Tipper Vs. Kid Vs. Marcus

When I was first getting into music, there seemed to be two camps: Tipper Gore/PMRC and real music lovers.

Tipper and the Parents Music Resource Group had the goal of censoring music, banning certain artists from being listened to by children and a whole slew of other agendas dealing with music. I, being a youngster (probably around 7th or 8th grade) hated Tipper Gore with every fiber of my Public Enemy loving heart. Why? B/c she was a person who wanted to take my music away from me. I loved my 2 Live Crew, NWA and Eazy E and all the shock of some of the hair bands who used shock to get the interest of kids. Granted, now that I remember some 2 Live Crew and Eazy E lyrics, I'm not so sure I'd want middle schoolers listening to it, either...but, these days, we have the internet to gang up on, not the artists.

If Kid Rock were around when I was in middle school, he'd have been one of my favs. Heck, as a 35 year old guy now, he's one of my favs (call it bringing out my redneck roots...a country boy funked up by growing up on gangsta rap)

I don't think there's anyone, even Kid Rock himself, who'd say his lyrics are family friendly. Heck, if Tipper Gore still wanted to ban music, it wouldn't be hard to figure out where she'd go first. Kid Rock's songs are full of references to drugs, alcohol, sex-name a "sin" and Kid probably has it covered lyrically. And did I mention I love his music? Hey, what can I say?

It's well known by anyone who listens to Kid's music for more than a few minutes that he promotes his persona as a big time party guy. You don't come up with lyrics like this without being a partier: "I'm in it to win it like Yzerman, I can drink about 15 Heineken...puffing the Winston, drinking the 40"

So, musically, I love to crank up Kid while I'm working out. I, however, don't really want my young neices and nephews listening to him.

Last week, Kid Rock hosted the CMT awards. When he performed, he glossed over some of his more offensive lyrics. This is national television and Kid is far too smart of a professional performer to want to get in bad with the FCC. So, where's my issue?

The folks at CMT included a skit or two in the awards show. One, in particular, made me a little disgusted. It showed Kid, several country musicians and even Paula Dean all in a back room drinking and partying. The "reporter" in the skit stumbles upon this room of partiers and gently confronts Kid saying stuff like, "Kid Rock! I thought you were going to wait until after the awards show to start partying." To which he replies, "Yeah, I don't know...I'm drunk."The reporter then goes to talk to Paula Dean and the country artists (also drinking it up) and asks them, "Oh my! Paula Dean...I didn't expect YOU, of all people, to be in here, too!"

Honestly, the acting in this skit was embarrassing. And what does Paula Dean have to do with music, anyway? Yet, here's my thing...

This is Kid Rock's persona. We all know it. Still,someone at CMT had to think this skit was a good idea, write it, secure "actors" for it, a location AND choose to include it in a family friendly awards show. That adds up to a whole lot of people making a whole lot of choices without thinking through how this is going to be perceived.

Kid Rock is just being Kid Rock. I think the "I'm Drunk" comment could have been ad libbed. If so, that was unnecessary on this awards show. Still, he's just doing what he does. The real morons are those at CMT that allowed this skit to go on, glamorizing drinking and drunkenness to families across the country. For country music having such conservative roots and morals, someone at CMT dropped the ball on this one.
Kinda makes me long for the days of Tipper Gore when she'd have called the CMT execs on the carpet for this showing