A note to Slim Thug: You probably just need to be quiet for a while. It's not to say that your comments about black women were outside your rights to freedom of speech, but if you keep dissing the audience most likely to go out and buy your records, you are probably going to end up in the same poorhouse as MC Hammer. Don't get me wrong, black men love your music (at least I do), but the bottom line is that brothers don't buy albums books, or anything else put up for sale. When black women turns on you, though, it's a wrap, son. Settle down and go back to the studio; it's better for your financial health.

Related Article: Marc Lamont Hill Responds to Slim Thug's Take on Black Women
Related Article: Slim Thug Attempts to Defend his Comments about Black Women

On Wednesday, I wrote about the comments made by Slim Thug, regarding how he perceives white women to be a better dating choice than black women, as well as Columbia Professor Marc Lamont Hill's response to Slim Thug's words. It seems that the debate has taken on a life of its own, now that rapper Talib Kweli has joined the conversation. In a recent essay he wrote for Vibe Magazine, Talib Kweli was ever the diplomatic artist, as he showed respect for Slim Thug but also expressed his own concerns for his colleague's remarks about black women:

I think the people that are really angry are people who are taking the comments out of context and they're not really reading the whole blog. And when the commentors are reading it, they're really looking to see what's wrong with it anyway. Somebody hit me online and said what they got from it is he hates them and I didn't get that. What I got from the blog is here's a man who's confused about relationships and that wants to support the black family and that wants to see black relationships doing good. And at the end of the day, when you take out all the generalizations, he's really saying that black men and black women have to have better communication and respect each other more. He's calling everyone to task.

Talib Kweli, like the rapper Vigalantee (who actually made an ode to black women in a newly released song), is known for being more conscious and intelligent than many of his peers in the industry. He is also very good at maintaining good relationships. I would have loved for him to have started this debate instead of Slim Thug, but then again, the debate was likely accelerated by the media, who picked up on Slim Thug's words and ran with them. Kweli makes sufficient note that generalizations in one direction or another are never right and we need to stop stereotyping altogether. Of course, that isn't going to happen. What I most love about Talib Kweli is that he reminds me of what's good about hip-hop, because I disagree with VH-1 that everything about hip-hop deserves to be honored. Some things about the industry need to be dishonored as well. Here are more of Talib's words:

The thing that really bothers me is that the people who really took offense to it make generalizations all the time. If someone says men are all dogs, is that OK to make that generalization? Why is it OK to say that and flip it but for him not to express himself in a blog? They're both generalizations but the only difference is if you say, "N*ggas ain't shit or all men are dogs," there's no real explanation.

Being the ever-so-careful businessman, Talib Kweli also goes out of his way to remind fans to keep buying Slim Thug's music and to not abandon him as an artist just because he made offensive comments. What is most unfortunate for Slim Thug, however, is that this is exactly what fans do. They buy your music because they like you, and they stop buying it when they don't. Just ask Vanilla Ice, the guy who didn't lose a lick of talent, but lost every inch of album sales, all because his fans decided that he wasn't cool anymore. Slim Thug's comments were uncool, and therefore, Slim Thug may become uncool himself. This is very bad news for his managers.

Read Professor Marc Lamont Hill's Response to Slim Thug here.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.