I love music
I love politics
So
It is only natural I enjoy when they intersect.
Word to Death Certificate.
What I don’t like as much is when hypercritical individuals decide to take a righteous stand on a issue when the ground they are standing on is as fragile as a scene from “2012”
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Earlier today a friend of mine asked me what my thoughts were on Plies’s new song “Why U Hate”. Given that I’m not a fan of the Goon extraordinaire, I had to look it up, which in this day in age took about .5 seconds. 2 minutes and some seconds later I wasn’t impressed.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not a inherent Plies hater, my introduction to the southern “MC” was via “100 Years” which quite frankly was right up somebody of my political bents alley. I didn’t mind “Shawty”, as I understood why, and thought it deserved to be a hit, and respected and continue to respect his acumen in regards to being able to make hits.
My issue with Algernod Washington is his willful proliferation of the “Goon” lifestyle which is basically the southern incarnation of “Thug Life” on steroids. Now I’m not one who despises ignorance on all levels, in fact I indulge in it quite often, but when you try to do a 180 and address issues that seriously affect millions of indiviguals in a literal life or death manner, problems arise. (I’ll save my thoughts on the atrocious “Becky” for another day, I HATE that song, and imagine me hating a song about…….)
For the past 3 years or so Plies has inundated the airwaves with tales of slaging crack, bussen niggaz heads, and fucking numerous hoes, who we are constantly reminded aren’t shit.
Hey, if you want to making a living in our capitalist society by intelligently enlightening /exploiting the masses with tales about the ills that plague a large segment of it, by all means do you. It’s not like he’s selling glass shard laden Popsicles or anything.
Just don’t turn into Dr. King on my ass tho.
“Why You Hate” attempts to address, the omnipresent prejudice towards Black Americans that a significant portion of Whites have held against us since (before) this nations inception. And quite honestly he does a damn good job.
The song and the accompanying video, which contains some powerful imagery, combines potent statements with some poignant Socratic method questioning
“The Shit yall took us through, is prolly the reason we off.”
“The police want us bad, the judge hate us more, the jury think we guilty before we come through the door”.
“Yall take our money, yall won’t help us tho”
“Every law that’s passed,desinged to sink us more, and everytime we go to jail yall get paid tho, but when we ask for money yall slam the door.”
“Because we Black Bra, don’t mean we steal tho, and cuz we from the ghetto don’t mean we dumb tho”
“Respect we had for each other, it wasn’t even close”
All of those are damn good points, that deserve to be included into the “honest discussion about race” this country STEADFASTLY refuses to have.
I’ve personally held the belief that Black America’s self hate didn’t just spontaneously generate, but instead was enginered the petri dish of America, lady justice is far from blind and in fact had lasik surgery in the 17th century, along with the political reality that distributing resources that implicitly help Black Americans, or just by default is guaranteed to cause much consternation.
But
Who is Plies to make such statements?
The easiest way to destroy a message is to have un-credible individual deliver it.
Plies epitomizes the fears and worst stereotypes White America holds towards blacks, in thier honestly held belief assessments, or convenient crutches to denote negro ignorance.
Every cogent point he makes is lost in the abyss of ignorance he exudes on a daily basis
This song is the equivalent of sending Flavor Flav to Congress to enlighten the leaders of our polity on Black Suffering.
Algernod asks in his song:
“Is it the way we live, or is it the way we talk?
While the latter is a indefensible rationale to abhor a people, the former is reasonable rationale to have reservations about any grouping of people.
Plies basks in the same lifestyle the causes so many of the problems he address on this track, and helps create and sustain the views others have of him, have of US, that he articulately queries the holders of as to why they hold them
See why the ground is crumbling beneath him?
While I respect the song on its own merit, I also have some issue with a few of the statements made within it.
Plies states:
“They say are President is black, but we can’t tell tho”.
What type of ignorant nigga shit is that?
As if 44th President of our land didn’t have enough problems, without ignorant niggaz like Plies questioning his Blackness. Yes, I know, despite .the view of many who like to party with tea, he hasn’t addressed the problems of Black Americans specifically during his short time in office, but to say imply that he is just a pawn that isn’t concerned with our well being at all is on of the most shameful and spurious summations I’ve heard this year. If your going to make a political song, at least be learned in the nuances of realpolitik.
“The government distributes, we ain’t really have a choice”
“Your people was born with money, are people was born broke.”
Are also are very problematic
No matter the circumstances anyone human is placed in, he is never devoid of his free will, yes environmental factors definitely influence ones decision making, they do not ULTIMATELY make ones decision.
And
If you think there aren’t MILLIONS of poor White people in this land, I don’t even want to speak to your uneducated ass.
Not to go all Jello pudding pops on yall, but, there isn’t a Black person in this land that hasn’t thought at some point that we our worst enemy whether that summation is right or wrong. Placing the vast majority of the blame on our problems on White people is screams to have someone utter the word disingenuous, and is especially troubling when the claim in being made by a person who willfully promotes that which maligns us.
While I definitely agree that structural racism imposed on Blacks by White America has and CONTINUES to adversely affect us, I refuse to co sign the broad brush utilized by Plies, nor condone his clearly hypercritical stance.
Comments are (wanted) welcome.
Random ILL 