Movement or moving mentally?


Peace,

Today's supreme mathematics is Wisdom Equality all being born to Build or Destroy. When judging your ways and actions, one must always identify if your words, ways, and actions create balance or a limitation in self and others. You must always do your best to add on to which is good and destroy that which is bad.

Now, I watched Cam'ron's new movie Killa Season last night. It was my expectation that I would get a few laughs, be appalled at the treatment of women, talk about his acting and go along my way. Well, it just so happens that on my way to the parliament, I came to some other conclusions. Please see below:

1. The Dips are some of the funniest rappers on the planet, as some of you already know from listening to their music or watching any of the Street DVD's out now. They're not coonish funny, they're your cousin from the projects funny, or your uncle john-john funny. Even if they don't mean it, they got a lot of jokes.
2. They are very charismatic. "conscious" rappers, and community folks take note: One reason that negativity spreads faster than positivity in this day in time is that the "bad" folks are more fun to be around than the "good" folks. We can't be lame, and then expect the youth and the community to be magnetically attracted to us just because. For references, please see Fred Hampton, El Hajj Malik Shabazz, Brand Nubian, etc..
3. For all of the dumb s#!t that they say on record, If you have insight, you could see morals and values within the flick. For example, In the movie, stick-up kids killed Cam's 7 year old niece. When he had the opportunity to retaliate and kill the dude's young family member, he chose not to. While I don't advocate what he did (spit on her), the streets are out of hand right now regarding bringing the family into street beef (a violation of a rule handed down through the ages: Don't kill women & children!), and Hip Hop has a lot to do with that, as rappers say lines like "If I don't kill you, I'ma kill your kids" in songs. Remember: Kids pay attention to these guys. At another point Cam cleaned up a smoker (crackhead for the slang impaired) who was previously in college, and compassion is not an emotion you see in the average "murder, kill, homicide" street flick.
4. The # 1 problem with independent street films is that they eventually run out of money. Just when the plot takes an interesting turn...The screen goes black and the credits roll. To Cam and the dips: Yall dudes is sittin on a lot of change (As evidenced from your jewelry and cars), so go ahead and put another $200,000 in. Your fans will appreciate it.

A common theme in Hip Hop is "This is a movement", and some are turned off by that kind of statement. The criticism is true if you compare it to the Black Power Movement or the Civil Rights Movement, b.u.t. it is important to remember that in the absence of something good, people will settle for something bad. That's why you see the youth hanging on to whatever they see and calling it important, even if it's just cliches and a shell of it's former self. Hell, even the elders will do it given the right situation (See contemporary civil rights and black power).

Since we're speaking on morals and values, one last thing: How in the hell did we let R. Kelly come back and do the "I'm in love with a stripper" remix? From the lessons I learned on the soil, there were three things that were/ are inexcusable: Snitches, Child Abusers, and Rapists. Well, we see that the hood is hard on #1 and #3, so how the hell does R. Kelly get a pass. Regardless if we want to admit it or not, a lot of people saw that tape, and you know that it was him, so don't front. This guy had the audacity so say (and I'm paraphrasing) "I wanted to stick my head in her a@#". First, that's not civilized. Second, your record is scarred homeboy, and you need to stick to gospel. One thing that will change our community is the establishment of high standards. You'll be surprised to see how many people fall off when we expect more than they're used to giving.