Its Bigger than Hip Hop

While growing up my choice of music preference was hip hop. Hip hop seemed to have a solution to whatever problem I had. If i wanted to just chill and think or get up and dance hip hop was there. Like me there were millions others experiencing the same thing. I remember hearing my first rap record as a child and reciting the chorus for my mother over and over again "don't push me cause I'm close to the edge, I'm trying not loose my head". Those words were powerful. I used to always relate rap to the storytellers at school. From Run-d-mc, the get fresh crew, leaders of the new school, tribe called quest and the list goes on. Each emcee with their own style displaying the lyrical genius that resided in our community. Hip hop grew from rural urban settings to a global phenomenon. To me the person who took hip hop to this mega commercial level was Mc Hammer. Mc hammer was the first rap artist to sell over 10 million records. However, because of Hammers success some called him a fake rapper other referred to him as a pop singer. Isn't it amazing to see how times have changed. Now a rapper isn't important unless they are selling millions. Because of this notion people are willing to do and say anything that will sell.

While watching BET's special "hip hop vs America" I began to listen to what people had to say. I kept hearing arguments back and forth on music and the images. In viewing the debate I kept saying its good Nelly and TI are there but I couldn't help but think that the conversation was pointless due to the fact the people who can make the changes were not there. In fact subconsciously rapper TI said " if i shot a video with girls in long skirts and took it to BET they will tell me I can't play that". Isn't it ironic that the network he calls is the very network he is on that is called Black Entertainment Television.

Personally I feel the debate was a ploy to distract us from the real problem. By having us target the rappers it diverts our attention away from the real criminals. The images we see are determined not by the rapper but those who distribute or controls the company. Distributors decide what communities receive what. That is a lot of power. The person who controls what comes in and out of your community is neither from nor care about your community. The same way drugs found themselves in certain urban city markets is the same way music and images are found in our communities. Their sole responsibility is to keep a certain group ignorant and blind while providing a beat they can shake to. You can bring a intellectual clean record to the table and it never sees the light of day.

Think about the last time you heard a Talib Kweli record on the radio how about dead prez. I'll wait. Exactly and your not going to because the distributors have decided that nobody wants to hear any conscious stuff. Black radio used to be how people stayed abreast on the issues that plagued the community. Black radio was the voice of a movement. The first step to controlling a mind is controlling the voice. For that reason media can be nothing else but bias because there is no voice to speak on behalf of a people. Arseneo being canceled was a prime example of extinguishing a voice and creating a different one.

These record companies have been able to shift the mindsets of an entire generation. While devaluing education the value was raised on spinning rims, jewelery, and clothes. Since there is no value in education the graduation rate drops and the incarceration rate soars. The reason for this fact is simple, people will do anything to get what they value most. They apply Malcolm's words at the wrong time for a wrong situation "by any means necessary". I think of it as modern slavery. In oder to keep those enslaved in line master would use another slave. The master would give this slave a few trinkets to make the slave think they were friends. But even with trinkets they were still slaves. This same slave would stop at nothing to make his master happy even if it meant turning on his own.

These rappers who promote violence, sexual degradation, ignorance, and trust in trinkets are simply slaves used to keep others like them in line and to be an example of success that others would aspire to be while using the methods they used. Jimmy Lovine chairman of Interscope records can't call a black woman a bitch and refer to the black community as nothing more ignorant niggas thats why he gets 50 cent to say it for him. Owners of Bet (Viacom) would love to swipe a credit card down the behind of black woman demonstrating his control and ownership of her but instead he uses Nelly to do it. Therefore, the pressure is never placed on the masters who have control but rather on slaves who are controlled.

Wake up brothers and sisters its bigger than hip hop. In order to stop the spread of this genocide we must stop vaccinating and cure the disease once and for all.

Peace and Love