Thug Life Army

RAP CRAP TREASON ACT aka Hip-hop VS Bourgeois Negros Case II  By Paradise Gray

Hip-hops official "Public Defender"

Once again I am called upon to defend Hip-hop from the mad rantings of a bourgeois Negro who wastes good ink on wild accusations and spews mad hatred on our music and culture without even an attempt at solutions, attacking the symptoms of society’s sickness but offering no medicine to cure the disease. Another well respected black journalist and author blames all of the ills of the black family and community on Hip-hop. For the record, I am not attempting to defend the negative lyrics spit by many of today's rap stars. Sister Pearl Jr. appears to roll all of Hip-hop into one big ball of negativity and falsely accuses Hip-hop as a whole with her "RAP CRAP TREASON ACT" and in the process is condemning all participants of Hip-hop culture as criminal.

I enter a plea for my client Hip-hop: "NOT GUILTY" and I counter charge "Pearl Jr" with perjury and Class-ism. Many rights and freedoms in this post 911 country have come under attack, President Bush's Government has illegally tapped phones of American citizens, challenged the rights of so called illegal aliens, lied to the people and started an immoral war against Islam, contributed to what will be known as the greatest conspiracy of our time, contributed to the disaster of Katrina, has established a fascist police state, and all we can count on from our educated sister is more savage penmanship attacking the voice of the people and our most precious children!

The popular opinion in the last 10 years is that 75% of all Hip-hop cd's are purchased by 13 - 24 year old Caucasian suburban youths.

But amazingly white communities haven''t been over-run with the same conditions that face our youth so how can we blame the music?

You are what you eat, our children have been fed a steady diet of The American way: Sex, Drugs and Violence during their formative years, this is not just in Hip-hop culture but permeates all American culture. By the time a child is 13 years old he has witnessed thousands of murders on TV and in films and if he is from the black community he has probably witnessed someone killed personally. My Mother breast fed me, my brother and my sister, she sang and danced with us. She totally controlled the media that we consumed including TV, radio and what we listened to on the stereo, most of today's kids get a bottle of similac and are plopped in front of the TV as their baby sitter.  What you consume is not just what goes into your mouth, but what goes into your eyes and ears as well. Garbage In = Garbage Out.

We cannot blame Hip-hop or anyone else for that, It is time to take responsibility for our own children.

I will now proceed to pick Sister Pearl Jrs. case apart point by ignorant point:

Pearl Jr.:

"The biggest improvement of the Black race was directly after the civil rights movement from 1965 to 1985. We had Willie Mays breaking Babe Ruth's all time Home-run record. We had Michael Jackson selling more albums than the Beatles and Elvis Presley. We had Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan changing the way basketball was played by adding sensational acrobatic moves. We had Mike Tyson being the youngest man to ever be crowned the heavyweight champion. We had Oprah Winfrey smash Phil Donahue's ratings and begin a new trend of talk shows. We had Bill Cosby crossing over to having the #1 show on TV for several seasons. Damn, we were winning and then the enactment of the RAP CRAP TREASON ACT went into full effect and all that was won is now lost and distorted  into making one Nigger rich to hurt millions of unsuspecting Black people."

Paradise Gray:

What exactly were we winning? The acceptance of white people? Entertainment is not freedom! I thought that you were educated, we are the creators of mathematics, science, astronomy, chemistry, the concept of one God, we built the Pyramids and all but invented civilization. George Washington Carver created over 300 inventions using the peanut alone. How the heck were the weak examples of the meager accomplishments of entertainers an improvement on that?

Besides your case is full of errors and holes, first of all  Willie Mays did not break Babe Ruth's record, Hank Aaron did. And Barry Bonds just broke it again and is very close to breaking Hanks record soon. Magic and  Jordan did not change the game in the way you gave them credit for, Dr. J, Dominique Wilkens and Clyde Drexler did that. Contrary to popular TV commercials the revolution won''t be about basketball. You chose the most superficial examples of success as great accomplishments. Almost every single example that you used as a winner has been either discredited or drowned in negativity and controversy:

Who cares how many records Michael Jackson sells if he can''t stop playing with little boys.

Magic Johnson has AIDS and Michael Jordan was at the center of a gambling investigation and was busted cheating on his wife. Mike Tyson's life is one of the worst train wrecks in history! He was knocked out by Buster Douglas, convicted of raping a Black woman and has been a laughing stock of a boxer since biting a part of Evander Holyfields ear off during an embarrassing loss. How exactly has "Bill Cosby crossing over" been a win for our community? Bill Cosby has joined you (Pearl Jr.) as an elitist bourgeois snob, disconnected from his people running off at the mouth in a most disrespectful way towards our people and dumping blame on Hip-hop. Here are some of Mr. Cosby's latest quotes (from an article on blackcommentator.com):

"Cosby on literacy -  "Basketball players – multimillionaires – can''t write a paragraph. Football players – multimillionaires – can''t read. Yes, multimillionaires. Well, Brown versus Board of Education: Where are we today? They paved the way, but what did we do with it? That white man, he's laughing. He's got to be laughing: 50 percent drop out, the rest of them are in prison."

