Yet, there are going to be detractors to movies that has central characters of a more infamous nature. Sadiki Kambon called for the boycott of the film over a year ago. Truth Minista Paul Scott notes that the group is totally misogynistic, the music industry is corrupt, and Jerry Heller is a “war criminal who should be brought up on charges of war crimes against the African American community for his role in our genocide.” Oh, and don’t forget the Black-man-hater supreme Christelyn Karazin even had to make a video about it all. So yes, people aren’t going to want this movie to be successful.

My response to this: yawn.

These people are boring and there is a reason why nobody listened and nobody cared.

N.W.A and the Negativity

I mean, let’s get real: N.W.A did make music with a lot of negative situations. If you ever took the time to listen to tracks like “Findum, Fuckem, and Flee” and “I’d Rather Fuck You”, anyone would see the wild sexuality and misogyny dripping from the rap canvas. And I don’t even have to make an account of the songs that were violent and harsh against anybody that stood in their way. Your proof: “Appetite for Destruction” is enough to see the issues that people had with their music. The negativity of the music is there and not much search is needed.

N.W.A Still Catches a Bad Rap

While nobody is really trying to make any euphemistic picture of what N.W.A’s music was all about, I do actually see a lot of people wanting to blame the music and not the conditions. And to me, this is laughable at best. Especially when many don’t note that N.W.A came out during a time of apparent diversity in rap music.

One problem with blaming N.W.A, and any other negativity highlighted in music, is that no one actually approaches any real causes. It is almost as if Black people weren’t dealing with crime, violence, or the mistreatment of (Black) women before gangster rap. Yet, there was violence during the 1960’s and ‘70’s when most popular music was about love. Also, Franklin Zimring of the University of California, Berkeley, found that crime rates across all major cities declined in the “gangsta rap” 1990s to levels more closely resembling those of the big-band era. Let us not forget the issues that plague inner cities (poverty, lack of resources, schools under trepidation, etc.). So, is N.W.A the real cause of the issues we had back then and even today?

Another problem is that, even in the legal sense, it would be hard to blame music for the cause of violence. There has been quite a few court cases where rap music was used as a scapegoat for someone’s criminal actions. Hell, they failed at using 2Pac “Soulja’s Story” as a scapegoat for Ronald Howard’s killing of Officer Billy Davidson in Texas back in 1992. In truth, the only time music was successfully used against a rapper was when it was their own music highlighting their own crimes. As such, the only legal use of music being a cause for violence happens when the rapper is the criminal.

N.W.A vs. Everybody

How can we honestly keep trying to pin the blame on music when the reality existed beforehand? As much as life imitates art, art actually imitates life even more. Blaming rap music for the ills of inner city society has been tried and true for decades. However, whatever protesting and disagreement put out in the world hasn’t done much. And it hasn’t done much because the focus is on the byproduct of the real problems. In the end, blaming N.W.A for situations that existed before them (and they talked about) is scapegoating at its best; at worst, its ignoring problems that existed before and after their influence.

It is always wise to find the cause of a problem instead of blaming the byproduct.

[Originally posted at Chocolate Covered Lies]

The post N.W.A Didn’t Kill Hip Hop or the Black Community appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Kendrick is Christian.  Coates is an atheist.

Kendrick who’s song “Alright” from the album was released as a single recently seems to have captured the sentiments of hope with a simple refrain “we gon’ be alright” when he performed at the 2015 BET Awards on top of abandoned and graffitied police cars.  Coates’ much anticipated book was written in epistolary format, borrowing from James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, is a book intentional void of hope; Coates is intentional in anchoring his lens of commentary and critique in the struggle and how he understands the black male body.

Every thirty or so pages Coates made sure to let the reader know that he was not Christian, atheist in fact.  For him not having that as a tradition in which he was raised in, he opted for the body over that of the soul.  The discussion of the black male body is a running theme in much of Coates corpus of work, and is the string that ties his letters to his son together.  For me, as someone with a theological and spiritual background, engaging a discussion about the black body, and in this case, the black male body, is a discussion we don’t have often.  Or at least as often as we should.

Because of that, if I had my way, I would want to be a fly on the wall and put Ta-Nehesi and Kendrick in a room together and hear what they would have to say to one another.

Ta-Nehesi Coates

I’m uniquely interested in how these two would reconcile the yearnings of hope and the insistence of the struggle.  Coates hangs his hat that struggle is the only thing he can offer his son.  Going so far as to name his child Samori, which means “struggle.”  Decidedly, Coates ran as far as humanly possible away from hope as something to offer both his son and obviously to the reader as well.  It is a text entered into the vade mecum of blackness that stands out because it does not rush toward some hope of a future that’s different.  Melvin Rogers, associate professor of African American Studies & Political Science at UCLA wrote in Dissent Magazine that

After all, the meaning of action is tied fundamentally to what we imagine is possible for us. But when one views white supremacy as impregnable, there is little room for one’s imagination to soar and one’s sense of agency is inescapably constrained.

Coates is no James Baldwin.  Either in terms of his writing style or content.  As Rogers pointed out, Baldwin was a son of hope, Coates is not.  Instead, Coates does write in a Baldwin-esque mind frame by delivering some inconvenient truths to an America that may or may not be willing and ready to receive it.  Cornel West, in a rather scathing response simply said Coates was a “mere darling of White and Black Neo-liberals” which begs the question is Coates work landing just in the ears of white liberal sensibilities or does the impact go farther.

