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Fredric is a web developer based in Chicago who hopes to one day start a foundation to support young, Black males in programming and computer science.

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minus one. plus one. (1 month later)

May 28th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Minus One Plus Oneit’s been about a month now since minus one, plus one first came to light. how are we doing? anyone up for swapping out another artist?

i have to admit, although swapping out snoop was initially an easy move, i started to find songs that featured him that i actually liked. ‘drop it like its hot’ featuring pharrell immediately came up when i was listening to a random playlist. as a test of my new found commitment and after a little pouting, it eventually got the ax.

for those that remember, we launched the minus one, plus one campaign immediately following the outcry of offensive material stemmed from the comments made from don imus and the discussion on oprah. it has caught a little steam on some of our friends sites, but i’m curious as to how people are coping.

was it a fad to you? do you miss those songs?

i’m going to stay resolved in my quest and offer up another artist for the chopping block. while it hurts a little to cut this cat off from my digital library only because he is EVERYWHERE, in retrospect, it probably is good for society as a whole. after all, one of his lyrics was

i have more whips than a runaway slave.

seriously!??!

minus one: fiddy
plus one: fergie (album is kinda fire)

There Are 3 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Shemeka on 28 May 2007:

    *mouth wide open* more whips??? Ignorance is bliss.

  2. Comment by katherine on 9 August 2007:

    Careful now about what it is that you’re adding for music. Your whole goal in this is to make people conscious of the effect that these artists and lyrics are having on the black community. This is WONDERFUL. However, do not forsake all else in this endeavor. Fredric said he replaced Fiddy with Fergie. However, Fergie’s lyrics are just as damaging to young women of any race. The lyrics to “Fergalicious” at first glance appear to be empowering young women to tell men to keep their hands off. But while doing so she encourages them to become nothing but eye candy, something for men to victimize with their eyes.

    I love the minus one plus one concept. I just want people to be careful about making sure that the music they keep or add is positive not only in regards to race but also in regards to humanity in general.

  3. Pingback by don’t have n!**a ears | Young Black Professional Guide on 8 October 2007:

    [...] support the use of the term, i do identify with the point. similar to our earlier efforts of ‘minus one, plus one‘, i’m curious as to what other artists are readers listen to and recommend to our [...]

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