Yo...hiphop used to be our culture. It was somthing we could identify with, styles came from the street. It reflecTed in the clothes we used to wear. How we used to wear the clothes. It was more than clothes th, it was tagging, breakdancing, slang, used to be a saying..that ain't hiphop.
But as it currently stands, hiphop ain't our culture anymore. Hiphop used to generate standards that came from the blocks and hoods we came from. Dalinkwent,Ecko,AF1's,Timbs, Fubu, Lugs,...now this shit is seen as lame. It's seen as a staple of "what are thooooose?.
Now the style in hiphop comes from outside, and it is assimilated into hiphop. There are no standards, there's no foundation anymore. Anything goes, used to be to talk tough, you had to be tough. Now you don't have to be tough, you can be all the way pussy.
Be on camera running away from action that you asked for. All you need to do now is have money, put out a hit. They hit don't even have to be successful and fans will think. He's bout that life, no...he paid someone who is about that life to be about that life. And what is "that life"...a total willingness to go to jail over money. That's "that life"
Shit that used to bother me about "Juice"..their whole life revloved around licks that could feed them for a day or so..a week, they were just trying go day by day. Then when Rahim died, they showed you a scene where the support system or family was there.
When Q goes to get a gun, the chick gives him one for free off the strength of his mother. It's like the movie wanted you to not acknowledge that they had other options. When the only one who didn't have an option was Bishop.
"THAT LIFE" is not life, that life is waiting for death. Like C-Murder said.."I'm facing 3 to 5, but that don't mean shit..cause if I go to jail, it gotta be better than living like this". Alot of us come from a place where the odds are heavily stacked against us. So much so that it just seems normal.
We look at well off white folks and think, they lucky. They didnt come from where I come from, why are they so lucky. Then hotep cats tell you, they ain't lucky..after years of slavery, segregation, private bus. Jails, government lies that have been focuses on black folks. We got the short end of the stick.
So then you go...fuck the government, fuck white people. Displaced anger to get you to future enroot yourself in the sludge that you come from and cover your eyes with it. Barely able to see the world cause the sludge clouds your vision. Not seeing the way out, not seeing that you have to sacrifice.
Why do I have to sacrifice, they didnt. How do you know. Maybe what sacrifice to you, is what normal to them. Maybe not being fresh to death when you step out the house is important only to you. Maybe having a whip that get the hoes is only important to you. Maybe having a pocket full of dough at all times but non in the bank is important to you.
Think about a somalian kid that sees a black kid on his tv wit all these jewels and dough. Thinks you lucky..you didn't have to sacrifice. You take for granted that you can lease a car. You take for granted that you don't have to wear the same battered clothes for a month. You take for granted that you live in a home in the hood. When they sleep under a tent.
You take for granted that you can put money in the bank. You take for granted that you can get some semblance of a education. Shit is by no means gravy for us. I done forgot the point of this shit tho b.....ummm, culture..fuck does the last part of what I wrote have to do with the first part?