Coates’ dogged insistence on the body strikes a strong chord with a black generation shaped and formed in the gap of modernity and postmodern sensibilities wrestling with their place in a global society and also what it means to be a citizen of the American empire.  For many of them, or rather us, part of the struggle has been at what point does spirituality, namely Christianity run out?  At what point does it no longer exist to have wells deep enough to carry the pain and the despair.  When I read West’s Facebook post against Coates, that’s namely what I saw: two diametrically opposed ideologues over the issue of whether to hope or not.

Kendrick’s life story growing up in the streets of Los Angeles and Coates’ life growing up in inner-city Baltimore are both life stories I don’t overly identify with personally, but growing up on the South Side of Chicago, they are both known testaments that are well within the sight of my vision.  How could two people with similar life experiences be at such opposite ends of a spectrum when it comes to the future of black lives in America?  My gut feeling is to side with Kendrick; to entrench myself with the thought that we gon’ be alright.  However choosing to talk about the plunder of the black body, a running theme beyond just his latest book but even in his famous essay “The Case for Reparations” resonated with me in a way that I had not been able to put into words prior.  Being able to read a text that gives vocabulary, that gives utterance to unnamed emotions is liberating, spiritual in fact.  The way that Christians understand that the Holy Spirit “makes prayer out of wordless sighs and aching groans” is similar in the way that reading the words of a text or listening to music can move the inner-being.  Something about the realness of Coates refusal to move past the pain reverberates with my soul.

The irony of that.

If Kendrick and Ta-Nehesi were in a room together, I would hope they would discuss what it means to be black for them.  Is it first understood on the personal level or is always understood in the collective.  I wonder what type of music do they listen to in their off time.  Do they feel that they occupy a particular platform given their ascendancy to being public figures?  What does black masculinity mean to them and how do they choose to see other black men through that–do gay, bisexual and trans-men fit into that paradigm?  What about black women?  How do they understand them speaking on behalf of other people, or do they reject that notion altogether.  It would be interesting to know what type of relationship they have with their parents or had with grandparents.  How influential were male figures in their life versus that of black women?  Do you hate white people?  What is the role of white people in a Black-centric worldview?  If Kendrick asked Ta-Nehesi why he’s choosing to leave America and move to France, I would certainly wonder how he’d respond to that.

It’s not a foreign concept knowing that many black artists expatriated at some point to Europe in the 20th century such as Josephine Baker, Richard Wright, Nina Simone and even James Baldwin.  Author Thomas Chatterton Williams came under assault after an op-ed piece for the New York Times earlier this year when he suggested that black Americans could find a type of refuge in Europe advocating for a “next great migration” conjuring the Great Migration when blacks left the South in search of warmth from other suns in the northern cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York.  Coates seems to be following in that tradition.  While personally, I don’t see Europe as a place of expatriation for me, I get it.  I would hope Kendrick would ask that question to Ta-Nehesi: why won’t you stay?  Perhaps Ta-Nehesi would flip and say “why won’t you leave?”

Ta-Nehesi and Kendrick are two sides of the same coin, perhaps.  Well, maybe to place them as diametrically opposed to one another isn’t fair to the complexities that the human existence hold, let alone what it means to be black–both in body and in soul.  I wouldn’t expect this conversation to have some grand conclusion, that finally we’ve can consider the matter settled in anyway.  Soul-talk, I would contend, doesn’t like that, and neither does the vast majority of what Cornel West calls the black prophetic Christian tradition.  This trope is never more apparent than in the black preaching tradition that not only focuses heavily on hope, but also providing conclusionary theology: while God may be abstract, there will be a conclusive statement about what God is.  As much as that is is a theological declaration birthed out of one’s belief in the soul, their eschatological trajectory as well as basic religious and doctrinal beliefs, it also functions as a very secular sociology that one’s humanity requires a conclusion.

Assuming that Kendrick subscribes to some of the basic tenets of Christianity that places the conclusion in the hereafter, I would really like to hear he and Ta-Nehesi try and make sense of what I see as two different points of conclusion.  Is one right, the other wrong?  How is one’s lived existence altered because of the belief that this is it, versus the idea that there may be more to come.

So if the gods of blackness are kind, please let this conversation happen–and let me there to see it.

[Originally posted at Uppity Negro Network]

The post If Ta-Nehesi Coates and Kendrick Lamar Had a Conversation… appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Famous singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter dropped the eponymous album of her name at midnight in December 2013 without any publicity or marketing and she got rave reviews behind one of the tracks entitled “Flawless.”  It featured a segment from a TED talk by author and poet Chimamanda Adiche entitled “We Should all Be Feminists.”  Beyoncé had already garnered the attention of black feminists, but after a performance in which the words FEMINIST were lit up and her purposefully standing in front of them, that was all they needed.  There were whole panel discussions and news segments about how Beyonce was this kind of feminist, but she was really that kind another would argue.  Meanwhile, Beyoncé hadn’t said much about it but the following:

I’ve always considered myself a feminist, although I was always afraid of that word because people put so much on it.  When honestly, it’s very simple. It’s just a person that believes in equality for men and women. Men and women balance each other out, and we have to get to a point where we are comfortable with appreciating each other….  I have the same empathy for women and the pressures we go through. …I consider myself a humanist.

