This just in: Rappers want to be pimps.

OK, it's not news to anybody with a clue or half a sense of rhythm that some rap music has glorified pimp culture as an ultimate expression of lowdown style and glamour, and maybe the stereotypes are worth some exploration. I found the story at CNN, which credits only the AP, but other outlets give a byline to Nekesa Mumbi Moody — the AP's national music writer. To be fair, the story hits a lot of the right marks, soliciting multiple viewpoints and getting stuff like the Li'l Pimp quote from Chris Rock, which made me chuckle. But if radio-friendly rap remains fairly simplistic in its thinking (like most radio-friendly music these days), there remains so much variety and vitality in the genre that it seems weirdly ignorant for a writer who knows her pop music to declare, "You'd be hard-pressed to find a rap song these days without at least some passing reference to pimps." I mean, that's just bullshit. Maybe her editor made her do it.

Why not write a trend piece on, say, political consciousness in hip-hop, where Public Enemy was among the first artists to dis the Bush Administration (in "Son of a Bush" [lyrics] [Amazon.com]) and Mr. Lif remains one of the very few to actually criticize U.S. foreign policy in the context of 9/11 ("Home of the Brave," [lyrics][Amazon.com] for starters)? I know, I know, because pimpin' is a hot-button issue of both race and gender — as well as being kind of funny when put in a hip-hop context — while political dissent is unpatriotic at best and outright treason at worst. The story suggests that aspirations of pimphood may reflect wish fulfillment on the part of black folks who are used to being on the bottom rung of the ladder, which at least lends a subtext to the decadent fantasy. But there's a lot more going on in rap music than pimpin', dogg.

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