Chat GPT Writes Raps… But Hip Hop Kulture Writes Ourstory!
Hip Hop is approaching its 50th Anniversary on August 11, 2023. Is A.I. A threat to humanity's most authentic form of expression?
Hip Hop is approaching its 50th Anniversary on August 11, 2023. There are events everywhere.
The latest debate about AI leaves many people skeptical about the future of art. Many wonder about the ethics of artificial intelligence.
Documentaries and films like Style Wars, Wild Style, Beat Street, and Beat This have clearly established Hip Hop’s history and innovative cultural foundation.
Will machine learning, neural networks, and generative search engines replace rappers? Are rappers disposable? If so, does that even affect Hip Hop Kulture?
Will we forget many other forms of art in the realm of linguistic creativity?
Regardless, if commoditized commercial rap is replaced with AI, it is more than likely that people will naturally produce Hip Hop elements, because Hip Hop is a state of mind, body, and soul. Hip Hop is a consciousness and a state of being.
“A.I. produced a Drake song in minutes. Music industry rap has become a cheap commodified mass product. Such rap songs are easily duplicated by machine learning.”
It is predictable, formulaic, mechanic, replaceable, and now copied by artificial intelligence. People listen to it as background music for mindless computing and unconscious consumption. The soundtrack for rap zombies.
However, Hip Hop uses technology, but never lets technology use us. It is not hard to imagine pop rappers scared out of their pants that A.I. will take over their trivial jobs. Especially, those who write (if they even write themselves) self-destructive mumble rap. Who cares if A.I. replace them?
If your head has been under a rock for the last 50, 40, 30 or 20 years, you might not understand this conundrum. Or, if you are Gen Z, only alive for 20 years or less, you may not be aware that Hip Hop Kulture is far more than rap songs.
If you are willing to read this commemorative essay to the end, you might gain insights you never had.
“Hip Hop Kulture is vast, international, diverse, and expansive. AI cannot replicate human innovation!”
#HIPHOPISHIPHOP is a Hip Hop version of "We Are The World" charity single. 14 rappers from 14 different countries express their love for Hip Hop in their own languages and styles. All profits will be donated for children's education through UNICEF.
This is an everlasting eternal brawl between good and evil. Hip Hop is way more than the sloppy rap music you may hear on television, in strip clubs, and streaming platforms. Rappers did represent Hip Hop in pop rap music at one time. That bygone era was the 80’s and 90’s. We call it the Golden Era of rap music.
These two decades reflected authentic Hip Hop Kulture. But, even then, rap by itself never represented all Hip Hop Kulture. The Temple Of Hip Hop defines Hip Hop Kulture by 9 elements called Refinitions.
They are... Breakin', Emceein', Deejayin', Graffiti Art, Beatboxin, Street Language, Street Fashion, Street Knowledge, and Street Entrepreneurialism.
If an event does not include any of these nine elements, it is safe to say it is not an authentic Hip Hop event. It is a knock off. It is fake, like a Gucci bag or Rolex you might buy on Canal Street in Manhattan.
It looks the part, but it is not the real thing.
Nowadays, many who are performing rap do so as frauds. They are frauds when they hijack the name Hip Hop and exploit it. They claim to be "celebrating" Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary under the banner of Hip Hop.
Yet, they violate the principles of The Hip Hop Declaration Of Peace. They do so in many ways, in poor character, in bad business, and in some cases shameless crime. In effect, they are actually participating in a decades long program to undermine and co-opt Hip Hop Kulture.
In other words wack rapper sellouts used to undermine any uplifting aspect of Hip Hop.
Slim Jesus was one such wack rapper, who falsely promoted gangster images, gun toting, and drug selling saying that he lives a “street” lifestyle, only to later admit it was all an act.
“Despite these deviances from the truth, it is well documented. Hip Hop's powerful Golden Era decades raised human awareness on a mass scale.”
The powers that be could not tolerate masses of youth unifying on the Arsenio Hall showing positivity and raising consciousness globally.
You will not be a mass consumer if you are a happy and fulfilled human bobbing your head to mind expanding poetry.
On the west coast, “We’re All In The Same Gang,” displayed unity to stop gang violence in the streets!
As Krazy Bone articulates in this interview, “They (The Powers That BE) found a way to sabotage it.”
They conspired to glorify gangster rap, and keep all other forms of rap out of radio or public view.
They made sure sickness, hatred, ignorance, and poverty were the defacto celebrity culture as the norm. They kept calling that garbage Hip Hop. In reality, most of it has been lame watered down rap music.
As a result, said rap artists have become memes of their own memes. They are only carried forth by bots. They only impress fans who do not know any better. They only connect with fans who do not know what Hip Hop even is. Many value prison culture.
They pattern their lives off of classic American mafia violence. They have no principles or morals. Some are even shot down in cold blood. In fact, the cause of death in “Rap” by murder is 51%, higher than all other music genres. Why is that?
The murders of Scott LaRock, Tupac Shakur, or Notorious B.I.G. were just a few prominent stars who lost their lives prematurely. Those men died not knowing the power of their own words.
Many explained the lessons of how our words manifest. Many did not listen, many never will, and everyone will not make it. It is sad that many youth do not look at those examples as warnings.
“They ignore the warning stories. They ignore warning tales. They ignore the senseless tragedies we all lived through.”
Modern day rappers flaunt guns online. They snitch on themselves. They taunt police and talk disrespectfully on social media. They abuse and violate women. They flaunt fake riches in the eyes of the poor. They do VladTV interviews. They trust Vlad and they get locked up!?
They are a pariah. More and more Youtube videos have popped up exposing the WWF nature of their synthetic raps. All in all, they have a cancerous effect on society.
All while this is happening there are people in inner-cities all over America using Hip Hop Kulture to turn around young lives who otherwise would be forgotten statistics.
Many of the rappers who glorify street culture undermine themselves. They self-destruct. They do so against the warnings of Hip Hop Kulture! They actually come from the same impoverished communities that others make it out of.
What's the difference between them and us? They choose not to honor the sacred advice of those who evaded all those systemic traps. Why would anyone follow "trap" music as a life guide when it is part of a larger trap?
They still die in such an overwhelming wave. They died in rampant reckless indulgence over the last 40 years. We mourn the deaths of those who lost their lives to sickness, hatred, ignorance, and poverty. The streets defeated them.
“Hip Hop Kulture has always offered the alternatives of health, love, awareness, and wealth to the committed.“
The Gospel of Hip Hop, published in 2009, outlines a clear path for a higher quality of life for inner city youth, and all citizens for that matter. Hip Hop offers Victory Over The Streets!
Some wack rappers did try to embody aspects of the principles of Hip Hop. They did so within their own clownish rap music tropes. They sold their music to the public en masse. But, for some, it was not enough.