I remember listening to some of the conversations and reading some of the blogs and other essays on the topic and asking myself did Beyoncé ever really say any of this.  Moreover, do we as cultural critics suddenly ignore her entire body of work and only lift up this particular piece because we like it?  I’ll admit this was partly because I remember having a conversation with my Af-Am History professor my senior year of college and she went ballistic over the lyrics to Destiny Child’s “Cater to You.”  I consciously thought about how I felt “Soldier” the previous year painted an troublesome image of what black women were looking for in a man–and how that man certainly wasn’t me since I was enrolled in college.  As they said “If ya status aint ‘hood we aint checkin’ for ya” complete with grills.  One song glorified a very dominant submissive black woman, and another exalted the image of the bad boy thug, a veritable gangsta boo.

People grow and change, and I certainly acknowledge and welcome that, but I think it’s worth looking at the full narrative arc to understand why people make the decisions they do and how we fit into that.  Part of the job of cultural critics is to be able to make meaning, but, that meaning has to be, well, meaningful.  Perhaps Roxane Gay does help me with the feminist piece as to what it looks like to be a “bad feminist” and perhaps Beyoncé could agree with that.  Patricia Hill Collins also gives a Beyoncé the space to operate in what she calls a “distinctive angle of vision.”  I remember a former student helped me out with that because I was having problems with the chronicling that somehow landed Beyoncé as some borderline radical feminist and I felt as though the whole story of Beyoncé wasn’t being told, namely because we didn’t know why she wrote that song and what was her thinking in choosing that song.  Or all the way to other end of the spectrum that indeed someone of her stature has a team of creative people who envisioned that all of that was just nothing but a good combination to sell albums–and sell she did!

I opened with Beyonce partly because she’s fresh on the mind following her performance at the Grammys, but also because she illuminates what I don’t want to with ascribing things to artists that artists didn’t intend.  Although, perhaps, echoing the opening lines of Kendrick Lamar’s single “The Blacker the Berry” I am setting myself up to be the biggest hypocrite of 2015 as well.

Kendrick Lamar, also known as Kdot, showed up on the scene with hot mixtapes that got his name on the scene preparing him a full national released album that dropped fall of 2012 and he’s been riding that wave for the last two years.  Being the featured artist on a number of tracks, and showing he can play with the big boys when it came to controversy (we all still remember his “Control” lyrics) made sure that we all knew who he was and he made sure that he was here to stay.  What made Kendrick stand out from the rest of the pack is that had a story to tell.  Storytelling, as an art form, in hip hop seems to have veered from the main road and landed us in a musical labyrinth in which the latest wrong turn and dead end has resulted in truffle butter being entered into daily language.  Seriously, don’t Google that phrase unless you want to lose your lunch, just take my word for it.

Kendrick in good kid, m.A.A.d city told a great story, growing up and living in Compton.  It was a “day in the life of” feel to it with the hip hop flare.  I’m sure many people my age who didn’t grow up in southern California, let alone in South Central or in Compton pulled images from movies like Boyz in the Hood, Menace II Society, Friday and Baby Boy to populate the story the Kendrick was telling.  Granted dozens of rappers are out there making mix tapes across the country that are just as lyrically talented at Kdot, but none of them have a national audience–Kendrick does.  Not to mention, Kendrick actually was from the West Coast.  We haven’t been blessed with a major rapper from the West Coast that had the same stylistics of rap that many of us remember from that iconic era of gangsta rap in the 1990s.

In 2013, Kendrick had embroiled himself with “controversies” the worst of which was that he was actually dropping diss tracks and coming for the same artists that had now popularized this hip hop-lite era of music with famous faces like Chris Brown and Drake that get the major play time.  For me, I would rather listen to the real life musical reflections of Kendrick than the contrived lifestyle of music by Drake or a Lil’ Wayne who acts as if he’s completely forgotten his hometown.  Just last year, people were clamoring for more from Kendrick, begging for the next album to drop and just last fall we were all treated to a single simply entitled “i.”  The hook simply repeats the self-affirming mantra “I love myself.”  And from that, it seemed as thought Kendrick entered a rarefied space, one where black men of his status don’t enter often, if at all.  The song “i” is from his next album that’s expected its a contrapuntal discourse between life’s vicissitudes and being able to declare self-love for one’s self.

I was moved to write this after scrolling down my Twitter timeline on a sick day, feeling slightly better and seeing a friend comment something about Kendrick Lamar and realize a new single entitled “The Blacker the Berry” has dropped.  I listened to the intro and heard him come in saying “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015″ and I knew we were in for it.

The difference between Kendrick and Beyonce is that the former takes the opportunity to make declarative statements with an effective use of personal pronouns that make it clear where he’s coming from.  We know that Kendrick is being overtly political and we don’t need to hear a corollary from the artist to make it plain for us.  By the end of the song, you see that he’s standing in the tradition of the “conscious” rappers of the past such as KRS-1 and Nas who have never had a problem with assailing this country with each word carrying the power of an assassins bullet landing in the hollow institutions of this society merely pocking the facade, never carrying enough weight to even crack the foundation.

Kendrick throws out what the hypocrisy is in the last couplet when he says

So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street?
When gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?
Hypocrite!

and we’re left with the same troublesome question of how can the “I” in the song, which now suddenly functions as a “we” once the hypocrisy is revealed, be mad about the death of Trayvon Martin when “black-on-black” crime exists.  Granted, I’m not buying that argument from Kendrick or anyone else for that matter.  To label crime within the African American community as “black-on-black” and not assign that racial language to a crime when the victim and perpetrator is white or Latino allows many to pathologize a whole racial group and that, as we know, is dangerous.

