The Ills….
AUDIO By Beware on October 19, 2009 at 8:33 pm
You know something is terribly wrong when Leslie Hindman Auctioneers can sell some of Elvis Presley’s locks for fifteen large, while four thousand miles away in Venice, 97-year-old Bessie Mae Berger and her two sons live in a dilapidated ‘73 Suburban.
Seemingly, these are two completely separate stories I stumbled upon while making my Monday morning rounds, but at the same time, they’re not at all.
Our society is so ass-backwards, so fascinated with the aura of materialism, that we continually let our own people suffer in order to enrich our own egos. It’s bad enough we settle petty arguments with chauvinistic fights to the death and exploit the livelihood of our children for 15 minutes of reprehensible reality TV fame – both of which are really nothing new – but, now with the world bubbling to a boil, it’s like dog eat dog has turned into human eat everything. The compassion for your fellow man our forefathers spoke of has turned into a dick-measuring contest, and it’s no longer ‘do unto others as they would do to you,’ but ‘tell them broke ma-fuckas to get they weight up and then they can come holla at me.’
I’ll be the first person to say that I regularly ignore the open hands of the homeless at any cost, but I’m not condescending on the average pavement-hitting, never-been-to-the-cleaners-once dollar-stretcher like myself and many others. I’m talking about the hoity-toity high-rise living, egomaniacs who pay top dollar for completely unnecessary shit, like the creep with cash-flow who dropped a house downpayment on hair that is only ‘believed to be’ from Elvis’ head. Or Pharrell, who’s copping gator-skin hoodies for 75K. Maybe Kanye, the cosmetic Chicago native who spends over a stack on the ugliest jeans I’ve ever seen, then thinks he’s Ghandi by donating the proceeds from his shoes that nobody can buy Air Yeezy’s to a Chicago Music School. Shit, howabout the 75% of rappers on the radio who – truthfully or not – consistently brag about their illustrious and lavish lives, while listeners are out scrounging through couch cushions to scrape together dinner, as opportunity continues to knock elsewhere.
Yeah, I know, picking on the rich for not making the world perfect may seem about as superfluous as blaming Daunte Culpepper for another Lions loss, but the people’s perils have gotten so out-of-hand it’s like there’s nowhere else to turn in this lopsided cake-eating contest. And in turn, all I’m left to do is shrug it off and craft roundabout posts like this, which seem equally too long and short. Unfortunately, the issue is as alive as it is dead.
One thing I do know is that I need a haircut – badly – and fifteen thousand dollars would fund a lot of the things I want to accomplish in life.
Download — David Banner Feat. Twista, Naledge, Rhymefest, Skooda Chose & Lisa Ivey – “Something Is Wrong” (Remix) (Prod. by 9th Wonder) via FSD
Posted in AUDIO, EDUTAINMENT, GENERAL, LOOSIES, MUSIC, SMOKE BREAK — Tags: 9th Wonder, David Banner, Detroit Lions, Elvis Presley, Kanye West, Lisa Ivey, Naledge, Pharell, Rhymefest, Skooda Chose, Twista
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14 Comments
Deep.
Now get your weight up and stop bitching.
That story about 97 year old Bessie is a damn shame. She had 11 kids, and only two are there to help?
That’s the world we live in.
“They know something is wrong, but won’t nobody say it.” Indeed.
Alotta real talk in this piece.
Good shit Beware.
That picture is fuckin’ POWERFUL!
Man them rappers dont have no money to be taking care of anyone else, the actual rich ones take care of their family as they should and some don’t even do that, you want money? Go to them sport team owners, fashion designers, and car models, and stop leaving music artist as examples that could do any real help, the highest paid of the rappers, producers, and executives work to get that crap and can barely keep it, if they looked to help they could probably only help 1 person actually proper. Some do help as much as they can, and the ones who don’t, why is there a surprise?
leave the lions out of this buddy,
the question is how do you convince those at the top that the welfare of everyone else is in their best interests
class in America is often never discussed
as if those who come from extreme poverty are to blame because they didn’t pull themselves up by their boot straps
failed because they were incompetent, not because
the system in many cases produces little opportunities
for economic mobility;
and in turn how has hyper-wealth impacted hip hop artists
& the game in which they participate in to procure profit
from some of the same people who will never attain such
status & wealth
peep this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/national/class/HYPER-FINAL.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1
Great piece Beware.
