[Opinion] F*ck Lil Reese & Our Desensitization To Ignorance That World Star Hip Hop Has Created
The other point that must be made is how we have become alarmingly more comfortable with the violent destruction of our young women. We laughed when the bus driver uppercut that young women, we somewhat shrugged at Lozada being head butted by Ochocinco and we, as well as Rihanna, forgave Chris Brown for wrecking her face on a chilly February night in California. Although each of these incidents have come with extraordinary circumstances where the woman has to shoulder some of the blame (the young woman attacking the bus driver first, Lozada’s violent past and Rihanna perhaps striking Brown first), these circumstances do not make it okay to batter the opposite sex.
Young black women are losing their value rapidly in our society. Whether it be degraded in music videos as faceless bodies gyrating to the beat or being smacked up on camera without barely a blink of an eye, it is a dangerous time to be a black woman in the United States of America. If us, as black men, don’t value our women, who will? The fact that Lil Reese’s crew was cheering on the destruction of that young woman is troubling. However, WSHH puts up videos of women getting beat up all the time. Whether it be the bus driver uppercut or a group of African American women brawling in the streets while men laugh and wait for a breast to pop out, it’s constantly being embedded into our psyche that we don’t value our women. And if you are a young African American woman that sees the Joseline Hernandez and Evelyn Lozadas of the world get rewarded by being ratchet on television, then what are you to think about how to make it in America? The fact that our women are most valuable when they cheapen themselves is an extraordinary paradox that we have yet to figure out.
So, what do we do in order to combat this? Speak up. If you don’t have a voice that stretches across the country, speak up by not endorsing violent and ignorant images in our music and on our television screens. Don’t buy a Chief Keef record or give him the YouTube clips to remain relevant. (Side note: Isn’t it scary that he has “fans?”)
I know that somebody will say that all of this is harmless at the end of the day and really doesn’t affect how you live.
Well, you go ahead and tell Trayvon Martin’s parents that.
I may receive some backlash for saying this, but instances such as this play a big part as to why Trayvon Martin was shot in cold blood by George Zimmerman. I know, how can I tie all of this to Trayvon? Follow me for a minute…
By creating an atmosphere where our black youth is deemed as violent savages, once one of those presumed beasts escapes the zoo of their ghetto and enters society, people will feel threatened. Thanks to the violent images of our community projected into the homes of corporate America, rural America and the other cities that have never experienced black culture, a stereotype is established. Right or wrong, that is the predominant image of African Americans on the internet. World Star Hip Hop is the #1 urban website. It would be different if Davey D’s site was up there too. But alas, it isn’t.
And let’s keep it real, we are just as afraid of our people as “they” are.
When you see a kid in a hoodie beat a woman senseless on camera and then see another kid with a hoodie in your neighborhood, fear and misunderstanding will cause a negative reaction. It’s called racial profiling kids. Some will call the police out of fear while others will turn into a wild cowboy in an attempt to eradicate the threat.
At the end of the day, Trayvon Martin looks like Lil Reese and Lil Reese looks like Trayvon Martin to the naked eye that is attached to a tainted brain. George Zimmerman followed Martin because he fit the profile, a profile they created and is heightened by websites such as WSHH and record labels that reward this ignorance with fame and a deal. How can we end police brutality, racial profiling, stop and frisk and various other forms of legalized racism when all we do is uphold the stereotype. We have to play our part in making a change and my part is making sure that the other side of our communities are exposed. We are not all savages that enjoy senseless acts of violence. We are intelligent people who struggle to prove that we can make it in this world by being articulate, thought provoking and valuable contributors to society. Sadly, it is much easier to make it and achieve fame by being a fool rather than being the smart kid in the class. It held true in elementary school and is hammered home every single time a WSHH video reaches a million views and a uneducated reality TV star gets paid gross amounts of money to walk through a nightclub.
I’m not scared of my unborn children becoming the next Lil Reese, I’m scared of my unborn children becoming the next Trayvon Martin or Derrion Albert.
Now that’s reality.
Well versed! Same sentiment towards reality TV crap like Jersey Shore, which is thankfully and finally being pulled off the air. Unfortunately, the digital side of things will keep these videos/TV shows archived for many more years to come. Keep doin’ yo thing!
Your comments aren’t off base but I have just a few things to say/add. One I look at the scene and it goes back to the age old thing of WHERE ARE THE PARENTS?. If he is only 18 now, why do I see a gang full of TEENAGERS hanging out, theirs going to be something to happen where you got weed probably alcohol involved happens everywhere even your local bar. But these are children using drugs acting as adults with no real sense they need mentors and in some cases mental health treatment.
you also bring up Trayvon Martin, you say these stereotypes are being put out there by US. funny thing is black boys and black men have been getting beat and robbed by your Zimmerman types for over 200 years in this country. So your flash in the pan argument doesn’t apply there.
With the entertainment industry which is totally different from the real issues. Celebrities are people. some are groomed for their “job” which is to entertain some are coming from different environments is Chief Keef and Reese from Chicago, where we know what has been going on for decades. They are NEW they do not know the ropes and on top of that they are KIDS. So don’t attack a child, offer some help, some strategies for improvement and stop bashing for the sake of it.