In full disclosure I felt the need to offer that the whole gist of the song can be viewed as problematic, but because of the Kendrick being an unreliable narrator, I think it leaves the door open to say that clearly him being a hypocrite is problematic, but that there’s more complexities and nuances at play than what it seems.  But for me, that’s not what really stands out.  Him standing in that hip hop tradition of being an acerbic wordsmith that delivers the invective against society is one thing, but his ability to determine his own self-love is something that is virtually unheard of in contemporary hip hop.

We live very much in a post- era.  It’s post-modern, post-church, post-Black, post-Trayvon Martin/Mike Brown/Eric Garner, post-OJ Simpson, post-Reagan, post-9/11, post-civil rights… I could go on.  I would even argue that we live in this post-hip hop era at times given what gets played on the radio these days.  Lyrically these songs are worthy of a smart second or third grader, and the music production sounds all the same.  And the image of black men is still overwhelmingly monolithic.  The way that early hip hop cultural critics decried the “video vixens” and the ways black men portrayed black women and the open misogyny within the lyrics and the imagery of those music videos is still very much the same; the ethos of is hasn’t changed.  Just listen to Drake or Chris Brown’s lyrics.  Meanwhile Usher and Trey Songz almost consistently and universally rap about sex.  I would assert that the image of black maleness and black masculinity that is heard on the radio is determined by how many women (bitches and hos) that these men can actually get in the bed.

Then Kendrick comes around and speaks of self affirmation and self love determined by his existential connection to his community and also to himself.

I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015
Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean
Been feeling this way since I was 16, came to my senses
You never liked us anyway, fuck your friendship, I meant it
I’m African-American, I’m African
I’m black as the moon, heritage of a small village
Pardon my residence
Came from the bottom of mankind
My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide
You hate me don’t you?

Yeah, he really said that.  He took the phenotypical stereotypes that have been assigned to being black and the evil history of this country, turned it on its head and owned it.  And I love it.

I don’t think that Kendrick is expecting to change the conversation around black masculinity in this country, let alone around in hip hop, but I think it is worth noting.  I’ve been lately of the opinion that there needs to be a more deliberate reshaping and reforming of black masculinities that doesn’t fall into the trap of heterosexist patriarchal norms and that’s hard to navigate in a world that rewards operating in those norms.  But, I’m also of the opinion that more black men need to be committed to doing that work.  Part of what I believe is that some of disavowal of heterosexist patriarchal norms need to come from black men learning to love themselves–all of themselves.  Not just what they can do,  but actually loving who they be. In the way that we teach our daughters to love their breasts and love their curves and love their hair, I think we need to do a better job of that with our black sons.  And Kendrick does that.  He owns his body image.  He’s a short, nappy haired kid from Compton.  It’s almost that Miss Celie declaration: “I may be black, I may even be ugly, but I’m still here!”

What we do with our black boys is celebrate them.  We throw parties for them, we celebrate when they make the team, older brothers and uncles and fathers celebrate when they lose their virginity, and the celebration aspect has a way of being able to reinforce possibly bad behaviors as well as bad sensibilities toward black women and toward black LGBTQ members.  We love on them, but rarely do we teach them how to love themselves.  We show them how to love on other people, but when we don’t teach our sons how to love themselves, they can’t do it when they enter other relationships.

I just want to be able to say from one black man to another black man that I hear Kendrick, I affirm Kendrick and I love that he was able to express his own self-love.

Black male self-love is a powerful thing.  And yup, I felt a helluva lot blacker after hearing that single, and I’m okay with that.

[Originally posted here]

The post Kendrick Lamar and Black Hip Hop Masculinity appeared first on Madness & Reality.

(Note: I skipped a lot of info because I had computer issues midway. But a lot of it was irrelevant anyways.)

 Grammys 2015 – The Rundown

1.)    ACDC is rocking out. They said “Screw our AARP cards! We are going to show these young punks how to have fun”! I’m glad they started off with them, though. The new generation need to make that connection between the past and the present.

2.)    Sam Smith wins best new artist. No surprises there. A lot of people would have either went for him orIggy Azalea. Personally, I would have wanted Haim. Why? Because they are a dark horse nomination, Haim winning would have shook shit up. Plus, “Red Eye” off of that Kid Cudi album I didn’t like is still the shiznit.

3.)    Tom Jones (I think) looks like an old school Las Vegas singer. Plus, he’s a pimp. Whomever that young piece of ass is on the stage with him is being absorbed in his old school aura. That’s that old school pimp love. Tom is still the man.

4.)    Best Pop Solo Performance went to Pharrell Williams. Is that a surprise, though? The lone wolf song from a cartoon soundtrack becomes a smash hit due to perseverance, dope ass music, a message, and a 24 hour video. Yeah. Some things are NOT accidental.

5.)    Pharrell Williams still looks like he is 28. Yes, he is a vampire. I need for you all to know this.

6.)    Southwest Airlines just used Outkast’s “So Fresh, So Clean” in their commercial. Royalties, son!!!

7.)    Miranda Lambert does what she does. And by that, I mean she does her country thing.

8.)    Best Pop Vocal Album goes to Sam Smith…again. I think this is his hour to shine like a diamond in a wannabe rich rapper’s ear.

