As you read the article below here’s a quick update (Nov 19 20013) . This is the panel discussion that was held yesterday where the women of Spelman College who actually organized the protest are speaking for themselves.. They clear up a lot of misinformation and set the record straight about what really went down with the bone marrow drive and Nelly pulling out…

Looks like the drama that made headlines 10 years ago surrounding rap star Nelly and his infamous ‘Tip Drill‘ video is rearing its head again. For those who don’t know, when Nelly made this video he decided to push the envelop and blur the lines between rap video and porn. he hired a bunch of strippers, filmed an fantasy bachelor party and in the middle of all the gyrating and booty shaking, he infamously swiped a credit card down a woman’s butt cheeks.

Even though the video was shown only on BET‘s then adult themed Uncut TV show which aired after midnight, it caught the attention and upset more than few people including some of the women at Spelman College who decided they wanted to take a stand and do something about it. The opportunity to confront Nelly was within sight when he made Spelman College one of the stops for a a series of bone marrow drives he was doing around the country in an attempt to save the life of his sister Jackie who was battling cancer.

Depending on who you talk to the story that unfolded went something like this; the women of Spelman said they wanted to meet with Nelly and express their concerns about the video and address the issue of mysogny and the exploitation of women. They requested a meeting with Nelly which for the most part was supposed to be private.They had no intention of canceling the bone marrow drive, but felt it was important to meet with him since he was asking for their help.

According to Nelly, the women of Spelman were unfairly protesting him and using an event in which he was focused on saving his sister’s life to bring attention to a conversation he felt could’ve been had when her life wasn’t in danger.  Jackie would eventually pass away from the disease.

The press got wind of this and the ‘protest at Spelman’ received international attention. Nelly pulled out of the bone marrow drive. The women at Spelman went on and held one without him and it’s been bad blood at least on Nelly’s part ever since.

In a recent interview on the Huffington Post, host Marc Lamont Hill asked Nelly about the 10 year old incident and Nelly still upset, offered up his perspective. He placed the death of his sister at the feet of the women at Spelman, claiming their ‘protest’ robbed him and may have turned away a potential donar who would’ve been a match. He also said that if he do do anything different, it would’ve been to kick someone’s ass. You can peep the interview below..

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Needless to say, Nelly’s inflammatory remarks set off a firestorm which prompted a number of women from Spelman including key organizers around the protest like Asha Jennings who had initially teamed up with Nelly’s 4Sho4Kids Foundation to do the bone marrow drive and Moya Bailey, president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance , to point out Nelly spreading a bunch of lies.

Moya Bailey during her days at Spelman

Moya Bailey who is now an African American Studies postdoctoral fellow at Penn State University, penned a stinging Open Letter to Nelly where she rebukes his claims on the Black Youth Project blog. She wrote…

My group raised questions about the misogynoir in the video and lyrics, and when we heard that you were invited to campus by our Student Government Association, it seemed fair to us that we could ask you about the dehumanizing treatment of black women while you were asking us for our help. You declined our offer to talk about your music and lyrics. Instead, you chose to go to the press, which made our alleged threat of a protest an international news story. In the time since, whenever asked about the situation, you both mischaracterize what happened and lament not using violence, something you repeated most recently during a Huffpost Live interview earlier this week. Let’s be clear: No student or faculty member of Spelman College canceled your bone marrow registration drive. In fact, we held our own drive after you and your people chose to cancel the bone marrow registration drive for fear that there might have been a protest.

She continued:

Had you decided to come, to just talk with us, you would have seen fewer than ten “protesters,” all of whom were planning to register to donate bone marrow, despite your refusal to hear us. I say “protesters” because we didn’t actually get to have a conversation. What started as a simple request that you speak with a small group of concerned students about representations of women in your lyrics and videos turned into a national conversation about misogyny, race, and class in hip hop culture.

Moya ended her open letter by noting

If you want to check my resume and my work, please, go right ahead. Know that this was no flash in the pan for me or most of the Spelman sisters involved.

Glad to know if you had it do over again you would have “kicked some ass.”

Just name the time and place, sir. I’m ready.