I enjoyed your article
Dre u took the words out of my mouth man it saddens me to see the state of our youth. Keepdoin what u do and being a great example of what a man should aspire to be peace
MM,
Blacks have been persecuted in this country for centuries–without question. However, we are talking about progression, right? A black president. Black CEO’s. Black congressmen, judges, Senators, etc…? I believe Dre is talking about perpetuating the nonsense. Taking ten steps back, while taking one forward, feel me? When you have people like WSHH promoting this shit, how do you expect the paradigm to change? It can’t, that’s the point. As a white man, I can’t speak all-knowingly about certain things, but I can see the anger Dre is releasing. Like he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “if we, as black america, can’t stand up for ourselves (women), who will?” The ‘fear’ of black america is being pushed by a ‘black’ website. It’s astoundingly backwards, immoral, and plain wrong. And that’s where you get Martin and Zimmerman. If our culture wasn’t promoting the ‘fear of black’ and change was allowed to breath and thrive, then perhaps forward-thinking individuals would have thought, and not shot Trayvon. But when you have sites–black sites–like WSHH promoting this ‘fear’ how are you supposed to facilitate change? You can’t. There’s no call to responsibility. And I, as a man in this world, can’t help but be furious too. Because at the end of the day, the more ignorant people we have in this country, then indirectly, the bigger asshole I seem like.
Thank U! So tired of this Bullshit. And where are the Women that work in the Hip Hop industry I have yet to hear a word from them…Is there nobody to stand up for Black Girls. We are Urging everybody to boycott Chief Keef when he comes to FAMU’s homecoming..HBCU’s should not support this Foolishness ie Spellman!
First off that’s not lil Reese’s account you idiot. Get your facts together before you talk you’re foolishness
And this is why we created http://www.worldGOODhiphop.com out of disgust for worldstarhiphop….a true hip-hop video aggregator site that posts real hip-hop videos, social commentary, interviews, sports, business oriented content, motivational speakers, etc. The opposite of worldstarhiphop…
Yes, that is Lil Reese’s account. So, get YOUR facts straight. And hit those books and learn proper grammar while you’re at it. Excellent article, by the way. Sad, but true.
ANDREAS HALE: THE FUCKING TUPAC SHAKUR OF 2012 HIP HOP. YOU ARE THE REALEST WRITER IN B-BOY CULTURE AND THE CLEAREST VOICE OF UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ON THE INTERNET.
I was young, dumb and full of rum, drugs and cum too. I’m a young Black North American male. I loved ‘Juice’, ‘Boyz n the Hood’, ‘Menace to Society’. I had friends who lived various parts of the criminal lifestyle that is psychologially and violently projected at the lives of these innocent young men. My twin brother stole cars and sold drugs. Some other friends sold guns and crack to pay for stolen studio equipment that some people used more productively than others. Then my Snoop-Dogg-soundalike, freestyling, basketball-playing friend went to jail for murdering a crackhead.
The line was drawn. Their gang was named after an idea in the movie ‘South Central’. Half of us were doing music and dabbling in the selfish and self-destructive criminality that hip hop crawled out of in the streets of every city and ghetto, and the other half of us were doing crime and dabbling in the music that was blowing up in the early 90′s.
I look at these new generation rappers and ask “do they fucking know ANYTHING about hip hop history?” There are ENDLESS rappers who notoriously were caught doing dumb shit and were perpetrators of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong”, long before Dave Chappelle made those brilliant skits. Rappers were beating women (Dr. Dre, Big Pun), causing violence, terror and murder (Death Row, various legendary places in NYC like Queensbridge, Harlem, Brooklyn, the Bronx, etc.) and fucking up their lives and their future in every conceivable way… LONG before the internet.
If these kids paid attention to things that THEIR HEROES went through not even 10-20 years ago, they might be smart enough to not follow in the footsteps of anyone whose career path walked their future into a dead end, either metaphorically or literally.
We have to be on some Hip Hop in 1988 shit. There can be NO FUCKING TOLERANCE OR DIMINISHING THE DEPTH OF PHYSICAL SAVAGERY AND MENTAL SICKNESS that we are doing to our brothers and sisters and each other, and we CANNOT become complacent or ignorant to any of the thousand degrees of genocide we struggle with on a daily basis, as civilization does its best to turn into hell on earth.
Let’s go the other direction and make a little more ghetto heaven.
At least for the unprotected women and children, if nobody else.
I subscribe to your entire philosophy and every single word you write, Andreas. Thank you.
This is the best article of the year, in my eyes. The second best one was your “Officer Rick Ross: Hip Hop went from ‘Keep It Real’ to ‘It’s Just Entertainment’” which is the most succinct and on-point description of hip hop’s transition from the 1995/Mobb Deep/Wu-Tang/Chronic era to the bullshit that is 2012 hip hop culture that I have ever seen.
EPMD’s saying “Rap Is Outta Control” has been something I’ve said since 1992. Ain’t a damn thing changed.
Amazing article … this truly wraps up all this foolishness that these young ignorant minds consider “entertainment” in a nutshell; well done, thoroughly impressed that there are still people out here in this crazy world who understand what’s right & wrong, & who truly value good morals !
Hey I was reading Ms.Magazine and I usually dont listen to rap because all those mainstream ones gave me the wrong impression… from the magazine I heard of Angel Haze and she is amazing! If I look for artists like her I would really enjoy it I am a huge metal head and nobody even seems to point out the misogyny in the community but its not too bad, for example cannibal corpse has a song fucked with a knife but they also have blunt force castration lol