The Lil Kim AEffect

Chapter from The Pawn Queen!

BLK (Before Lil Kim) women in hip hop were uplifting the Black female with their lyrics. Most of the female emcees BLK were women of distinction and were a part of the Black power hip hop movements of the 80’s. You had women like Mc Lyte, Queen Latifah, Ms Melody, Salt and Pepa, Yo Yo, Monie Luv, etc. If you’re old enough to remember these women, if not google them, you will quickly realize that most of them were not sexy, half naked femcee’s but were for the most part, save one or two of them, overweight and wearing full garb. Salt and Pepa were the only ones out of this group of women who wore tight outfits but that was during the spandex era, which by the way is upon us again. These women wrote lyrics about being respectful women.

ALK (After Lil Kim) you will see that the vast majority of female emcees that were allowed to grace the stage as nationally respected women emcees had to fit the Lil Kim mold.

Hip hop had been usurped by the half naked gold digging hussy, as mom’s used to call them. Lil Kim ushered in an entirely new brand of hip hop for women. She was a firebrand, she knew exactly what she wanted and it was money, sex, and partying. Her lyrics were brazen and unapologetic for who she was. No endearing moments of motherhood, no uplifting lyrics of the Black Queen, she was by her own words, the Queen Bee-itch. But what she did have was the attitude of the independent woman who doesn’t know what being independent really is. She is the direct product of the use what you got to get what you want mind state that some black women teach their daughters. She was trying to escape her own reality by either getting a man with money or doing whatever it took to make money, as she willfully rapped about in her lyrics. For the most part she would write her own lyrics and Biggie would make sure that the words flowed properly to the beats and add his input to make sure she sounded good on her albums.

Continue reading

“Niggas In Paris”, In Real Time!

Disclaimer: If you are offended by the usage of the word Nigga, Niggas, Nigger or any variation of the word……………….. get over it!

So Gwyneth Paltrow Tweets out, “Niggas in Paris for real”, and the Black blogosphere goes up in arms, white blogs discussed it also, but Black bloggers seem to want to keep it on the front page for propaganda purposes. After seeing it x amount of times since the incident I decide to add my hundred billion cent opinion to it, yeah I said it, 100 billion cent opinion.

My first thought was niggas please, my second thought was niggas please and my third thought was, I just used the word nigga in written format more times than in one sentence than I have since I thought I was destined to be an MC. Casual T was the name, people call me Tab so I was Casual Tab, get it, then T Slang, Tab Slang. Don’t laugh T-Pain getting money, I wish I would have thought about auto-tuning myself back then, but oh well!

As I grew older and wiser, I decided to limit my usage of the word and my MC names transformed into Reign Philosophe, yeah that’s right with an E and Wizdom Manifest, with a Z. What kind of Hip Hop titan would I have been without corrupting the English language just a little bit right?  Sadly my career as the world’s greatest MC never took flight, probably because I only recorded 1 song and never went back to get it mastered, but I was cold I tell you, cold!

But anyway, back to Nigga, that infamous, diabolical 5 letter word that has caused this “uproar”. To the niggas that keep posting about how offensive it is, Niggas Please.

Historically ……………… blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. Now that you are caught up on the historical meaning and significance of the word, let’s move on shall we.

For the past 30+ years of the existence of Hip Hop, the word Nigga has been used. We, Black men, hoisted the word into the stratosphere and said that we were going to change the meaning of it. We urbanized the spelling by subtracting the E & R and added an A to take it from nigger; a term of hatred spewed by whites, to Nigga a term of endearment when spoken amongst brothers. Hip Hop, which was quickly becoming the culture and language of the worlds disenfranchised youth translated this new meaning and spelling to people from New York, to England, to Japan, Africa, China, South America, Russia, Germany, and to every crevice of this planet that had the capacity to receive radio waves. At this point the word started to take on different meanings associated with the way it was spelled and with how a non-black person used it. Continue reading

Too Many Chiefs Not Enough Indians

The quote for Black people should be; Too Many Indians That Think They Are Chiefs and Not Enough Chiefs for all These Damn Indians.