9.)    Kanye West is on the stage. He sounds like autotune. But, he is singing that new song about his daughter and all that good stuff.

10.)Did Mylie Cyrus say “My bitch Madonna”? Oh. Well, whatever.

11.)Madonna has minotaurs in dark clothing. I wonder how many people will blame the Illuminati for this get up?

12.)Best Rock Album? Morning Phase by Beck. Yeah. That’s right. Why? Because Beck is the shiznit.

13.) Okay, so I saw the weirdest commercial dealing with smoking. Let’s Swipe That? Let’s not make this mistake again.

14.) Eric Church is doing…whatever he does. I’m not a country music fan, so I’m lost on whether or not he is any good.

15.)Okay, so now we somehow transitioned into Rihanna doing some country shit. And Kanye is on stage with Paul MaCaurtney. At least I won’t see any of those stupid ass “Kanye is gonna blow Paul’s career up”. **sigh**

16.)Sam Smith + Mary J Blige + a choir + live string instrumentation = good music. I don’t care how much I’m tired of this song. This works. And Mary J. Blige still is pumping out a career because of her love overseas. Peace to Disclosure.

17.)Who is the guy singing his butt off in Spanish?

 

18.) When Prince walk into the room, you stand the hell up! Like he said “Like books and Black lives, albums still matter”. And THAT, my friends, is how you make a statement.

19.)Beck won album of the year!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!

20.)Sam Smith wins song of the year. I must say: this must be the Sam Smith and Friends Show. A lot of the worthwhile awards went to Sam Smith. Quite interesting.

 

 

21.)I guess this IS the Sam Smith and Friends Show. He just won Record of the Year. Meanwhile, Okayplayer asked a great question. Like to read it? Well, hear you go!!!!

22.)Beyonce did okay. She didn’t sound like Frank Ocean going tone deaf. However, this should have been Ledisi’s moment.

23.)Common, however, demonstrated that he is still just as dope as he ever been. He is almost 25 years of putting out music. And yet, he hasn’t gotten totally boring and out of touch. That means a lot. Oh, and y’all slept on his last two albums.

Grammys 2015 – The Epilogue

24.)Oh, and for those that were worried about how everything would end up:

 

 

‘Nuff Said. ‘Nuff Respect? Not sure.

The post Grammys 2015 – So, Why Am I Watching This Again? appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Mental health issues have not gone away, I’m afraid.

In fact, there is one mental disorder that can be labeled as a growing epidemic: PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). PTSD can develop after a person is exposed to one or more traumatic events, such as sexual assault, serious injury, or the threat of death [1]. It needs to be notes, however, that someone does not have to be injured to get PTSD. Being an anxiety disorder, the victim relives that trauma through nightmares or flashbacks [2]. In turn, PTSD is a serious disorder because of the possibility of it happening.

Think about it: a traumatic event happens to, and around, people every day. So, PTSD can either manifest or become triggered every day.

Pharoahe Monch and PTSD

With this anxiety disorder in full prominence due to the consistent air of war (Iraqi and etc.), crime, and other happenings in the world, Pharoahe Monch recently released his album. This album is aptly titled PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). It is filled with stories of depression, angst, confusion, and eventually “mental freedom”. However, most of the musical ride has a very serious tone. With PTSD, Pharoahe Monch gives you the run down on how someone with this anxiety disorder might function.

Lyrically, the album gives examples of a person’s thought process with PTSD. For example, the track “Time2” actually gets into some serious issues that people with PTSD can possibly face:

Protection orders for my Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/Molested Mexican daughters, stretch across the border/The streets paved in gold often fade/When the paint they use to pave the streets is henna/And greener is the grass on the other side/Except for when that other side is geno/Or sewer (sui-cide), you smile while you sippin’ a cup of Kahlua/That makes me wanna mainline a fucking fifth of Dewars. [3]

If you noticed in the lyrics, there is a tone of how things are not what they seem. When the truth comes out, all the people that look at America as the “place of greener pasture” realize that the greenery given off may just be fake. Also, there are plenty of “sides” to choose from: genocide, suicide, and even homicide (pun intended). Much of this makes for many people to want to relieve their stress within a bottle. With just a few bars in a rhyme, Pharoahe Monch releases a lot of information.

Yet, Pharoahe gives even more examples of PTSD and how it affects the world around us. On the track “Losing My Mind”, he notes that he “Saw more war than Warsaw Poland/viewed an infant’s insides/outside of his body/inside of a place of worship, ungodly/out cries tears ‘Dear God, where are we?’[4]” With these lyrics, he takes on what a person has seen either in their mind or has come face-to-face with in times of war. Another arousing use of lyrics comes courtesy of “Broken Again”, where he takes on the thoughts of a drug addict:

On the floor going through withdrawals I was itchin’/she rescued me, my heroine to the en/but then she morphed into heroin in a syringe/around my bicep, I would tie a shoestring/Tap! five times to find a vein in there/squeeze 7cc’s so I could see the seven seas/and CC all my friends so they could see what I was seeing/but what they saw was a despicable human being/so, I guess they just wasn’t seeing what I was seeing [5]

In such short time, Pharoahe Monch gives a lot of examples of how PTSD (and even depression, in some cases) affects people.

