Delicious Venom Profiled By New York Times, Condemned By Right-Wing Douchebags, Defended By Culture Bully

Download: Delicious Venom - "Genocide in Laos"

This past week has been a great one, in terms of media exposure, for Hmong rapper and Minneapolis natives Delicious Venom. First off, the duo, and specifically Tou Saiko Lee, were the subjects of a video profile at the New York Times. The video explores, as you might imagine, how Lee reconciles his cultural ancestors--both in Laos and in Hip-hop--in today's society. Of course, that's just the jumping off point. It's very much worth watching, and you can do so here.

That said, not everyone is so enamored of Delicious Venom, or his efforts to use hip-hop in order to teach awareness, and have people "learn", about how societies and cultures different from their own function. Jason Lewis, a conservative commentator from the Twin Cities who has served as a substitute host for Rush Limbaugh and has written for the Wall Street Journal, denounced the PTA in South Washington County, for having Lee come in for a day and speak to the sixth graders about creating poetry and the benefits of self-expression.

About the PTA, Lewis said:

“Along with the school district in South Washington County: to hell with Shakespeare, to hell with Tennyson, to hell with science and math; we’re going to teach our sixth graders how to be hip hop emcees.”

Who wants to pitch in a few bucks so we can get Lewis a "Jump To Conclusions Mat", Office Space-style?

Lee, as well as Culture Bully writer Kyle Myhre, does a fantastic job of defending himself and his art, so much so that any other further commentary is superfluous. Read the article here.

Listen to "Genocide in Laos", which surely sounds like its about bitches, guns and hoes, and has nothing to do with this, at the top of the post.

Delicious Venom MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)