its like when malcolm realized how much he had folded hatred into his own growth as a human being and he had to leave the nation at his own peril. he also had to realize that he had brought a lot of brothers into the fold with hate and animosity even though he had at least got them doing some thinking and reading for themselves (even if few were willing to break with the idealogical stance of the nation...what can you do when your identity and sense of belonging are more powerful than your desire to speak and think in truthful terms).

i think dead prez (and most importantly stic.man) will have a moment of truth where rhey will have to change their language and admit that the distillation of white people into greedy capatilists is not right. its just like common and his homophobic lyrics. i think he was changing in his view of homosexuality over the last few years or so, but it took him a while to actually reverse his stance because that takes integrity and humility. for a group like dead prez, they risk losing some of their fan base of they don't keep the anger directed at someone they can name in one or two sylables. Its much harder to say 'please bring change or humility to the people who deny their spirit and humanity for the sake of seeking an unattainable security in an implicitly insecure world, all the while exploiting and attempting to control others through their massive fear and self-loathing" than it is to say 'fuck crackers'. I mean "fuck crackers" just has a ring to it that you ain't going to get when you treat every person as a complex individual with a soul, who has just as much right to live and evade their fears as the next man or woman.

But as a socially conscious couple of brothers I think they are going to relinquish the vulgar language one day...but in the meantime I think they are doing some damage by appealing to the more visceral side of their audiences. or mabye i should say they aren't doing as much good as they could if they let go of the anger, especially the anger directed at groups so broad and diverse as white people.

h20
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if hip hop ever dies...it will be the day that all of us who fell in love with a new sound that was like nothing we ever heard before and kept being amazed as it grew and changed and morphed stop wanting to be challenged...it will be the day we make a bunch of unbreakable rules and accept it all as hip hop cannon, and the next musical form will have to born of a rebellion against all you reactionaries who wouldn't let it grow and change because your "love" was really obsession and you held on so tight that you choked her. it will be the day that young kids don't want to hear about hip hop anymore because they still listen with their hearts...in reality hip hop won't really be dead anyway, she will just have to undergo another name change like she always has...word to miles and dizzy. - kacy wilson