MAAD Culture Part III

I think the whole hip-hop/R&B industry IS reparations for black people. All you have to do to get yer dough is be ignorant and make it stylish. Underground hip-hop is more like freestyle poetry. If you get the right kind of freestylers in a room or even on the street, they can flow off the top of their heads and never lose the beat and it's not all about bitches and money and guns. That's just what the media knew it would be profitable to see. Indian casinos have make TONS of cash to the point where the tribes can buy back some of the town where their reservation/money machine is. Smart move AND the Mafia hasn't gotten a piece of it yet...

In the world of comedy, people have strong opinions about Black comedians. Maybe people think that there are so few good black comedians because they are playing to the stereotype of what it means to be black. Chris Rock and David Allen Grier are funny because they observe life as funny, they just happen to be black. It's time for a different view of what other people of color find funny (which is basically the same shit white people found funny). Maybe it's just easier to stick the "white vs. black" thing because it keeps them working, and that’s what agents and producers want to see. You can’t control what projects are getting produced and how you will be depicted. There needs to be black people in every medium with an unconventional (but really just universal) view on things that doesn't necessarily depend on BEING black. Sometimes real opinions about real things and the witty back and forth banter of truly funny comedians is the funniest thing you can watch. Mental sparring with jokes; you just have to be good, regardless of your race.

In my world, there are people of all nationalities and races chillin’ and moving forward. Hating blacks or whites or just abject hatred, seems so...20th century. I think MLK would see the progress in some of it, and the failures and realize that nothing changes radically, it just goes through cycles. As people, we have to break the belief of what we were taught to believe, and look at the world and see we are ALL oppressed in the mind and spirit. Sadly, we only seem to learn that and practice it in times of extreme crisis.

Still, I'm glad I was born when I was.

Perfect example of MLK's dream: Some time ago I went to see a friend's metal band play out in LI and the headline band was lead by the black guitarist and drummer. They rocked and everybody there was mostly white. There were no fights, no insults, no racist shit, just hard ass metal played by BROTHERS, and the crowd gave 'em respect.

That's why there will always be an UNDERGROUND scene going on. Most suckers are too lazy to stop suckling at the teat of mainstream culture. Everything sux cause everybody's still watching it because they don't know what else to do with themselves. I'm happy to say that I have wrenched myself away from a lot of mainstream cultures’ snafus for the last 15 years of my life because I was perpetually bored with what was popular. I had this feeling like I’d outgrown it when everyone else thought it was the new shit.

When I was growing up, I was one of few black and latino kids that listened to a wide range of music, read a lot, was exposed to art, all that. We were few, but we were there. The kids who were into the latest silly fad shit seemed to like it to fit in. Even listening to R&B today, I feel completely out of synch with it. It’s all about pain and suffering and I’m sorry’s or I hate you’s or just fuck you all together. I like Missy Elliot because I hear what she’s doing musically. I respect her producing skills. But the philosophy of what she’s talking about seems juvenile.

Quit yer whinin' and turn off the same ol' crap...Punk, metal, Drum n Bass, underground Hip Hop and deep house...none of these new genres would exist if there was no underground and renegade black folk pushing boundaries. We need to find our way back to our source of power.

Know it, live it, be it.....