According to TMZ,

Sources close to the rapper tell TMZ … Ross will lose between $3.5 million and $5 million … he was getting a check each time he wore the shoes.

And for that reason, Ross reportedly feels betrayed by the company. That’s right, folks. Despite coming off as understanding about having to part ways with the sneaker brand after an outcry over his lyrics on the song “U.O.E.N.O.” by Rocko (which he’s been replaced on), and even Tweeting, “I want to thank Reebok Classics for their hard work and dedication over this past year.Good partners,good shoe.continued success,” the rapper is actually said to be pretty enraged with the company. According to TMZ, he feels as though they should have given him a second chance as a form of “corporate forgiveness” since he helped make them more relevant in the hip-hop community. He was on the cover of XXL recently along with Allen Iverson and Tyga promoting the shoes and the company’s legacy, and feels that he did a lot to assure folks that Reeboks are on the same level with other brands. But with women’s rights groups calling for his firing, and word of the lyrics spreading like wildfire, reigniting the conversation about rape culture, they decided not to stand by someone who thought this type of wordplay and message being sent out to the masses was okay. Just face it Ross, you messed up, and it cost you…

And throwing her two cents in recently, rapper/actress Eve agreed that Reebok did what they needed to do. As a lyricist, she understands that some rappers think wordplay is wordplay and it doesn’t mean you’ll actually do something bad, but in an interview with Rap-Up TV, she said it’s not okay to put that message out there.

“People still have to remember it is [Reebok] a business and there are shareholders that are bigger than just Reebok that are probably looking at this situation and being like, ‘You know what, this is not something that we want to represent.’”

As for what she thought of the song: “As a woman, I’m like, ‘Whoa.’ It just makes you think in a different way. I feel like it’s wordplay, but at the same time, it does make you think twice, like what do you mean? Are you that dude? It’s not OK.”

PNP/WENN.com

In another installment of “Get Your Life Please,” this week’s winner is Slim Thug, taking the coveted spot from last week’s winner, Ray J.

We told you just yesterday that Reebok decided to part ways with Rick Ross as a spokesperson for their company after the fallout from his pro-date rape lyrics in the remix to the Rocko song, “U.O.E.N.O.” They put out a pretty straight-to-the-point statement that was also stern at the same time:

“While we do not believe that Rick Ross condones sexual assault, we are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse.”

Well, we haven’t received a response yet from Rick Ross, but his MMG partner-in-crime, Meek Mill, basically tried to take a shot at the credibility of Reebok shoes to express his support for the Bawse. “Reeboks right next 2 FILA when it come 2 sneaks that s**t corny… I was only was feeling swizz & tyga projects… #boom”

Riiiight. I love how these type of comments come up after somebody gets dumped, but we know if Ross was still getting that check everybody in that MMG camp would be trying get a free pair of sneakers. But the most “interesting” response to the Ross backlash and firing from Reebok came from Houston rapper Slim Thug, who basically snapped on Reebok last night for using Ross for publicity (especially they didn’t care that he was rapping about drugs for so long), and snapped back at critics for taking the lyrics so seriously. A big problem with his argument, however, is that he couldn’t get his opinions out without calling women the B-word damn near immediately:

Damn haters won

…I never seen a b***h pass out on a Molly they stay up all night so how is that rape? U.O.E.N.O

[Reebok] ain’t care about all the dope he was rapping bout selling when they signed him but now they tripping after all that promo

All I’m saying is its a rap song and he didn’t say he bout to rape a b***h so he shouldn’t have lost a deal over it

Before we know it rappers are not going to be able to curse no mo on their albums cause somebody whose not a rap fan was offended f**k that

It’s always somebody tryna take down someone who is successful stop hating and get u some money

He would continue to comment about the whole situation on his Twitter, going back and forth with folks who disagreed with him saying things like, “I respect your opinion respect mine I don’t condone rape either but why was losing a Reebox deal his punishment he apologized.” But interestingly enough, he deleted some of the more reckless tweets, which included a few more B-words. But I’m not surprised that Slim Thug wouldn’t understand why people are up in arms about Ross’s lyrics. I mean, just read his comments, he can barely get his opinion out without referring to women as b***hes. And just a few days ago he put up a tweet that said, “B***hes in #2013 are still stupid and evil as Eve.”

