Thanks to the reader that alerted me to NZ On Air’s funding decisions for March 2010. Namely, that rapper Dirty Sesh has $5,000 for his video “Forever”.
Please be warned, this video is triggering and viciously misogynist.
Now, in the words of NZ On Air:
We invest in a colourful range of cost-effective local content, to extend choices for different New Zealand audiences.
I am wondering precisely which “audience” this video is aimed at? Young men who fantasise about hurting women, but don’t feel like it’s sufficiently culturally sanctioned to give it a go?
Those who already have knifed/raped/murdered a woman, but had to face a pesky little thing called “the justice system”, rather than becoming cool pop rappers?
Or how about artists, who are just expanding our cultural horizons by exploring a New Zealand artist aping the misogyny of Eminem. Dirty Sesh doesn’t really mean this, bitch, he’s being, like ironic, y’know?
The vicious misogyny of this video is staggering. We watch the protagonist stalk, hunt, gag and drag a screaming woman into a room, where the threat of rape is explicit.
We listen to him brag about how he’s going to be with her “forever, forever, forever”. We see her blood dripping from plastic coating. We see him stabbing her repeatedly. We see bits of her body cut up. We see, over and over again, the knife in his hand and on a table.
No doubt we will be told it’s cutting edge satire, designed to take the mickey out of horror genres. Just watch as he and the people who made his video claim victimisation by people who “just don’t get his art.”
Dirty Sesh is undoubtedly comparing himself to wife beater Chris Brown for the ironic value. Of course he’s bragging “I see a new girl, I see a new victim”, to further music’s brave exploration of societal issues.
Not to shock and make money by exploiting violent women-hating – funded by us, the taxpayer.
Shame on you, NZ On Air.
Just read the comments at NZ’s Hip Hop Forum Back to Basics if you’re confused about how some will read this video. Clue: it’s not with irony. It’s with an enjoyment of Dirty Sesh rapping about what a badass he is while he stalks and kills a woman.
i do like how he’s rapping about kidnapping a girl its not something we hear much from NZ rappers in mainstream. btw whats with the line “blow my brains over your newborn spouse”? spouses aren’t newborn maybe he meant to say newlywed spouse.
If this misogyny bothers you as much as it does me, you can complain to NZ OnAir here.
LudditeJourno 
Aside from the extreme violence, the most unusual thing about this clip is that it casts the singer as protagonist and villain. Most similar types of clip will have the artist in a tertiary role – at least distancing themselves from the proceedings somewhat. ‘Sesh’ is up there front and centre, not just condoning the violence but committing it.
Sesh’s only comment was that ‘it’s entertainment, it’s fake’ – so you might be giving them too much credit for even trying the old satire line! It just speaks to an incredible naivete and too much time on the PS3 methinks.
While I’m not a fan of censorship – this clip definitely goes too far.
Yeah, the rap/hip-hop community is not one I would consider needing its “horizons broadened” any further with themes of street brutality or violence against women.
Use of shock tactics for their own sake is just lazy art, and this sounds like (I won’t bother watching the video – the description is enough) glorification of violence masquerading as art.
Who wrote the article on it above?
The video you have posted is the internet-only ‘shock’ video funded independently by the record label.
This video was NOT funded by NZOA here is the link to the one that was.
Tim,
With all due respect, bollocks. The “two”clips are clearly shot using the same production resources. And before you get defensive , just stop it , your not fooling any body.
Andrew,
You’re right. It’s total bull, and it’s coming from a guy with a history of assault.
Personally, I don’t think that’s coincidental.
That was one comment from one dumb person on the hiphopnz website, the majority of us don’t support this crap and you only have to listen to other hip hop artists dis tracks recently towards sesh calling him out for what he really is to see what the rest of the hip hop community are thinking coz i think those tracks really do speak for the majority of people. also funny tvnz are trying to take no responsibility for this crap getting funded with tax payer money.
Hi Hiphopnzer,
I totally agree – and I love hip hop myself – many hip hop artists would find this just as repulsive as I do. Feel free to send any links to any songs responding, I’d love to post them.
