Lupe Fiasco Takes on Spin Magazine Over “Bitch Bad” Video Critique

 •  XXL Magazine  •  by Adam Fleischer  •  9 Comments

Lupe Fiasco released the video for “Bitch Bad” yesterday, one of the early singles from his upcoming album, Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1, due out September 25. In the song, the Chicago rapper discusses the word “bitch” and the various interpretations of the loaded word, understood particularly through the lens of those raised on hip-hop. The video, directed by Gil Green, attempts to make a parody of a stereotypical rap video, and includes the use of blackface.

When Spin writer Brandon Soderberg was critical of the new visuals in a post, Lupe caught wind and took to Twitter to attempt to defend his video and attack the publication. He began using the hashtag #BoycottSpinMagazine and later referenced Buzz Media, which now owns Spin.

Watch the video above, and below check out an except of Soderberg’s post (the full piece is here) followed a number of by Lupe’s tweets.

“The video for ‘Bitch Bad’ adds another layer of reckless social commentary when it dramatizes footage from a fictional hip-hop video behind scenes of the kids encountering offensive hip-hop. The fake rap video that plays out behind the group of young girls seems almost exclusively aimed at 50 Cent. We see a guy in a wifebeater mean mugging as a typical “video hoe” writhes on him and his car, and signs for “Sugar Water” engulf the street scene, undoubtedly a reference to 50′s involvement with Vitamin Water. Towards the end of the video, we witness the 50 stand-in and “video hoe” applying blackface, perpetuating the sounds-good-but-doesn’t-really-parse argument that male gangsta rappers and female models/video girls are the modern day equivalent of blackface performers.”

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  • riinlove

    Wowzers. LUPE! This is turning into a fiasco.

  • yup

    Lupe has a point. You dont even have to be a fan of Lupe or the song to see how stupid that blogger sounds.

  • guttaman

    a little dramatic aren’t we?

  • htownstandup

    Freedom of speech, I respect his art, he should respect the bloggers critique of his shit. Now, what he will have to defend is him going after 50

  • Amsterdam

    Divide and conquer. That blogger is probably white and would rather see black people being self-destructive. When we become conscious we become a problem.

  • http://twitter.com/ewright637 Eric Wright

    This hooked-nosed bastard deserves every part of the backlash that
    he received.
    There is an editorial spin influencing Hip Hop to be as self-destructive
    as it can possibly be, and it’s no coincidence that the big time record
    executives responsible are also Jews. This is white supremacy
    influencing black music making it dumb as possible. The dumbing-down
    makes it possible for the oligarchy to stay in power. Soderberg and his all
    white Spin Magazine (just look at the pictures of the staff) are not the
    authority on Hip Hop or Black culture, yet somehow this idiot’s bullshit
    editorial is seen as having validity. Why?

    This isn’t solely about Lupe’s Bitch Bad song. Lupe has
    continued to critique the present Administration for drone bombing
    innocent Arab/Muslim children that just happen to be located in countries not
    in agreement with the State of Israel.
    So this Zionist based media will resort to all types of lows to discredit
    this conscious Hip Hop Artist. After all he has called out America for
    being a state sponsored terrorist regime and questioned the validity of 911
    explanations. So if you peruse Spin Magazine you will quickly find out
    for them “LUPE BAD, Cheef Keef Good, 50 Better, this is understood.”
    How can you not see this as highly suspicious, and this Soderberg idiot
    hasn’t the care in the world for the carnage present in black America. The oppressive situation that has produced
    such genocidal levels of violence largely due to the break down in family.
    This idiot and other commentors on his blog had the nerve to
    suggest Lupe was equally as sexist because he used a gender normalizing
    approach to construct what’s acceptable for a women. This twisted,
    contorted, “Slut Walk” feminist logic is not acceptable or championed
    in the black community, and furthermore, it is totally useless in helping
    liberate black people let alone black women.

    Bottom line is that anyone suggesting that conscious Hip Hop has
    no place is a tool for the white supremacist social structure. And it is
    frustrating because tools like Soderberg have a so-called reputable venue to
    use to destroy luminaries of the African American Community. He should go
    kill hisself slowly and painfully for trying to disrupt the bettering of our
    world. If you don’t have a clue about Black Culture, then you shouldn’t
    be able to write a blog about conscious Hip Hop period…

    • Hannibal

      Very well said

    • http://twitter.com/kastermasterbla Reodor Kruse

      This isn’t the white man trying to keep the black man down, this is business as usual. There’s no overlying white supremacist agenda here and the jews are just people of jewish faithfamily, they don’t wanna rule the world.
      I like this song and what it means, but your conspiracies are only hurting the cause. Hell at times you had me reaching for my tinfoil hat with these crazy racist theories. It’s money man, people making money. Bad shit happens and people make more money. Thugs and sluts sell records, that’s it.

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