Hip-Hop Apologetic: You Don't Know What You're Missing

Last night was the opening night of Dave Chappelle's Block Party in theatres... it documents the coming together of some of the most talented acts in hip-hop (most of whom you would never hear on the radio) as they perform in the middle of Brooklyn, NY near the Bed-Stuy. The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, The Fugees (back together for the concert), Kanye West, Eryka Badu, Jill Scott, John Legend and Big Daddy Kane all perform and pour heart and soul into every word the sing and note they play. My eyes watered. I was moved.

You're not surprised reading this, because you know that I am a hip-hop enthusiast. Some of you probably have your standard line about this genre and it might be any of the following:

"I like the beats, but I can't understand what they're saying."
"Rap music is all about objectifying women."
"Rap music is all about violence."
"Rap music is not music at all."

Granted, the 50-cents, Eminems, Jay-Z's, Young Jeezys and the rest have their own things to say about life (and Iwould still suggest that there are some redemptive things to take form these guys, but that explanation would not fit here). But I would encourage some of you who might find yourself generally opposed to the genre to give it a try, a real and thoughtful try. There are those out there in the hip hop world whose songs drip with authenticity and honesty. These songs feel life. They explore the tensions. They speak truth into a culture of consumption and self-gratification.

Here's one example from "Get By" by Talib Kweli that I think is the type of truth in hip-hop worth hearing. This is not stuff that is just fun to dance to or to pop our collars to. Hip-hop is not about something cute or funny because it is different. People live this. This is life.

[Talib]
Yeah.. my Lord.. yeah
[Verse 1: Talib]
We sell, crack to our own out the back of our homes
We smell the musk at the dusk in the crack of the dawn
We go through "Epidodes II," like "Attack of the Clones"
Work 'til we break our back and you hear the crack of the bone
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
We commute to computers
Spirits stay mute while you eagles spread rumors
We survivalists, turned to consumers
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
Ask Him why some people got to live in a trailer, cuss like a sailor
I paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer
Me and Willa raised three daughters all by herself, with no help
I think about a struggle and I find the strength in myself
These words, melt in my mouth
They hot, like the jail cell in the South
Before my nigga Core bailed me out
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
We do or die like Bed-Stuy through the red sky
with the window of the red eye
Let the lead fly, some G. Rap sh*t, "Livin' to Let Die"
[Chorus: Background singers]
This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my highs, and my lows
In my soul, and my goals
Just to stop smokin, and stop drinkin
And I've been thinkin - I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
[Talib and background singers]
(ba ba ba, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da badahh
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by by by by by by)
(ba ba ba, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da badahh
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by by by by by by)
[Verse 2: Talib]
We keeping it gangster say "fo shizzle", "fo sheezy" and "stayin crunk"
Its easy to pull a breezy, smoke trees, and we stay drunk
Yo, I activism - attackin the system, the blacks and latins in prison
Numbers of prison they victim black in the vision
sh*t and all they got is rappin to listen to
I let them know we missin you, the love is unconditional
Even when the condition is critical, when the livin is miserable
Your position is pivotal, I ain't bullsh*ttin you
Now, why would I lie? Just to get by?
Just to get by, we get fly
The TV got us reachin for stars
Not the ones between Venus and Mars, the ones that be readin for parts
Some people get breast enhancements and penis enlargers
Saturday sinners Sunday morning at the feet of the Father
They need somethin to rely on, we get high on all types of drug
When, all you really need is love
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
Our parents sing like John Lennon, "Imagine all the people watch"
We rock like Paul McCartney from now until the last Beatle drop
[Chorus: Background singers]
This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my high's, and my low's
In my soul, and my goals
Just to stop smoking, and stop drinking
And I've been thinking - I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
[Talib: repeat 2X - with background singers]
Yoyoyo, yo
Some people cry, and some people try
Just to get by, for a piece of the pie
You love to eat and get high
We decieve when we lie, and we keepin it fly
Yoyoyo, yo
When, the people decide, to keep a disguise
Can't see they eyes, see the evil inside
But there's people you find
Strong or feeble in mind, I stay readin the signs


This is definitely going to be a recurring theme on my blog, as I am trying to redeem hip-hop and unload it from the boxes that we put it into.

