I want to start by saying that I am not a rap fan per se. When I say that I mean I ma not your typical white or Chinese kids that bought album after album of rap music. What did I listen to? Soundtracks, Disney and others. Braveheart etc. Who did i try to emulate? Well let's put it like this, I might be Half Chinese but for all intents and purposes I was a white kid that grew up in the projects. Everyone else was Chinese, Black or Hispanic, and let's not pretend like everyone got along. You could say that we used all of our whiteness to survive. IE befriending police. Do you see what I'm saying.
Even for say, our black South African Neighbor, the guys in the video above were the faces of the enemy. For our neighbor this was further complicated because the Police also saw him as a danger. When we moved to another part of the projects drug dealers moved in. Our South African neighbor, who always, because of life experience, tended to stay out of everything. But he ended up helping the Police in a sting.. which is crazy.
And then, another thing is that this is West Coast stuff. But friends listened to it. It's not like the music was foreign to me. But I didn't buy it. It was just there. The way Power rangers and Pokemon are there for my kids even though we've never watched it.
So I heard this song exactly ONCE all the way through before I decided to write about it today.
Who did I try to emulate as a kid? Well I watched this show called "Campion" on PBS as Hercule Poirot. And I guess the closest thing to gangsta-ness was Sharpe's Eagle. I had forgotten major characters to Kung Fu movies that my Dad had watched. I was emulating white characters and tried to move toward that. White people of the past that were in books.
But when I got into a prep school, all these white kids researched and followed rap and hip hop. I'm not even going to pretend to have all the genres right like I understand.
The reason why I wrote this is to talk about the philosophy in here. And I think this song should be re-written for our generation. Especially with all the stuff happening with Black lives matter. Because there is something positive in what he is saying here, except that it is some what deviant... but that deviance comes more from society and less from the philosophy itself.
Basically the "Gangsta" and really what you have to realize is that word is interchangeable with Warrior and Kung Fu practitioner. The thing we have forgotten just how depraved Achilles was. We talk about how people need to stop the violence but Politicians are pretty much required to study and to some degree worship Greeks who got into freaking boats and paddled for years just to go be Gangsta as well with Trojans. And don't forget that the Kung Fu past has all kinds of cults and movements in it that are brutal.
So anyway, the warrior poet is focused on a goal. In this case the goal is sex with certain women. They act itself, or the gate of life that he is changing. Now when it is seen in modern philosophy this is seen as trashy or abusive. But in the ancient world?
Anyway, that is his goal which tends to be what the Shaolin Monk tries to avoid. But going back to hunter gatherer times when there was less people, I mean if we are tigers and lions, this is the goal because it is the continuation of the species or the tribe.
But the warrior poet does avoid the "cheap tricks" so it isn't too clear why the one is the goal but the other is to avoided.
But here is where Stoicism and Buddhism would actually come in.
They are robbed and they get into street battles. But they do not let these circumstances or obstacles get to them. They deal with these issues and then return to the goal. Which again, in the modern world seems kind of low.
But remember this has to sell.
But watching this now, who would be riding and who would be pulling them over? What with all the black lives matter stuff. And what would be the goal? But that spirit of stoicism, like you were just belittled and perhaps even your friend or family killed while being pulled over, but then you get right back up and continue with your original goal..(again what is the goal? A degree? A house? A political position? I don't have an answer.) That is why I think this song should be re-written for the modern era and with these things in mind.)
For Buddhism, I guess the idea is you fight, but then you let these experiences pass and change and don't let them bother you.
There are other examples obviously. And I am starting to look more into today's local Hip Hop. For various reasons. Again I have a lot to learn, but there is something in these songs that I see as powerful, and not just because of the beat, or the sales of records.
I'm not advocating the above lifestyle. Though I do like to point out that we tend to hold up similarly brutal and merciless heroes. Our Founding fathers owned slaves and fought some brutal wars. I doubt they would be shocked by the events in this pretend story.
Also, the popularity of these songs and re-engage a younger generation in a more positive way that isn't just BS.
Of course there are NEW songs that are incredible. Which I need to listen to and why don't I write about THEM and those artists. I will okay! I just need to educate myself. This first post is just to introduce myself as someone who is now going to listen to a ton of Hip Hop, but to explain that although I have heard the older songs, it was not so much by choice.
In other words I'm not your typical fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment