I am out of printing paper at home. I need lots and lots of printing paper for my side hustle what can I tell you. I run out at least once a month. I am heading to my whip in the parking lot of the Office Depot after stocking up, and there is some serious ass Biggie Smalls on someones car radio. )))))))a nigga never been as broke as me, I like that When I had two pair of Lees, besides that...((((((( I recognize the tune "Sky Is The Limit", damn that shit sounds good. So I look around as the music and the car gets closer, and I'll be damn if it isn't a white boy. The
young head is looking at me and head nodding, and for a brief moment we make eye contact while he waits for my acknowledgment of his bumping ass sound system. (He must have seen me rocking my head to that shit) But I can't acknowledge, I know the album he is playing, and I know some of the lyrics, and I am thinking; "what the f**k is he doing listening to this shit?"
But how stupid am I? Long after he is gone, along with the sound of biggie and the bumping ass base line, I am thinking about why I couldn't acknowledge my melanin challenged friend. I am stupid, because Biggie's albums have sold millions, and like other hit making rappers, most of his sales are made to white kids and not black kids from the inner city. And the truth is, I have heard white kids bumping rap from their cars before, and yes the "N" word was prominent in those lyrics too. I don't know, call it a post Imus consciousness, but the shit actually made me feel uncomfortable.
Still, I am not going to join the rap pile on crew. Truth be told, I love rap music, I have written about it on this blog before, long before Imus and his NHH comments. But lately I haven't been feeling most of the stuff coming from the ranks of the hip hop artist out here. ("Nas" might be right, maybe hip hop is dead).....well I take that back. When I hear Baby Huey from the "Lue" telling my ass to "pop lock and drop it" my old ass is up and locking. Yes I love that song so sue me. But I digress. So even though I can't pile on the rap artist, I have a dilemma. I keep asking myself if it's because I don't like the music coming from the artists these days? Is it the Imus thing? Or have I just become more sensitive and aware of the responsibility certain artists have to their community?
This is tough for me, because I pretty much believe that artist should be free to sing, write and perform whatever they want. If you don't like it, then turn it off. So I am not feeling this call for a ban on the "N" word. It just smacks of censorship to me. Do I wish that hip hop artists wouldn't go there? Of course I do. Hey, I don't want to feel uncomfortable when some young white kid gets a pass to say "nigger" to my face just because it's in a song. Or some ignorant ass old white man thinks he is being cute by trying to imitate shit from our culture.
So what do we do? Honestly, I am more of a beats than a lyrics guy myself.- Although I appreciate a nice flow as much as the next guy. I try to know as much about the producers behind these dudes as I do the rappers themselves. So if there is a bumping beat and the rapper sings "Mary Had A Little Lamp" I would probably still be feeling that shit. In my world, the lyrics that demean, and the "N" word is not necessary for a hit. But I am starting to suspect that some of these same white suburban kids that eat this stuff up now, would not be heading to the record stores after they get their allowance money if the lyrics were to change. I guarantee you, they probably wouldn't touch the cleaned up CD's with a ten foot pole. And that's the problem. We are depending on these kids to stop buying these CD's which would cause the record companies and the artists to change their marketing strategies or lose money. Well in my humble opinion, this will never happen.
When that kid was looking at me in the Office Depot parking lot he was saying; see I am one of you, I can bump this shit, because I know what's up. We are kindred spirits you and I. You the big bald headed black man, and me the young white kid in the sports car.
Well we are not kindred spirits, and if we did have something in common, it wasn't this. Yeah I love and respect "Big" for his contribution to the game, (Hell his mother is from the "Rock" for crying out loud!) just like you do. But don't get it twisted that is where our commonality ends. And not "Big", not "Pac", Not "U Roy", or any other rapper, will be able to bring us together over a f*****g song.
young head is looking at me and head nodding, and for a brief moment we make eye contact while he waits for my acknowledgment of his bumping ass sound system. (He must have seen me rocking my head to that shit) But I can't acknowledge, I know the album he is playing, and I know some of the lyrics, and I am thinking; "what the f**k is he doing listening to this shit?"
But how stupid am I? Long after he is gone, along with the sound of biggie and the bumping ass base line, I am thinking about why I couldn't acknowledge my melanin challenged friend. I am stupid, because Biggie's albums have sold millions, and like other hit making rappers, most of his sales are made to white kids and not black kids from the inner city. And the truth is, I have heard white kids bumping rap from their cars before, and yes the "N" word was prominent in those lyrics too. I don't know, call it a post Imus consciousness, but the shit actually made me feel uncomfortable.
Still, I am not going to join the rap pile on crew. Truth be told, I love rap music, I have written about it on this blog before, long before Imus and his NHH comments. But lately I haven't been feeling most of the stuff coming from the ranks of the hip hop artist out here. ("Nas" might be right, maybe hip hop is dead).....well I take that back. When I hear Baby Huey from the "Lue" telling my ass to "pop lock and drop it" my old ass is up and locking. Yes I love that song so sue me. But I digress. So even though I can't pile on the rap artist, I have a dilemma. I keep asking myself if it's because I don't like the music coming from the artists these days? Is it the Imus thing? Or have I just become more sensitive and aware of the responsibility certain artists have to their community?
This is tough for me, because I pretty much believe that artist should be free to sing, write and perform whatever they want. If you don't like it, then turn it off. So I am not feeling this call for a ban on the "N" word. It just smacks of censorship to me. Do I wish that hip hop artists wouldn't go there? Of course I do. Hey, I don't want to feel uncomfortable when some young white kid gets a pass to say "nigger" to my face just because it's in a song. Or some ignorant ass old white man thinks he is being cute by trying to imitate shit from our culture.
So what do we do? Honestly, I am more of a beats than a lyrics guy myself.- Although I appreciate a nice flow as much as the next guy. I try to know as much about the producers behind these dudes as I do the rappers themselves. So if there is a bumping beat and the rapper sings "Mary Had A Little Lamp" I would probably still be feeling that shit. In my world, the lyrics that demean, and the "N" word is not necessary for a hit. But I am starting to suspect that some of these same white suburban kids that eat this stuff up now, would not be heading to the record stores after they get their allowance money if the lyrics were to change. I guarantee you, they probably wouldn't touch the cleaned up CD's with a ten foot pole. And that's the problem. We are depending on these kids to stop buying these CD's which would cause the record companies and the artists to change their marketing strategies or lose money. Well in my humble opinion, this will never happen.
When that kid was looking at me in the Office Depot parking lot he was saying; see I am one of you, I can bump this shit, because I know what's up. We are kindred spirits you and I. You the big bald headed black man, and me the young white kid in the sports car.
Well we are not kindred spirits, and if we did have something in common, it wasn't this. Yeah I love and respect "Big" for his contribution to the game, (Hell his mother is from the "Rock" for crying out loud!) just like you do. But don't get it twisted that is where our commonality ends. And not "Big", not "Pac", Not "U Roy", or any other rapper, will be able to bring us together over a f*****g song.
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