Cosby on poor Black women - "Five, six children – same woman – eight, 10 different husbands or whatever. Pretty soon you are going to have DNA cards to tell who you are making love to. You don''t know who this is. It might be your grandmother. I am telling you, they''re young enough! Hey, you have a baby when you are 12; your baby turns 13 and has a baby. How old are you? Huh? Grandmother! By the time you are 12 you can have sex with your grandmother, you keep those numbers coming. I''m just predicting."

Cosby on the sons and daughters of poor, Black, unmarried mothers -  "with names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Cosby on Blacks shot by police - "These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, [saying] ''The cops shouldn''t have shot him.'' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"

In the immortal words of Richard Pryor (as told by Eddie Murphy) "tell Bill Cosby to have a Coke and a smile and Shut The Fuck Up".

While I agree with the statement: "the responsibility for saving ourselves is up to us and the videos on BET are continuously disrespecting and devaluing Black 

women"

The shop owner rightly exercised his right to turn off the TV, I respect him for that. BET, MTV and all of the Viacom and Clear Channel Stations on TV and the radio and they''re sponsors should be boycotted for the images that they portray of our people as a whole as well as many magazines, newspapers and billion dollar multi-media companies.

But your boy was wrong to say: "teaches Black males that THUG LIFE equates to manhood". He further explained, it teaches our children not to fear prison life".

Tupac Shakur (R.I.P. 2Pac) coined the phrase "T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E." and many older black people who are disconnected from our youth miss-understand it's purpose. "T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E." is an acronym for "The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone", and is accompanied by a set of street codes that Tupac wrote in an attempt to bring order and morals to gang members and drug dealers. The codes were accepted and signed by Crips and Bloods at a peace treaty picnic in LA in 1992.

So yes indeed THUG LIFE does equate to Manhood. We should not "fear" prison, Governments should fear the people, the people should not fear their Government.

Pearl Jr.:

"In the history of the world, there has never been a group of people who have developed more creative musical styles than Black people: Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, Disco, and the ever popular Motown sound that named their acts uplifting names such as the Miracles, the Marvellettes, the Supremes, the 4 tops, etc. have all retired into the depths of being archaic to today's dysfunctional youth".

Paradise Gray:

Don''t forget Rock and Roll, whatever happened to that? You sure did name some great musical groups, however what exactly did these great groups set up for the next generation? Nothing, we had to create Hip-hop from scratch (literally). How did today's dysfunctional youth benefit from anything that these great musicians accomplished? Did they set up youth centers build schools or hospitals in the hood? Did they support the creation of black buisnesses or lead the charge for social change? They were nothing more than feel good pacifiers placed in our mouths to make us forget our problems. You criticize Russel Simmons, P-Ditty and JZ as sell outs but no mention that Berry Gordy was the first black mogal to sell his music label, nor that Motown ripped off it's artists, musicians and producers (rent the DVD "Standing in the shadows of Motown"), none of those groups had the business sense of today's hip-hop artists and were all slaves to the system that is the music industry, many of them died broke and poor and did not own their publishing nor masters.

"If you do not own the Masters, then the Masters own you" - Chuck D (Public Enemy)

Pearl Jr.:

"Music has always been the soulful essence of African people. The drumbeat was a form of communication and singing in the cotton and tobacco fields made the long and harsh days of slavery only bearable, enabling the field slave to live to an average age of 28. Slaves were simply worked to death, but singing Negro spirituals gave those left to live another day, hope for a better tomorrow"

Paradise Gray:

True indeed, but not every African sang and beat his drum "Just To Get By". There were hundreds maybe even thousands of slave revolts world-wide and you can bet that there was singing and drumming to conjure up the spirits of the Ancestors and Gods before bringing war to slave masters. We all didn''t just tap dance and fiddle our way through slavery, we ended it with bravery not with proclamations and declarations (don''t believe the hype).

Pearl Jr.:

"I further charge rappers with treason due to: Increasing the prison population of Black males 300% in the just 20 years."

Paradise Gray:

So, Crack and the governments "War On Drugs" had nothing to do with this?

Pearl Jr.:

"Provoking Black on Black murder rate to being 1,150% higher than White on White homicides".

Paradise Gray:

So, crack, unemployment and gangs have nothing to do with this?

Pearl Jr.:

"The declining Black marriage rate and the rising Black divorce rate".

Paradise Gray:

What the????? How did Hip-hop music affect this? White divorces have also risen. Something deeper than music is at fault in all of these so called points that you are reaching horribly to make.

Pearl Jr.:

"Normalizing the single-parent household".

