I saw this yesterday on Saul Williams' myspace. Don't ask me why I was there in the first place because I honestly do not remember. I do remember thinking as I was reading this letter that it seemed really appropriate for this time as we are celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and looking back upon the struggles of black Americans for freedom and equality. Are we in a place now that we can look back and laugh at the backward nature of generations before? Are we still in that time of struggle?
I honestly can't say. What I can say is that this backlash against hip-hop as the musical backbone of a culture seems like the narrow-minded notion of some backward-viewing elite. Hip-hop seems, again, to be a scapegoat for the ills of a larger society and now we have prominent black leaders and media figures such as Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey calling for the self-censorship of the music and its artists. I think that's a slippery slope we all don't want to go down.
Saul Williams' expresses this frustrating and complicated debate on the state of hip-hop and its place in a larger mainstream culture in the most eloquent way that I have read thus far. I could not have said things better myself.
Read for yourself here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=13395348&blogID=255806869
My Trusted MOGs
I think in a very black a white way when it comes to people having problems with other people.
Group A has a problem with group B because group A looks funny... Group B objects to been told they look funny.. Group B think group A should just shut up and die.. Group A think the same.
There is a very simple mentality that solves everything.. If you have a problem with a group or a singular person, you are not the solution. You are the problem.
Now obviously there is a line that can be crossed in said analogy (if somebody threatens you with a gun and you have a problem with it, they reamain the problem).. but in terms of peoples general non acceptance of each other... In the words of the weed influenced soul... All we need is Love.. and we can never have enough of it.
proceeds to write a hip hop song shouting out my general love for everybody in the universe
p.s. I'm drunk and this made perfect sence to me at the time.. I hope it does in the morning.
My Trusted MOGs
Hawaiianpunch-
thanks for linking that. definitely a well thought out, thought provoking piece.
My Trusted MOGs
what do you mean I can't delete comments?.. grrness :p..
anyway.. sober now.. he's quite right "Hip Hop is simply a reflection of the society that birthed it" and isn't the cause of anything.