I Got Beef

I was watching a documentary on BET  titled " Beef ". In my opinion it documents the stupidity of a mindset, of a segment of the community.  That to some unavoidable degree influences our young people. It drives this form of music, known as Hip-Hop. It's about ongoing fueds, between rappers and other rappers. Both on and off the microphone. Often these disagreements escalate to violence, even death. The most notable or widely remembered, being between Biggie and Tupac. Which ultimately ended in both young men being killed. I wasn't aware of all the fights going on between so many other artist. I heard about the east coast, west coast thing. But that's just a sample of what's happening. I'm not into the underground, so I'm not up on the latest happening. This spills over to the major artist. People such as LL cool J, Ice Cube, Ja Rule, Fifty Cents and Nelly to name a few. Nelly had the #2 selling cd in the country last year.

It seems that all the successful artist, are in the midst of one, if not several spats. If not now,at some time in the past. The sad thing about this is, it stimulates record sales. I saw all the major rap artist except Eminem, involved in rivalries. Since it's a jockey for position, why isn't anyone challenging him? As a rap artist, he's among the top of the heap. Could it be because this is silly, and he avoids the drama. It appears to be mostly ego clashes, and infighting. Most of the battlers used to be associates, if not friends. I don't want to broad brush the issue, and incriminate hip-hop as a whole. I will say there are far too many instances, of this taking place. These young people are making millions of dollars, and behaving like savages. Some might consider the word "savages" extreme. I think it's appropriate considering what we're dealing with. What do you call two people, that can't live in the same big city?

Rather than devote their energy, to writing more songs. They would rather engage in senseless fighting. Having shootouts and fights, whenever they see each other on the street. Instead of enjoying the accoutrements of being rich. They risk their lives over trivial matters. I would rather see them throw their money away on cars and jewelry. At least no one would be dying.

What bothered me most, was an incident I saw involving a rapper called Lil' Scrappy. He had an issue at one of his shows, with police security. He totally disregarded the rules. In my opinion he should have been put in jail. He almost incited a riot, not to mention getting innocent people hurt. He exemplifies the exact attitude this wayward culture embraces. It's all about me, and no one else matters. If you don't like it, get out of the way. They call it getting crunk. Which usually ends in somebody going to jail, or getting hurt. Prior to the concert Lil Scrappy was told explicitly. He couldn't curse, and he couldn't take his shirt off. He has a history of doing these things in his shows. After first removing his shirt, after being instructed not to. He took a dive into the crowd in an act of defiance. He not only did one thing he was told not to, but he did both. Bringing the young crowd to a frenzy.

Maybe it would be violating his free speech, if it had not been at a middle school. Which is something else I disagree with. I don't like these obscene artist, performing in the schools. When these situations get out of hand. We're only reminded they shouldn't be there anyway. This blatant disrespect for authority, shouldn't be encouraged. If we bring it into the schools, we're giving it the okay. This documentary highlights, their crab mentality. Instead of devoting their time to moving ahead. They devote themselves to keeping each other down. I can only hope the objects of these stories, will see them and be ashamed.

One of the rappers says beef, is when you don't want to bump heads with a ni##a like him in the street. I would take it a step farther, and say you don't want to meet him anywhere. If this is considered acceptable behavior. Why would you want to be someone people avoided? I have no desire to run into these simple minded people anywhere. So if that's what it means, I got beef.