Pharoahe Monch and the PTSD Conclusion

In the end, Pharoahe Monch made an album that encompasses the issues and occurrences of having PTSD. What I am afraid will happen is that this album, along with those that have PTSD, will be ignored. This is my rallying cry for those that need to understand. With violence, wars, and consistent every day trauma, this album is important. It is about time we listened and helped those with this anxiety disorder.

No one should keep suffering from PTSD without proper help.

The post Mental Health: Pharoahe Monch Raps About PTSD appeared first on Madness & Reality.

When Torrence Hatch was finally released from prison, I was actually glad. To me, it was another person released from the clutches of the prison system. Not only that, it was a person that had talent renown across the country. Plus, Lil Boosie has children to take care of. So, having him released from prison would probably signal a win for his family, friends, and many of his hip hop fans.

But that tide took a questionable turn as soon as he was released. As happy as the situation was, there seemed to be way too much attention drawn to the situation. While people had the right to be happy, I found it troubling that so many took their happiness too far. People made it seem like Lil Boosie is a war hero that was released after the antagonist of all of our African American angst placed him behind bars for being a king for his people. It seems as, once Torrence Hatch was released from prison, the hood wanted to throw him a ticker tape parade.

And I’m not completely sure as to “why” they feel this way.

The Lil Boosie Reaction

The problem is that people treated Lil Boosie like he was a great contributor to the state of Black America. When Bun B noted that “They [Fans] waited for Mandela… They waited for Pac, and they waited for Lil Boosie”, I was almost stuck in a state of confusion [1].

And then there was the Jason Weaver Response. Jason Weaver equated his disgust with the madness quite thoroughly:

Ok so…. I see a lot ppl on IG posting stuff about Lil Boosie gettin out of prison, talmbout “Welcome Home” “Boosie Back” and all kinds of other coon shit. Listen man, no disrespect to Boosie or anyone else for that matter who has ever been incarcerated, but the problem I have with the IG posts regarding him gettin out is it’s being displayed like it’s some kind of thing to celebrate. I’m sorry man, but why can’t we celebrate young black men who have stayed OUT of prison?

I’m not judging Boosie or any other individual who may have faced similar circumstances. It would sure be cool though if we posted more pics of our young brothas receiving high school diplomas, college degrees, and cool shit like that instead of a playa gettin out of prison mane. I’m about celebrating milestones in young black men’s lives that we can REALLY be proud of! Like for real… C’mon son!! Sorry for the rant, but I just had to say it. #KanyeShrug [2]

FREE LIL’ BOOSIE!

To be honest, I could not have said it better myself. There comes a time in which we have to realize that we are celebrating the wrong thing. Then again, I have my doubts on that overall realization in the first place.

The Lil Boosie Understanding

This entire situation only reveals that too many people in the hood lack heroes. I must concur that Lil Boosie does make quality hood music. However, what is this man’s great contribution to society as a whole? I am still questioning the celebration of a man that got himself put into prison for doing things the common person would consider “stupid”. Is this what we have evolved (or devolved) into? Are we here to make a hero out of someone that actually hasn’t made any significant change to the way we think and act as a people?

Lil Boosie did not fight apartheid just to go to prison. So, he is no Mandela.

Lil Boosie did not actually make music that inspired people to keep their heads up. So, he is no 2Pac.

Lil Boosie is Lil Boosie.

And we need to question what the hell is wrong with us when we overly celebrate the release of people from prison that actually worked hard to get themselves there. I, myself, am no fan of the prison system; it is basic institutionalized slavery. However, it should seem weird to be ecstatic about the release of someone that deliberately put their own self in prison. I know that people should be happy. Still, we need to be more cognizant of what, and why, we celebrate.

The post Lil Boosie and the Lack of Hood Heroes appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Then I realized what it was: he had a tendency to come off as corny as hell.

This corniness should have been the first thing noted when he did his “whiteface” rendition to advertise for his new album. I guess he is working on his marketing pitch for his music. Then again, with a title like White People Party Music, you have to think his music is either satirical parody or just stupid. I’m hoping for the former and not the latter. In all interests, this album better be formally majestic or funny as hell.

I mean, let’s be honest: the only song I ever liked from him was “Giggolo”. I only cared for that song because the Pied Piper of Piss R Kelly produced it and did the hook.

Sadly, a lot of white people found this to be “racist” and insulting. I understand their disposition.

Still, I cannot fully subscribe to the outrage. And I am going to tell you why.

Nick Cannon Was Not Being “Racist”

White people can’t feel that he, Nick Cannon, is being racist because there is no inferiority complex to be made from this situation. True, it can come off as insulting and a bit much. However, do you think any white person is going to lose any sleep or become a statistic because Nick Cannon dressed up as a lame skater guy? Does anybody think that there is going to be massive outbreaks of racial profiling, political insults masked as professional jargon, and even the erasing of European influences from the aspects of American culture?

Honestly, nothing bad is going to happen because a cornball wanted to actually show how much of a cornball he truly can be.

Plus, this isn’t the first time an African American appeared in Whiteface. Dave Chappelle did this already. So, it is what it is.

But Nick Cannon Made a Poor Choice

Yet, his choice of advertisement still can be considered “wack” and even “insensitive”. Let us face it: the mess is rather stereotypical. You can tell by the hashtags of “beer pong”, “cream cheese eating”, and “racial draft”. We all know that Nick was trying to be funny. Nonetheless, his attempts still reek from the heaping bowl of fail flakes that he must be eating right now.

