I generally like Ann Althouse, but I think she went really wrong with this one.
So yesterday there was a rumor that Jay-Z had decided to stop using the word “b*tch” in his music, prompted by the birth of his daughter. This was based on a poem he allegedly wrote which said:
Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich
I didn’t think hard about using the word bitch
I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it
Now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it
Which kind-of sort-of indicates that he was swearing it off, and that led to an editorial in the Guardian which led to commentary by Althouse. And then a while later, Rolling Stone reports that the whole thing as false (leading Althouse to update the story). Of course one might suspect that Jay-Z was floating a trial balloon and when his fans reacted negatively, he decided to pretend he never said it, but really I am not interested in whether this story is true or not. I am interested in Althouse’s reaction to it, before the Rolling Stone article came along dispelling the rumor. So leaving out the update where she mentions the Rolling Stone article, she writes:
Now that he has a baby girl, Jay-Z will eschew the word "bitch."
Is that enough?
Is it even admirable? If you do something only when you've acquired a self-interest, it seems to me it would be more admirable to continue doing what you were doing before.
