’ hearts, and make them feel that they are to be owned and not respected.