Let’s Blame Hip-Hop for Sex-Crazed Youth

A recent New York Times article entitled “For Clues on Teenage Sex, Experts Look to Hip-Hop,” explores the findings of a three-year study conducted by Dr. Miguel A. Muñoz-Laboy.

Dr. Muñoz-Laboy, an assistant professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, jumps on the bandwagon of “safari experts” who lean on hip-hop as the source of the tragic state of youth. According to the article, he interviewed “dozens” of teens and explored the hip-hop scene. In reviewing the way they got down, his research team discovered that “The lesson for public health workers is that hip-hop is not just music but a support system and social structure that dominates youth culture. The language of hip-hop also may in fact be a more effective way to communicate with teenagers.”

His research along with that from the RAND Corporation does highlight the degrading, dwindling condition hip-hop is in; however, sociologists who examine a segment of a culture that’s existed for decades in only a few years should not be so quick to publish findings that point the finger on music for driving a nation of horny teens.

At The Tea Room, A. Ishola calls out such studies:

“They present these “findings” as if they’ve finished observing a beast in his “unhealthy” habitat.  Not to give rappers a pass or anything, but why don’t these “experts” spend the same amount of time in the hood searching for the solution to poverty, high unemployment rates, failing schools, and crime?”

Historically, hip-hop has served as an expression of a people–illustrating their joys, frustrations, dreams, and sorrows.

“Hip-hop is a generational phenomenon that has united young people,” Bakari Kitwana, author of “The Hip-Hop Generation”. “If that’s not understood, you’re going to miss a lot.”

-Dana L. Oliver

Things go Bump at MOCCA

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, or MOCCA, is currently displaying a “Things that Go Bump…” exhibition in honor of Halloween that will run through March 17th, giving everyone plenty of time to see it.

MOCCA, pronounced like the homonymous coffee drink, is a bit difficult to find; it’s housed on the fourth floor of a nondescript office building on Broadway that doesn’t even have a small sign that says “MOCCA!” It’s at 594 Broadway, just south of Houston Street. (When I went, the security guard took one look at my friends and I and asked, “MOCCA?”)

As part of the “Things Go Bump…” exhibit they’ve got two drawings by Chas Addams, creator of the Adams Family, as well as several cells from television cartoons that were popular when I was growing up, like the “Beetlejuice”, “Ghostbusters” and “Batman” animated series.

The space is only of modest gallery size, but there’s a lot to see. They’ve got inks from the famous Jack Kirby hanging up, as well as a page from Alan Moore et al’s V for Vendetta (curious in that the inks are on an acetate above the page, where the colors would go.) Another highlight for me included a two page spread from Leland Purvis’ Vulcan and Vishnu.

It’s $5 to get in and certainly a nice place to get out of the cold and kill an hour, say, before seeing Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead at the Angelika.