Here is the Derty Sesh diss track posted by Christchurch rapper, Seka.
*sigh* yeah that’s really showing him huh? A video clip that not only includes violence against women but also the words “bitch”, “cunt” and “faggot”.
The word bitch is used towards a male (derty sesh) on purpose to try and de-genderise it’s meaning, this track was made and uploaded before the news picked up on this story and was crafted to be listened to by derty sesh and his fans, I didn’t expect that it would get this much publicity or I would have crafted it more to suit the general public .
The video frames are half from Derty Sesh’s video and half from Eminems 3am video to demonstrate the blatent similarity and lack of originality.
I don’t agree with calling women bitch’s, which is why I never refer to any women as “bitches” on any of my songs.
My apologies if this has been misconstrued, I am currently working on a song that promotes stopping violence towards women and emphasizes the fact that real hip hop isn’t about degrading women and never has been.
If the song makes any profits I will be transferring 100% of those profits directly to women’s refuge to spend as they see fit.
If you have any questions regarding my material, please feel free to drop me a message on the comments section of my soundclick page – http://www.soundclick.com/sekaseka
Thanks.
I think it’s great that you are any donating profits of the song to Womens Refuge. Good on you dude.
And thanks for the reply. That’s a pretty reasoned response. And I think it’s good you took the time to do it.
Holy shit. I could only handle 23 seconds of that. Shit that’s horrendous. I had no idea it was THAT bad. What a dumb prick.
Interesting that the music video that was funded was (apparantly) the more ‘censored’ version of it – the stalking, the home invasion, and the rape/murder being implicit.
The ‘unfunded’ version was the same, but with a few extra clips (with the same actors) that showed graphic violence and murder (dragging, stabbing, blood).
Anyway, I sent an email to NZ On Air – but unfortunately, I sent the email believing that the more graphic video was the one that they had funded (they will just fire an email straight back to me saying ‘there was no stabbing or blood’). The less graphic video is still very disturbing, and shouldn’t have been funded.
No one wants to see a man stalk a woman, and then invade her home (with the explicit suggestion of murder).
Stalking & the threat of rape (or actual rape) are fairly common. The music video makes light of this (Dirty Sesh goes as far as to say, “it’s just supposed to be entertainment”). I’m sure Dirty Sesh has no idea what ‘triggering’ means, or that the threat of rape is common & many women are frequently and legitimately scared of being raped.
A couple of my friends have stalked and terrified by strange men. One of my friends has been told by a stranger that he would kill her. Another of my friends had a man stalk her younger sister (he parked his car on the road and stared at the family home, he went onto their property and looked through her window, her urinated in their property – and only left them alone when confronted by her father). Me and my friends are 23, and we all live in a very “safe” neighbourhood.
Appalled at this video – the little creep should be locked up!
And imitating Eiminem just proves what a talentless wanker this guy is.
The shot of the bach at the end should have had a “If this house is rockin’, don’t come a knockin'” sign hanging on the door.
Not funny.
You guys seen any horror movies lately? You know the ones where the heroine is being attacked by a malicious evil, usually a male? Seen any other forms of mysogyny in the media lately? In fact, have you seen any media the objectifys males?
Of course you have. You have to live in a very deep hole to say you haven’t. Mainstream media is full of mysogyny. So why single out Nathan if it happens everywhere. Is it because he’s a rapper? A Deeper issue? Who knows.
Nathan has commented on the video saying it was meant to be startling. He was meant to create controversy with it. Through the controversy he gets the video viewed. And the song heard. And people who hear the song will either become fans of his or they wont. The truth of the matter is, and much research has been done on this, mass media plays a very very small part in a “criminals actions”. Will a kid from a very good background, with a stable family environment, plenty of love, and who has access to plenty of differing points of view on any subject, suddenly and violently kill a couple simply after seeing this video? I consider myself in the aforementioned category and am 22 (nathan is 23 I believe) and certainly would never consider killing one person, let alone two people. Who does kill people? Usually the emotionally or mentally disturbed. The people who kill will always have far greater reasonings for murder than simply seeing a music video.
