‘These cats drink champagne and toast to death and pain, like slaves on a ship talking about who got the flyest chain…’
- Talib Kweli; “Africa Dream”, Reflection Eternal
Every corner of this earth yields natural resources that are possessed by the inhabitants of said region. New Hampshire (USA) has granite. Saudia Arabia has oil… and Sierra Leone has diamonds. These elements normally drive and sustain economic prosperity. Yet sometimes, due to greed, these resources can be over-harvested and exploited – diminishing their worth and limiting the people who were meant to thrive off of them.
The rap industry, spread over the largely urban and concrete jungles of America, is no different. The artistry of Hip Hop is a national treasure that’s being turned from a natural resource into an unnatural recourse. What once called attention to the conditions of some Black communities now contributes to its disintegration. Despite the impact though, its ability to turn a profit off of turmoil remains strong. So why not globalize this trend?
For every medley about drug dealing, violence, misogyny and materialism in America that certain brands of rap capitalize off of; there are atrocities committed in Sierra Leone and Darfur (Sudan) that are at least 10 times worse. That being the case, don’t these nations stand to benefit from stimulating their economies 10 times over if this rap formula’s applied? Granted, US rap sales are down but it should still be enough to boost the status of the guerrillas and war mongers, right? And as an added bonus, when these perpetrators get their side of the story in rap form, wouldn’t we sympathize with their plights more? All those who grew up in dilapidated environments who were forced into circumstances by external factors beyond their control who turned to war crimes, genocide, mutilating young children, mass raping women, etc. – would just come to be known as misunderstood heroes.
They’d be considered geniuses for lacing tracks with their intricate stories; further still, rebels in Sierra Leone could even cop back the diamonds the country exports to boost their economy! The ultimate byproduct might even take form once they became enabled enough to give back to the very communities which they helped ravage with the generated income of their rap sales: thus reestablishing a false sense of security amongst the people. It’s the circle of life, people! – and if it works for drug dealin’ rappers – what better place to implement it than the Mother Land?!! So Africa, you’ve got a problem? We’ve got a problem solver – and its name is revolver!
For all those that will surely either spit venom at or trivialize the point of this article, consider this: isn’t it odd how perverse and distorted a reversed image can look in a mirror when it’s held up to someone with short-sighted vision?
“Unnatural Recourses”
Gorilla units gettin’ rich off garish ring tones
Are like guerrillas in the mist of Sierra Leone.
Compare the theme songs – they’re like two trains
on the same disastrous track.
Like Sudanese militia in Darfur,
They groom and breed the same
malicious and dark force…
One that traps cats into slingin’ rocks
and robbin’ in mobs forged from the crash’s aftermath.
Chasin’ after math doesn’t make much sense
If the path smashes into a dank mud ditch.
How much cents does it take to justify genocide?
A dime per dollar – as a matter of fact, exactly.
That’s the buy out – that’s the walloping
dollop rappers see from wack CDs…
Ones where crack, weed, fashion and flashin’ greed
are the venom supplied for a wicked demise.
Yet when they cry ‘We’re victims of circumstance,’
‘We’re just playing the turn of hand
from our terms of chance’ –
We allow them to further advance
synthesized self-destruction.
And as worst ‘acts’ are glorified,
The worth of these raps soar and rise…
As we adore and immortalize such lives –
desensitized by this ‘wealth’ of substance.
If patterned after this Western rap style,
East African fascists could factor
in their festered rationale.
Instead of crack vials, they’d rap about
rapin’ and killin’ women and children in cold blood.
While masses massacred and maimed
for sport in the ‘Lion Mountains’
For the sake of traffickin’ the trade and
export of diamonds mounted
Could just rhyme lines about it –
chillin’ like villains in the coldest cut.
That’d bring much needed international
acclaim locked at attention.
That’d keep the bling and inner capital
contained and stocked in the system.
Making albums about choppin’ off arms would rock
whoever’s listenin’ to the core.
The same way it works for rap,
it’s an option for them.
They’d have chains made packed
with slaughtered gems…
That’s how they’d atone and entertain
with such awful sins –
once they start glistenin’,
their war crimes would be ignored!
Brought up as brainwashed
products of their environment,
The young who copped guns
to survive could take pride in it
Once they start supplyin’ it as
punch lines and clever hooks.
They could turn a profit
On a gross domestic product
By marketing it with
grossly defected conduct…
It’s already been tested and thought up
in the subtitles of lesser rooks.
Then their atrocities would all be past tense.
None would recall the apostasies
of their hood-themed theatrics.
Once the cash eclipses them,
such Black acts are forgiven –
in that sense, we’re quite tame and resilient!
Just buy a few vaccines and cosmetics
for the raped and battered –
A dozen trampolines and prosthetics
for the maimed and shattered…
And they won’t be able
to escape the laughter –
at least that’s how it works
in the United States of stillness.
You can’t get a better blueprint!
It’s not to say gangsta rap made ‘em do it –
Their main influence is what grants them immunity.
It’s’ an ingrained solution –
let the oppressed identify the nuisance.
Once connected, they’ll turn blind eyes to it…
Just imply and indict movements
against the government as the culprit
that supplants the community.
OJ did it (in more ways than one) –
Yet and still, he became our native son.
Once we witnessed the plaintiff’s racist stunt –
we rallied against it.
WE became blind – just us, mind you.
All we needed was blind justice to bind to…
We got hype for Juice! – though we likely knew
the fallacy of his innocence.
That type of mind state’s evidence
Is blind faith negligence.
When race is combined with such precedence –
resistance is futile.
When flair and flare get in the way,
All’s fair in the American way…
As arrogance sways to the error
of our ways with vision that’s neutral.
But friction’s more dutiful – division must reign.
Our conviction’s more useful when
we go against the grain.
Pull in the reins – juxtapose these
immoral acts and oppose ‘em all!
If Darfur stats and Sierra Leone pacts
are deplorable to you,
Then exploiting ‘hardcore’ rap is an error prone
track that should be horrible, too…
It’s destroying our youth – just suppose we orally
backed such an emboldened cause?!!
Proper perspective shouldn’t be
a remote and hopeless clause.
What I offer’s an objective approach –
that’s why I wrote this blog.
What’s been broached is
the law of diminished returns.
The more values we misplace,
the larger the costs.
The louder the volume, the larger the loss
It’s a part of us all – ‘til we reap the seed
of repentance learned.
‘What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference…’
– Romans 3:9-22
© 2008 Reggie Legend
Steel Waters, Inc.
reggielegend@hotmail.com
