Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
I hate both that shits.
I like "conscious" rap.
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first and foremost
lets examine the Top Tamale of Mob Music, e-40:
"now you might not know or understand what I'm talkin about unless you seen it lived it or done it.."
quarterbacking
How is this music conscious? Well aside from tunes of his latest album like
"Pray For Me" and the 90s hitish cut
"Things'll Never Change" hustla rap/mob music has a most definite conscious streak in the context of revealing the underside of the block. This music addresses some of the major problems of what text books call "urban/inner city" dynamics, problems that in a very real and tangible way negatively (and positively) affect literally millions of people.
I like many deal constantly with police abuse and brutality.. it is a daily thing, we want to hear it in the story tellin about our communities, our daily grind..
"The el roys, they don't play, pull a nigga over three times in one day, make you get down on yo knees like you finnin to pray, beat yo ass up and leave you naked in an ally way.." (
Married to the Ave) and look at tunes like
"Zoom"
"I seen it in a dream, a big white home, looked like a office building
An old school Brougham with a sunroof ceiling
Thug living, sixty-four ounce of drinkin thinkin
"How could I come up, and purchase me a Lincoln?"
Drug dealin, leelin and dealin tryin to make a million
Blood spillin, driveby walk up to that nigga peel him
Back then I was blind, penetentiary chance at jail
Livin off my gahl for hella long she worked at Taco Bell
And if the heater ain't workin and it's freezin cold
We open up the oven and turn on the stove
Survival, granddaddy's appreciation revival church
of pentacostal, we raised money by givin car washes"
"I hope I Don't Go Back"
"And just think, I used to sit the bench
I remember gettin chased by the cops, had to get my stomach pumped
full of a quarter ounce of rocks, late afternoon
Po-po waitin for me outside of Vallejo Kaiser Permanente
emergency room with glocks, ready to Rodney King me to death
Somehow I managed to make my escape through
the
back of the cafeteria by the vending machine department quickly
Found myself runnin through the Friendship Apartment Complex
over there by the railroad tracks, around the corner from the
People's Continuation High School
Somewhere off in Lofas, behind Je-nai's Liquor ooh"
these are realistic stories as much as any 'eastcoast' styles, just out here we live different
stories. but we want to hear our own lives in our music, we want "music y'all can relate to, when its sunny ride by slide by get at a honey, I know these streets like I know my dick, I can tell you, the nigga thats about to get jacked and that nigga that pulled the lick I got this bitch on lock!"
and in regards to street advice, the kids on these streets NEED TO HEAR ABOUT THIS SHIT!
period. out on the blocks, some folks are sloppy and get caught slippin way to often, and instead
of hearing a bunch of gangsta rappers glorify the violence, or a bunch of bling rappers completely ignoringreal life, some rappers are using a popular medium to promote a different kind of conscious, to "be about it or without it"
Sometimes conscious music is music that gives you realist advice to work within your own circumstances. You have to be realistic sometimes.. I can't convince a youth to stop serving that yay on the corner, but he is gonna, I at least want him to be smart about that shit, because I don't want to see that youth in jail or worse dead or killing somebody else's kids
because of being sloppy.
These kids need to hear shit like
"Beware of your surroundings, gotta hand pick all yo homies, gotta watch out on these phones cuz them folks might be tapin.."
or
"when yo spider sense tells you somethin is up, then I suggest you go with yo gut, don't ignore your first mind, always pay attention to that voice inside always be alert always be aware always lookin over yo shoulder, always be alert of them rollers.."
now Rob, when I am passing through watts or south central or even just south gate
on foot, that shit is the best advice I could get. RZA may be putting out some super conscious shit when he says,
"A Day to God is a Thousand Years.." but on the real, folks out there will try to snatch your chain if you let em get all up in your ear on the street. As e-40 said, "Can't be a punk about yo hustle"
I take the Garveyite UNIA and Panthers format of realist/street approach to social justice and community awareness/reform. It takes time to get neighborhoods to change bad and degenerative habits, so it takes baby steps to get shit accomplished. Realistic approaches are absolutely necessary, so again, if kids are gonna do them things, they need to do it right and once we all trust each other, perhaps we can increase our dialogue.