[Tupac]
Hahahaha, you ain't knowin what we mean by starin through the rearview
So since you ain't knowin what we mean let me break down understandin
The world, the world is behind us
Once a motherfucker get an understanding on the game
and what the levels and the rules of the game is
Then the world ain't no trick no more
The world is a game to be played
So now we lookin at the world, from like, behind us
Niggaz know what we gotta do, just gotta put our mind to it and do it
It's all about the papers, money rule the world
Bitches make the world go round
Real niggaz do they wanna do, bitch niggaz do what they can't
Hahahaha, you ain't knowin what we mean by starin through the rearview
So since you ain't knowin what we mean let me break down understandin
The world, the world is behind us
Once a motherfucker get an understanding on the game
and what the levels and the rules of the game is
Then the world ain't no trick no more
The world is a game to be played
So now we lookin at the world, from like, behind us
Niggaz know what we gotta do, just gotta put our mind to it and do it
It's all about the papers, money rule the world
Bitches make the world go round
Real niggaz do they wanna do, bitch niggaz do what they can't
This thread \/\/
BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the Impact Segment tonight, last week, the principal of John Reynolds Elementary School in Philadelphia, Salome Thomas-El, told us he believes*gangsta rap (search)*music is extremely harmful to his inner-city students.
So we decided to get Grammy-nominee Cam'ron, who raps about pimping and bitches -- among other things -- and rap producer Damon Dash, co-founder of Rockefeller Records, together with Mr. Thomas-El, who joins us now from Philly. And here they all are.
Now we're going to have a nice, intelligent discussion here, gentlemen, and I'm going to moderate this discussion.
CAM'RON, RAPPER: Pimping and bitches.
O'REILLY: Yes. You know.
CAM'RON: Pimping and bitches.
O'REILLY: You've got it in your record "Purple Haze" right here.
But, anyway, let Mr. Thomas-El direct his questions, and then you guys can answer, and you can ask him questions or whatever you want.
Go ahead, sir.
SALOME THOMAS-EL, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Yes. Good evening, gentlemen.
CAM'RON: Hey, how are you?
DAMON DASH, RAP PRODUCER: How are you doing?
THOMAS-EL: Good, good, good. I'm a big fan of yours. I grew up on hip-hop.
CAM'RON: Thank you, sir.
THOMAS-EL: I'm a little older, so, you know, I was a Run DMC fan, KRS1.
CAM'RON: Yes, sir.
THOMAS-EL: But I'm always promoting the positive of rap. I mean Jay-Z's an excellent example of someone who's started his own label. He's an entrepreneur. So always promoting that with my young people.
But I spoke to some students today in preparation for our conversation tonight, and they were just so excited about the fact that I would be conversating with you guys, but also began to talk about the impact of the rap business on our young people, and many of them talked about how they understand that it's to sell records and it's, you know, for promotion.
But there are many young people who are affected by the lyrics, by the example of the videos. They talked about how Ludacris -- many of them knew about a video that Ludacris has where there's strippers and lap dances and those kinds of things, and these are 11-, 12-, and 13-year-old students who are very aware of what goes on.
And I was just wondering what your thoughts were on whether you thought you really had an impact on the lives of young people and whether you thought it was negative or positive.
O'REILLY: Cam'ron, why don't you go ahead?
CAM'RON: At the end of the day, yes, you've got an influence on it, but so do movies. Like with me, I'm just an author. So what I do is I write what goes on in the ghetto. I'm not a liar. So what I tell you goes on in my album, that's what goes on on the streets of Harlem.
Now I'm like a reporter. When you look at the news, you don't get mad at the person reporting the news. A lot of influence, I think, go to movies. A lot of people look at the movies, and then they react. The kids that killed them kids in -- where was that, Damon? Colorado?
DASH: Columbine.
CAM'RON: Columbine. Yes. You feel what I'm saying? I don't think they were listening to rap at all. I think that was more like a Marilyn Manson jump-off, you know, like...
O'REILLY: What if an 11-year-old kid imitates you, Cam'ron? What if he uses four-letter words and he develops a lifestyle based upon the street, he gets tattooed, he gets all of this, do you feel badly about that?
CAM'RON: No, I don't.
DASH: Can I interject?
O'REILLY: Go ahead.
DASH: If an 11-year-old were to imitate Cam'ron, what they would be doing is becoming a CEO Of their own company, controlling their own destiny, taking a bad situation and making it good. He has a record company. He's sold a lot of records. He's acted in movies. I feel like he's a positive...
CAM'RON: I have a cologne also.
DASH: He has a cologne.
CAM'RON: I have a clothing line.
O'REILLY: Well, you know what I'm talking about, Damon.
DASH: Well, no, he's an entrepreneur by his own right.
O'REILLY: If you have a child who is unsupervised and then Mr. Thomas-El has to try to teach and he's using four-letter words inappropriately, he's dressing inappropriately, he doesn't have value of education then that kid's in trouble.
DASH: Who's to say what's inappropriate as far as dressing goes? But, on another level, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the Terminator, he was shooting up everyone in sight.
O'REILLY: It's a cartoon, though. This is real, though, isn't it?
CAM'RON: Everybody's rap isn't real.
O'REILLY: This is real. It's not a Terminator cartoon.
All right. Mr. Thomas-El, what else do you want to ask these guys?
DASH: You didn't let me finish, Bill. That wasn't very fair.
O'REILLY: All right. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll let Mr. Dash finish.
DASH: Now we're talking about the good governor of California right now.
O'REILLY: That's right. And I'm telling you his movie's a cartoon, whereas this rap stuff is real life.
DASH: Now -- whoa, whoa, whoa. If there's an unsupervised child, how is he going to know whether it's real or not? How is he to determine what's real and what's not real? Who's the supervisor?
O'REILLY: All right. And you think that the "Terminator" movies are just as damaging or more so than gangsta rap.
DASH: I would have to say being that there's a visual and being there's no explanation to them and being that it's...
O'REILLY: There's visuals on these rap videos, too, though.
DASH: But what I'm saying is it's glorified. There's no justification for all the shooting that goes on.
O'REILLY: All right.
So we decided to get Grammy-nominee Cam'ron, who raps about pimping and bitches -- among other things -- and rap producer Damon Dash, co-founder of Rockefeller Records, together with Mr. Thomas-El, who joins us now from Philly. And here they all are.
Now we're going to have a nice, intelligent discussion here, gentlemen, and I'm going to moderate this discussion.
CAM'RON, RAPPER: Pimping and bitches.
O'REILLY: Yes. You know.
CAM'RON: Pimping and bitches.
O'REILLY: You've got it in your record "Purple Haze" right here.
But, anyway, let Mr. Thomas-El direct his questions, and then you guys can answer, and you can ask him questions or whatever you want.
Go ahead, sir.
SALOME THOMAS-EL, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Yes. Good evening, gentlemen.
CAM'RON: Hey, how are you?
DAMON DASH, RAP PRODUCER: How are you doing?
THOMAS-EL: Good, good, good. I'm a big fan of yours. I grew up on hip-hop.
CAM'RON: Thank you, sir.
THOMAS-EL: I'm a little older, so, you know, I was a Run DMC fan, KRS1.
CAM'RON: Yes, sir.
THOMAS-EL: But I'm always promoting the positive of rap. I mean Jay-Z's an excellent example of someone who's started his own label. He's an entrepreneur. So always promoting that with my young people.
But I spoke to some students today in preparation for our conversation tonight, and they were just so excited about the fact that I would be conversating with you guys, but also began to talk about the impact of the rap business on our young people, and many of them talked about how they understand that it's to sell records and it's, you know, for promotion.
But there are many young people who are affected by the lyrics, by the example of the videos. They talked about how Ludacris -- many of them knew about a video that Ludacris has where there's strippers and lap dances and those kinds of things, and these are 11-, 12-, and 13-year-old students who are very aware of what goes on.
And I was just wondering what your thoughts were on whether you thought you really had an impact on the lives of young people and whether you thought it was negative or positive.
O'REILLY: Cam'ron, why don't you go ahead?
CAM'RON: At the end of the day, yes, you've got an influence on it, but so do movies. Like with me, I'm just an author. So what I do is I write what goes on in the ghetto. I'm not a liar. So what I tell you goes on in my album, that's what goes on on the streets of Harlem.
Now I'm like a reporter. When you look at the news, you don't get mad at the person reporting the news. A lot of influence, I think, go to movies. A lot of people look at the movies, and then they react. The kids that killed them kids in -- where was that, Damon? Colorado?
DASH: Columbine.
CAM'RON: Columbine. Yes. You feel what I'm saying? I don't think they were listening to rap at all. I think that was more like a Marilyn Manson jump-off, you know, like...
O'REILLY: What if an 11-year-old kid imitates you, Cam'ron? What if he uses four-letter words and he develops a lifestyle based upon the street, he gets tattooed, he gets all of this, do you feel badly about that?
CAM'RON: No, I don't.
DASH: Can I interject?
O'REILLY: Go ahead.
DASH: If an 11-year-old were to imitate Cam'ron, what they would be doing is becoming a CEO Of their own company, controlling their own destiny, taking a bad situation and making it good. He has a record company. He's sold a lot of records. He's acted in movies. I feel like he's a positive...
CAM'RON: I have a cologne also.
DASH: He has a cologne.
CAM'RON: I have a clothing line.
O'REILLY: Well, you know what I'm talking about, Damon.
DASH: Well, no, he's an entrepreneur by his own right.
O'REILLY: If you have a child who is unsupervised and then Mr. Thomas-El has to try to teach and he's using four-letter words inappropriately, he's dressing inappropriately, he doesn't have value of education then that kid's in trouble.
DASH: Who's to say what's inappropriate as far as dressing goes? But, on another level, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the Terminator, he was shooting up everyone in sight.
O'REILLY: It's a cartoon, though. This is real, though, isn't it?
CAM'RON: Everybody's rap isn't real.
O'REILLY: This is real. It's not a Terminator cartoon.
All right. Mr. Thomas-El, what else do you want to ask these guys?
DASH: You didn't let me finish, Bill. That wasn't very fair.
O'REILLY: All right. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll let Mr. Dash finish.
DASH: Now we're talking about the good governor of California right now.
O'REILLY: That's right. And I'm telling you his movie's a cartoon, whereas this rap stuff is real life.
DASH: Now -- whoa, whoa, whoa. If there's an unsupervised child, how is he going to know whether it's real or not? How is he to determine what's real and what's not real? Who's the supervisor?
O'REILLY: All right. And you think that the "Terminator" movies are just as damaging or more so than gangsta rap.
DASH: I would have to say being that there's a visual and being there's no explanation to them and being that it's...
O'REILLY: There's visuals on these rap videos, too, though.
DASH: But what I'm saying is it's glorified. There's no justification for all the shooting that goes on.
O'REILLY: All right.
