A recent Fox 4 report pits the gangsta -- sorry, *cough* -- reality rap of local rhymesmith Black Walt against the "golden door"-seeking Mayor Pro-temp and Adhoc leader Alvin Brooks. Does Brooks throw his hands in the air like he just don't care at hearing Walt's tales of urban violence? What do you think? (Transcript here.)
The most important thing I got out of this video is that Black Walt's new album, Exclusive, is coming out sometime next month. (That's a really cool cover, by the way.) The second most important thing I got is that, as predicted, community leaders still can't make room in their ideologies for the fact that rappers aren't going to change their tune just because the old folks want to hear something more "positive." Anytime you bring in someone from outside the culture of gangsta rap -- whether it's a city politician or a TV news crew -- they're always going to focus on the lyrics.
So how about this: How about we all just take the lyrics as a given? How about we just take for granted that hardcore gangsta/reality/whateveryouwannacallit lyrics are going to contain violence, bad language, glorification of spending money on things you don't need, etc. etc. and just fucking move on? Hell, let's enjoy it! (Or if you can't enjoy it, at least accept the fact that others are going to.) This is folk music. It's not going to change unless the environment in which it's created changes first, and when that happens, it'll be a natural process. By the same token, there is absolutely no way to change the environment by forcing change onto the music.
I'm not saying this is the case with Brooks -- he just happened to be interviewed for this story -- but for many politicians and uptight old fogies, rap lyrics are a straw-man target that makes an easy (and illogical) substitute for a real social issue. Rap lyrics aren't an issue -- they're a fact. Like Black Walt says, rappers aren't encouraging their listeners to do what's in their songs -- the songs are just stories. Chill the fuck out, y'all.
Wu-Tang forever.
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Black Walt also supports other artists. Saw him at the Anarchy Tour homecoming at the Riot Room. Keep it goin'.
Amen, Black Walt.
I definitely think that artists like you who take part in volunteer work that uplifts your community deserve publicity for that more than for whatever "scary" street imagery goes into your verse. You could record 1,000 totally positive songs, but when your one song that mentions the existence of violence gets on the radio, that's all people care about. It's wack.
HELLO MY NAME IS BLACK WALT-IN RESPONSE TO YOUR ARTICLE-FIRST OF ALL-I HAVE QUITE A FEW (POSITIVE) SONGS IN MY MUSIC CATALOG-RADIO IS A BUSINESS JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE-THEY PLAY WHAT`S SELLING & CREATING THE MOST BUZZ(AS YOU CAN SEE IN THIS HERE CASE),SO THEY CAN GET THE MOST LISTENERS-WHEN I APPROACHED RADIO A YEAR AGO WITH A (POSITIVE) SONG I HAD CALLED(USA TODAY),THEY TURNED ME DOWN-THEN I APPROACHED THEM AGAIN WITH A(POSITIVE)SONG CALLED(LIL MOMA),ADDRESSING TEEN-AGE PREGNACY,THEY TURNED ME DOWN AGAIN-ACTUALLY I DIDN`T APPROACH RADIO WITH THIS SONG(KC MIZZOU),PEOPLE WERE PLAYING IT IN THE INNER-CITY & IN THE CLUBS,THEN THEY STARTED CALLING THE STATION(REQUESTING) THIS SONG-THE RADIO STATION CALLED ME & ASKED ME 2 SEND IT TO THEM,THAT`S HOW THE SONG STARTED GETTING PLAYED-I AM A DIVERSIFIED ARTIST,I RAP ABOUT SEVERAL SUBJECT MATTERS(GOOD & BAD)THAT GO ON IN THE INNER CITY-FURTHERMORE-I DO A LOT OF COMMUNITY WORK IN THE INNER-CITY ALSO,WE GIVE AWAY TURKEY`S TO THE HOMELESS @ THANKSGIVING TIME,WE DONATE TOYS & MANPOWER TO TONY G`S FOOD & TOY DRIVE,& I ALSO WORK WITH TROUBLED-TEEN`S THROUGHOUT THE INNER-CITY-BOTTOM LINE IS,YOU CANNOT CRUCIFY OR JUDGE ME AS A PERSON,BEHIND A SONG-IT`S MY JOB,IM A INNER-CITY NEWS REPORTER,YOU HAVE A CHOICE-LISTEN OR TURN THE STATION,IT`S THAT SIMPLE-IF RADIO RAISES OR INFLUENCES YOUR KIDS-SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG WITHIN YOUR HOUSEHOLD!!
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