That time Bill Cosby blamed rape on rap music

That time Bill Cosby blamed rape on rap music

by digby

Back in 2005, I was appalled by Cosby's judgmental blatherings about the failing of black culture on Meet the Press one morning. When I went back to look at the transcript, this came up:


MR. COSBY: But you see, when youth does that, you have to understand that youth—these are, these are kids, they, they don’t have the responsibilities that, that we have. They don’t have to have a job. They don’t have to support a family. They don’t have to buy insurance. They—so they’re, they’re free-forming and they’re freewheeling.

It’s the people who make these records. It’s the, it’s the guy in the boardroom. I have another friend of mine who said to me, “I, I write rap lyrics.” He said, “And I went to a man”—I mean, “I went to work, and the guy said, the executive said to me, ‘I want lyrics about rape. Rape is good.’” He said, “And I looked at the guy, and I said, ‘You’re talking about my mother.’ And the guy said, ‘Well, if you don’t want to write it, then I’ll get somebody else who will.’” But, see, all these things, this dopamine-raising level.

The whole interview was pretty awful. Sometimes I wonder if Cosby took quaaludes himself before he went on TV.

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