A Day in the Life of a Hip Hop Heroine: Lemme find out y'all scuuuured

The rap world is kind of scary these days. There are all sorts of animals running around the game – big Black thugs with big guns and huge entourages that beat people down. So fearsome! These thugs start wars and tear each other limb from Black limb and actually tend to obliterate all those that stand in their way. Let me find out that y’all are scared. It’s been high time that we looked at the current plaque covering Hip-Hop and call it what it is. While gangsters and gun-wielding rappers prevail in the music we listen to, it would appear that their sacs are lodged someplace up in their torso. And, here we are letting a stylish guy that dropped out of college represent the people of our culture.This isn’t another editorial praising Kanye West. However, on his Late Registration, he confronts a whole spectrum of issues ranging from governor Ronald Reagan’s alleged plot to destroy the Black Panthers to the “conflict” diamond mines in Africa to AIDS possibly being a human engineered epidemic. Now if you will, contrast the gangster displayed in West’s words and those that reign over rap, who is the “G,” g? Let me find out that y’all are scared. I smell something and it reeks of cowardice. It is not p***y, because women are by-and-large holding the fort down. This is directed directly to every gun-toting, super thug, hard-as-nails ass n***a that ever sold crack, got shot, grew up in the ghetto, had his mom slapped or his ancestors enslaved. For all the danger you avert in the hood, the shots your bodies take, the shots your guns expel and the Black punks that jump up only to get beat down – I think you maggots are scared. I recall a time when the “thugs” were the most outspoken people in the hood (think Ice-T, Ice Cube, Kool G Rap, KRS-One). These days, I recognize that Immortal Technique and David Banner are cut from a similar cloth, but they are a dying breed to say the least. I can’t hear you other mother f***ers! Speak up! Let me find out y’all are scared. "I feel like Kanye West is successful because of me. After 50 Cent, [Hip-Hop fans] was looking for something non-confrontational, and they went after first thing that came along. That was Kanye West, and his record took off." – 50 Cent, an interview with MTV. If there was ever a time for XXL magazine to give 50 Cent a Negro Please, it was now. (LOL! - that was a good one!) As my idol Willie Dee of The Geto Boys would say, “Hold up, mutha f**ka.” For me, Kanye calling out George Bush and tackle the racism in media as it all pertained to Hurricane Katrina was more confrontational than all the 50 Cent beef records put together. To clarify, I am not dissing 50 Cent, because, honestly – I don’t want it. I’ve seen how he can vanquish a foe and I’m far easier to destroy than his smallest enemy. Nevertheless, I am anxious to see how these rappers can dispose of “beef” that actually affect something more than record sales. But, I digress; maybe there is truth in Curtis Jackson’s words.When he said “something non-confrontational,” maybe he meant “something of substance” or “something different.” Based on his velvety suits and fabulous ways, I’m quite sure NBC thought Kanye West was also non-confrontational or one of the “good ol’ safe Negroes” too. They certainly didn’t attempt to put any of the gangsta rappers on the tube and, I bet my next paycheck, that if those hardcore rappers were on that telethon, they would have read the script like the ol’ good boys they really are. Calling out the president is pretty scary, wouldn’t you say? Furthermore, it could really f**k up your money, playa! And, it is agreeable to most that the Bushes are more “G’d up” than every rapper on Earth. Halliburton, WHAT? So, let me find out y’all are scared. I admit - I’m scared. My name ain’t Bone Crusher, homey. I see what the world is becoming and fear for my future and that of my unborn kids. I indulge in some of the pleasures the music industry offers (like bootlegs and the occasional picure of Free), but I remain decidedly outside of the game. Why? I watch individuals become the very people that they once despised. I might hate myself now, but I’ll be damned that I become some other scumbag that I loathe. I’m scared and can’t even get motivated from those I should admire. MAN UP, I urge you heartless, hypermasculine soldiers of urban America, because I hate you so much right now like Kelis. What’s money when you don’t have a sac worth mentioning? Seriously, let your nuts hang, soldier – this is war and we need you to inspire the people. They people NEED Hip-Hop to deliver the truth, not only as we see it in the streets, but as we want it to be. Stop playing the rules that the game has laid out, color outside the lines and follow your soul – not your bank account.