But what Slim Thug, Rick Ross, Meek Mill and all these rappers need to realize is that people are a lot more outspoken in 2013 than they were back when B.I.G. was running hip-hop. You can’t romanticize the idea of date raping women on Molly and then expect everybody to play deaf and dumb. Watch your mouth or watch your money go, because we don’t have to support it. Simple as that.

What did you think of his comments?

Photo Credit: Johnny Louis/WENN.com

The other day I saw a hilarious SomeeCard meme that read: “I can’t believe the music that you kids listen to nowadays. What happened to the good wholesome songs like Push It and Me So Horney?”

That got me thinking about Rick Ross. From Hello Beautiful:

“Known for his braggadocious lyrics, showboating style and dangling stomach, Rick Ross stomped all over the lines of inappropriate, disgusting and misogynistic content with the release of his verse on Rocko’s song “You Don’t Even Know It”: “Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it/I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it,” the MMG bawse rapped with confidence.”

It’s no secret how I feel about our favorite ex-correctional officer turned “BAWSE.” But this is sort of Ross’ schtick, right? Say something inflammatory, watch people get mad and reap the benefits financially from the controversy? Remember last year, when Ross took us on a swagged-out voyage through the slums of Nigeria for his video to “Hold Me Back?” Or the time that he tried to woo the ladies with this romantic line from Usher’s “Lemme See,” “Chanel hoodie on looking like Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman don’t want it.”

Move over Barry White! Because nothing says let’s get it on more than having your dude tell you that you remind him of a murdered teenager. Oh, and let’s not forget that Ross cover art for his The Black Bar Mitzvah mixtape, featuring himself draped in a fur coat, centered inside of the Star of David, not only raised the eyebrows of the Jewish community, but also ruffling the feathers of the nefarious Gangster Disciples, who too use the symbol as part of their own logo. The man obviously has no filter, nor does he understand (or maybe care about) boundaries. And at this point, I would be more surprised if Ross had something more thoughtful to say.

Yet if we are being honest here, Hip-Hop has always said some pretty messed up things. I freaking love Biggie Smalls, but I remember cringing like hell when I heard him say, “I’m using rubbers so they won’t trace the semen/The black demon, got the little hookers screaming/Because you know I love it young, fresh and green/With no hair in between, know what I mean?” Yes, I know what you mean and that is not appropriate. Ice Cube was my favorite quasi-conscious West Coast rapper from back in the day, but aren’t we being hypocritical when we chastise Lil Wayne for his “whip it like a slave” lyric and not thinking about when Cube said, “So don’t believe what Ren say/Cuz he’s goin’ out like “Kunta” Kinte/But I got a whip for ya Toby…”?

Too $hort made an entire career out of his misogyny. And there was no other more gangster rapper than Scarface. I remember in high school, one of the biggest dancehall songs at the time was Sasha’s “Kill the B***h.” According to her Wiki page, Sasha has since rediscovered Jesus and will no longer perform the song that made her a ghetto household name. But that doesn’t change the fact that she once thought nothing wrong with mimicking sex through half of the song. Neither did my best friend and I, who used to take pride in the fact that we knew all the words to Dr. Dre’s The Chronic album, and would sit in the back of our classroom, flowing to B***hes Ain’t S**t. We swore up and down that since we weren’t those type of girls, those lyrics we belted out out had nothing to do with us. It would take years later to learn that some dudes, despite our best efforts at respectability, still couldn’t tell the difference. Even our beloved Tupac, who most try to remember canonizing women in “Dear Mama” and “Keep Ya Head Up” (“…cause Tupac care, if don’t nobody else care”) also reminded us that, he’s only got one night in town so basically, “Break out or be clowned.” While being the agent of and the voice of the downtrodden and politically conscience who screamed “fight the power,” Hip-Hop too has always offered a welcoming home to voices who only wanted to talk about the money, clothes and most importantly, the ho*s. And we have sort of been kind of okay with that for a while now.

