This song is just mesmerizing; the sample feels like its playing back up vocals to Phonte's flawless verse. "Rap's no country for old men" is a line that already has been bitten many times already. I was heart broken when I heard LB broke up and the magic of this track just made it worst. But how can I turn off the radio............LOL
I woke up this morning and checked my GMail account to find a news update from one of the many hip-hop blogs I follow. I usually ignore the updates whole heartily unless they mention quality artists with substance in their music. Yet this update caught my attention because it pertained to an alleged assault of a female named Kat Stacks caught on video. Kat Stacks has become widely known in hip-hop for pretty much the same reason Karrine "Superhead" Steffans is known. The videos she posts online describing her sexual encounters with many popular hip-hop artists have created much attention obviously not all good. I don't really know the specific artists that she claims she had encounters with nor do I really care. As a black man in my mid twenties I have become disillusioned with the type of decadent values being disseminated via hip-hop. Although I am an avid hip-hop follower I believe that it has been used as a vehicle for transporting the lifestyles of those who are at the bottom of the social totem pole. There are black people who are doctors, lawyers, fathers, mothers, college students, blue-collar workers and white-collar workers not just drug dealers and promiscuous women bent on perpetuating failure. It is extremely sad that MCs such as Little Brother, Talib Kweli, Blu, Oddisee, The Drop Squad, Nas, Common, Elzhi and many others have a hard time getting their music heard by the masses when it is essentially what needs to be heard. With that said, Kat Stacks was assaulted in a restaurant by a group of guys. The assault had to do with the rumors she had circulated; many artists were understandably upset by the countless accusations that were made. A male walked up to her and slapped her in the face with a lot of force. Kat Stacks was clearly shaken by the assault and proceeded to cover her face with her hands. Another male came along and together with the first assailant forced her to the ground. They then proceeded to tell her to apologize to Fab and Bow Wow. It can be inferred from them telling her to apologize to the aforementioned artists that the attack was directly related to the accusations she was making. Regardless on rather or not she was making fraudulent claims about having sex with certain artists a man should not put his hand on a woman. This decadent culture, self-defeating culture, slave culture that has become ubiquitous with a segment of the black population is setting dangerous precedents. The assault of women, the constant degradation of women together with the promotion of lifestyles that are directly responsible for the incarceration of 1 million black men has to stop. Rappers constantly getting locked up like it is something to aspire to. In a dictatorship censorship coupled with damage control would have been in effect a long time ago and done away with this degenerate way of spreading failure. Values. Values. Values are being spread by hip-hop. Not the values conveyed by Public Enemy but the values conveyed by individuals that rather sell dope, abandon their children, and embrace life long ignorance. Ghetto values are pervasive throughout hip-hop; if a foreigner were to judge blacks based on the majority of rap music he would think that all the men were criminals and the women were whores. I must apologize If I appeared to be ranting or preaching but as a black man I think enough is enough. The ghetto narrative of how the black male grew up in a single parent home, surrounded by violence and became a product of his environment is cliché, trite and simply played out. Lets begin a new narrative, we have just witnessed the election of the first black president in America, and now is time to move forward not remain stagnant. The assault of a woman regardless of rather she was an honest woman or dishonest woman is wrong. A young, impressionable child watching that video will think it is OK to hit women and is that the kind of message we're trying to send? There are shitty trends going on in hip-hop, shitty trends I swear.
Distant Relatives, the collaborative effort of Nas and Damien Marley, is being hailed as a hip-hop classic. Schedules to release on May 18, 2010 several hip-hop sites-including hiphopdx and allhiphop have already given the album close to a perfect rating. At a time when hip-hop is misogynist, redundant, and lacking any intelligence what so ever, Distant Relatives offers an enlightening alternative. The name itself is meant to show a connection between Africa and the descendants of the diaspora (Americas, Caribbean, etc). Judging from the tracks that have been leaked Distant Relatives is a monumental effort in Pan Africanism. Past leaders like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Huey Newton are remembered for their rhetoric of black pride and independence but are largely looked upon with a sense of ambivalence by the black community. Rather this album and its message will be taken serious or will be just a passing moment is unknown. What is known is that it is a wholesome, heart filling album. Distant Relatives is like going to a buffet while the majority of music now days is synonymous with going to McDonald's. Here are some links to reviews already done as well as previews of some songs on the album: http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/reviews/id.1430/title.nas-damian-marley-distant-relatives, and http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/reviewsmusic/archive/2010/05/13/22216146.aspx.