They only exploited Hip Hop for material gain. We hope others begin to wake up. Learn from their cautionary tales.
Those who have ignored Hiphop’s core principles for the last few decades have paid for it. They use Hip Hop's name in vain, calling themselves Hip Hop when they are mere wack rappers.
The public accepts it only out of ignorance.
Mega-corporations dictate and control most of the masses via the music industry mafia. They behave more like venture capital firms.
Even more so under Big Tech companies. Rap fans are easier to manipulate to buy cheap products or even luxury brands.
Citizens of the International Hip Hop Community are conscious consumers.
We separate our needs from our wants.
Imagine every Hiphop community in every city of the world. Hip Hop citizens have proven what Hip Hop is and what it is not.
Ministries, schools, archives, and social programs are everywhere. Some include Hip Hop Caucus and Hip Hop Congress.
A large quantity of them do outstanding work. Teachers, counselors, mentors, social workers, entrepreneurs, writers, authors, dancers, graffiti artists, politicians, and museum curators. They are in every nation globally.
“The International Hip Hop Community documents, protects, edifies, and preserves its people.”
Countless books such as Peace In Time Of War carry the mindset, philosophies, and lifestyle choices of authentic Hip Hop, as well as deeper insights.
Regardless of personality, gossip, and flawed quirks of any one individual, no one can deny the unified nature of all the people who identify with Hip Hop Kulture.
Hip Hop is humanity at its finest. Honest heartfelt self-expression. Both celebrities and community leaders lead this wave of heroic humanity. Common people lead this wave of heroic humanity right alongside them.
It is the beat. It is the rhythmic vibration of heartbeats of everyday people (Hip Hop Citizens) who “get it.”
They march to their own drummer. They lead themselves, lead their communities, and lead their impact on the world.
Harvard University’s Hip Hop Archive houses a plethora of references. Any university scholar can now plow through mountains of books on Hip Hop.
They can watch films on Hip Hop until their eyes bleed. They can walk through museums, live exhibitions, and most of all listen to all the rap music of the last 40+ years.
With a scrutinizing ear they can sift through what was "real" and what was "fake." Real rap music truly represented Hip Hop Kulture.
Fake rap music exploited the culture and played a part in damaging communities.
Hip Hop Kulture was never co-opted. Rap music was.
This is what we have produced over the last 50 years. Over the last 50 years, Hip Hop Kulture as a whole has permeated the planet with good vibrations.
It carries with it self-improvement, self-empowerment, self-knowledge, self-preservation, a world view, a mindset, and a certain approach to life, ethics, morality, values, mission, and vision.
Almost 20 years ago, myself and my cousin, contributed a humble drop to this vast ocean of material. We penned the classic Hiphop Driven Life: A Genius Liberation Handbook.
We self-published in 2005 under Afrikan World books. Of course, few listened (it was way ahead of its time). Now, after twenty years, everything we warned about has come true, many are starting to come around to the truth. Yes, we told you so.
“We documented our experiences as young men coming of age in late 20th-century America amidst all this.”
The tech era was beginning to fuse and deteriorate the culture we grew up with. We produced a raw account of what we pursued, saw, and resisted as that divide began. We kept it real. A few scholars referenced our material.
Our book is also part of the Hip Hop Archive at Harvard University.
Our work was what independent Hip Hop artists were thinking. It is what Hip Hop thinkers thought before and after the turn of the 21st Century.
We live the principles. We did not have to become famous rappers to benefit from Hip Hop’s ancient wisdom.
Now, more than ever Hip Hop, approaching 50 years of existence is maturing. Hip Hop people are turning the corner into economic, social, and political power. We have governors, mayors, and congressmen and women representing us.
In 2021, Chuck Schumer and U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., presented a congressional resolution that declared 1520 Sedgwick the birthplace of Hip-Hop.
The resolution also deemed Aug. 11 as “Hip-Hop Celebration Day." The entire month of August is now “Hip-Hop Recognition Month,” and November as “Hip-Hop History Month.”
For extreme far-right conservatives, they may attack these ideas because they confuse rap with Hip Hop Kulture. They could lump us in with their conspiracy theories about leftist politics.
For the extreme left, they could associate us with ideas that go against our own principles. We remain neutral.
The truth is that Hip Hop is so vast and so human, and very democratic. Within its constituency there are people who are right, center, and left when it comes to politics.
Chuck Schumer passed national holidays. He named the museums (1520 Sedgwick Avenue), and community center (55 Ludlow, Newark, New Jersey) dedicated to telling our story.
Schumer tweeted, "Hip Hop is an original American creation, born in recreation rooms, street corners, and the parks of NYC. It’s time that Congress recognized the tremendous contributions Hip Hop has made to American art and culture, and its global reach."
We've explained Hip Hop simple and plain. It is now up to the people to carry it forward in a manner that supersedes superficial rap music. Yet, with all this maturity, Hiphop is still faced with massive existential threats.
“The same threats that threaten human dignity, ethics, and morality for all people are the same threats Hip Hop faces.”
Hip Hop is humanity. The attacks on Hip Hop are subhuman. They are by individuals who want technology to rule over humanity. These threats come in the form of institutionalized sickness, hatred, ignorance, and poverty.
Each one can derail the International Hip Hop Community, which is becoming the heart of humanity. We work to inspire all people who adhere to Hip Hop principles with health, love, awareness, and wealth!
We face down the hijacking of our entire culture by mass media. We face down false representation in public media. We face down technology watering down our refined elements.
We face down the artificial intelligence bandwagon frenzy. We face down corrupt leaders on both ends of the political spectrum.
We face down corporations exploiting our skilled labor face. We face down technocrats colonizing crumbling gig economies while extracting wealth from entrepreneurs.
We face down massive private equity firms buying out successful local businesses. We face down untrained police officers killing youth. We face down police brutality all together. We face down people of all races who vest up in a police uniform only to destroy as in the Tyre Nichols case.
We face down those who take the law into their own hands, by weaponizing their power to brutalize, hunt and kill young teens. We face down maniacal bankers set on keeping most people in poverty. We face down Big Food company hucksters hocking toxic foods keeping people obese.
We face down Big Pharma's and Rockefeller's Medicine Men, exploiting obesity by telling people obesity is genetic. Then, selling them a lifelong supply of drugs to inject.
We face down the school to music industry to prison pipeline. We face down the exploitation of young poor ignorant artists. We face down record company shells that produce “Monkey see, monkey do” rap music.
We face down the criminals and drug dealers hooking youth on Fentanyl. We face down Hollywood only allowing black men to rise to fame if they put on dresses.
