Waddup ya'll?

   Once again, I find myself inspired to write by an occurance at work; Let me 'splain: I work the night shift (7p.m.-7a.m.) at a warehouse, Basically, we drive to athe storage racks, pick up a pallet, take it to a bay door, drive it into a truck, kick it off the pallet, and stack it in the truck(load out), or do the reverse (unload). Anyway, most of us bring in boxes(radios) and plug them in beside the doors that we are working. Of course, being from the old school, I have managed to obtain the loudest box, thereby enableing me to "share" my old school jams with everybody else........Well, wouldn't you know, there are some people that don't appreciate the excellence of true, old school rap?

   There's a younger guy that's always trying to get me to listen to new stuff, stuff he calls "real(c)rap" So, me being me, I listen to it, and I must say, I HAVE NO IDEA WHY ANYONE WOULD WANT TO LISTEN TO THIS CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

   Actually, I do. Here's my theory:  Modern rap music is part of "the man's" plot to pacify, nullify, and subjigate us. Who is us? we know who we are. Anyway, Every song, and I mean EVERY song that I heard was about 1. selling drugs 2. hurting/killing someone3.having sex.

Let's talk about this. If you were to go to ANY State Prison and ask ANYbody why they were there, they will ALWAYS say "I'm accused of".....In other words, even after they have been arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned, real thugs do not admit to their crimes.Ever. So, why would someone make a record and brag about all of the crimes that they have commited? Easy. They are lying. Next question, why would a record company sell such b.s.? Easier. we're buyin'. What does this have to do with "the man"?

Remember the '60's'? Remember MLK, Civil Rights, Malcolm X, The Black Panther Party? What ever happened to all of that black awareness stuff? Can you say Heroin? Where did the Heroin come from? Can you say Viet Nam? (Air America) That's right, the CIA flew in Heroin from Viet Nam, sold it in the inner cities, and used the profits to fund various nefarious schemes..

Remember James Brown? Soul Brother Number One, The Hardest Working Man In Showbuisness?

What ever happened to him?Everything was fine untill he released a song called"Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud", then he kind of dissapeared.......

What about Marvin Gaye? Mr. smooth? Well, he decided to break free from the corporate cookie cutter mass-produced approach to record production known as the "Motown Sound" and write his own album, and came up with "What's Going On?". After that album dropped, so did Marvin, untill YEARS later....

So, what's Heroin,James Brown and Marvin Gaye have to do with modern rap? It's like this, ya'll. Remember the "golden Age" of rap? You know, the late 80's, when we had All of these different styles emerging? Remember "concious rap"? (Poor righteous Teachers, Brand nubian, BDP, Public Enemy, ETC? Remember how the songs/videos used to inspire thought/conversation?

Remember how, after you heard "why is that?", You actually began to wonder why that was? Remember all of the books that we read, the studying that we did? Remember how, if you wore a "crown" and couldn't "manifest", someone had the right to take it away? Remember tuning in to C-span to watch Ice T address Congress? WHAT HAPPENED?

GANGSTA RAP. and, to a lesser extent, M.C. HAMMER and VANNILLA ICE.

Again, you ask, what has this got to do with "the man"?

Bear with me, and I will explain.

As long as poor people keep it simple (swing low, sweet chariot/ I said a hip, hop......) then everything is fine; It's only when poor people start getting "uppity"(black and I'm proud/It takes a nation of millons....)that things begin to go wrong....

When "gangsta Rap" first emerged, it was fresh, new. People outside of the West Coast didn't really know what was going on in L.A., so it was kinda cool to have L.A. "repped"....

Now, everything was cool untill the appearence of "wiggas". In other words, Gangsta rap was fine, as long as it stayed in the ghetto, but once it crept into suburbia, then suddenly we had Tipper Gore going off...(Remind anybody of Heroin?)

Well, the parental advisory stickers went on the records and they continued to sell. At a record pace. As usual, "the man", smelling money, jumped on the bandwagon, and the exploitation began. That's right, I said it, exploitatin. So, If you are making records about sex, violence and drug selling, then you are being exploited(pimped) by "the man".....

Now, can you see my analogy between Heroin and Gangsta Rap? It's simple: If you can feed a destructive substanceto a certain segment of society, then that segment will be rendered harmless. Why do you think that people are allowed to hang out on corners in the ghetto and sell drugs? Yes, I said it-ALLOWED. Don't belive me? Try standing on a corner in Beverly Hills, Towson, or any other rich neighborhood and sell drugs. See what happens.........

 If you think that heroin was bad, then you aint seen nothing yet. The beutifull thing about rap is, it's  self-perpertrating . In other words, it keeps itself going. F_ _ k tha police has become F_ _ k that other coast, or that cat wearing that other color, or, finnally...............each other

O.K., you say, I kinda understand the evils of gangsta rap, but what does Hammer or Vannilla Ice have to do with this? Well, I can explain that too;

Hammer was the first guy to turn Hip-Hop into entertainmment. In other words, he was the first guy to realize that it did'nt have to be about verbal skills, in fact, as long as there was plenty of flash, cash, and a_s, you really didn't have to SAY anything of substance. He paved the way for Vannilla Ice, who was the first "corperate rapper" (everything that he said, did and wore was designed to sell records) Hammer and Vannilla Ice taught us that you can make millons playing this game(just ask puffy/mase/bad boy)

  So, what have we learned? Nothing, I'm afraid, nothing at all......Back in the day, kids thought that the only waysout of the ghetto were through sports, entertainment or crime, the only difference today is, that crime has become entertainment.....

If you MAKE records about crime, sex and violence,STOP!

If you PLAY records about crime, sex and violencen STOP!

If you BUY records about crime, sex and violence, STOP!

And last, but not least "if you wanna go to the tip-top, STOP THE VIOLENCE IN HIP-HOP"

PEACE, YA'LL