Paradise Gray:

I''m 42 years old and my parents are still together but as a child most people in my neighborhood already had 1 parent households, are you sure welfare and section 8 had nothing to do with this? You psuedo intellectuals seem to have selective memory disorder. You select all of the good things that you remember about your youth and the music that was available when you were young, like there were no Millie Jackson's or Blow Fly's, no misogyny, when I didn''t need to hear about pimps and hoes from music back then, they were on the block. And you ignore the social conditions of the time, those were no "good ole days", there were more street gangs and as many opportunities to get into trouble. Bourgeois Negros always throw Jazz music in my face, forgetting or ignoring that herion flowed through the viens of a large percentage of the best Jazz artists. Our generation is no better than todays youth and the blame for the conditions of this generations children is firmly in our hands.

Pearl Jr.:

"And damn it, I charge rap artists with faking the diction of a retarded person as something to strive for, when any retarded person would jump at the chance to have a higher IQ. For example, the lazy talk of 50 cent and T.I. being rewarded for sounding like they have no sense at all, and absolutely no education. This subliminal message tells impressionable and vulnerable youth that you can actually win in life by talking as if they have not one year of education. When in actuality these rap fools are being used to fool us into believing the lie that it doesn''t matter, when everything in the ghetto is getting worse and an half generation of youth doesn''t even have an high school education."

Paradise Gray:

This point of yours proves exactly how disconnected you are from general knowledge of your people and how little research you did before writing your "rant". 50 Cent speaks the way that he does because he has been shot in the face! If you shoot a professor in the face he would probably speak a little differently after-wards, you think? T.I. speaks with a southern drawl, but he is highly intelligent, he doesn''t come off as dumb at all. What are you listening to?

Pearl Jr.:

"Hell yes, I''m charging them with a crime, but the only punishment in my power is to NOT buy any of their music, NOT watch any of their videos, NOT view any of  their movies or TV shows; basically BANKRUPT them out of existence"

Paradise Gray:

A crime? Why not, America has already criminalized our children, handcuffing and arresting 4 and 5 year olds for having tantrums in school. You say you want them "out of existence"? Our children? That is harsh. Why are you bourgeois Negro ranters so tough on our children but so willing to forget the crimes of this government and the multi-billion dollar corporations that provide and make the most money off of the backs of their labor? Why not charge the companies that sponsor them with 30 Million dollar deals as co-defendants and conspirators? I hear no talk of the Multi billion Dollar media Corporations being wiped out of existence. If you wipe all of our children out, they will be replaced  in no time with new ones by the real criminals who have bought and paid for the newspapers, magazines, TV stations, Radio stations, internet ISP's, satellite channels, movie companies and all other forms of media. They are the ones in control, but you would punish the victims? I''m sure that they will not miss a dime of your money as you probably never supported any of the many conscious Hip-hop groups in the past or present.

Where is the support for Immortal Technique, Lord Jamal,  Dead Pres, Common,  Public Enemy, A-Alikes, Talib Kwali, KRS-1, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, X-Clan? Don''t act like they don''t exist. Why are they not being  offered 30 Million Dollar deals? Why aren''t they on the radio in full rotation, selling 5 - 10 million cd's?

That is the main problem that I have with you intellectual masturbators, you never ever support any of our wonderful young people. I never see you writing about the good things that our young people or culture has to offer. You just sit back in your ivory towers on white horses and act like you are better than us. Like we have no redeeming values, ignoring us when we do good, shitting on us when we do bad. That my good sister is not LOVE. Don''t hate me at my worst if you don''t love me at my best or acknowledge me when we try our best. The pen is mightier than the sword, you ranters become as good tool as rappers who write negative lyrics for white supremacy when you attack our music and culture the way that yall'' do while offering no solutions. You just go on about the problems that ails us pointing fingers and naming names, meanwhile what are you personally doing in your community or anywhere else to make improvements? When you point your finger at someone else there are 3 fingers pointing back at you.

Pearl Jr.:

Destroying the sell-out mentality is my goal.

Paradise Gray:

If that is truely your goal then why are you selling a whole culture and generation up the river? You made a few good points but overall your statements are far too broad and emcompass far too many people. You act as if ALL HIP-HOP is guilty of being negative and you leave no room for exceptions.

I will end this as I always do, by making an attempt to call on not just bourgeois Negros, but all people to do something about the situation that is faced by today's youth! They are our children. Get off the couch, out of the churches and get into the streets. The streets belong to us. Instead of complaining about what's going on mobilize, organize, put your time and money where your mouth is. If you cannot create something that will make change, join with others who are already out there organizing to make a difference. Join the Zulu Nations program to bring balance back to radio. Join Brother Paul Porter's boycott of BET, MTV and all of Viacom's properties and sponsors. Create after school programs, anti-drug programs, Join the National Political Hip-hop Convention, Join the Millions More Movement, Mad Dads, Join Unlock the Vote and fight against the prison industrial complex, tutor and mentor our children.

"If we do not activate or motivate we deserve what we will get" - Africa Bambaataa

Ignorance is not bliss. Hip-hop is ours and the Hip-hop generation is none other than our children, they need love too, give it to receive it.

Paradise Gray

Public Defender For Hip-hop

A rap fool that dosn''t even have a high school diploma.

http://www.myspace.com/paradisegray