The conservative style, knee-jerk reaction constantly critcizes perceived flaws in society, and always calls for a scape goat to be made. Never is the root cause for the tragedy blamed, only this politician, or that rapper, or this metal band. How about we spend more time criticizing the funding of mental institutions, community groups, hospitals, halfway houses, and orphanages? Rather than saying this video might cause this or that piece of literature may be detrimental to someone somewhere at sometime.
Thank you for reading and I’m sorry for the length.
“So why single out Nathan if it happens everywhere” – yeah why address it at all? We should just start encouraging people to make rape fantasy videos! Because everyone else is doing it right?
What an idiotic argument.
You’re completely missing the point. Nobody is suggesting that someone will watch the video and go out and kill ‘two people’ – I have no idea where you’ve gotten that from.
The reason why it’s not a good idea for people to use rape as entertainment is because it encourages people to view rape as entertainment – as something that isn’t serious. Already in this country rape has a staggeringly low conviction rate. Rape victims are constantly pressured and told they must have done something to provoke an attack. Rape is not taken seriously in this country.
Is it really so hard to comprehend that there is a danger in glorifying rape? Do you really need to ask why we shouldn’t use rape as a tool to sell rap records?
As for your comment that YOU wouldn’t kill someone – um cool. Good stuff bro! Keep championing rape fantasy videos and make sure you don’t kill anyone *rolls eyes furiously*.
Don’t be such a concern troll – “Never is the root cause for the tragedy blamed” isn’t even grammatically correct let alone an argument of any kind.
It’s obvious why we shouldn’t support or encourage videos that depict the rapes and/or murders of women. Only an idiot would suggest otherwise.
Yeah, because “you have crap grammar” is a brilliant argument.
hey how about you don’t bother to defend this piece of poison, honestly this is some fucked up shit ‘derty sesh’ [“nigga please….”] needs help… fuck nzonair how about we do a vid of brendan smythe getting abducted and heavily allude to his murder slash dismemberment and see if it gets funding eh…honestly what bullshit there is no excuse for making this trash, shame on all involved from the ‘director’ to the crew to the actors….to the ‘rapper’ to the pathetic circle jerk hand clappers who think this is ok….and SHAME on the record money…oooh i smell a potential profit, let’s do it! fuckers make me sick…
That is a very deep reading of inane fluff, fluff written by a tool, riding the wave of gratuitous violence that the “horror” genre has descended into.
Regarding having my having “..seen any media the objectifys males?” I have seen images in films and advertising that objectify (or *objectifies*) the male body. What this has to do with this particular video eludes me….
Objectifying the male is not a trope of the modern horror and it doesn’t happen in this video…
Objectifying the female body clearly is a trope of the horror but more significant is the aspect of violence against women in the kind of opportunistic sleazy crap these wannabe movie makers clearly idealise and have managed to regurgitate (for entertainment purposes).
A video that conforms to the misogyny and gratuitous violence of the body horror without questioning it or saying anything about it is just meaningless entertainment (“Sesh” got that bit right). So it should only be analysed based on the latent messages it imparts, it does not form a critique so it can only be judged by how it conforms to it’s type.
In a nutshell sadism is cool, violence against women is cool.
Perhaps you can read something into it via his ethnicity – absolutely unintended by the artist. He is a coward and a thug and wants to hurt women.
Is this Sesh’s assessment of his race….?
This video is the fuckin shit, and shot so beautifully… This is not disgusting in anyway, do you think Michael Myers, Jason or Freddy Kruger offend or rape ther victims LMAO , thought so! Haha.. Its awesome, best NZ Clip made to date in my personal oppinion 🙂
Its like a horror movie. The video does have the correct labeling, or should do anyway. If you don’t like gory shit, don’t look at gory shit. If you don’t like rap, don’t listen to rap. As for the controversy about the video, if you paid attention to who he is as a person, he obviously doesn’t give a fuck about what people think, and so he challenges the norm, everyone gets upset and has a cry. In the end he’s doing what he wants to, which is make ruthless rap songs and videos depicting murder and such. Everyone is entitled to their own creative arts, and if he wants to show who he is through rap and murderous videos, its not in your power to do fuck all about it. Even if it does depict gruesome murders, it doesn’t encourage it no more than a video of someone breaking a bone would encourage you to go and do the same. Any way you look at it, regardless of whether you ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ with the social/political correctness, Nathan King deserves the right of freedom of speech, which he thankfully has, or else he wouldn’t be able to make such, in my opinion, good songs. And personally, I’m into the whole gory shit, murder or whatever, but it ain’t mean i’m gonna go kill someone. And you really can’t agree with anything I’ve said, surely you must understand that it is better to depict a murder in an act of fiction, such as this video, than it is for Nathan, or anyone, to go out and actually kill someone.