Great piece, indeed. That’s the one side. On the other side, doesn’t this website post videos of rappers showing their big ass (fugly) chains, presenting their collection of cars etc. almost on a daily basis?
It’s schizophrenic how you talk about the dumb things rappers do with their money, on the other hand celebrating videos in which rappers show off what they got.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to attack you personally, as I am/was not really better by myself. But as I get older, watching videos by those “artists” makes me bleed inside my chest. Why must (todays) rap music consist of so much ignorance and crap. Can’t it be possible to hear a record which bangs as fuck without ignorant ugly bastards saying unnecessary, dumb things. Hell, most of nowadays rap sounds so damn childish, you are just able to laugh at these fools
But maybe I’ve just gotten older and my taste in music changed.
I Used to Love H.E.R.
@Pit…
Believe me brother, you ain’t the only one.
Hell, I don’t even listen to rap half as much anymore for that reason alone. It’s garbage over tight beats, and the music is what keeps me listening per usual.
As far ad us reporting it, being hypocritical, we’re not all. We’re journalists with a decently large audience, so we have to cater to everybody, meaning we post most music by popular/bubbling artists….whether WE like them or not. It’s our job. If I posted only what I liked….ha…..it’d be all DJ Quik and 80s R&B. But that’d be a shitty website (not really, but….you know) and wouldn;t be nearly as successful as TSS.
Bottom line…rappers need to fall back on themselves and contribute more to society.
What’d Jay-Z say on that Get By remix record I heard yesterday ….”Picture me working McDonald’s…I’d rather pull a mac on you” That’s some ignorant ass bullshit right there. A truthful mentality, but not one that promotes anything positive.
I guess the question really is…where do you draw the line?
this is why i dont support superstars whether it be music acting or sports. i download their shit fuck them cause they dont give a damn about me. after watching jay and alicia keys treat lil mama like that i actually felt good about downloading the bp3 before the release and puttin all my friends onto it. as far as sports youll never see my black ass wearing a jersey
It’s funny how rap has become hypercapitalist in the way it has done when almost all subcultures before it tend to embrace more anti-authoritarian ideals. Instead rap has become *almost* entirely centred around selling materialism and a fantasy aspirational lifestyle to it’s audience, even though everyone understands that the millionaire lifestyle is unachievable for everybody as society couldn’t function like that – it’s such a seductive fantasy that people are willing to be deluded into chasing it.
If I posted only what I liked….ha…..it’d be all DJ Quik and 80s R&B. But that’d be a shitty website (not really, but….you know) and wouldn;t be nearly as successful as TSS.
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I Gotcha.
If I posted only what I liked….ha…..it’d be all DJ Quik and 80s R&B.
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As much as I love the Quiksta & think that he doesn’t/didn’t get the shine he deserves I kinda feel like he fell off after his last Solo Album. Since then I haven’t heard anything important from him at all.
What do you think? But that’s not the biggest issue, as long as I am able to bump his older stuff through my speakers.
Bottom line…rappers need to fall back on themselves and contribute more to society.
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Exactly! All I’m feeling when I see most of these faggots on TV right now, is deep shame. We got the biggest crisis since the World War II. If the rappers represent the ordinary man of the society, they must have to say more than ever.
@Pit…
“As much as I love the Quiksta & think that he doesn’t/didn’t get the shine he deserves I kinda feel like he fell off after his last Solo Album. Since then I haven’t heard anything important from him at all.”
Agreed. BUT, i don;t think people as smart as Quik fall off, per se. they just take wrong turns creatively.
He’ll be back. Mark my words.