Troy Harris
"Fuck these bitches. I swear I care bout everything BUT these bitches."
"I don't love em'. I don't chase em' I duck em'."
"Imma treat her like a dog, feed her like a dog, beat her like a dog, then pass her to my dog."
That sounds bad to me when I hear it on the radio, but it looks even worse. Yes, thats right, black people don't value themselves enough to value each other any more than the 'fucker' or 'fuckee', so to speak. That's bad. Real bad. DON'T GET ME WRONG, sex is great, but there truly is more to life and relationships than sucking and fucking. I really do believe now that what you listen to is what you become, and if this is what sells nowadays, then we can no longer sit and blame it on the artist. Half of it falls on our shoulders too, ya know. This is what we like, so they make it... simple. Go back as little as 20-30 years ago, when almost every song made was about love. The ins, outs, ups, downs, peaks, and valleys of our number one instinct: LOVE. Artists from The Beatles to Prince and the Revolution to Earth Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, The Isley Brothers and many others, in my opinion, are just a distant, fading version of soul-fortifying music that is heavily lacking nowadays.
The other day I tweeted a statement about love. It read: "Humans are animals. Animals act off of instinct. The number 1 instinct is love. If you can't love then you are not a sound living being." (How can you ignore an instinct? You ever tried saying "Fuck food!" or "We don't love no water" or "Fuck breathing air, I'm gettin to this money"?) Even though I'm biased, because I said it, this statement couldn't be any more true. Really. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not love, or be loved by, anybody? No birthday presents to give or receive, no phone calls to make or answer, no happiness or sadness. Just.... nothing. Well, I think we're heading there sooner than later and at an alarming, exponential rate. People feed off of the energy around them. So if a girl/boy feels like they mean nothing to someone, (even someone who they care a lot about) consequently, they will begin to reciprocate, to some degree, the same vibe to that person, until eventually she/he won't care about him either. You ever heard that "time heals all wounds"? Well, the human brain is very powerful and it does things like that to make you feel better. This works systemically, like most things in society, ignites a rolling snowball of numbness that gets faster, bigger, and more powerful with every single person that feeds off of it. (Look at the divorce, abortion, and unwanted pregnancy rates in our community) As a culture in America, we are now officially reduced to a people consisting of niggas, hoes, and bitches. Not girls and boys, brothers and sisters, ladies and gents, women and men, or husbands and wives. We leave little room for progression and I'm not sure if anybody is taking notice.
We're becoming watermarked. Yep. (Like the Microsoft Word function you use when you want to WEAKEN a pictures color and beauty in order to put attention on something else.) Less and less of what we truly are, not just as blacks but people period. One of my friends explained love very simply to me one day. "...it's when you love your self so much that your love comes overflowing out of your cup and into someone else's." Basically, you can't truly love someone until you love yourself. But its hard to love yourself, truly, when nobody else truly does. So our society, which in some ways, has taught our people to despise their skin color, culture, and race is coupled with our own Black society that says "Hey nigga, fuck these hoes. Unless you fuckin' these bitches. That shit fi!" Sounds like a downward spiraling cycle of limitations on our ability to coexist. We've got a conundrum on our hands. I don't know the answer. It's tough.
How can we spread love with no love to spread? (It takes more than a knife and a slice of bread to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.)
Why do we act like this?
How did it start?
How will it end?
Will it ever end?
What are the long term effects of literally zapping all love out of a race of people?
Idk. Idk. Idk. Idk. Idk. Idk.
But I DO know this:
We all have two choices (as always): You can be part of the solution, or part of the problem. Pick one.
6 comments:
Idk if i can comment because i dont have an account or whatever...This entire blog had me smiling though...I agree to the fullest extent. Its time to wake up, even to those who are loved by many. Its important to reciprocate that love to others. You never know what someone else is going through, or the love that others may lack in their lives...anger is becoming an epidimic in the black community..wake up!!!
Ahhhhhh!!!!I loved this!!!
Not discrediting the genius behind musical artists who create beats we love to hear, or lyrics that appease some peoples fancy. Hey its a job, and they are successful at what they do.
BUT the music of our generation is pointless and debasing!
If asked whats the definition of love? Making love? Sex? Intimacy? People now days wouldn't know what to say.
I appreciate that there still exists a percentage of YOUNG African Americans who are NOT "watermarked" or brainwashed.
Keep up the great work!
This blog should be read by all people seriously. I tweeted a while back about how the music we listen to is influencing the way we think and live our lives; we don't have the music like Teddy, Isley Brothers, Marvin, and many more...These are the guys that shaped last generation. We have people shaping our generation on money, h***, f******, things that don't really motivate us to love our culture or ourselves. Good stuff Troy!!!!!!!!!!
What disturbs me the most is that this type of music is mainstream and favored above almost anything else among the young black and/or urban communities. There are so many hip hop lyricists and other artists who have powerful, meaningful, and therapeutic messages in their songs...songs about our history, our culture, our issues, and our struggles. Sadly, most of these artists are underground, unnoticed, or unappreciated.
We live in a society driven by dollar signs and pleasures.
I couldn't agree more. For years I used to get looked at crazy because I just wasn't feeling rap lyrics. True, I listen to it now… But I would wager that my ipod is definitely filled to the brim with wholesome-meaningful THOUGHT provoking songs.
I hate when other African Americans become closed minded as far as what type of music they listen to. That is pure ignorance. I think that if they would branch out more and discover what life has to offer, we as a people would be in a much better place.
Music has a lot of influence in the world. Hip hop is a multibillion dollar conglomerate and with Barack Obama in office… I feel as though we should want to change our lyrics. They [artists] are at the forefront and can spear head this movement of true change! I cannot imagine why it has not happened yet.
I agree agree with this article whole-heartedly.
"Hip-hop is a multibillion dollar conlomerate"-this means that not only does it affect our community, but the world. When we help perpetuate these messages, how do we expect for anybody else, England, Russia, China, to take us seriously-even if Barack Obama is in office. In the back of their minds they see video hos and dudes with gold chains...
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