Is “Arab Money” offensive?

Never let it be said that Busta Rhymes doesn't have what hispanic people like to refer to as cojones.

If it wasn't already clear that time when he had to scream on a teh ghey guy in a club, or that time when he beat the crap out of a kid for spitting on his car, or that time when he refused to tattle on the guy who shot and killed his jewelry wrangler, or the time when he screamed on Jimmy Iovine, which supposedly got him dropped from Interscope, it ought to be clear now.

Managing to run afoul of a teh ghey guy, or some poor kid, or a dead weed carrier, or an elderly Jew is one thing. But tempting the wrath of these A-rabs is a whole new ballpark of gulliness. Busta Rhymes, if he's not careful, could end up getting his head sawed off in a grainy web video.

If you fruits haven't heard Busta Rhymes' new song "Arab Money," you might wanna go ahead and check that out in this site's Bangers section. I know TPAR has already heard it, since he emailed me earlier today, talking about... you guessed it, how this song is racist, and how Bussa Bus could never get away with making a song like that about any other race of people. Which I of course took to mean the Jews.

As if Busta Rhymes actually called someone over at his new label, Universal Motown, beforehand to make sure it was ok for him to make a song mocking Arabs. For all we know, Universal Motown might not even be an actual label. It sounds like they just took the names of two old labels that don't exist anymore and stuck them together. Though, from what I understand, Tha Carter III, i.e. this year's biggest rap album, was released on that label. Hmm...

You know how this shit works: Some Arab PC cop, who wouldn't otherwise even be listening to a Busta Rhymes record, or maybe even just some Chinese person who does this as a sport, will catch wind of the fact that there's a new rap song that uses the word A-rab in its chorus, and also features some sort of Arab chant done through a motherfucking vocoder. They'll throw the usual bitchfit, then the label will issue some sort of apology and make sure the song doesn't appear on the album, a la Nas' "Be a Nigger Too."

The real question is whether or not "Arab Money" is gonna upset any actual terrorists. (Arab people, note that I'm drawing a distinction between the terrorists and regular Arab people. I'm enlightened like that.) If I was Busta Rhymes, I'd hold off on visiting any countries where that sort of thing is prevalent, just in case. I'm not aware of any examples of the terrorists making it a point to go after specific entertainers, but I wouldn't want to run the risk of being the first one, either.

I think I did read, recently, that some Palestinians were threatening to throw some rocks at Snoop Dogg, because he was going to perform for the Jews over in Israel. But I'm not sure what ever came of that (hopefully, he didn't get pelted), and I don't care enough about you (yes, you in particular) to spend the time it would take to find out.

And I know at one point, Osama bin Laden was talking a lot of shit to Bobby Brown, because the al Qaeda leader has a hardcore thing for Whitney Houston. But as far as I know, the King of R&B has been able to enjoy his rocks in relative peace. Which, if I was Busta Rhymes, I'd take as a good sign. If Osama bin Laden's not gonna trip like that over some pussy, I doubt he could give a rat's ass about a rap song. You know how backed up these Muslims are.

Plus, you know bin Laden's got tapes out trying to holler at the hip-hop community about joining his movement, like TPAR has. Perhaps he'll take "Arab Money" as friendly overture on our behalf. Maybe he'll even have Jimmy Iovine done away with, on some enemy of my enemy is my friend type ish. Just kidding! I don't want to put any ideas in any crazy people's heads.