The point Steve – which you’ve obviously missed: This video was paid for with funding from NZ on Air. NZ on Air doesn’t fund horror movies. When this clip is shown on TV or when young children are encouraged to watch it there is no trigger warnings. There is no discussion about rape and misogyny and how young people feel about both subjects. It’s just rape and violence against women as entertainment. You’re essentially saying King can make clips showing whatever he wants because of his “freedom of speech”. Is there a line for you? Would you mind if he alluded to the rape of a child? Or is it only violence against women that’s acceptable to you and covered under the mantle of “freedom of speech”?
Also your last sentence doesn’t make sense. You don’t have to depict murder or rape “in an act of fiction” to promote a music video.
Mike Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason never raped anyone… (the imagery of and threat of rape was subtextual)
They all died at the end of the film… (or at least they appeared to)
They weren’t the protagonist… (the girl was)
Have you actually seen any of these films?
The only thing this rubbish has in common with those films is he kills people and the video is exploitative…. wahoo.
You are quoting solid slashers from the mid 80’s which contributed to the descent of the genre into comic relief and exploitation. This video has little in common with the first itteration of those series and much more in common with modern gore.
The protagonist IS the killer. The story is next to non-existant. Extreme graphic violence (most paricularly against women) is eroticised…
None of which are tropes of the 80’s villians you mentioned…
Though I do not personally think that this video is suitable to be aired on Tv, I have younger siblings who i would not want to be exposed to such a violent video, I do believe the the video and the song have been grossly taken out of context.
The video has actually very little relation to the song and the reference to violence in the song are more slang than genuine references to physical abuse. For example, the writer of this blog claimed that Derty Sesh was likening himself to CHris Brown in the context of his violent outbursts against women. HOwever what the lyric ‘Forever, Like chris brown’ refers to is a song by Chris Brown called Forever. In a line shortly after Derty sesh states ‘Im cracking this party, like im cracking your girls mouth’. This may not be in reference to breaking a females jaw bone but instead slang for being able to receive oral sex from a female. Though this is in itself is not a pleasant analogy it does not have to be perceived as a violent intention.
I am a huge fan of hip hop music. I question greatly the choice of the director to make this video and also that of the artist for putting it to this song, nonetheless, it is very easy to attack something that one does not fully understand. Slang is a difficult thing to comprehend at the best of times and when taken out of context and out of the appropriate social setting can be inappropriate. But it would be sad to think that because of this misconception that the prejudice against hip-hop artists is further deepened. For example a comment above states that HIp-hop is familiar with the world of ‘street violence and violence against women’. It is this kind of misconception because of misunderstanding that we do not want to encourage.
“HOwever what the lyric ‘Forever, Like chris brown’ refers to is a song by Chris Brown called Forever. In a line shortly after Derty sesh states ‘Im cracking this party, like im cracking your girls mouth’. This may not be in reference to breaking a females jaw bone but instead slang for being able to receive oral sex from a female. Though this is in itself is not a pleasant analogy it does not have to be perceived as a violent intention.”
please!
do not make the mistake of thinking that other people are as stupid as you are!
yeah he’s definitely referring to oral sex….ha ha ha…how embarassing!
Hip hop is not music. Go and listen to some Beatles, Ben Folds and Tchaikovsky and be enlightened!
I get that this video is disgusting and I get that you have your own tastes. But please don’t try to force your opinions onto other people and say “you’re right, I’m wrong.” Everyone has a right to their own opinions.
There are no grey areas. Hip hop sucks.