*yawn* Dallas, you tryna win the “C.Delores Tucker of the Year” Award…In America when you get over on somebody for the sake of making money, it’s called capitalism…not that I champion capitilism, but that’s how it is…you get no points for chastising one successful black man for being part of that system just because you want to get on your soapbox and throw stones as if you’re a saint…that whole “lieing to the hood” rhetoric is weak, it’s deeper than rap..I feel where you comin from..but thats life..and the whole “hustler” word thing..who cares what hustler used to mean in the 60′s or whatever..it has a new meaning now, stop trying to turn that into some type of clever observation cus it’s not…I’m sure hustler had another meaning before that one…but other than that good post.

The fact that Jigga put forward this hustler image, for me, is just a branding within the showbiz. See, for the mainstream, gangsta was taken, so was thugs and all that. I think he was around bad people at times, but never got too deep in the dope game, or else he won’t be where he is right now. And he tried different ways to be put on, but couldn’t get a deal. And since he knew something about the dope game (being a smart guy, at least business wise as we can see), hustler seemed the way to go. And it worked for him. Plus the guy has talent.

A really skilled artist knows how to talk about something he never did, make it accessible for everyone and make you believe in it, since creating a fantasy, a world of aesthetic, and purely aesthetic ideal, is his first mission. Tarantino, Scorsese, shit even Michael Bay come to mind.

You have the right not to like, but understand that they’re not role models, they’re merely painters. I’ve yet to walk in a museum, see people screaming and shouting because the ladies portrayed in all Gauguin’s paintings look like underage polynesian girls.

You make real valid points, Dallas. But I don’t think there’s more to it than paintings.

On that note:

“They’re all actors
Looking at themselves in the mirror backwards
Can’t even face themselves, don’t fear no rappers
They’re all weirdos, DeNiro’s in Practice
So don’t believe everything your earlobe captures
Its mostly backwards
Unless it happens to be as accurate as me
And everything said in song you happen to see
Then actually, believe half of what you see
None of what you hear even if its spat by me
And with that said, I will kill niggas dead
Cut niggas short, give you wheels for legs
Im a K-I- double -L-E-R
See ya’ll in hell …”

Oh….and about the no facial hair statement, did you ask Mike Tyson what he think of this ?

Detroit P,
I am addressing you because you mentioned that capitalism is the system that we live under whether we like it or not.

A Black artist has a responsibility, like it or not, to stop the procession of young Black males headed to prison. If America didn’t have the legacy of racism and supremacy towards Black people then maybe what Jay-Z says in rhyme form wouldn’t matter as much as it does.

If you are willing to overlook someone’s moral and ethical responsibility towards my community that is your business and your mindset. My father didn’t raise me that way so I have to speak on this.

It’s a true Black thing. You wouldn’t understand.

DP,
If Jay was still in the hood I could get with your feeling some sort of way about his moral and ethical responsibility or lack thereof to the community. He’s obviously taken what he did and turned this thing around. I would like to believe he’s even done so good!

On the other hand I know for certain that there are atleast a hundred dudes on worldstar right now who are still in the hood who could use a good blogging about moral and ethical responsibility to the community.

I just told a couple cats the other day, who wanted me to support the idea that it was ok to do what you have to do to get by. I reminded them of real men out in the world doing everything they wanted to do, not things they have to do. Told em’ i felt like they hated they peoples and community!

I come out the corner stores minutes later and all my windows busted out! I’m driving the work all breezy now! Thats why i’m posting for the first time!

This is a horrible drop. The bitch is talking some weak ass shit.

Sure dumb ass in yr day they said pusher and a hustler was a fag. they also high fived and gave each other skin. Bad meant good and…we get it.

Welcome to 2009 ten years deep in the “new” century where a hustla is slang for drug dealer, squares are called lames, giving skin is called dap and wha down is the greetin.

in the words of the legend Jay-Z(who you envy deep down)
“Swich up yr flow, shits garbage.
What you tryin to kick…knowledge?”

Can’t front, you spit that real shit right there. But hey, I love the way Jay-Z sounds on the microphone.

I thought a successful Black man was one who rose above the poverty and issues of the ghetto life and moved on to a better place for their family to embellish in for generations to come.

So all the 9 to 5′ers out there, the kids who are the first in the fam to attend college & graduate, the community working cats that do steer the troubled away from certain mental or physical death, are not successful?

Or is it people measure success through materialistic items? Or whatever the media determines to be successful?

I was fortunate to have an OG school me when I was younger. Something generation now wants no part of. Showed me the ropes to not be a part of it, but to get AWAY FROM IT. It was his way of retribution. SAVE ANOTHER IF YOU CAN”T BE SAVED.

And I ran in the streets hardbody. But still got my ass up everyday and went to work.

I love the music because hell yeah, I can relate to a lot of it. Because I did a lot of it. But I still had a life, which was worth more than the streets and did something with myself. And still visit hospitals and chill with the kids, share meals and peel a little something for dudes who still are trying to figure it out.

But I will be damned if someone is gonna tell me I’m not successful because my success doesn’t resemble a Jigga or some other n*gga.

ANY MAN HOLDING IT DOWN LOOKING AT 40 FROM THE GHETTO AND IS STILL DOING IT IS SUCCESSFUL. DON’T THINK SO?

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND NAME ALL THE BROTHERS YOU KNOW PERSONALLY WHO ARE DEAD OR IN JAIL NEVER COMING OUT AGAIN.

If Jay had not done some things in the streets would it then be ok for him to rap about these things?
I guess what I mean is that we don’t get all upset at the movie makers for the ultra violent and truly depicted tales they weave because we know they had no part of such life? Hmmmm!

So were those tweets from Peedi Crak or Nas? Everything said in those tweets was true.

no dope boy ever forced a kid to smoke his shit. No corner boy ever had a sales pitch…don’t blame nobody for your addictions and demons but yourself

on a knowledge tip…realize pharmacological determinism is a lie. Drug dealers aint poisoning communities…the communities were already sick

drugs don’t exist in our hoods cause dealers push them or even cause the CIA invented crack or w/e you believe…they exist cause too many niggas are depressed, jobless and hopeless…drug abuse is just a symptom of a deeper illness

Demand creates supply. If all the coke in america was gone tomorrow, all those fiends would still end up throwing their lives away on one destructive diversion or another

Mushrooms & weed are natural, so probably the addict in those cases. Until some greedy, business-minded caveman came along & decided he could get way more sticks & rocks if he made moves.