how to listen to hip-hop .

We constantly praise hip hop artists for their charisma and supposed “swag”. Their witty lyrics and controversial lines leave numerous adolescents and young adults in awe. I have to admit, hip-hop is one of my biggest vices. I call it a vice because it consumes a big portion of my life and I have a lot of ethical problems with it. One, it is not of God. I don’t like to be so loyal to something that contradicts my connection with God. Two, the constant idolatry of money is problematic for me (hence the love of $$ being the root of all evil). Three, the degrading and self-hatred implications of blacks found in some songs frustrate me.

I have been battling with this balance of my morale and hip-hop music for a while. Now, I realized my main issue with hip-hop … the blind influence that it has on African Americans. Women have now embraced the word “bitch” and feel as if their most valuable assets are the only ones that can be squeezed, licked, or sucked. What used to be a temple of God is now degraded to “beat it up”, “I hit that” and “I’m tryna smash”. Therefore, women do not understand how valuable their bodies, reputation, and soul is. Men, as an effect of hip-hop, now worship (and I do mean WORSHIP) money. I believe I just heard a song in which Diddy so eloquently put, “I got so much money, my money counts money” (rolling my eyes). To be frank, things like humility and humanity are virtually non-existent in a lot of mainstream hip-hop songs. This really affects the larger population.

Although I express these problems with hip-hop, I love it. When I hear songs like “Flashing Lights” by Kanye, “Ex-factor” by Lauryn Hill, “Bonnie & Shyne”, “Anti-matter”, and “She lives in My Lap”, my life shifts like an earthquake. The extended metaphor in “I Used to Love Her” and Lupe’s “Gotta Eat” keep me inspired as a writer. With songs like “Bittersweet”, “Song Cry”, and “Karaoke”, I fell in touch with some sincere, festering, untouched emotion that I never felt before. Let me leave you with this advice: just because the lyric is witty, does not mean that it needs to be internalized. Yes, “f*ck niggas, b*tches too, all I got is this money … but this’ll do” is a catchy line, but it doesn’t mean it’s accurate. If we internalize every clever line we hear, we will not recognize the people we turn into. Brush off hip hop lyrics and stop idolizing rappers. I’ll never understand why 25 year old men are letting 17 year old rappers influence them so much. RAPPING DOES NOT EQUATE WITH WISDOM. The only lines we need to hold on a pedestal are the ones found FROM Genesis to Revelation.

three ring .

excuse me, where are my peanuts ?
every time i go to the circus, someone's selling peanuts . so, WHERE ARE THEY ?

am i not living in a circus ? if im not, sure could've fooled me .

sometimes i feel like im sitting in the stands and watching people dive through flaming hoops for one another's attention . "monkeys" acting like coons because they saw it on a music video . gang banging is no longer a claiming of hoods ... it's a vengeance bath . you killed my brother, so now i kill yours . it's destined to never end, and now some lame little boys are trying to get 'put on' to look like they 'belong' . some of these 'gang bangers' and 'dope dealers' don't even come from a background of poverty . some of them definitely have loving, well-off families sittin' at home lol . nonetheless, the monkeys take center stage and shove shxt in each other's face .

then we have the tightrope folks . these ones ride the fine line of reality and materialism . they focus strictly on trying to obtain "$$"so that others can see them shine . they claim, "f*ck b*tches, get money" to PRETEND that emotion is 'beneath them' . what's really beneath them , you ask ? the poverty stricken, violent, deteriorating, unglamorous, hurting world outside of their little 'bubble' . instead of enlightening themselves to the problems of people around them ... they turn their nose up on their tightrope and focus on themselves . they focus on the shallow . they're world consists of "bands, fashion week, shoes, sex, drugs, and the hype" . they're completely ignorant to the issues around them .

*sidebar attraction*: no one understands 'the elephants' . those HUGE things in the skimpy clothes . we always wonder why the 'doo doo's' need to try to make themselves as big as possible and wear the dumbest outfits . at hump Wednesday, i saw a girl with a belly top and her stomach hanging over . she paired that top with shorts that had her butt hanging out . i asked my friend, " Why did she have to do that ? I know she wants attention but it's finna be negative attention ." my friend, "'cause if she wore modest clothes, people would look right through her . i guess negative attention is better than no attention all all ." is it ?

ahh my favorite, the clowns . they're my favorite because they are the most complex . they'll catch their hair on fire, they'll strip their clothes, they'll kill themselves just go get a nod of approval from the crowd . they're constantly trying to find out what will make the crowd SMILE ... taking a picture that covers nothing but your nipples and posting it on facebook ? guys tryna be a 'player' because chivalry and virtue is taboo in society ? becoming 'bisexual' because it's a trend ? pretending to be eccentric & 'artsy' . we have seventeen year old girls smoking cigarettes and sayin, "i know . . . it's a nasty habit" . what are you, like 12 [lol] ? sixteen year olds messing with guys twenty year old men & having babies. the same girls who don't even know what a 'clitoris' is ? The sad part is, most of them don't even know that they're a joke . Everyday, they smear their facade on their face and walk out the door, praying to be popular . Unfortunately, they can't even see who's really in the stands ... people that simply shake their head and shed tears for their pitiful mentality .

i say all of this because ... i just want my damn peanuts .