Stay classy, Waco! -or- A Freaking Elephant, Man!

The preliminary requirements for reading this post are that you must read this short article first:

http://www.baylor.edu/lariat/news.php?action=story&story=39352

Now that you have read, you may continue on...
As you might imagine, I have many issues with this article.

1) The journalistic integrity of the Baylor Lariat. This is the most news worthy thing we can print in order to educate the Baylor student populace? There is a bubble, my friends, and The Lariat is doing its best to keep it filled with almost error-free (usually error-prone), trivial crap. I can't wait to read the article about how awesome SING! is, or the masterful editorials detailing the grueling life of a student attending Baylor on only the sums of their parents ample pocketbooks, with no minimum GPA to set their sights on!

2) Who's attacking who here? I really don't feel like we can fault thesee elephants at all. Have you been to the Cameron Park Zoo? Do you know how hard it would be to get close enough to the elephants to touch them? I think according to our judicial system, this elephant had every right to kick this person's ass upon entrence into the elephant's home. And wait. This isn't even really the elephant's chosen home is it? It's like rolling up and slapping a foreign exchange student at their exchange-parents home! Messed up!

3) Some excerpts worth citing:

On what to expect in a quote from a typical Baylor girl- "My boyfriend (Dallas senior Brian Williams) ran to get help," Lilley said.
Read "Dallas senior" as "KOT/Highland Park Grad/Business Major/Collar Popped/Front Tucked/Birkenstocks" (actually, this is just a guess, I do not know the guy at all).

On the syntactical prowess of the Lariat- "Fleshman said they would be back."
That just sounds creepy.

On the commonly misheld belief that you are communicating with your pet, your pet can communicate with you, animals talk, or we know what animals think and feel.- Fleshman said the elephants were "shaken up" and that they were taken off display "of their own accord."
C'mon Mr. Fleshman... give it up... you know the elephants don't talk to you... and neither did any of those girls when they found out you wanted to direct a zoo. That's like telling a girl you want to be a clown for a career or sell cotton candy. Nice move, Fleshman.

Give me a cloth for my loins! -or- If Society Would Allow It

I want to wear a loin cloth. I'm not kidding. I have this quickly-becoming-public desire to go tribal, if only for a moment. I have no idea why or how it developed, but my blood starts rushing when I think about wearing a loin cloth, drums beating, digery-doos blowing (courtesy Carney and Stevezy) and feet pounding around a fire, kicking up wet clouds of dirt and dust I would tell stories and wear masks. I don't know if this will ever be an attainable event that will take place in my life, and that saddens me deeply.

I also have a suppressed longing to live the life of a pirate. I want a long beard and no shoes and songs about rum. I want to swab the deck and take in the jib. I want to be like Ahab from Moby Dick-- by far my favorite literary character. I want to say wild things about monsters and myths. I want to tell sea-tales. I would say things like, "Spirits come in the heavy mists, beware!" I want to revel in a pirate pub on shore leave (I'd prefer not to recieve any communacable diseases) and eat limes to ward off scurvy. (Here I point out that only pirates and doctors are afforded the regular use of the word "scurvy" in their vocabulary, and I don't have the means to be a doctor, but I love that word, probably because I have never had scurvy).

I wouldn't mind the life of a mountain-dweller in Arkansas. Once again, I would grow my beard long. I would dance a jig to fiddle music on my wooden porch. I would once again tell wild tales and believe my own legends about wrestling bears. I would shoot things and eat them with only minor preparation. I would yell hog calls. I would have many things made out of animal skins and furs. I would bang on pots and pans. This will probably never come to fruition either, as I have seen the movie "Deliverence" and know what all a life in the mountains entails, and what all I am not prepared to do at this point.

