Drip too Hard: I love Us

Drip to Hard
Feeling
spectacular
holding myself up as
waves crash against me knowing I'll
withstand
by WMT

I have a love/hate relationship with some of the current hip/hop industry and the new rap songs that are being produced today, well with most of them actually. The reality is that most of them promote messages that are actually detrimental to our community. On the one hand, they push violence, drug abuse, misogyny, and materialism; however, on the other, we have to question whether it is art imitating life. When rap first started to make waves the argument was that rappers were talking about their experiences and their struggles.

During the rise of rap, we also had a variety to choose from. We had the fun stuff to listen to, conscience rap, gangsta rap, west coast, east coast and etc. Granted now there are a host of new styles of rap being produced but we have to search for them. The music that is being promoted and pushed out in front of us are the ones that in some way shape or form cast us negatively. One thing I do notice is that there's quite a bit of self-medicating going on in our community.

The truth is we are hurting. There are those that are seeking a way out of their current state through the rap and music industry which in turn can put them at a disadvantage. On a whole, our pain and community are being exploited and because some people are desperate to make it, they allow it. When you add the layer of ignorance the outcome is the current state of things.

The aforementioned is the first layer of my love/hate relationship. The second layer is that even in the midst of our pain and struggle and fight and people looking down on us and thinking less of us, we still fly. The best thing about rap music is the confidence and the self-hype that's expressed. I maintain that if we don't love ourselves and celebrate ourselves, no one else will.

Do not trust or expect the media to do it for us. Traditionally, the media through propaganda was the tool used to demean Africans to less than humans which allowed us to be enslaved with a free conscience. Any headway that has been made in mainstream media has been because we fought and clawed for every piece of it. But that self-love, that boasting, and even grandiosity at times is genuine and I believe one aspect of our community that has kept us pushing forward.

So yes. I have a love/hate relationship with rap because it is like a double-edged sword but the way we love us! When Drip too Hard comes on I am in it because I am feeling it. On that same note, we need to be mindful of the images and the truths of our struggle are being used against us.


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