From latimes.com: “In a statement, Paul Porter, co-founder of Industry Ears and a former music programmer for BET, described “Man Down” as “an inexcusable, shock-only, shoot-and-kill theme song. In my 30 years of viewing BET, I have never witnessed such a cold, calculated execution of murder in primetime. Viacom’s standards and practices department has reached another new low.” The statement continued: “If Chris Brown shot a woman in his new video and BET premiered it, the world would stop. Rihanna should not get a pass and BET should know better. The video is far from broadcast-worthy.” The singing star Tweeted a non-reply reply to the controversy, which has done nothing for sales (kidding) . . .
Young girls/women all over the world…we are a lot of things! We’re strong innocent fun flirtatious vulnerable, and sometimes our innocence can cause us to be naïve! We always think it could NEVER be us, but in reality, it can happen to ANY of us! So ladies be careful and #listentoyomama! I love you and I care!
And if you get abused, yo, cap his ass! And try not to stage the trigger.
This video will now become number one because everyone is going to view it.
We do what we can.
YouTube won’t work. Does she shoot an abusive dipstick in self-defense in the video, or something?
She has a .22 she keeps in her shoe. She calls it Peggy Sue. Okay, so the lyrics are not Dylanesque. I couldn’t get past the severe Auto-Tune they put on her. She sounds like the National Weather Service robot. This single sucks. Thumbs down.
good lord, where to start here. Rhianna is not a Jamaican, so her forced patios accent on “pull the trigger boom” was laugh out loud kind of stupid to anyone with familiarity the the Caribbean. Rhianna is from Barbados, which is close to south american, and NOT Jamaica, and has lived in the US since she was 16, she does not speak like she sings in this song, at all. Go and you tube any interview she’s done. I really would how much of the 3rd world does she really know?
I know nothing about Paul Porter, but he is %100 correct about the media meltdown that would ensue if a man had made a video like this.
What makes even less sense is Rhianna’s statement, does she wish she was CCWing when she got beat up bu Brown, or is it only ok for women in poor countries to shoot abusive men for her?
It’s crappy art, but the artistic statement is simply “girl kills guy.” There’s no indication that it’s intended to glorify or justify the act of murder. It’s just a story, mainly about remorse.
When Johnny Cash sings “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die,” he’s not saying he actually killed a man. He’s not saying it’s ok to kill or that you should go shoot a man in Reno. He’s creating a character — an inmate in Folsom Prison. If nobody in art, music, literature, or theater ever did wrong, drama could not exist.
Low quality music, but as pointed out above murder’s not a new subject for lyrics. I’m pretty sure Janie’s Got a Gun was a hot single for Aerosmith.
Murder in music is so common, it has it’s own term : Murder Ballads
Which, BTW, is the title of a really great album by one of my favorite
vocalists, Nick Cave. Y’all should check him out if you aren’t familiar
with his work.
Start with the ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrain, and go from there.
I agree, this shouldn’t be broadcast. It should be deleted from the collective interwebs and Ri-Ri should be prosecuted for worst reggae song ever, mon. Was there a gun in the video, I coudn’t take it that long.
(Ignoring the music aspect)
I call good shoot. Girl gets raped so she kills the guy. Big whoop. The place the story takes place in looks like it’s not exactly likely he’d get convicted through normal channels. (Unless I misunderstood the video.)
I am personally opposed to the death penalty except for those times when it is imposed immediately, at the scene, by the would-be victim. Shooting him the next day? How does she know it’s the same guy and not a lookalike? And shooting into a crowded area is a bad idea too, too many innocent bystanders around. Even if you hit the guy you’re aiming at and don’t get a through and through, panicked crowds can kill people just as dead as a bullet.
Do I like the song not really. But I love the message. This happens in real life. Granted not every woman will shoot her attacker but it has happened. It’s real and it happens. We have gotten so use teeny bopper life is all good girate like a ho music. Not all music can be happy tunes.
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