I was trying to see what common threads ran through some or all of these scenarios... bare feet, culture-specific music, long beards, and telling stories. The only thing that I think runs through all of them is telling stories. Here is what I've determined this means:

I am desperate for a wild story and a captive audience. Give me those two things, and I am a euphoric man. That's why I love telling stories to people.

Maybe the single most faith-progressing aspect of my life thus far was realizing that in the history of God and his people, I have a wild story, and in this world and the people around me, I have a captive audience.

Clarification on what I'm saying...

Seeing some of the comments on the last entry, and hearing from others some of their thoughts, I want to elaborate on my thoughts a little more...

Complexity. We live in a world of complexity. We cannot make things simple. I don't think the solution falls on a single individual's shoulders (like Bush for Darfur or Iraq, or Clinton for Rwanda, or Kofi Annan or any one person).

I think I'm tired of demonizing politicians as the cause of all evil and indifference in the world. Politicians are about the business of politics... getting elected... keeping approval ratings... being careful technical ambassadors...etc.

Humans are responsible for humanity. I belive in the American system of government-- the way we have it set up. I believe if Americans, as a people, wanted something stopped or something done, thy could influence politicians to do so.

Here's the problem as I see it: we're lazy and indifferent... and comfortable and selfish. We are too lazy to get up off of our lay-z-boys, pause the Tivo, and push aside our spread from Wendy's to write an e-mail to our representatives about what we think and believe. We're too busy to go to a rally or interest meeting (or God forbid produce an interest meeting).

I refer back to the quote I began the last post with ( a part of it): "I was angry with people who could do something, even the simplest things, and they didn't."

Indifference and apathy don't start from the government and work their way down to the people in a democratic society... no, it happens the other way... from the people to the government.

So the problem is me. The problem is my friends. The problem is that a comfortable life easily breeds passivity.

A friend of mine (and future social studies teacher) who stays very up-to-date on global social issues such as the current genocides pointed out that at the root of almost every modern day genocide, civil war, and armed conflict in places like Africa is, simply, a shortage of the basic needs-- food, water, and medicine. There are things we can do about this. There are things we must do about this.

So what do we do? Do we sit around and shake our heads at "governments" or "politicians"... sure, some...

More importantly, we act. Write e-mails, stay informed, donate resources.

Now here's the hardest part for me... in our "getting involved" how much of what we do is for us to feel good about ourselves and how much is about actually helping.

I'm going to get kind of critical directly here, but I feel strongly that this is a real, tangible example for most of us here in Waco and at Baylor. If we go paint a house for "stepping out" once a year does that make us compassionate to the plight of our empoverished neighbors? If we make the houses near our University look better by slapping a few coats of paint over rotting wood and unhealthy living environment, and then put a sign out front that says "THIS ORGANIZATION DID THIS!", who is that for?

Same thing on a global level. We need to find ways to be authentic in our activism. Blaming politicians or mild involvement don't cut it. What I'm doing right now doesn't cut it. How do I do more? I think that's a good question for us to ask.

Indifference = Genocide

"By the time the genocide was over, I was so angry at America, America the beautiful, America the brave. I was angry with our government, I was angry with people who could do something, even the simplest things, and they didn't." -Carl Wilkens, Adventist Missionary, only American remaining in Rwanda during the Genocide depicted in "Hotel Rwanda."

Today I've been putting together some stuff for my Young Adult Literature class on how I would teach Elie Wiesel's first-person account of the Holocaust, and I've been reminded of some horrible modern-day atrocities.

I'm going to present Night in a current issues type of lesson concerning current genocides and injustices. I was reminded of the movie Hotel Rwanda, and I did a little research...

During the Rwandan genocide, well over 800,000 human beings were slaughtered because of their geneology.

