MOST ALL of us aren't doing our share.

When the last time people took up a broom to sweep up around the way? How many people pull a full course load then volunteer to tutor everyday? How much of our discretionary income goes to frivilous bullshit when it could be better spent on clothes/food/etc. for these same kids we complain are being wrongly influenced by rappers? How many conscious artists are sacrificing major label affiliations because the same corp they've signed with promote the very acts they complain about? How many of us are willing not to buy our favorites because of what label they're signed too?

More important than what they see Juvenile doing is what they see you & I doing around them.

> WE DONT HAVE TIME for me, me, me, me,
>I got mine, me. Use "where you are" to get
>US where we need to be.

Well that's what some of the same artists you critique are doing? Umm..Master P is now paying for some backpacker who hates him to attend

>>Do you think hip hop can inspire black and >brown children to pursue their educations?
>Brand Nubia certainly inspired me. Am I the >exception or the rule. The Children Are >Watching and Listening.......And I want them to >hear and see more than Lil Kim shaking her ass >and flaunting her bling-damn-bling.

Lil Kim is inspirational to a lot of people in a positive way. How about she's a poor black girl that turned physical violation & personal exploitation into something that works for her. How about the fact that she had one of the most womanist lyrics in a while in her "Get Money" verse? How about the fact that she's sex positive & confident in her presentation? Does she have issues - yes - but collectively we all do. There is negativtity in Common asking on wax "why you gotta act like a nigga all the time" as though a "nigga" can actual exist. Or what about the "homophobic" that offends many of our brothas & sista?
>>
>On the cool, the 60's didn't have a soundtrack. We weren't being told how to live and >what to think by our entertainers

That's simply not true.

>Muhammed Ali- remember him? Those
>brothers at the Olympics....remember them?

Some would argue that those brothas should've never participated in the Olympics in the first place, ya dig?

>Then shut up! (Not you, them. And this is
>a very personal assessment/opinion on
>how it should be.)

No offense ma but what makes you more qualified or justified in determining what's good & bad for all black people or who is allowed to speak & represent us? That mentality smacks of the very elitism that spawned the whole talented tenth train of thought - an idealogy that had mad faults. fault. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you're the type of black person "our community" can't afford? IMO, the main problem in our community is that we look to much at others rather than checking ourselves. When you've done all that you can, then turn & critique the next man - but be honest, are you doing all that you possibly can?