l.a. rappers still in the "hood"

[graciously]

wow really.

[barackbff]

Cogently, beautifully, and powerfully stated. Bravo.

Originally Posted by CaliDude1

Morphous,

I hear what you are saying. I just want to point out that when gangs infect a community everyone in that community is affected. Yes, Cube grew up fairly middle class (based on his family structure). However, he did not grow up in Westwood or Palisades. He still grew up in South Central. Even though both of his parents were there the reality of what drugs and gangs created in his community still impacted his life.

The point I am making is gang members do not have a monopoly on the "hood" story or experience. There are people who have to alter their entire existence because of beef between gang members in their neighborhood. The effects of gang activity are a part of everyone's life in the communities where they are active.

I grew up in a community heavily impacted by gang activity, specifically Crip activity. I was never a member, nor did I want to be. I did not commit any crimes against any person or any person's property. However, I could write several pages from my perspective about the impact their activity had on my community and my life. The reality they helped create became a reality I had to deal with. It is for this reason I don't think you need to be some OG in order to have fairly accurate insight into gang culture. You don’t have to claim a set to understand the peril they create in the neighborhood where you live. In fact, survival in these communities is often predicated on how well you understand the ins and outs of the gang culture in your area. Who wears what colors? Where are the boundaries for certain sets? What are some of the lingo used? Who is beefing with whom? Who is currently looking for revenge on whom? Growing up we had to constantly be up on this kind of information just to hope to avoid the “wrong place, wrong time” phenomenon.

Just because Cube was not a gang member and decided to go into entertainment does not make his experience in his community any less valid than Scott’s. And for the record, just as Cube decided to become an entertainer Kody Scott decided to become a gang member. The single parent card just doesn’t cut it with me. Been there, done that. I have seen too many guys come out of single parent homes and make something of themselves. It does not mean it was easy and without struggle. But not having a father at home does not give anyone a license to become a cold blooded murderer. That is a dangerous copout. And it doesn’t fly.

[barackbff]

I read Kody Scott's book, Monster, years ago when it came out. Back then I thought someone so articulate and insightful could turn his life around and be of real assistance to people living under similar circumstances. That was never to be. Instead, Scott became addicted to crack and prison bars. He couldn't marshal his own fame. If that's what it means to be gangsta, give me Ice Cube any day.

[vic the trader]

The fact is a very small percentage of people involved in big time Hip Hop and not local **** actually had any kind of rough life. It takes a high degree of talent to do what people like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, or Ice T do and you don't learn it in the streets.

Bloods & Crips - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Check out the album "bangin' on wax" by the LA hip hop group Bloods & Crips for the most obnoxious example of this sort of thing. The gang bangers on this album rapping are not gang bangers but actors, and singers hired to rep "Blood" or "Crip" and make money off of the commercialization of gang banging culture. I think the Wayans brothers with their parody movies do a good job exposing this phenomenon.

This is a good representation of rappers that actually live the struggles they write about and live in bad areas. Most rappers like these are garbage, and most kids in bad areas claiming to be rappers are laughed at by the convicts on the block. Rapping does not make you money. Robberies, selling drugs, and prostitution is what makes money.


YouTube - Gangsta City