After the Holocaust, the UN passed a rule that in cases of genocide the UN and the nations involved in it MUST intervene. The UN and America did not act. They avoided using the word "genocide" as a legal technicality to avoid acting. I am dissapointed in the human race.

find time and watch these videos... they are paradigm-shifting:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/video/

During the first few days of the genocide, a Tutsi woman was smuggled out of Rwanda to Washington DC in order to report a first hand account and influence the US government to action... she was told by a sympathetic official that the UN and US did not have "friends" that it helped... it had "interests." Rwanda would not be helped because it the UN and US had no interest in Rwanda.

I cannot afford to no longer have "interest" in what is happening outside of my own world. Indifference and apathy is genocide. As a nation, Americans are indifferent and apathetic.

As a body, the Christian church is indifferent and apathetic (much more indifferent than we give ourselves credit for).

Want to know why the Church and the United States of America have little credibility in the world? Here's a start.

Please watch these videos and get educated about this.

Why "now" is so hard to do.

For my second trick... I mean my second post... I thought I might as well go ahead and contradict a statement that I made in my first post (I have come to embrace the fact that much of life, at least my life, seems to be about contradiction... things that refuse to resolve). I said in my last post that I thought "time" was a "load of crap". Let me revise that statement: I like the idea that Time is a human invention to explain our existence, and not something that God is bound to or is even generally concerned with. I think that this would help me deal with the fact that at least 50 percent of life is very unsatisfying and frustrating. Despite my time conspiracy, I realize that no matter what I think sounds good or makes sense, time is here to stay! I think I can learn to deal.

Here's the thing that time does that I think is the hardest part for me... it makes things "past," "present," and "future." For instance, right now, as I write, this is "present" -- or "now." But right now, as you're reading this, this act of writing is now "past." But get this; my supposing you're reading this... that's "future!" Stop and get a glass of water if you need to! Now if we throw in a flux capacitor, a jacket/vest, a Delorian, and a wild-eyed Doc Brown, well now we're going Back to the Future... don't even try to sort out the pasts and presents and all that on that movie series. You'll end up with a pretty complex set of feelings for Michael J Fox that might not ever heal.

I think most people like the idea of FUTURE best-- the time that comes after now. They like the future because anything could be there. Even the Magic 8-Ball can't see it clearly all the time (Ask Again Later), and it's pretty certain that Miss Cleo has got about as good a grip on what's going on in the future as she does on her Jamacain-esque accent. So we like the future, especially when we're young, because it can be whatever we dream it to be. We also like it because it's a great way to convince ourselves to do or not do things in the present. The future is by far the greatest scapegoat/cop-out operating today.

"Hey you guys want to watch a movie tonight?"
"No man, I got stuff to do tommorow."

See! Do you recognize this? That's future-as-cop-out!

So then there is the past... and some people get there kicks off of the past. I tend to be one of these people. My whole past is mythologized. People like me tend to take the past and whistle a low whistle and say things like, "Things aren't like they used to be!" I think I tend to romanticize my past; making sentimentality at every opportunity. I love my past and look at each part of it and try to tell it like a good story... because that's the least I can do. My entire "now" is spent thinking about "then" and what I miss, what I regret, and what I wish I could get to do again. Some of us like to use past to try and make the present feel bad, like the present just can't measure up.

And then there's the now. This one is hard. We don't like this one.

Be present. Do not be past, do not be future, Be NOW.

I secretly and desperately want to be now. But now means responsibility. Now means that I have to move... I have to act. Now means that I have to concentrate and be fully in EVERY now! The good ones and the bad ones. That means I'm not allowed to take vacations to the future, or sentimental siestas in the past... I'm to be in every second of NOW. That means hurting sometimes. There's the good stuff too. But I think what I'm most afraid of about trying to be in every now is the suffering. Now is hard to do because now means finding "joy" and "peace" in suffering. It means finding beauty in difficult things and redeeming the tough moments. Now is hard to do.