We face down rowdy, raunchy, ruthless mobs of people who see blood as entertainment. We face down a hungry violent mob of global consumers. We face down the entire playbook of corporate cultural imperialism. We face down the rap music industry gossip circuit.
We face down co-opted and compromised errant men of business who sell countless products. We face down those who exploit us while criminalizing Hip Hop. We face down culture vultures who misrepresent rap music–it sells everything from McDonalds, to sneakers, to liquor, to cars–as the only Hip Hop.
Art expresses humanity. Yet, As Mos Def once stated, “The rap artist is not promoted in corporate culture until the artist can promote a product.” This manipulation of the art form of rap is the dividing line.
This is why we clarify the definitions of rap and Hip Hop. If not, it will all be categorized together as one. It will all mush together in corporate mass media. Rap music is a commodity.
Rap has become a post-modern corporate vehicle. It is a destructive vehicle used to promote destructive products.
The sad part is that some rap is still good. So we cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is the entire public that has to uplift its awareness and evolve its consciousness and say, "Enough is enough!"
This rap is wack! That rap is trash! This song is garbage! This misrepresents our culture! This is false! That is fake! When enough people do that en masse, the culture will shift and the teachas will be more popular than the rappers.
The ignorant consumption cannot continue, for Hip Hop to prosper. Much like fast-food, the superficial ambiguous definition of Hip Hop is faulty.
It has the whole world confused, thinking that Rap is Hip Hop and Hip Hop is only a genre and vice versa. It must be emphatically echoed that “Rap is not Hip Hop!”
Hip Hop cannot and should not reduce itself to the rap music genre. It is a holistic way of living.
“Chat GPT writes rhymes. Hip Hop Kulture writes history.”
This is why it is so easy for Chat GPT, or any other AI generator to write shallow rhymes, raps, or poetry. It is algorithmic data. It cannot create life or come up with fresh linguistic structures.
Yet, even if some mad scientists create test tube babies like in Brave New World, even if AI could create life, it has no sense to nurture and preserve life. Nor does it have motivation to do so. It is a soulless machine.
It is an array of sterile, emotionless, and dispassionate algorithms. Left alone its only option is self-destruction, or nothing at all.
As said, any man can produce a baby. But to be a father, it requires a certain level of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Anyone–and now any AI machine–can write a rap. Anyone can write simplistic poetry. It is putting words together in patterns. No soul.
It requires real wisdom to craft literature, music, art, or poetry that deeply impacts a human being. You feel what I am writing here because this is the realest shit I ever wrote! Humans warn, inspire, lead, or tell the story of humanity.
Machines spit out data. Chat GPT can write rhymes and even prose. It cannot write this. It is like the cowardly lion. It has no heart.
Not everyone can imagine a new future. Many wrestle with the human instinct to do nothing. Some incite war. Some kill. Some go out and create solutions. Some do so peacefully without harming the people, places, and things surrounding them. That is real Hip Hop.
“Those Hiphoppas who do rise out of the ashes win. Like the kids living in poverty in a burning South Bronx, they win. In hopeless despair, they win without resorting to crime, hatred, murder, and theft.”
American society and the world honors Hip Hop for using our inner vision. We abide by Universal Law. We do not let power keep us down. We are a society.
Big Entertainment corporate culture ostracizes enlightened individuals. They shun those who represent the highest ethics of all. In rap music, magazines labeled us as “conscious rappers.” Rappers are ubiquitous now like grocery stores. The grocery store is the store that makes you sick from toxic processed food.
Unless you shop around the edges of it, or go to a "health" food store, it will not serve you well.
Why do we need to call the store that looks after our health a "health" food store? In the same way, why do we need to call the rapper who raises our awareness a "conscious rapper"?
Just as the big food industry has normalized obesity, the big music industry has normalized prison and death.
The “health” food store is marginalized as that “other” store with tasteless food by the mass supermarkets.
Grocery stores sell a plentitude of toxic chemically laced foods. But they tell you, this “grocery” store is the norm.
The "Emcee" is misrepresented as that "other" entertainer by the mass audiences which sell out arenas. They celebrate toxic music that influences the worst behaviors.
They convince the masses, "This music about sickness, hatred, ignorance, and poverty, this is your norm! This is your black culture. You can get rich degrading yourself! This is your reality!"
People blindly accept the disempowering behaviors as the norm. And the most criminal of all, they say, "This is Hip Hop!"
At the top of the charts, the videos the algorithm pushes with the most shock, terror, or absurdity get most Youtube views. Hence, by the time they reach the billboards we typically see the worst of culture.
We see an imbalance of the criminalized, artificial, inflated, drugged out, thugged out oversexualized personas. How is this possible as the top of the so-called rap music food chain?
This is not only Hip Hop Kulture’s problem to clean up. This is a societal problem.
The music reflects the fallen consciousness of the masses. People everywhere must begin asking themselves, "Why do I like to listen to toxic rap music when I'm working out?"
"Why do I program myself subconsciously with toxic rap music on my way to work, and later wonder why my day is so stressful?" "Is this music helping me be happy, fulfilled, sell more, close more deals?"
"Why do radio stations promote the same three or four dumbed down rappers over and over year after year? Are they really the best at rap? Or are mega-corporations telling me they are the best to sell me a lifestyle through payola scams that I can only live by buying the products they sell?”
We must think, "What are we basing their rise to the top on?" What are we basing our own success and ethics on?
What is our code of morality? Are religions that hide and cover up atrocities the only way to find spirituality? What is a law, if it is so easily manipulated?
These rap personas draw attention, sell products, generate views, and followers. They intrigue suburban fans who can observe them from a distance.
These fans are not directly threatened by them, nor do they have to enter the oppressed communities they come from. That is voyeurism. These people are not fans. They are spectators watching in a hunger games arena.
This is another major distinction between rap and Hip Hop Kulture. The original Hip Hop artist does not invest disproportionately in pathology.
The pathologies of any destructive society are an obstacle to a Hip Hop mind, not the goal! Like Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points in a game. The Attuned Hiphoppa works around these obstacles to live a higher quality of life.
Such an artist navigates, resists, adapts, and strategizes around pathology. He or she works around the perversions of the oppressive social engineering.
The dumbed down rapper– by definition alone–blindly follows the social engineering. He or she indulges in the pathologies of the dominant society to “get money,” “get on,” and “become famous.”
Hence, the term, "selling one's soul." This impoverished mentality is articulated in Wise Intelligent’s book 3/5 an MC: The Manufacturing Of A Dumbed Down Rapper.
“The Hip Hop artist does not need to dumb down, rob, steal, and kill. The Hip Hop artist comes from the richest land of those who were robbed from.“
The beat of Hip Hop is the beat of Africa, the origin of humanity, and the richest continent on earth. This is precisely why the mega-corporations do not want rappers to know their ancestry or how their lineage connects directly to Africa.