Think about it like this: Robert Downey Jr. used Blackface to his advantage in Tropic Thunder. Many wanted to actually say something about his performance (especially Black people). But here is the thing that Nick Cannon’s performance does not coordinate with in reference to Robert Downey Jr.: Nick Cannon was not humorous. Robert Downey Jr. was not only uproariously hilarious; he also looked like a Black man. I guess Nick forgot that he actually needed to be funny.

Nick Cannon Likes to Party with White People

People, don’t take this too seriously. In actuality, take this as another failed musical attempt by a highly successful Black man that can be excessively corny. I love Nick Cannon for what he has done with his life. I love the fact that he has made it happen AND married Mariah Carey. Still, he does not entertain me in most cases. This scenario is just another example as to why he has always seemed slightly lame in my eyes.

The post Nick Cannon In Whiteface: It Ain’t Racist appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Here’s Lord Jamar speaking on homosexuality and hip hop recently:

I do NOT care for Lord Jamar or the above mentioned *false* phenomenon.

Lord Jamar

I have talked about the subject on social media, often getting lost in translation due to the limitation of 140 characters on Twitter, and Facebook just not being the best suited forum to express it; the subject being homosexuality and the ideas that some people have regarding it.

The example cited above is socially regressive for the following reasons:

• Hyper masculine values as equally propagated in media has been the underlying cause of much of the catastrophe of our current society. Last time I checked, as we kill each other off, most of the time it’s men and none of these men are wearing skirts orkilts. At this rate, perhaps maybe wearing a skirt is a sign of sanity?
• Men wearing kilts or skirt-like garments did not start with Scottish bagpipe players. It started in Ancient Egypt. Just Google Ancient Egypt and click on “Images”, those “skirts” will be the first thing you see. Yes, now go back to Kanye in his all leather kilt. At least he had on pants up under it.
• Homosexuality is not something that is determined by the clothes a person wears. Lord Jamar’s ideas regarding homosexuality have been based on this type of illogical reasoning. The world couldn’t possibly contain men who do something like put on women’s undergarments (for example) and actually not be “gay”. It’s like, there is a total disregard for the variety of issues that happen daily, in regards to gender identification, are nonexistent because you haven’t personally experienced it. There are parents who are facing this issue with their children everyday- that did NOT choose it- and because of people who have ideas like Lord Jamar- are being bullied and made to live a life where people just can’t leave well enough alone. The world is bigger than your limited view.
• Homosexuality does not define femininity or masculinity, or vice versa. Femininity and masculinity are defined by more than sexual organs and varies across different cultures, as does gender roles. My question is why is it taking the world so long to recognize this? Why is it taking the world so long to grasp the slippery slope fallacy they hold that if people are homosexual, humans will become extinct, all the while, checking the US Census, the only people beating Blacks at procreating are Asians? Why is it taking the world so long to grasp the fact that sex is only limited by those actually participating in the act and you have absolutely no right to have an opinion about the sexual activity of another unless you are indeed interested in having sex with that person?!
• Homosexuality is not something to agree with. You either participate in sex involving the same sex or you don’t. I’m not for or against homosexuality. I have never participated in homosexual sex, nor do I desire to. I have, however, considered doing so, it’s just not appealing to me, though.
• Lord Jamar is a 5-percenter, of which I’m very familiar with as I consider myself to be a 5-percenter as well. 5-percenters know AND teach the truth. If there is one thing I have learned from traveling with the 5% is critical thinking. Lord Jamar insists that homosexuality is against what the Five-Percent Nation teaches as the basic fundamentals of family ( i.e., man, woman and child). However, the problem with this logic is “man, woman, & child” only dictates procreation. Even a person who is homosexual who wants a child knows that in order to procreate it requires a man and a woman. They will either procreate naturally with the opposite sex, go to the sperm bank, hire a surrogate mother or adopt the children ironically who have been abandoned by heterosexual partners. Family is a dynamic structure and functions efficiently in different circumstances BEYOND “man, woman, and child.” An appeal to nature does not help the case because all nature teaches us is that there are a variety of ways to have a “family”. Why it’s taking the world so long to figure this out, I’d like to know as well.
• “Skirts have no place in hip hop”… Does critical thinking have a place in hip hop? “Homosexuality has no place in hip hop.” But rape culture does?

During the rant, Marlon stated that Lord Jamar was waiting on the return of positive message rap. Well, I’m waiting on that too. I just know WHO I’m not waiting on to create it. As long as we have these fallacious and selfish ideas about the complexities of humanity, I’m not sure there will be anything too positive to “rap” about.

Question: Is homosexuality destroying the Black community?

The post Marlon Wayans vs. Lord Jamar: Gays Destroying the Black Community? appeared first on Madness & Reality.

When I first saw the Nicki Minaj artwork, I knew it would start a shit storm. Hell, why would it not? She (or as she says, someone else) blatantly used a picture of Malcolm X in association with music that had nothing to do with him or his image. In fact, it did more to bastardize the image to the general populace that had little understanding of WHY Malcolm’s image should have never been used in the first place. In short, the artwork caused issues because it was simply disrespectful.

It disrespected his legacy, his ambition, and his militant image of diplomacy and equality.

But, I didn’t want to get into it. I knew his family would address the issue.

