Make the Sandwich

Hip Hop music. Love it and hate it sometimes. Seriously. This shit needs to grow up in a lot of ways.

On one hand it signifies the expression of youth culture in a myriad of forms: Clothing, Dance, Clothing, Art forms

On the other hand it symbolizes the struggles of inner city or lower income communities.

When you dissect the lyrics, most of it is all machismo bravado… Its all about flossing, your car, house, clothes, jewelry, and the women who can’t get enough of you. Its all about talking about how different your life is from when you had nothing and so on and so forth. The “come up” if you will.

Everyone is busting guns on their songs. If you had no sense, you’d believe everyone on the radio or mixtape is a gang affiliated, drug-dealing murderer. Just so happens I can rap now huh? Whatever.

At some point parents get a hold of some of this trash and are supposed to let their kids know that this music is like grand theft auto. All make believe story tale crap that record companies co-sign because its “hot” or because that’s what people want. I really had faith in Kanye West and the Good music movement but he kinda let me down and just became another reckless clown with money and no basis in reality. His mother just passed. He saw fit to include in his lyrics: “When my jesus pieces/ can’t buy me peace/ i need just at least/ one of Russel’s nieces”. I don’t know why his legs aren’t broken but thats some crazy stuff to say when talking about how lost he is that his mother is gone. Anyway the point is, that this is on the radio constantly. Bombarding the kids with crap that has absolutely no value.

Lil wayne on one of his songs that constantly plays on the radio says: “A bitch ain’t shit but a hoe and a trick”. This is obviously bleeped out but not to a point that its unrecognizeable in whats being said. The way its edited it places emphasis on these words (bitch/shit/hoe/trick) so they might as well be playing the unedited version.

Boys grow to be men and girls grow to be women. At some point they have to know that this is not cool and not acceptable. All this excess and misogyny has a cost. On youtube, you can find hundreds of thousands of videos of women shaking their ass to the latest rap song. Soldier boy She got a Donque is a great example of this madness. When you have 12 year old girls dancing in lewd ways with nothing but some tights or underwear someone has to step up and say yo this is crazy… we can’t have this crap.

I have a son, My girlfriend has a daughter and this is important to me as a man. The lyrics are catchy and like anything if its heard enough it is memorized. When kids can’t read at or above their grade level but know every lyric to Ms. Officer THATS A PROBLEM. When they can barely pass a test, or can’t spell THATS A PROBLEM. These are who is supposed to take care of u when you are older, supposed to lead active productive lives, start their own families etc. What kind of future will these kids create with skewed perceptions on what it is to be a man or what VALUE a woman truly has?

A lot of times when someone stands up and says something, other people especially black people want to shout them down and tell them to shut up and stay in place bla bla bla. Bill Cosby recieved a lot of criticism for his commentary on black families and what he said but a lot of it is true. IT is very true. We are responsible for what happens to our kids. We have a responsibility to turn off the TV and to turn off the Radio because there is almost nothing of value coming through those mediums and they constantly pervade our lives.

Think about it. Part 2 soon.