They seek to divide the rapper from the origins of Hip Hop. The origins of Hip Hop will always point back to a richer and wealthier cultural tradition in Africa.
Once the rappers and fans no longer need the validation of the corporate brands, entities, those corporate brands will fail. Hip Hop will create its own brands based on its own cultural principles.
The image of the most popular rapper can only mimic much of what Hip Hop represents.
However, it is uncertain that every rapper lives according to Hip Hop’s actual principles. The litmus test is what they say, their vibration, and how they portray themselves. It does not take forever to watch a man or woman, speak, walk, or interact with others to assess their level of character and skill.
Knowing that the creative force in self-created Hip Hop is the value, many overcome adversity against all odds to be successful. He or she says, like Nas in his song “Find Ya Wealth.”
“Look way deep inside ya self, find the diamond inside ya self, once you get it, ya gotta get it to live it, ni**az never wanna see you with it, but F$(& them though!…”
- Nas.
The Hip Hop artist finds wealth within himself. The Hip Hop artist welcomes fans, but does not need fans. He or she educes the characteristics that exude and personify wealth without crime. People naturally flock to this Light.
This is African philosophy. One who takes objects and subjects and transforms them through alchemy is an alchemist.
Much like the music producer "The Alchemist," they transform nothing into something new, fresh, and cool, never seen before. This is what Grandmaster Flash did with the break mix.
This is why for over 50 years, Hip Hop Kulture has spanned the globe with real intelligent movement. Hip is to know. Hop is the movement. Hip Hop = Intelligent Movement.
Now, we have so-called artificial intelligence. Hip Hop continues separating itself as distinct from the synthetic rap industry and any derivatives of it.
Those who promote and profit from rap music alone will continue to grow as long as their corporate greed lasts. There will soon be marginal returns. They will be forced to respect Hip Hop.
The more fake elements the music industry machine produces, the more real elements human beings of Hip Hop will seek to produce.
Rather than luddites, cosmopolitan inventors will yet again, "flip" technology re-inventing it to distinguish ourselves as humans mastering machines.
This is what Grandmaster Flash accomplished as an inventor by converting the old-fashioned record player into turntables. Do we still need to explain how that “turned” out? From DJ Scratch to DJ Sara, there are countless DJ’s teaching his techniques.
“The mainstream neo-colonization of Hip Hop Kulture via commercial rap music is nothing new. In fact, the rap music industry began in 1979 with mafia money and blatant theft from Hip Hop Kulture.”
It is Hip Hop’s history that mafia boss Morris Levy, as well as Joe Robinson, and Sylvia Robinson invested in Sugar Hill Records. They produced the first commercial rappers.
The mafia made the first rappers famous. They recorded rhymes stolen from Emcees like Grandmaster Caz, who shared them freely.
That act spawned generations of rappers who went on to continue stealing from Hip Hop Kulture without paying it back.
Of course, in that window, a legion of bright and sophisticated Hip Hop artists slipped through the commercial cracks and reached national and international fame.
Run DMC, Melle Mel, KRS-ONE, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Poor Righteous Teachers, X-Clan, Brand Nubian, and countless others empowered the masses.
The 80's and 90's presented consciousness in rap. This renewed awareness was the biggest boom of social progress in America since the civil rights movement.
The dominant society teaches that “greed is good.” It teaches “theft is ok.” “It’s a dog eat dog world.”
These are the pervasive beliefs in the average Wall Street criminal (i.e. Bernie Madoff or Sam Bankman Fried), mob figures, and rap criminals.
America derives this legacy of violence from The British Empire, even in its fight to free itself from the tyranny of that Empire.
For further reference read, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins. She explains how brutal the British Imperial Empire was killing millions of Kenyans at one time, and still is.
Many rappers grew up in poor communities surrounded by pimps, drug dealers, and mafia figures who controlled New York’s streets. Some participated in the drug trade to merely survive. Others entered the drug trade with recklessness and ambition.
Hence, many rap recording artists mistakenly decided to perpetuate a Hollywood-like mob persona as part of their entertainment shtick.
It sold well, because suburbia worships violence in film. America fell in love with the mafioso images in music too. Gangs and violence are as American as apple pie and baseball.
They festered in New York City 50 years before Hip Hop was even a twinkle in DJ Kool Herc’s eye. Only some in rap music followed them. Certainly not all of Hip Hop Kulture believes in mob life!
Gangsters have always represented the lawless pursuit of upward mobility in American society. They bully, intimidate, extort, and kill to reach their aims.
Films about them glorify their amoral quest for power. Scarface. The Godfather. Goodfellas. The Sopranos. They sell like hotcakes.
Some rappers survived and thrived off of Hip Hop principles (Peace, Unity, Love, & Safely Havin’ Fun) behind the scenes.
However, to get record deals they were told by gangsters, “Positivity don’t sell!”
In rap music, they were coerced into promoting both gang life and mob life. The media kept calling it Hip Hop, rarely distinguishing between the heritage and tradition of the Kulture and the commercialized product.
Suge Knight appealed to Tupac Shakur at his lowest moments in Clinton Correctional Facility, to help him get out of prison.
Ultimately, by bringing Tupac into his world, events would unfold that led to the assassination of Tupac with Suge in the driver’s seat. The last photo of Tupac alive was next to Suge Knight.
What made Tupac’s early demise so tragic was he was bred from a courageous line of Black Panther’s who were harassed, infiltrated, and sabotaged by the FBI & CIA under Cointelpro.
After Tupac’s murder, Marion “Suge” Knight continued with his attempts to dominate the rap music industry under mob rule.
A judge eventually sentenced Knight to “28 years in prison: 22 years for running over the victim and 6 years because it was Knight's third strike under California's three-strikes law.”
As of March 2023, Knight is incarcerated at RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, and will not be eligible for parole until October 2034.”
They were really striving to grow in power like the major crime families like Morris Levy or John Gotti. The mafia is not Hip Hop.
“From the mid-90’s forward, The “hustla,” “pimp,” and “gangsta,” persona amplified the image of an All-American entertainment icon. But is this all Hip Hop is?”
From 2000 forward, gangsta rap falsely appeared as the way out of the ghetto for thousands of youth. The masses of suburban fans loved it.
The fans could remain distant. They could watch the drama without the fear of dying in it. The kids in the hood lived in it, were “ready to die” and paid the price.
Some paid with their lives. Some are still paying behind prison bars. Some “hustlas” and “gangstas” made it out of the ghetto. Yet, many never did.
For example, Jay Z was rewarded immensely by American culture by personifying the ultimate American gangster.
Everyone points to Jay Z as the All-American token Billionaire hustler. His rap/Hip Hop success story is always deferred to as, “See, if he made it America has equality.”
