Went to see Guru (of the Lengendary Gang Starr) last night at club SONAR in downtown Baltimore. Wish I had a pic to share, but .....I still don't have a camera. LOL! ....Buuuuuuuut, I am getting one this weekend!!! Yippee!!! Anyways, the show was hot. Guru still has it and i can't wait to see what "version 7.0" brings to the table. According to Guru and his superproducer, Solar, they are going to change the game.
I got to the chance to poly with Guru earlier that day at a "meet and greet" at the club. He spoke about how today's rap game makes people like him relics...."the create and nice hole for you and bury you".....I can relate the that sentiment. I definitely agree that the game has suffered b/c the elders/pioneers have no real place. It started off a great day!!!!
I finally made it to the show very late....I missed seeing Ogun's performance. I was really upset b/c he is one of my favorites. I heard he killed it tho!!! Yall have got to hear his new single, "My Life" featuring Che Ray!!!! It is pure fiyah!!!! Also, the Ms. Tris Beats produced, "When I'm in the Room", has England going crazy....!!!! Be on the look out for him...check out his site too!!!!
It was all good .....until..... I saw a guy wearing this shirt and I was done.
 For those of you that think I am a racist......I think you need to look up the definition..... FREAL!!!!
There was a time when I used to feel like I needed to offer justifications for some of my comments.....I see the reactions and tense-ness that many of you exhibit when you come around me now....... ....... in my mind I am PRO-BLACK not ANTI* -WHITE or OTHER (*THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF RACISM)......There is a difference...I recognize that I am a queen of the universe. That is what makes me get up everyday. BUT...from this point forward......I will no longer feel bad for my beliefs and feelings b/c ......MY VOICE AND EYESIGHT IS NEEDED.
I POINTED THIS SHIRT AND THE GUY WEARING IT OUT TO TWO OTHERS AND 1 (who also happen to be a confirned Hip Hop lover and white) LOOKED AT ME LIKE ---"WHAT?" ....I'm like, "WHAT???!@!???!!??"..... I'm like is that a new campaign that I don't know about....some band's logo?.......something underground????? WTF?????
I don't feel that hip hop can be looked at like television and watched for enjoyment only. I feel like if you are going to get into ....you need to immerse yourself into it. Hip Hop is about the struggle....how can you understand the struggle if you don't understand that racism and opression are part of that???
I am offended when people only want to take the parts they want or think are cool and celebrate that. Lynching is one of the saddest things to ever happen to blk people. It was done as a means to keep us in line...keep us orderly. People would take pictures next to lynched bodies and save as momentos/souveneirs.....and the lil girl on the swing next to it accurately represented the indifference.
Is that how Hip Hop is viewed by the people who run it? WOW!!!! When I hear about what happens to Lil Brother and I see white kids in the shows wearing "Strange Fruit" Tees I wonder if Hip Hop really is a minstrel show???
This artform means a lot to many of us. I am tired of going to shows with people who are supposed to love this as much as I do...WHO obvioulsy don't recognize that regardless of what you may think.....you are enjoying something that is not your own culture....its like going to a japenese tea ceremony and yelling "whoop there it is". There is protocol and ettiquette. Some shit is inappropriate and I think that people better learn to be way more sensitive and reverant when taking part in another culture's activities.
Dude better be glad that there weren't more riders in the building ...cause he would have got his ass whooped. That shirt was very disrespectful...and it shows the lack of cutural sensitivity that folks still have. My thing ...is how can you be at a Hip Hop show (which we all know how it got started and where) and where a shirt depicting a lynching. That is a famous picture called "Strange Fruit".....How can you love blk music.....and think in any way it is appropriate to wear a shirt that depicts something painful to us or one that depicts an image with a polarizing back story for which you have no knowledge?
If a blk person wore that shirt it would have a totally different meaning...it would be seen as a rememberence....a message to us that we need to stay strong.....what the hell was his message by wearing it....... Funny this is......when dude was asked about his shirt (YES, I don't want to put him on blast, BUT someone had the balls to ask him), his answer was, " he thought it was eerie"...WTF????
Man, Im sorry, but to all you that want to act like racisn does not exist and want to get upset with me b/c I see it....I don't care anymore. You need to check your friends and references.
Recommended reading: "Bomb the Suburbs" by William Upski Wimsatt http://www.softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-887128-44-5
This should be required reading for all white kids that say they love Hip Hop (**Thank you E for the reference**)
I'll holla back folks!!!! Remember Hip Hop Lives!!!!! Watch out NOW!!!!!
NOVEMBER 12:
SYNERGY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HIP HOP CELEBRATION
FEBRUARY 06:
STYLE WARZ TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS |
