One of the craziest things an artist can do is be an advocate for censorship. Not to say that it’s not needed is certain instances, like when children are involved of course. But art should always challenge you to think and push the envelope even if sometimes it offends.
The truth is, these lines that try to define what is and what is not offensive and profane shift from time to time. But in the case of hip hop, some want the music to be an instrument of education and act as though these artists are aliens that fell from the sky. These artists are a product of our society, were educated in our school systems, raised in our homes, and are some of the people we associate with in our daily lives. They live in our neighborhoods and are a part of us whether you like it or not. And those who follow them relate because they come from the same places.
So, artist A can’t spit knowledge if he doesn’t have the education that artist B has. And artist B will have a harder time reaching the masses if most of them aren’t enlightened to comprehend the message. Art can be used as a tool to educate but it’s not the artist’s responsibility. Smarter listeners want smarter artists.
And why are you getting pissy at radio? That house is built on advertising dollars from corporations and you want them to play the kind of artists who educate the masses against those structures? Now that wouldn’t be too smart on their part now would it?
How about this, fuck the radio, fuck the Grammys, and fuck Soundscan. You’re wasting energy trying barge into already crumbling structures only to end up rebuilding them with the same faulty bricks. You’re better off directing your energies towards building totally new structures and paving new roads.
And if you’ve gotten distracted by most of these race issues or political teams, then you’ve been tricked. Sure there’s a disproportionate amount of black Americans in prisons but the prison industrial complex is a for profit system that could give less than a fuck what color you are as long as you’re providing jobs and cheap labor . This game is about the haves and the have-nots. It’s all a sham, my G, and they got you playing whac-a-mole while they cash in.
And black men don’t need help from forces criminalizing their image. We do a excellent job doing that shit ourselves. Exhibit A and Exhibit B. They’re beating you over the head and you’re giving them the baseball bat to do it.
About the n-word…I don’t like it. And I’ve moved back and forth on this at times. But I understand it’s power and effectiveness in some context. I also understand that I can’t be a hypocrite and not like the way YG uses it, yet give Q-Tip a pass when he does. So while I have my own personal reservations, I feel that no one should be able to dictate to blacks in America how the word is to be used and who can use it.
Finally, hip hop is the soundtrack to the revolution. Trust me on that. And they know it. It benefits the ones in power to keep that giant snoozing. But what if while we were ballin’ and flahin’ we were also using the art form to reverse the mischaracterizations and negative branding put on it over the years. What if we could use it to help curb the proliferating violence in the inner cities and speak truth to power. We’ve done it before. We can do it again.
It only takes a few…