This summer, he was even honored with an entire exhibit/shrine called “The Book Of Hov'' at The Brooklyn Museum. His lyrics amplified on the front of the building.
Is he an outlier? Is he the norm? What is the normal outcome of youth coming out of that environment slinging drugs, hustlin’, and wielding guns? Grim.
We have to look past outliers at the many who did not survive while promoting a gangsta image.
Many did not make it. For every Jay-Z, there are millions dead or in jail. They became human mules for the plantations of the prison industrial complex.
They slave for profits to long-term investors. Or, they became cash cows for posthumous records sold after their murder. Record companies are known to profit off of Death Clauses (aka Life Insurance Policies to profit from the death of artists).
Deceased artists music is streamed on social media platforms and streaming services after they are gone. Making money for who?
The owners of their recordings are high on the hog.
Despite these atrocious abuses of Hip Hop Kulture, the teacha archetypes within Hip Hop Kulture, such as Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, and Krs-One, have survived all this.
That is the test of time. Hip Hop lives.
As deep thinkers, our interest was not in exploiting ourselves, our people, our culture, or our crafts. Our interest was not geared into feeding into prison slavery or digital slavery. We simply sought health, love, awareness, and wealth!
Some emcees, with the Teacha archetype actually became rappers. Some are authors. Some are counselors. Some are school teachers.
Some are governors. Some are mayors. Some are senators. Some are congressmen or congresswomen. Some are everyday men and women that pick up garbage, fix cars, wash windows, drive buses, and deliver packages.
For a long time or period of time, plenty of Hip Hop Citizens have populated every country in the world. Not by art, but by thinking, and living according to certain principles.
Their DNA infuses every industry with the traces of Hip Hop Kulture’s mentality, expression, ethics, values, morals, and authentic way of life.
“As for the rappers who made money, greed, and corruption their only god. They created a pattern of self-destruction.”
This pattern is kinetic and continues in rap perpetuity until this day. It has culminated in a bodycount of over 100+ famous industry rappers shot and killed in cold blood with many cases unresolved over a span of 40 years.
Trap and drill rap are the grimiest sediment of this dirty money. This version of rap music has amplified the imprisonment and murder rate among black youth, particularly in America.
The evidence is littered throughout social media. Bands of young teens waving guns in shoddy videos. Shootouts in front of grocery stores.
Stray bullets hitting innocent children and the elderly. News channels constantly report many of these drill rappers deaths. It is pure hell on earth.
These negative forms of rap have skyrocketed these prison and death toll numbers.
Rather than an evolution of Hip Hop Kulture, which those of us see from within Hip Hop, these rap factions of commercial rap’s already poor aesthetics are devastating.
Coupled with Big Tech's algorithms, they invade the minds of the youth on viral social media, which confuse and distort the actual redemptive power of rap as an art form, and Hip Hop Kulture.
They take from Hip Hop aesthetics but they express the bottom of the barrel of American crime.
“To put it in perspective how deep this goes, it is structural, institutional, and systemic brutality by an oppressive power structure.”
In 1988 when Ice-T wrote Colors, he rapped about gang members being chased by police.
In 2000, Lil' Wayne rapped "Tha block is hot" about running from the Police and tried to make escaping cops in a police chase look "cool.' They even had him running from a police helicopter in slow motion.
America loved this criminal fetish. His album hit the top of the Hip Hop charts, selling over one million copies in the U.S and went on to become double platinum.
Others copied, until the rap music we see today became the majority of the genre. The problem is "rap music" is only one aspect of Hip Hop, but does not represent the consciousness of Hip Hop Kulture.
I had to help save my younger cousin from that destructive messaging and help steer him away from gangs.
Lil' Wayne went on to make millions of dollars with that "image" and with many other rappers (100+ activists, Hip Hop artists, and rappers shot and killed).
A large portion of them were influenced by an entire generation of Lil' and Young Rappers ready to embrace "the streets" at all costs over these last 20 years.
Now in 2023, young black boys are on Youtube, hunted down like the Hunger Games. In real police footage, police shoot them.
It’s not like Lil' Wayne's block is hot video where the director can say "Cut!" They are too easily hunted down by police (like Ice-T in Surviving The Game) in record numbers.
In fact, look up Jordan Richardson (almost the same name as Jor’dell Richardson) a kid running with a gun in Rantoul, Illinois. He was shot and killed the exact same way as Jor’dell Richardson, "Runnin' like Lil' Wayne from white cops in the block is hot video." The difference is he bled out and died.
Everyone knows…They "shouldn't'' be stealing, they “shouldn't '' be totin' guns, they "shouldn't" be selling drugs and making the wrong decisions. But, what influenced them to do these acts?
Why have the masses bought images promoted of those same criminal acts from rappers for 20 years of film and music?
Why do the masses consider crime as such good entertainment?
Why do so many working people pay for the shows of so many thugs who sip lean, glorify street life, perpetuate the same lifestyle, then go on Vlad TV, rat to the Feds, and end up in prison or dead in the school to drill rap to prison pipeline?
For example, in this case BTB Savage was on Vlad TV boasting about a violent situation where someone tried to rob him. He then posted on instagram with the blood of the victim. The victims cousin retaliated and killed him and is now facing charges.
Communities are being attacked with lose, lose, lose, lose scenarios. Multiples of lives are lost. It makes no sense.
“They "are" doing these criminal acts because American society rewards, celebrates, and fetishizes violence, brutal power struggles, criminality, war, and crime.”
Youtube is even making money off these "Hunting black boys masqueraded as Policing videos." These kids get "influenced" by the constant sea of wanna be thugs around them ... Then die screaming... "They made me do it..."
No one taught them they had the agency and personal power to resist this wave of street glory? Or they ignored the message?
We explained it in our book The Hiphop Driven Life: A Genius Liberation Handbook back in 2005, almost twenty years ago!
So many people have tried to raise the consciousness of people, only to be killed by their own people.
Even Vilma Butler (may she rest in peace)–the woman in this video who interviewed us about our book–was killed by a young black serial killer. He shot her in the head and burned her house down, and killed many other mothers and their young daughters too.
Murder is systemic and pathological to American life, so politicians cannot keep blaming a nebulous idea such as “It’s the guns” or lumping everything as “Hip Hop.”
You can isolate and partially blame some aspects of rap music’s influence, sure. However, mobsters, gangsters, mass shooters, and serial killers are an American problem. What about mental health? What about the fact that technology is NOT civilization? This is America!?
Now, that serial killer is serving a 100+ year sentence. But for cops that turn serial in the shooting of youth is another story.
They get into their adrenaline and into slave Overseer "Lynch mob" mode and start hunting these kids like deer with no empathy.
