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The March for Decency?? · by NYOIL
Originally posted at NYOIL’s MySpace page, reprinted with permission.
The march for decency??
Peace this is NYOIL..
I’ll keep this direct and to the point.
I am a firm believer in involving myself with community action, social movements, and the political process. As a father, a man and a concerned citizen I’m not into the idea of just allowing people to dictate where my life.. or the things that impact my life go. How the things that I find personal value in shall be allocated and resourced.
Hence when my dude NES (Petroleum Empire Music Group: Promotions VP) called me and told me that Al Sharpton was organizing a “Decency march” that he was promoting on the radio I was compelled to get involved.
Now I am in a conflicted position for a variety of reasons that I am sure many of you may share.
- I am an adult and as a parent I agree wholeheartedly that the language and images portrayed in hip hop today are damaging and destructive to the minds of our children. I bare witness to this everyday in my hometown of Staten Island NY.. where I watch kids emulate lifestyles they aren’t even living.. until they are truly living that lifestyle.. and invariably find themselves trapped in situations that they are ill equipped to get out of
- As an MC and a devout Hip Hopper who loves the complete culture and this lifestyle. I am concerned because I can see a “lowering of the Boom” on Hip Hop as it is being made the scapegoat for Mass medias systematic corruption of our nation and people in the international community. It is being used to cloak the nefarious deeds of corporate entertainment companies and corporate radio. All the while focusing on the bad elements and further promoting them and their presence while totally ignoring artist such as an NYOIL or Wise intelligent, Immortal Technique, Little Brother, Uno the prophet, Dead Prez, and so on. Artist that make the sort of music that these demagogues seem to be screeching for.
- Finally as an American and a concerned citizen who has a great deal of respect and understanding of the items contained in the Constitution. It feels like these movements to ban words and censor artist is a cloaked veil hiding a larger agenda to co-opt our freedom of speech. Granted in insuring our freedom of speech.. there is a great deal of speech that is respectfully unworthy of protection, and even if 99% of free speech is useless filth, it is for that 1% that challenges the ideas and percepts of this country and this society and in the end create the dialogue that initiates a better world for us that this right has to be protected tooth and nail.
Now this is my internal paradigm which doesn’t include my personal distrust of so called black leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who at this stage in their civil rights careers appear to be more media whores than fighters for equality and justice for all people.
So here I am at this March for Decency, looking around for Hip Hop somewhere in here and all I could find was Kurtis Blow. LOL.. Kurtis Blow was the only Rapper besides myself that was there which was unreal to me. Where was Hip Hop at??? Why weren’t we there making our collective voices heard. Many of us are established men and women with families and careers and in some cases political and corporate influence. Hip Hoppers span a wide demographic now.. we are at the minimum between the ages of 10 – 50. No one was out there to support our culture except Kurtis Blow and I … I guess these are the breaks.
This was disheartening because when we speak about hip hop it is less a culture we are speaking about in some instances but a time span that we have had the opportunity to live in. Even if you never tried to break dance or write graffiti you and your life and the people around you have been greatly influence by this music and culture.. it has shaped your means of communication, your fashion, and in some cases your very values systems. So it is sad that we could not be bothered to represent ourselves and our interest
I am also looking at who exactly was organizing this march. And to be honest it was pitiful. It was a throng of upwards of 300 people who were the most clearly out of touch individuals on the planet. The type of people who go outside and yell at the unruly kids on the block while their son is smoking crack behind the building and their daughter is the neighborhood whore. A group of people more interested in controlling people than understanding them.
When are we going to retire these so called black leaders? These leaders that lead us further into embarrassment. These leaders that are still trying to use outdated and ineffective civil rights techniques in this day and age. Who pragmatically clutch to the “old ways” and old glory refusing to acknowledge much less uplift new leaders and new guards for our and their futures.
I mean think about it .. they do it in sports it is called recruiting, they go out and find athletes that they believe can further a great sports program. In the corporate world they find a young executive and develop this protégé to be able to continue the vision of the company and lead it into the future with an influx of new ideas and an understand of the future. I could site this in almost any institution that involves a hierarchy of men and women grouped to accomplish a goal of some sort.
But not so for the black community. Our leaders remain the same leaders from 1960 in 2007.. it is laughable.