We tried to tell ourselves that there was a bigger purpose; that these rappers were not just appealing to the rebellious side of our natures but also daring to speak on the authenticity of what is taboo. Or as stated by Jay-Z (with assistance from Dream Hampton) in his book, Decoded:

“Hip-hop has always been controversial, and for good reason. The music is meant to be provocative—which doesn’t mean it’s necessarily obnoxious, but it is (mostly) confrontational, and more than that, it’s dense with multiple meanings. Great rap should have all kinds of unresolved layers that you don’t necessarily figure out the first time you listen to it. Instead it plants dissonance in your head. You can enjoy a song that knocks in the club or has witty punch lines the first time you hear it. But great rap retains mystery. It leaves s**t rattling around in your head that won’t make sense till the fifth or sixth time through. It challenges you. Which is another reason hip-hop is so controversial: People don’t bother trying to get it. The problem isn’t in the rap or the rapper or the culture. The problem is that so many people don’t even know how to listen to the music.”

Yet I don’t really think there is no deeper significance or much else to “get” from Ross’ lyrics, other than that this hopefully fictitious woman in this song was date-raped – and she didn’t even know it. And I think that is the point: rappers recognize that you don’t have to say much of substance or even be lyrically inclined these days. You just have to be provocative and obnoxious. And I feel like like our inability to call it out or acknowledge the music genre’s shortcomings earlier on paved the way for Ross and other industry folks to commodify and repackage the art form into a cash crop of the most garish, misogynistic and overall opulent images and lyrics. Instead of checking the rappers of past, many of us yelled foul over what we felt was the government’s attempt at denying 2 Live Crew constitutional rights to be as narsty as they wanted to be. We forgot later on that the group’s Supreme Court victory would later be symbolically used to justify why it was okay for Snoop Dogg to walk across mainstream stages with women on leashes and later why it would become acceptable for Ross to rhyme nonchalantly about drugging and sexually assaulting a woman.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Board’s new ad campaign was intended as a warning about the increased risk for rape when women drink heavily, but accusations that the ad blames rape victims for their attack has caused the Board to pull the ads.

Between the wording and the imagery, it’s easy to see how the perception of blame comes into play when the focus of the ad should really be responsible drinking to protect yourself from the threat of rape. In addition to the ad seen here, another version reads, “Date Rape. See what could happen when your friends drink too much.”

Shock tactics are extremely common in advertising, but are they effective at capturing people’s attention, and in this instance, inciting a change of behavior? Adam Duhachek, an associate professor of marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, says not necessarily. He told The Wall Street Journal that two things can limit the efficacy of ads portraying negative outcomes: “The first is that people just shut down and don’t process the message at all,” because people might see the disturbing images and think, “I was having a perfectly nice day until I saw this, and now I’m not going to look at it.” The second issue is that negative ads trigger a “defensive processing mechanism” in which viewers actively distance themselves from the presented outcome, thinking it can never happen to them.

With the ad pulled, these factors may not be an issue when it comes to alcohol-fused sexual assaults, which a spokeswoman for the Liquor Board says happen to more than 97,000 people on an annual basis. But wording on the board’s website, controltonight.com, which is visible on the ads still tells women to “Call the Shots” and presents hypothetical situations of what could happen if young women drink too much with friends. For many, the undertone of blame may still be present.

What’s your take on the ad campaign? Does it promote blame when it comes to women who are victims of rape after a night of drinking? Or do you think it encourages personality responsibility?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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