The cases are isolated, but serial killing black males since 1619 is systemic, perpetual, and can be traced back every decade and century through all the protests, riots, revolts, uprisings, and marches.
“No one knows what the answer is to all the violence, but Hip Hop tried several attempts at The H.E.A.L. Movement, Stop The Violence Movement, Self-Destruction, and Stop The Violence Part 2.”
But change will only happen when Americans start celebrating our teachers, visionaries, and thinkers more than our thugs, gangstas, pimps, and prostitutes.
Right now, the masses do the inverse.
We live in a society that worships ratchet hood culture and calls it "ghetto” fabulous "black” culture, mislabeling rap as "Hip Hop" when hip hop was co-opted in the mid-90s by the powers that be.
Then, all this in the end gives certain cops the incentive to take young lives whenever they feel up to a sporting shot and be acquitted just like they were before the civil rights movement.
So, basically it puts minorities in America right back to the status of Slavery and Jim Crow. Slavery was upheld and continued by the 13th Amendment. This is systemic mass enslavement.
Multiply that by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ acceptance of bribes from billionaires, his wife Ginni Thomas actively working to overthrow democracy on January 6, 2021, as well as his undoing Affirmative Action (which he benefitted from).
If the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land is that corrupted, what can Hip Hop citizens do amidst blatant continuous injustice?
What can a Hiphop citizen to do to maintain peace and prosperity? Vote for Cornel West? Separate? Migrate to free land? Pursue black-owned venture capital? Venture capital for black entrepreneurs plummeted 45% in 2022. When black wall-street was strong and independent in Tulsa it was burned down.
What next? Evolve. Organize. Hip Hop will evolve. Hip Hop has continually responded to such corruption by evolving beyond it.
Mind you, rap was a misused vocal tool that contributed to the death and imprisonment of these youth. Rap could have been promoted as a tool for empowerment. Yet, they continued to chant mantras that rallied the grim reaper to them. That part is their responsibility. They brought death and destruction upon themselves.
It is the communities they came from. How can you blame their choices when you never saw their options? The violence is like a slimy crude oil everyone is doused in. They cannot shake it off.
“America’s history of violence says it all about our current societal problems. Read Bloodbath Nation, by Paul Auster about how obsessed America is with guns.”
How can Hip Hop Kulture be the cause of all the gun violence? It is not.
America's mob criminals taught these urban youth how to kill with guns. Their own worship of those violent codes (even though they became famous) brought forth their early demise.
For example, one important code or sacred principle as a Hip Hop artist is to not allow rap music to be your only source of income.
By violating this sacred principle, many rappers do “whatever it takes,” to be fed, clothed, and housed by rap music. They do not care what comes out of their mouth.
They do anything. Even if it means selling drugs, lying, conning, fabricating or living a false lifestyle. They have others write their "coke" raps for them, murdering friends or, a loved one if necessary, or writing raps that perpetuate violence, misogyny, and crime.
In The State Of Florida vs. Demons, the YNW Melly case “gained massive public interest due to Jamell “YNW Melly” Demons' most popular single being "Murder on My Mind", a rap song in which Demons discusses hypothetical homicidal ideation.[3]”
He is manifesting the hell on earth he raps about. Who is there and cable to reverse this self-destructive mindset?
Rapper Rick Ross (William Leonard Roberts II) from Miami is another example of a rapper who got rich off of these false criminal fantasies.
He was a former correctional officer and stole his name from 80’s L.A. drug kingpin Ricky Donnell aka “Freeway Ricky Ross.”
Yet, after making millions off of Freeway Ricky’s actual persona (which he served time in prison for), William Leonard Roberts II never reconciled the holes in his false story. As a result, rappers like Rick Ross, relentlessly flaunt their perceived wealth in front of their poor constituents.
This ultimately leads to envy, robbery, aggravated assault, brutal violence, and outright murder.
“His car was shot up in South Florida on January 27, 2013, while celebrating his 37th birthday. Ross and his girlfriend were the targets of a drive-by shooting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Neither Ross nor his girlfriend were hurt, but they ended up crashing their car into an apartment in an attempt to escape the shooting.[69]”
It seems like common sense for one not to do this in a society that was structurally and systemically set to destroy young black youth.
But we know that since the beginning of slavery, there have always been those among us who will sell our own people into slavery.
Now, because of the hypnosis of the pervading corporate culture, the pressure cooker is the gap between the haves and the have nots. The lure for the poor is for riches plus fame.
These “rappers” are unable to separate their quest for money and fame from the real consequences of flaunting it in front of the oppressed masses.
They are simply blinded by their pursuits. This makes them prime targets for robbery, extortion, and homicide.
Hip Hop artists have avoided betrayal, addiction, and dark-triad power grabs. We have escaped poverty, illness, revenge, and ignorance.
We claim “Victory Over The Streets.” We have leaped over every social trap in society. We are the true “Digital Age Sages” in a post-modern neo-feudalistic technocratic society.
“Hip Hop (and its practitioners in the International Hip Hop community) claim “Victory Over The Streets.”
We do so time and time again. We align with infinite intelligence sourced by Universal quantum metaphysics.
Hip Hop is a mode of mentality, a behavior, principles, and an attitude that is perpetually undefeated.
This is what we define as Hip Hop. If you do not understand this by now, you will soon.
Kultural Specialists and Global Advocates have written, debated, and published Hip Hop material for decades. They have spoken and lectured about Hip Hop Kulture. They have explained that Hip Hop is a positive uplifting collective consciousness. It formed from non-western philosophical thought.
It positions us in an omnipresent super position to approach society from outside the box paradigms. This is why it works in helping us evade the traps of a society not set up in our favor.
Many Hiphoppas have Indigenous, Native American, Caribbean, West-African, Asian, and Latin-American heritage. Whether by tradition or ethnicity, these people are tapped into something larger than themselves.
These melting pot traditions connect to ancestral oral traditions. Rap is just an extension of oral tradition.
Most are beyond Western philosopher’s comprehension, not because they are superior. It is because those philosophers and scholars refuse to acknowledge and respect them. Even those of us labeled as “African” American embody the African diaspora’s philosophical heritage.
No one's history began only with slavery. That is another fallacy perpetuated unconsciously.
Even those who consider themselves as “white” Hip Hop artists of European Ancestry know about John Brown. Many white abolitionists were against slavery.
They continued forward through helping free all humans in the civil rights movement. Hip Hop is no different.
“Once we acknowledge the limits of Western European thought, especially at the demise of ancient Greek society (on which tech bro culture models their business), we can reason that Hip Hop is a massive cultural human force to reawaken humanity.”
There is nothing wrong with Eurocentric philosophies. As long as they do not dispose of or discredit African philosophies. They surely recognize that all humans evolved from Africa.