And finally I am looking at who they were marching against. Look not for nothing.. but what is the point of marching from record label to record label?? Especially after you promoted this march on HOT 97.. on the Miss Jones in the morning show.. LOL.. what an irony. He promoted a decency march on MISS JONES show.. morning radio. Then on the Ed Lover show on Power 105.1 Never once holding them, their shows, their stations, Program directors accountable for PLAYING this filth.
At some point DJ Scratch called the station (power 105.1) and insinuated that the radio SHOULD be accountable too. Ed Lover retorted “Oh it’s our fault now??”
Oprah Winfrey had the gall to have a two day discussion based on this issue. But lest we forget that Oprah has the unique ability to be able to place ANYONE on her show to promote a product Idea or book and that person will achieve GREAT success. In fact she had a straight LIAR on her show who promoted a book full of lies about his drug addicted life. He made it to the Best sellers list as a result of his Oprah appearance. Why couldn’t she just as soon highlight Hip Hop artist that are making music that respects women and the culture?? Imagine what these record labels would do if they knew that if they had a positive artist that he might get a shot at some Oprah Time… That could sell to an Oprah crowd.
Imagine instead of marching and wasting valuable action initiative energy Al Sharpton mobilized his following to go out to retail stores and purchase a CD from a list of positive artist. He would have been more effective that any of this marching will ever be.
Seeing as how in this day Hip Hoppers like to identify to the criminal element.. let me break it down in that language..
Hip Hoppers, Teens, Black men, you’re being played as a Pansy. That means you are getting framed to take the fall for something someone else said or did.
There is a 300lb Gorilla in the room drinking tea and crumpets pointing the finger at a little black boy for taking up all the space in the room.
A very interesting and scary time is upon us. We need to get our head on a swivel and start looking at what is going on around us. I suggest that some of us start playing chess so we can start seeing a few moves ahead. There is a big joke being told and we look to be on the business end of its punch line. We’d better wake up fast and get mobilized and start speaking up. Lest we leave our future in the hands of Rev. Al Sharpton and the like.
Hip Hop Stand up or just sit down and shut up.
My name is NYOIL
And I approve this message
Comments for "The March for Decency??"
i agree. i feel what’s going on today isn’t going to be fixed by censoring artists. it’s a bigger problem then that. a march ain’t gon do shit!
— rey May 4, 06:25 PM
The sad thing is that we can’t replace the old black leaders until we find new ones and it seems that no one gives a fuck. I vote RHS.
— Life's a bitch May 4, 06:37 PM
With all due respect, Oprahs right. Hip Hop is brainwashing and raping black teenagers, Marilyn Manson caused Columbine, The Catcher in the Rye killed John Lennon, Joell Ortiz sounds exactly like Big Pun and drinking Mountain Dew lowers your sperm count.
On a serious note though the issue you have with the March is bigger then the hip hop community, I believe its a generational thing. My experience on a college campus in the midst of a bullshit war was vastly different than one to be had in the late 60s. There were plenty of rallies and marches to attend in DC, but even if you cared about the issue, unless you were a caucasian with dreads drinking wheat grass smoothies you were spending saturday afternoon sleeping off a hangover and getting ready for kegs and eggs. Im projecting my experience but I believe we simply are no longer about shit as a nation. I actually heard about the rally the next day from my roomate who was eating in a McDonalds in Columbus Circle so maybe they shouldve cast a net wider than Hot 97 but I probly wouldnt have gone anyways bc I agree that Sharptons a whore. I definitly agree that rappers should be more actively involved in issues that affect their communities, even when MTV isnt filming a documentary about it. Thanks for giving a fuck.
— Abe Beame May 4, 08:06 PM
Enjoyed this editorial. thanks for writing it, NYOIL.
— David May 5, 04:06 AM
positive artist? immortal technique?
are you joking?
seriously this >Imagine instead of marching and wasting valuable action initiative energy Al Sharpton mobilized his following to go out to retail stores and purchase a CD from a list of positive artist. He would have been more effective that any of this marching will ever be.
is the biggest crock of shit i have ever made in my life.
— cEE May 5, 12:44 PM
Haha, I missed that^^^
yeah, I basically agree…
— David May 5, 09:36 PM