Video: Killer Mike - Pressure (feat. Ice Cube)
Riot Music!
Killer Mike teams up with Ice Cube for one of the most controversial videos of the year.
Killer Mike - Pressure (feat. Ice Cube)
We must give Killer Mike and Ice Cube a lot of credit for having the courage to do a song and a video like this. Ice Cube has gone on to become a major movie producer but has not forgotten his people and that deserves merit. He could easily sit back in his mansion and forget the rest of us, or better yet do an MTV Cribs segment and show off his homes and cars, instead he's still concerned about his people and the enemy oppressing them. He's still giving them the middle finger, while he will take their money for his movie projects, he still isn't afraid to call them out, now that's gangsta!
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
We, as a people, need to wake up and Hip Hop, our voice, must be at the forefront of this movement. Hip Hop is more than just music; it's a culture, a way of life. It is more than just dances and party music, while this is a part of the culture, which cannot be denied, we must also get serious sometimes and think about the bigger picture. We cannot allow our culture to determined by the images that the powers that be; the record labels, media outlets, etc., say it is. We need to take back control of OUR culture and define Hip Hop.
Hip Hop is our voice. It came from the people, not these conglomerates who are determining what we hear and see, and are using it to send their messages to us, and in the process changing it to meet their goals. It's time for a revolution to take our culture back. Luckily, the Internet has given us a platform to unite and create a dialogue to take back and save our culture. Hip Hop is more than just beef, jewelry, and bullshit; it's a culture, OUR culture. We need leaders/heroes/scholars and the question is who will they be? Will our leaders just be ignorant, trash-talking, "I got more money than you!" rappers? Is our culture going to be determined by first week Sound Scan numbers?
Hip Hop is bigger that. Hip Hop is global now and increasingly Hip Hop has become the voice of rebellion throughout the world, yet here in the birthplace of Hip Hop it's becoming the voice of consumerism and greed. Hip Hop has become synonymous with beef, who's going at who this week? What rapper dissed who? These media outlets love to report all that negativity, but what message is this sending to the youth? When grown men, who they look up to, are just fighting and threatening each other? That's just the whole "divide and conquer" tactic and another version of "black on black" crime. Hip Hop has to be more than that!
The real enemy is not each other, but leaders who oppress and target us everyday. Who think nothing of police officers shooting an innocent black man 50 times on the eve of his wedding, or who stood by as the victims of hurricane Katrina were drowning, starving, and dying, waiting to be rescued. The enemy is the media who depicted the victims of Katrina as savages, rioters, looters and refugees, instead of the reality of the situation, which was a community, of American citizens, trying to survive a disaster, by all means necessary. While these leaders destroy and rebuild Iraq, who's rebuilding New Orleans and for who will they rebuild it? When our brothers and sisters were suffering and dying where all the rich rappers then? Where were the Hip Hop leaders? Where were the benefit concerts? There were a few, but not nearly enough. Big up to Kanye for his "Bush don't like black people" statement, that was courageous of him, but we needed more of that. Hip Hop needs to stand up and these rappers, whether they like it or not, must realize they are the leaders of this culture. (to be continued)
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Rappers must realize that "with great power, come great responsibility" and when they grab that mic they are our voice, the leaders of our culture.
Where's the present day Tupac, where is the Public Enemy of this era? Who's going to take the torch and speak out against the injustices ailing our communities? Who can our children look up to? But don't blame the rappers, they're just part of the problem. We, the members of this culture, are to blame. We have allowed the media to dictate to us what is cool and what Hip Hop is. Until now, through their radio and TV "programming" they have controlled what we listen to and see. People who weren't a part of the culture have force fed us their vision of Hip Hop. The new generation of Hip Hop grew up on MTV and BET telling them what Hip Hop is, but thankfully the Internet has once again shifted the power back to the people. Through our computers WE control what we see and hear again. We can choose to support the artists we like, whether they're on a major label, an independent label, or only have a myspace account with a few songs; it doesn't, or shouldn't matter, as long as they have good music. We can support the artists that we like by buying their songs, downloading and sharing it with others. We can be our own A&Rs and learn to discover new artists and new music in an unprecedented way, without them making us listen to "their" Hip Hop.
We can finally take back our culture but the problem is that we've been "programmed" for so long and made to think that Hip Hop is about beef, money, and bullshit that we're still stuck in that mindset. They told us that socially conscious lyrics aren't cool and don't sell and we believed them! But my question is, since when? One of the greatest selling artists of all time is Tupac, who even after his death is selling millions of albums, so how can they say its not cool and doesn't sell? They lied to us. They lied to discourage supporters and listeners from listening to positive or anti-establishment type messages, but as Public Enemy once said, "don't believe the hype." The fact is the socially conscious rappers, like Talib Kweli, Pharaoh Monch, Mos Def and Immortal Technique (just to name a few), have been selling, touring, and developing a loyal worldwide fan base independently for years. One can only wonder what they could do with major label support. They would be selling just as much as all these other artists. Prove of this is that Immortal Technique’s latest CD, The “3rd World,” debuted on Billboard’s Top Ten Albums chart, with no mainstream media support. If the radio stations, and MTV, VH1, and BET, "programmed" it we'd buy it, but instead they told us it was wack and played out, and we fell for it. They don’t want us to listen to that.
In the 90's they re-labeled most of what was considered to be socially conscious rap into "gangsta rap" and attacked it and censored it. (to be continued)
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The fact is most of America learned about the ills of the inner cities through this "gangsta" music. Gangsta rap made America take notice of the problems plaguing it. Maybe they found these messages disturbing, but what was really disturbing is that it reflected what we were living on a daily basis in our communities. They suppressed these messages and instead gave us the era of the bling-bling, hoes, money, cars, and beef. The messages of the collective upliftment of our people were traded with messages of consumerism and greed. This new era preached it's every man for himself, forget everyone else, get paid, forget your people, do you. In order to sell records rappers, many who are intelligent businessmen, had to act dumb. Play the role of gangstas, players and pimps just to fit the negative stereotypes of what they told us a rapper should be. They made it cool to be ignorant. If you played this role they would give you a multi-million dollar record deal and you'd enjoy heavy rotation on the radio, magazine articles, and big budget videos you'd be rich, but an intelligent rapper could not even get an appointment with an A&R. It's sad but it's time to wake up.
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