Like Eminem in his freestyle about Trump. Hip Hop is aligned with Truth! European descendants (who embody the principles of Hip Hop) are just as Hip Hop as anyone, and are essentially “down by law” and “down with us.”
Particularly, with its roots in American society, Hip Hop has always been a safety valve for the poor and oppressed. Hip Hop saves those who refuse to be bulldozed over by greed, apathy, and corruption. Hip Hop saved us from the school systems designed by Rockefeller Medicine Men and The Deliberate Dumbing Down America.
Their boards of education were set up to create hives of worker bees. And, as prisons were built anyone who did not make it in the workforce would be a prison slave. This is how they amplified modern day slavery using the 13th Amendment.
The powers that be are political puppets, oligarchs, plutocrats, technocrats, or techno-billionaires. Regardless of what you want to call them, we continually bump up against their agendas.
Their attempts are to control most of society through disaster capitalism, warfare, computer hardware, social media, big tech, big food, big pharma, and big data. Shoshona Zubnoff calls this Surveillance Capitalism. It can also be labeled as techno-neo-feudalism, depending on what you read.
This techo-authoritarianism creates a veneer over what the average human sees on a superficial daily basis. This is unfortunate, because without taking the time to look deeper into anything, the average American walks around in a base level of ignorance and a nagging feeling of anxiety.
It likely distorts your perception of what Hip Hop is to this very moment. If I ask you to re-read this essay, and think a little deeper I’m sure you will realize more. Read anything in the Harvard University Hip Hop Archive.
“If one does not spend time outside the bubble of their Silicon Valley tech bro office, how can they design FAIR algorithms for all humanity? The system OVER HEATS AND MELTS…THE SYSTEM will defeat itself.”
Even more so, why would they expect us to blindly follow their designs?
Why would we follow them into a metaverse? Would the fediverse serve us better? Their design of technology is from a myopic view.
Anyone following them blindly will forfeit their sovereignty and remain as digital slaves.
In such a slug state-of-mind, so-called fans are presented with the lowest base levels of digitized force-fed rap content and told that it is Hip Hop.
They are sold concert tickets with no knowledge, and none of Hip Hop’s original elements presented.
They are marketed about 50th Anniversary celebrations that have nothing to do with the people who have survived and thrived while living an authentic Hip Hop Lifestyle.
Essentially, they are fed fool’s gold by algorithms. Because rap music and modern rappers glisten and shine, they think they are celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary.
However, the real Hip Hop is wherever conscious evolving thought is.
“Rap fans are also told not to question the gridlines of the matrix in which they live, work, and play. They remain blue pilled, afraid to dig deeper to take that red pill. They are deaf, dumb, and blind to the existence of Hip Hop Kulture beyond streaming rap music.”
Those in Gen Z, born after 2000, who only know the world presented to them through a narrow lense of smartphones and apps suffer as well.
They live in devices, phones, laptops, and social media. They also lose by not knowing about this gap in knowledge of what Hip Hop Kulture really is.
We who were born in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and even some born in the 90’s know exactly what Hip Hop is and what it is not. We simply use the present technology as windows and doors to share our humanity, or explore nostalgia. We do not seek our identity from technology, nor is technology a necessity to enjoy life.
The reason we don’t give up on Hip Hop as a Kulture, is that it surrounds us. The elements of original Hip Hop are the elements of humanity.
At its core, Hip Hop is human expression. Such an art form and lifestyle with lasting impact only comes every couple thousands of years.
Rap is something we do. Hip Hop is something we live. We are Hip Hop. For us to stop producing original thought, would be against our very being. That would be against humanity.
Those of us who are teachas of Hiphop are not affected in the least bit by the “threat” of AI. We are producers and channelers of real infinite intelligence. In fact, the very definition of who we are can be created and re-created in many acronyms. One is “Higher Intelligence Producing Holistic Omnipresent Power.”
We refer to this higher intelligence as our own government. We are governed by Universal law first. Before we understand the man-made government of our imperial colonizers, we obtain knowledge-of-self.
“Infinite Intelligence governs our mentality. Therefore, with such self-evident enlightenment, we are more apt to govern ourselves correctly.”
The deviant and errant men of government and business of our day have failed all of us. They, who currently call themselves governmental world leaders, are glorified puppets. Who is behind them?
Well, we need not look far, nor do we need to indulge in conspiracy theories. We are only focused on empowering ourselves, those we love and care about, and our communities.
In fact, we are not like the scientists and software engineers creating machine learning and neural networks.
They seem to not care about many people. We are not foolish or arrogant enough to believe that we can recreate all human intelligence.
We exist both in Godlike confidence and Godlike humility. We are not in agreement with Ray Kurzweil or Klaus Schwab who believe they can BE God in the fourth industrial revolution.
They are merely fearful men who are afraid to die. As a result, many like them want to merge their bodies and minds with computers and live forever. How courageous is that? We have no interest in merging biology with technology.
Not all of Hip Hop may share these views, but many of us believe that the human body, mind, and soul is separate from technology.
It is perfect, and distinct as the greatest technology there ever will be, the human brain.
We can invent, add, or multiply the technology that we are exposed to, but we have no need to embed, fuse, or implant technology in us.
“The Hip Hop citizen is complete and whole as a human being, bornfree, down by law. An artist “taps in” to an enveloping universal substance called “creative intelligence." This substance is still undefined and a perpetual mystery to scientists around the world.”
Some in quantum theory are beginning to call it “wave particle energy.” Either way, we operate the human mind, soul, and body in ways which allow this intelligence to flow through us. This allows us to exist in flow states.
An opposite state would be a beta state, hooked into digital binary programming commands in an electrical circuit board. Many live in this state as they present artificial intelligence falsely through rap music.
The listeners of this “fools gold” rap are also tuned into this low vibrational “demon time” frequency.
We know that The Myth Of Artificial Intelligence has no bearing upon our Hip Hop state of mind. It is simply one spoke on the universal wheel of intelligence. A wheel cannot roll with one spoke.
Hip Hop embodies all spokes on the entire wheel of human intelligence. When we come together as the International Hip Hop community, every form of human intelligence is represented, which is full humanity.
In Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, this is full intelligence. Mind is represented, and it is the future of these combinations which will drive humanity forward.
“Artificially intelligent language models are only tools. Only a fool would attempt to ride a bicycle with wheels supported by one spoke. Yet, this is what many people are doing when they place all their faith in artificial intelligence alone. Even worse if it is artificially generated regurgitated raps.”
When you see graffiti art on the streets. When overpasses surround you in bright colored murals. They are produced at scale, you cannot comprehend the human wisdom in creating such miraculous art. That is Hip Hop.
