Posted by Min. Paul Scott on 11/9/2001, 3:53 pm Back in high school, I remember having to read some I started to call the radio station and in my best After 10 years of bangin on wax and Bling Am I saying that we were somehow smarter than this The Era of Terror that white folks in this country are Call me paranoid, but I think that a society that has When you add this with negative Hip Hops constant We are witnessing the dawn of an era that will make Some young brothers have been brainwashed into After the accusations of playa hatin and the excuses The scriptures teach us that without vision, the
Bling Blingin in the Era of Terror
Min. Paul Scott
ol' tired story about some white dude playing a fiddle
while Rome burned. I remember telling my crew so what
if he wants to get his groove on; play on, playa play
on! I did not think about the incident again until
September 11 while listening to a DJ emotionally talk
about the World Trade Attack, only to have his report
followed by some brotha rapping about how he was
going to work; but then he got high.
imitation of Lawrence Fishburne (he was Larry back
then) in School Dayz shout WAKE UP! in my
cellie as the DJ asked for caller number 9; but
instead, I chilled and took a deep look at the effect
of the negative variety of Hip Hop has had on the
condition of Black people.
blingin', I have always wondered how the Hip Hop
community, would respond to a really heavy
socio-political issue. Could they really make a smooth
segue between I got Ho's in different area codes"
and political discourse? Of course, those of us from
the old school could have easily done it as we were
being mentored by the X-Clan
and Public Enemy who encouraged us to at least read
Malcolm whether we wanted to become
revolutionaries or not. Although, we had the
annoying habit of starting each statement, with Well,
basically
we could hold our own in an intellectual
debate as being a militant brainiac was cool at the
time. Even the brothas on the block who today would
call themselves THUGS , referred to themselves as
Intelligent Hoodlums
generation; of course not. But to quote Beaufords
uncle from Spike Lees Drop Squad, Let me tell you
something young brotha. The game theyre running on
you they developed on your daddy and me. Yall
are just the next phase.
dealing with right now, is something that Black folks
have had to deal with since we were kidnapped from
Africa and brought here in chains. The South is
full of stories of houses and churches bombed by the
KKK other terrorists. The failure of the Hip Hop
generation failure to put present day issues in a
historical perspective has crippled
our advancement. The recent events have made the
depressed state of Black culture (in the form of Hip
Hop) even more depressing as I have heard more that
one Hip Hop Talk show host sigh in disgust that we
really need to become more aware.
prided itself in manipulating Black folks; physically,
spiritually and mentality gains certain strategic
advantages when it convinces black youth that knowing
your history means being able to name all the members
of NWA. Did rap crews Cash Money ( army) and No Limit
(soldiers) with all the videos with brothas riding
around in military hummers and tanks so condition the
minds of our youth that they have become Manchurian
mercenaries; lean, mean fighting machines who will
kill at the snap of a finger(or change of a beat)
without asking who, what, when why or where? To borrow
from Dr. Carter G.Woodson' s The Miseducation of the
Negro once you control a mans thinking you do not
have to worry about how he will act.
urging for brothas to get high
(drunk, blunted, etc) it is the perfect making for a
Stephen King novel. For if your sense of reality has
been altered by mind dulling substances, it would be
impossible to grasp the seriousness of the times in
which we find ourselves. And believe me, anytime white
paranoia mixes with a great celebration of the great
white way historically, it has meant serious times
for Black folks. Just ask your grandma how cocky white
supremacists can get when there is even the slightest
rise in their popularity poll.
racial profiling look like a walk in the park. And the
Freedom of Speech that many in the Hip Hop Nation have
misunderstood to mean the right to give explicit
details of sex acts or the murdering of another
brotha, may fall under the knife of the censoring of
anything that does not promote the ideals of white
supremacy.
swallowing the capitalist idea, hook, line and sinker.
Survival of the fittest and the pursuit of the bling,
bling, American dream, reigns supreme in the lyrics of
hip hop artists. Just look at how many CDs Jigga
(Jay-Z) sold last month , even in a time of national
turmoil. Now that we are entering into a recession
(depression for Black folks) can the rappers (playas
ballas and shot callas) in good conscience brag
about how they have enough ice on their wrists to
freeze their arms while little Black children are
going hungry because Daddy got laid off. How many
homeless people can you roll by in your Escalade
before the guilt of an over indulgence in the
philosophy of all about me ism wakes you up at
night?
of not being my brothas keeper have faded away,
the ramifications of not viewing the welfare of the
Black community as a collective responsibility will
linger.
people perish. I just hope that once the thick haze of
Philli blunt smoke clears we do not find ourselves
back on the plantation or in concentration camps.
Min. Paul Scott is founder of the New Righteous
Movement based in Durham NC, which teaches Afrikan
Liberation Theology. He can be reached at
operationmedia@yahoo.com
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