Students should not attend Three 6 Mafia concert
On April 19, Three 6 Mafia is scheduled to appear at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house to perform as part of the Little 500 festivities. For this, we must ask ourselves, have we become desensitized, or indifferent, to the content of performance artists? Or do we crave consumerism so much as to be blinded by the commodity? As students at a liberal university, I was surprised to find that we would tolerate the trio performing on its campus. The title of “Oscar-winner” does not serve to validate this group’s history of misogynistic slander and its violent propagation of sexuality.
The lyricism goes beyond innuendo to blatancy when in the group’s 2005 album, “Most Unknown,” the song “Slob on My Knob” begins with “Slob on my knob/ like corn on the cob/ check in with me, and do your job/ Lay on the bed, and give me head/ Don’t have to ask, don’t have to beg.” The song only gets worse with “Let’s call the boys, let’s run a train/ squeeze on my nuts/ lick on my butt.” Even their Oscar-winning song “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp” maintains that “Wait, I got a snow bunny, and a black girl too/ You pay the right price, they’ll both do you,” at which point if you “keep it strictly pimpin’” you’d be “makin’ change off these women.” Unfortunately, the lyrics present a reoccurring motif throughout the history of Three 6 Mafia’s career, which dates back to 1997’s “Neighborhood Hoe.”
So again, I ask, why do we tolerate this kind of hateful language to be perpetuated on our campus? I believe that we should not. For those of you who have not purchased tickets to the event, I ask that you please don’t. Also, I ask that you discuss with your friends, or others who missed reading this, about the seemingly social indifference resulting from the artist’s ploy to cloak their hateful lyrics behind an appealing bass line.
Jennifer Vollmer
Senior