When you see breakdance competitions globally. When you cannot fathom the human intricacy that goes into those organic movements that awe crowds. That is Hip Hop.
When you see an emcee freestylin’ rhymes off “the top” of his head all on beat, using all the objects in the present environment as organic prompts while rocking a crowd. You are witnessing human ingenuity in motion. That is Hip Hop.
When you listen to a beatboxer producing percussion with her body, lips, tongue, teeth, and doing it effortlessly, you cannot ignore the infinite potential of the human brain and body. That is Hip Hop.
When a DJ spins, cuts, scratches, and mixes songs together from the last four decades. When she does this all while scanning an audience to determine exactly what to play next in real time rotation based on the wave of emotions of real humans, that is not artificial intelligence.
That is real intelligence. That is Hip Hop.
When a teacha presents knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, in his own slang and style, fashion, and lingo. That is infinite intelligence. That is not rap. That is Hip Hop.
When you see a young mayor advocating eliminating crime by fostering community relationships. When you see a father walking his child to school. When you see a young nurse studying.
When you see a realtor closing a deal. It is very likely that a large percentage of these people identify with Hip Hop Kulture. That is not rap. That is Hip Hop.
“Real Hip Hop is surrounding you, all you have to do is open your 7 senses to experience it. We've talked about what Hip Hop is, and what it is not. For 50 years, we who are Hiphop have lived and survived in it. Through the onslaught, and attempts to eliminate us we thrive.”
Mural das Etnias, Rio De Janeiro the artist Eduardo Kobra.
Despite attempts at oppression of our humanity, we have also thrived in a way that represents the greatest of human potential.
We represent the human capacity to learn, innovate, model, design, create, enhance, re-create, and engineer. We are unstoppable. We are Hip Hop.
It is a travesty that after 50 years of our existence come August 11, 2023, Hip Hop practitioners still have to overtly explain to the masses who we are.
But, if you want the knowledge, we will be here forever, so hit us up, everybody still got time to get down with us, so you can get up and live fully.
Do you know of anyone young or old who might enjoy this brief reflection on Hip Hop Kulture during its 50th Year Anniversary Celebration?
Like, comment, share...each one teach one, spread the word! Word! Peace and much love!
Lyrics
Beat Street Breakdown, rrrrhaa!
Beat Street, the king of the beat
You see him rockin' that beat from across the street
And huh-huh, Beat Street is a lesson, too
Because ah, you can't let the streets beat you
Uh!
Well, a picture can express a thousand words
To describe all the beauty of life you give
And if the world was yours to do over
I know you'd paint a better place to live
Where the colors would swirl
And the boys and girls can grow in peace and harmony
And where murals stand on walls so grand
As far as the eyes are able to see, ha
I never knew art till I saw your face
And there'll never be one to take your place
'Cause each and every time you touch a spraypaint can
Michaelangelo's soul controls your hands
Then serenades of blue and red
And the beauty of the rainbow fills your head
Crescendo colors playin' tunes
Man why oh why you'd have to die so soon?
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Where the good die young is all thy must
Cause as life must live death must die
And the tears shall fall from the living eye
Huh, teardrops fall for the state of mind
Of the beautiful lady that you left behind
In love and alone, but now you're dead
And she still can't get you out of her head, huh
More tears fall for all you've done
Tried to be a good father to your only son
But now who's gonna make sure that he's fed
Put a shirt on his back and a roof over head?
Tell me who's gonna dream the impossible dream
Of the beautiful cities and the island's ?
When your works of art brought into being
All that the ghetto stopped you from seeing
Bums on the sidewalk, garbage in the street
Abandoned buildings, bricks of concrete
The ladies on the corner are sellin that body
And everybody wants a part in that party
I'm hangin' out tough rockin' late at night
Runnin' wild in the town of the neon lights
You either play some ball or stand in the hall
Huh, you gotta make somethin' out of nothin' at all
I'm sittin' in the classroom learnin' the rules
And it says you can't do graffiti in school
That can't be wrong in the hallowed hall
So my notebook turned into a big wall
The heart of a lion and the courage of three
And the mind of a man much wiser than me
You're the soul of the brother who won't come back
Who died in my arms on the railroad track
Cause I'm caught in a rat race lookin' for my own space
It gotta be a better place for you and me
There's pie in the sky and a eye for a eye
Some people gotta die just to be free
You search for justice and what do you find?
You find just us on the unemployment line
You find just us sweatin' from dawn to dusk
There's no justice, it's, huh, just us
Still life urban masterpiece
Your trademark was written on trains and walls
A million dollar gift only God released
Huh, and yet you got killed for nothin' at all
So after this there'll be no more hard time
No more bad times and no more pain
No more chump change, none of that bull
Just movies, museums and the hall of fame
So all you hip-hops, get on up
And let's take it to the top where we belong
Cause the age of the Beat Street wave is here
Everybody let's sing along, now come on
And say hooo (Hooo)
Say hooo (Hooo)
And to let me know I'm rockin the microphone
Everybody say Ramon (Ramon)
Ramon (Ramon)
Rrrrhaa!
A newspaper burns in the sand
And the headlines say 'Man Destroys Man'
Extra extra, read all the bad news
On the war for peace that everybody would lose
The rise and fall, the last great empire
The sound of the whole world caught on fire
The ruthless struggle, the desperate gamble
The game that left the whole world in shambles
The cheats, the lies, the alibis
And the foolish attempts to conquer the sky
Lost in space, and what is it worth?
Huh, the President just forgot about Earth
Spendin' multi-billions and maybe even trillions
The cost of weapons ran in the zillions
There's gold in the street and there's diamond under feet
And the children in Africa don't even eat
Flies on their faces, they're livin' like mice
And their houses even make the ghetto look nice
Huh, the water tastes funny, it's forever too sunny
And they work all month and don't make no money
A fight for power, a nuclear shower
A people shout out in the darkest hour
Sights unseen and voices unheard
And finally the bomb gets the last word
Christians killed Muslims and Germans killed Jews
And everybody's bodies are used and abused
Huh, minds are poisoned and souls are polluted
Superiority complex is deep rooted
Leeches and lices, and people got prices
Egomaniacs control the self-righteous
Nothin' is sacred and nothin' is pure
So the revelation of death is our cure
Peoples in terror, the leaders made a error
And now they can't even look in the mirror
Cause we gotta suffer while things get rougher
And that's the reason why we got to get tougher
So learn from the past and work for the future
And don't be a slave to no computer
Cause the children of Man inherit the land
And the future of the world is in your hands
So just throw your hands in the air
And wave em like you just don't care
And if you believe that you're the future
Scream it out and say oh yeah (Oh yeah)
Oh yeah (Oh yeah)
Rrrrhaa!
Beat Street Breakdown, rrrrhaa!