Editor’s note: The new name for domestic violence is Intimate Partner Abuse. Get familiar bitches.
I was going to write about this crazy drama that happened in my building parking lot last week, a la Amadeo’s experience, and it would have been a good story. It involved three homeless people, their shopping cart, a six floor balcony and my regular’s BMW and then, to quote CeezDiem, “I saw this motherfucking video.”
Now let us all get up on our Hip Hop and R&B high horses about Ashanti’s singing, the song’s production, the money laundering, the fucking for tracks, about how this wack ass music isn’t even on our level, yada yadda ya. The point is that this music video is going to be, if it hasn’t already been, seen by millions of people. Premiering on BET last week and running in heavy rotation this week, it’s clear that Ashanti isn’t going to sell any records but everybody’s going to see her damn video. We all know the motto:
Sex: If you’ll splay it, we’ll play it!
I love music. I will listen to most anything at least three times before I make a decision. I have a CRAZY music library made up of everything from Suzanne Vega to DJ Khaled. Yes, even DJ Khaled. I know what you are thinking, but I’m always down for a party record. Trust me, I’m not banging it on the regular. Oh, and pause to banging Khaled on my regular.
What’s frustrating is that the people at BET will have us believe that the programming on that channel reflects the entertainment needs and standards of the Black community in a culturally relevant and sensitive way. In honor of MY favorite show, Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit!!!
Apparently this video is a not so loose spin-off of the Oxygen channel’s ‘Snapped.’ Have you ever seen that show? Basically it’s real life crime analysis from friends, reporters detectives and the like, of women and cases where they went bat shit and fucked somebody up. You know, a woman scorned type shit. The lady who ran her husband over with her Mercedes and then backed up and did it again a few times, remember her? They featured her on the show, to give you an example of these brawlic bitches.
Maybe I was busy when I glanced at the video for the first time, I already knew the concept, but it took my second viewing before I realized that the direction of the video was not to create the illusion that Ashanti had killed her cheating lover, but to remove all doubt. She stabbed him with a knife from the kitchen they shared. They show dude in the bathtub, a presumed dead body, a 911 call, complete with grainy mugshot footage, rushed and hurried court scenes and the raw and emotional agony at the loss of life at the hands of a loved one.
Cut to Ashanti breathing hard in a bathtub with perfectly applied eye shadow. Wait! It’s only entertainment.
This is not the first time Ashanti has dabbled in the intricacies of domestic violence (you may remember “Rain on Me”) but it is certainly the more graphic of the two. What the fuck is wrong with people? Ashanti just don’t know. Cheating, jilted, and delusional spouses exist in our
communities, on our blocks, in the next house over.
In January of 2007 in a small town on the East Coast, months after they separated, this man fatally shot his wife. Four times in the chest, point blank with a .357 Magnum. It was reported that this man thought his wife was cheating on him while they were still together; town lore is that the marriage was over for years, “just neither of them knew it…” Allegedly this man went around this small town on the East Coast in 2007 the weekend before the murder telling people that his wife only had 48 hours to live. No one believed him though.
As the story goes, on that fateful day in January, the man shot his wife, four times in the chest, point blank with a .357 Magnum. Turns out this woman had children, four of them and three grandchildren. The woman’s teenage son was at home from school sick that day and he arrived at the house where the murder occurred, his grandmother’s house. There he saw the yellow Police ape, his mother’s car doors opened, detectives swirling about, he was taken to the hospital and told nothing. Family members were called, prayers were said.
“Hi. Are you okay? I just wanted to let you know that I am praying to God and asking Him to intervene and make a way…”
“Don’t worry,” people said to the woman’s family. “She’s going to be okay.”
But it wasn’t okay and it never would be again, because she was gone. Gone. She was killed by her husband of 24 years, father to her four children and Grandfather to her three grandchildren. He shot her four times in the chest, point blank with a .357 Magnum in a small town on the East Coast in January 0f 2007.
Maybe we should thank Ashanti for her crafty, creative, innovative way of showing true life. Let’s encourage artists to continue to speak on these very real experiences. It’s working!!!
Are you not entertained?
Are you not entertained?!
Isn’t that why you are here!?!
I used to wanna cut Ashanti until I found out she cut niggas. I’ll just keep it in my pants
Wow.
*Takes shower*
One.
Max thanks for giving me another reason to keep passing over The Negroe Channel.
I saw the video and the older one with Larenz Tate. Its’ cool and very cinematic but it is definitely provocatively violent. I’m just wondering if anyone will scream MISANDRY. A word rarely used in the media.
Never heard of ‘Snapped’ on Oxygen, but I wonder how often they spin the story and portray the murderer as the victim. As is often the case.
Entertained? NO!
Therapy? Yes!
On December 6, 1998, my brother shot his wife in the head, after it was found out that she was cheating. He then shot himself in the head five hours after he drank a bottle of Wild Turkey, left a couple of messages on a friends phone, called his baby mama and told her to go get the kids from his wifes sisters house and then stripped down to only his socks.
We had the DOUBLE funeral on my 22nd birthday.
He was due to start police academy in January 1999.
Thanks Black Entertainment Television……thanks a lot!
I watched this on mute and couldnt help but think of the “Natural Born Killaz” video where it turns out that Cube and Dre framed OJ. Maybe they framed Ashanti too, joe!!
But for real, it’s clear that Ashanti (who’s had a falling out with Murder Inc, hasnt dropped an album in eons, and has subsequently been out-Ashantied by Ciara), is desperate to get some attention (i.e. controversy) for her project. Best way to do it is to do some shit about sex/murder. That or dog fighting.
She shoulda gone hard and released a grimy “Mac 10 handle” type joint, with Prodigy on the remix.
Could we just get “The Running Man” on TV and get it over with?
@ Vee. You should check the show out, there are differing of opinions about victim portrayal.
no talent & violent mate killing video= no talent violent video=3 minutes of exposure to an audience that’s been dumbed down and has even lower expectations=a possible 5 minute hit or maybe not so much………………………….fuckery where is thy sting?…………Roxanne you don’t have to put on the red light, Ashanti is giving it away free………………….Ernie
Maxine writes “yellow Police ape”
crazy apes….
hehe
Good post Maxine! I’m with you Ernie.
I saw this video on another blog that I frequent and the responses were “Wow, that’s a great video!” and “She’s back!” I’m thinking to myself, “WTH and I missing here?”
No vocal/musical talent, no creativity and a bad message to send to millions of young minds. Thanks Ashitty! Sixteen year olds have learned that when dealing with a cheater, stab his ass to death.