The family has spoken. According to The New York Daily News, Ilyasah Shabazz was quite insulted by Nicki’s use of the iconic 1964 image of Malcolm X standing at a window holding an M1 Carbine for Ebony magazine as her cover art for her new single “Lookin A– N—-” [1]. More than anybody, the Shabazz family wants no part in this foolishness. Then again, people like Chris Moore (a historian at the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture in Harlem) didn’t agree with Nicki Minaj either, calling her “wrong-headed” for the foolish move that she made [2]. Easily, all those that know Malcolm best know that associating him with anything “nigga” is not the proper business move to make.

Yet, this is not the biggest issue that I noticed. One of the biggest issues to be noticed was given later on in the referenced article.

According to The New York Daily News, Harlem community organizer Iesha Sekou, who operates student workshops through Street Corner Resources out of Harlem Renaissance High School, was also appalled by the use of the image. She said some students at the school didn’t think the imagery and racial slur were offensive. [3]

This should bother anybody within earshot and ample understanding of historical significance and importance of who Malcolm X is. Yet, seeing that students would not be bothered by this says too much. It clearly notes that too many (not all, but too many) of our students do not understand why Malcolm X was being disrespect in the first place.

Then again, people put Martin Luther King, Jr. on fliers to promote their parties clad with money, jewelry, and other foolishness that adorns everything associated with being “hood”.

And yet, there are people that would rather have Black History Month be tossed out in the trash with our dignity, respect, and the understanding of our historical impact. And that, my good readers, is a bad idea.

Don’t believe me? Hold my beer and watch me break this down:

If you would have taken all of the inventions that are associated with Black people, all of our lives would probably be unbearable and boring.

Frederick M. Jones invented the air conditioning unit. Henry T. Sampson invented the cellular phone. Lawrence P. Ray invented the dust pan. Lewis Latimer invented the electric lamp bulb. L.A. Burr invented the lawn mower.

These are just inventions. The list is even longer than what I mentioned. And that has nothing compared to the other entertainers, politicians, leaders, freedom fighters, and intellects that have lead our people to see more, want more, and do more.

Situations like the one Nicki Minaj has brought us only highlights the importance of making sure our children know and understand how great we are. But we can’t do this by taking away all opportunities to improve this predicament.

One day, kids will realize that some of our people should forever be revered.

‘Nuff Said and ‘Nuff Respect!!!

[Originally posted at Chocolate Covered Lies]

The post Malcolm X Gets No Respect appeared first on Madness & Reality.

No joke, lately I’ve been listening to Kanye’s radio station interviews; which, though they may be all over the place as far as message, they pretty much all come back to the same conclusion: Kanye is a victim and “the man” as represented by corporate world. If you’re to believe Kanye, corporate America won’t allow him to be great — or, a billionaire like the “creative genius” believes he should.

Which, I can kind of sort of understand, but then comes the story that he’s being investigated by p[olice this week for attacking an 18-year-old for hurling racial slurs at his girlfriend Kim Kardashian, as she walked into a Beverly Hills chiropractor’s office as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Kardashian, West’s fiancee and the mother of his child, was going to an appointment in a medical building on Wilshire Boulevard and, as usual, had a load of paparazzi in her wake. The victim tried to help her manage the photogs as she entered the building, then went into the building also, according to TMZ video. “They’re whack, dude. You have to deal with that every day?” he can be heard saying on the way in.

 

Then, according to an account on TMZ, the 18-year-old directed the N-word and gay slurs toward the paps. When Kardashian told him not to use the N-word, he allegedly turned his rant on her, telling her to shut up and calling her, among worse things, a “stupid slut.”

 

Kardashian called West via cellphone, and when the man realized it was Kanye on the phone, he allegedly shouted the N-word at the rapper as well.

 

West then arrived at the building, and witnesses said he and Kim entered the waiting room of a chiropractor, where the man was sitting, and West allegedly punched him.

Now you may say that Kanye was justified in punching this guy. Yes, he was defending his girlfriend’s honor, and I totally get that — after all, this is Kanye West; and, well, he loves his baby momma. I mean, to hear him tell it, Kim Kardashian is hotter that Michelle Obama. Not that there’s anything wrong with thinking that way; but, again, this is Kanye West we’re talking about; and, of late he’s been dropping turds from the mouth; because, we’re “bound to fall in love,” with his ass.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not into disrespecting women, and I doubt I would give any man a pass when it comes to me and mine. I may have some not-so-kind words for the gentleman in question if I were Kanye. But to assault the guy? Yeah, I doubt I’d take it that far. But not Kanye the “new slave” being held down by corporate America. This is Kanye, the guy who isn’t afraid to insert himself into conversations. The same Kanye who on national television had no problem with telling the world that “George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people,” which to me was a signal that Kanye does.

But above all, this is the same Kanye who had no problem with selling $150 t-shirts as well as apparel emboldened with the Confederate Flag. Yes, he loves controversy. But if I had the opportunity to speak to Kanye today, I’d ask: How are you gonna sell clothing with the image of the Confederate Flag which is a symbol of oppression and hate, but yet punch a guy in the face for calling your baby momma, Kim Kardashian, a “nigger lover,” son? I dunno, but that sounds fucked.

I don’t know what he would say in response; but hey, like my man Sway, I don’t have the answers. Hell, maybe I should visit the church of “Yeezianity” to get ’em. But clearly to do so would mean I’d have to compromise my blackness and stan really hard for a white chick, yes?

The post Kanye West Attacks Teen Who Insulted Kim Kardashian appeared first on Madness & Reality.