A 2-year-old profanity-laced recording that denigrates women and minorities surfaced on the Web on Tuesday, putting the University of Miami's athletic department on the defensive about its image. Miami's carefully cultivated image as a school well-past the days that earned it the reputation as a program lacking institutional control may have taken a blow when the rap song, which sources told ESPN.com includes the voices of several football players, surfaced on the Internet. A group calling itself the 7th Floor Crew -- the name reportedly comes from the seventh floor of the Mahoney Residential College, campus housing at Miami -- made a recording referencing multiple acts of group sex, derogatory terms for women and minorities and dozens of curse words that lasts approximately 9 minutes. School officials say the song was recorded two years ago, but that seems to offer little solace.
Ha. What's ironic about this story is that most people wouldn't even know the track existed, but now they do, thanks to ESPN. If the Hurricanes' Athletic Department is on the defensive, it has no one to thank but ESPN.
Don't believe me? I ran a news check on both Yahoo and Google, and there were only two places where this was being reported: ESPN.com and the website Deadspin.com, who were the ones who outed a current University of Miami football player as one of the "artists" on the track (I won't bother saying his name, not because I want to protect him, but because I think he's going to get enough attention this morning).
Notice; the song is two years old. But how is it becoming a story now?
One word: snitch.
Kyle Munzenrieder outed at least one of them on his blog, Miamity.com. I say one because it's not for certain how many others have been outed because the post he initially created was deleted at the request of the UM Athletic Department. There is another post about it, where he's catching hell for what he's done. I don't know the guy, but if these football players get in trouble due to his outing, all I can say is I hope he watches his back.
Regardless, Deadspin.com picked up the story, and it somehow caught ESPN's attention, probably due to someone asking Hurricanes' wide receiver Sinorice Moss about it in an ESPN Chat session. Before you know it, ESPN had not only the initial story, but a column condemning the song and, being the moral voice of sports (yeah right), talked about how this sets such a low point for Miami football.
And note: the story and the column has barely been up for say, three hours while I'm writing this.
And note: the story and the column has barely been up for say, three hours while I'm writing this.
Here is the song.
Athletes - particularly football players - liking rap songs and wanted to make one? Say it isn't so! It's mysogynistic and vulgar? REALLY? I would have never guessed that football players would be interested in such a thing.
Athletes - particularly football players - liking rap songs and wanted to make one? Say it isn't so! It's mysogynistic and vulgar? REALLY? I would have never guessed that football players would be interested in such a thing.
I think the real problem doesn't lie with these guys - after all, they are college students, and college students do stupid things - but with a media organization that decides to make news and then spin news rather than simply report it. But in that aspect, ESPN is simply following lockstep with the rest of the mainstream media.
Personally, it wasn't that bad, considering they were amateurs. It's definitely better than Laffy Taffy or some of the other garbage that hip hop stations are overplaying every hour. Just goes to show that anyone that has access to Adobe Audition and a couple of good beats can be a star. *shrugs*
Another Thing: ESPN claims that the fact that the song is two years old "seems to offer little solace". Solace to WHO? They are the first ones to report on this story outside of Deadspin and Miamity, with have site numbers that pale in comparison. Who how can someone have "little solace" when only a small group of people even KNEW about this rap before they reported it?