(No, but that's a part of life) Salt-N-Pepa – Let's Talk About Sex
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Perhaps a reference to how HIV/AIDS was commonly misunderstood – when HIV/AIDS developed into a widespread epidemic in the 80’s and 90’s, many Americans believed it to be a disease that only affected gay men.
The stigma attached to HIV/AIDS posed a huge problem to fighting back against the disease – part of the population kept the disease at arms length because they believed it couldn’t affect their demographic, and part of the population with the disease were so stigmatized they couldn’t host open discussion about the best ways to treat and to avoid contracting the disease.
One figure who changed the landscape of the American perception of HIV/AIDS was Magic Johnson – a heterosexual man who lived a successful life as a revered NBA player. After contracting HIV, he retired from the LA Lakers on Nov. 7, 1991 – announcing his retirement and his HIV positive status to a packed news conference:
“Here I am saying that it can happen to anybody, even me, Magic Johnson. I just want to say that I’m going to miss playing, and I will now become a spokesman for the HIV virus.”
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The song begins with a nod to the censorship that was a key part of 90’s music industry culture. It was commonplace for MTV to “blee[p] words, pla[y] only censored versions of certain videos, relegat[e] racy videos to late-night play only and, on occasion, ba[n] videos entirely.”
Also reflects many peoples' hesitations to talk about things like HIV/AIDS and other sex related illnesses with their sexual partners.
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Some of the most famous lines in all of the the “Watergate Tapes”, Nixon agrees here to paying $1 million in blackmail money to the Watergate burglars for their silence. It was later revealed that Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt in particular operated at the center of the scheme to blackmail the White House for around $1 million in “hush money”.
As more and more information began to leak, Nixon attempted to defend himself and his administration by holding an hour-long televised question-and-answer session with 400 Associated Press managing editors on November 17, 1973, in which he famously declared, “I am not a crook.”
A Washington Post article from November 18, 1973, reported on Nixon’s famous defense:
Summing up, he declared that the White House tape recordings would prove that he had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in, that he never offered executive clemency for the Watergate burglars, and in fact turned it down when it was suggested, and had no knowledge until March 21, 1973, of proposals that blackmail money be paid a convicted Watergate conspirator.
From the transcript, you can see that Nixon blatantly lied.
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An excerpt from the conversation often referred to as “Cancer on the Presidency” from the infamous “Watergate Tapes”.
In this excerpt, Nixon discusses the scandal with John Dean, who served as White House Counsel for President Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973.
On Jun 17, 1972, 5 men were arrested trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex. Originally dismissed as a “third-rate burglary”, the event became the center point of a sensational case that lead to the eventual resignment of President Richard Nixon.
The events that followed:
- Authorities discover that a GOP security aide was among the Watergate burglars.
- A $25,000 check from the Nixon campaign ends up in the bank account of one of the burglars.
- Authorities find out that while serving as attorney general, John Mitchell controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance widespread intelligence-gathering operations against the Democrats.
- FBI agents establish that the Watergate break-in stems from a huge campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of the Nixon reelection effort.
- Nixon is re-elected in one of largest landslide victories in history.
- Former Nixon aides G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident, and five other men plead guilty.
- H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, Nixon’s top White House staffers, resign over the scandal. White House counsel John Dean is fired.
- The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings; John Dean testifies admitting Nixon’s involvement.
- Nixon refuses to give over the White House tapes of conversations recorded by the tape-recording system in his offices.
- Nixon: “I’m not a crook.”
- In the face of almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigns.
What is this?
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In this transcript of one of the most famous “Watergate Tapes”, President Richard Nixon and White House Counsel John Dean discuss the growing scandal.
On Jun 17, 1972, 5 men were arrested trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex. Originally dismissed as a “third-rate burglary”, the event became the center point of a sensational case that lead to the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon.
The events that followed:
- Authorities discover that a GOP security aide was among the Watergate burglars.
- A $25,000 check from the Nixon campaign ends up in the bank account of one of the burglars.
- Authorities find out that while serving as attorney general, John Mitchell controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance widespread intelligence-gathering operations against the Democrats.
- FBI agents establish that the Watergate break-in stems from a huge campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of the Nixon reelection effort.
- Nixon is re-elected in one of largest landslide victories in history.
- Former Nixon aides G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. are convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident, and five other men plead guilty.
- H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, Nixon’s top White House staffers, resign over the scandal. White House counsel John Dean is fired.
- The Senate Watergate Committee begins its nationally televised hearings; John Dean testifies admitting Nixon’s involvement.
- Nixon refuses to give over the White House tapes of conversations recorded by the tape-recording system in his offices.
- Nixon: “I’m not a crook.”
- In the face of almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigns.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