I wholly understand the first quote but over the years I have come to realize that it’s not as accurate as I once thought. The reason for this is that these Indians that are trying to be chiefs are really acting and they have no real understanding of what it takes to be a chief. They posture themselves and try to talk like a chief but they can’t walk the walk, not even a block, let alone a mile in the shoes of a real chief.

They get ahead of themselves when dealing with Black on Black situations, but if you toss them into the room with a white chief they quickly play the subordinate role. (more on the Black on Black situation in a post to come)

On the other side there’s the multitude of Indians and not enough people willing to stand up as chiefs. This is when it has to do with enlightenment and uplifting of the Black community. All of a sudden no one wants to be the chief, no one wants to die for the cause anymore or be the martyr. They all want a chief to step up, whom they will conveniently try to undermine when given the chance. (more on The Crab Syndrome in a coming post)

So let’s refresh the phrase a bit to include the latter 2 so we can really become more enlightened on the way we think.

A Response to Your Vote is Your Voice (on the Smiley and West show)

http://smileyandwest.ning.com/forum/topics/a-listener-takes-smiley-to?id=6295872%3ATopic%3A8131&page=1#comments

I had a chance to speak my opinion on The Smiley and West Show, then I commented on the post afterwords, you can click the link above to hear it and this is what I wrote in the comments section.

Thanks for the comments.

As the segment for the show had time restraints I wasn’t able to fully explain my position on the Your Vote is Your Voice statement that Tavis put on Facebook.

To better clear it up, I’m not an advocate for not voting. I understand that voting is an intricate part of America, but it is a choice, not a mandate. If you choose to vote then cool but if you choose not to vote, then cool, it’s your choice.

As for Your Vote is Your Voice, I equate it to saying No Vote = No Voice, or if you don’t vote shut up, which Tavis said he believed was accurate, and that if you don’t vote keep your mouth shut. We did agree that people who have been imprisoned and cant vote in some states was wrong and that something should be done about it but as for regular people, just shut up.

This is where my problem lies.

As a product of Generation X, growing up in a predominantly Black neighborhood I have seen first hand how voting has done nothing for these neighborhoods. People vote, neighborhood remains the same, schools get worst, crime doesn’t stop, repeat every couple years. It’s cyclical and every couple years we have politicians that re-promise their constituents the world but never deliver. Continue reading

I’m Just Trying To Survive

Word, is that what you’re doing? Trying to survive! Trying to make it in this cruel cruel world.

I’ve heard this crap so much spewing from the mouths of the very people that are making it harder for regular job having people to survive that I decided to dedicate a few words to it on this blog. It’s part of Philosophical Street Chronic, but this is just a quick post to get it out of my system.

I understand it when a guy says this and they are working at McDonald’s or some other minimum wage paying job, but when some drug dealer, stick up man, or overall un-law abiding citizen has the nerve to say it, it really makes me go WTF!

Are you kidding me, that’s what you’re trying to do, you must be talking about the fact that you can be killed at any minute on these streets, but everybody that lives in the neighborhood that you have helped turn into a war zone can be shot dead at any minute and they don’t have anything to do with the bad elements in their community.

Let’s be serious here, you’re trying to beat the system. Fuck working for the man, getting paid minimum wage, when I can get this paper on the streets. I understand, it’s more alluring, you can make $1000’s a week as opposed to $100’s, just by selling this product on your block. If you don’t do it somebody else will, I know, that’s what made me dabble for a minute, so might as well get money, right.

Well at the end of the day, you’re not trying to survive, you’re trying to get over. The dude working at McDonald’s, and working a second job just to make ends meet, is trying to survive. You sir are a victimizer of your circumstances, not a victim!

Well at least that’s what BW Writes!