Forgive me!

I know, I know, I've been a BAD blogger...

But with my beloved husband coming home from Afghanistan,  me finding a new job, etc...I've been very busy & also very noncreative...praise God...

I promise to be more thought provoking in the very near future.

Peace,
Jaz

From Free Huey to Free Weezy (& where have all the Black leaders gone?)

Unless you've been living under a proverbial rock (regardless of whether or not you care), you probably know that the "F" in Weezy F. Baby could now stand for "Free" or he could be called Freezy F. Baby...okay I know I took it a little far there but oh well...

Weezy's freedom and literally every step he's made since being freed is an ongoing feed among media outlets...when he came to Yuma for probation, the media was there...when he was courtside at the New Orleans Hornets game, we saw his custom grill shinning all over the screen...Mack Maine has given us the play by play of everything Weezy has done or is planning to do...including his official welcoming on Sunday at a strip club in Miami, where they allegedly have already purchased dozens of bottles of alcohol that Lil Wayne can't even drink under the terms of his Arizona probation. My point is that I can give you an entire paragraph of Lil Wayne's movements because they've been so publicized that they even eclipsed the fact that T.I. has gone back to prison within this same week.

I'm a huge fan of both artists, actually. And while I know hip hop has missed Lil Wayne, I wondered why his comings and goings from prison this year have been so closely followed this year is that he is more of a generational presence than others may be. I am not going to say T.I. isn't a cultural icon in his own right, but the fact is regardless of what people want to admit to, Lil Wayne has transcended this entire generation. He is the vocal and visual point guard for this generation. Hip Hop wasn't the only audience waiting for Lil Wayne...he's been recognized by current President Obama and even former President Clinton as a lyrical genius and cultural icon. The last major project he did before he went to prison, Rebirth, was a rock/rap hybrid of sorts. Not widely understood by the hip hop masses, but accepted nonetheless. And even though it wasn't the phenomenon he hoped it would be, you still couldn't even count it as a loss. Everything he has touched has turned to gold, business wise (signing Drake & Nicki Minaj, and watching them temporarily carry the torch for Young Money Cash Money (YMCM) in his absence, and his hustle is not only to be respected, but also feared. 

The thing is, the masses are willing to follow if there is someone strong enough and vocal enough to lead. A few decades ago, there was a similar cross-generational movement for a young black leader of another sort--Huey P. Newton, who was imprisoned a couple of times during the Black Power Movement of the 60s and 70s, only to be shot dead in 1989 after a drug dispute.

As you can see in the above picture, Black Panther members weren't the only ones screaming Free Huey just as Black kids weren't the only ones screaming Free Weezy over the past year. When you have a message--when your voice is heard and it resonates with a generation, then you are looked at as the leader of the generation and thereby followed by the generation and not just a certain section. Newton's messages of freedom now by any means necessary resonated primarily with Black people since we were the main ones oppressed in this country; however, the message was one that women sympathized with pertaining to the feminist movement, Asians in their quest to be equal, people of Spanish origin, etc. The ideologies of the Panthers, and the fact that they practiced what they preached (i.e. the Breakfast program for the urban youths that they instituted, the rallies where they carried weapons in public against the law, etc) gave them and their leaders (Newton & Bobby Seale) who were brilliant and eloquent in their speech, credibility. 

I'm sure there will be people who will criticize me for dare comparing Lil Wayne with Huey Newton--but in this day and age, where we complain due to the recognition of not having Black leaders, why is it so far fetched that we may need to look to influential Hip Hop leaders as potentially leading the way? If you look, YMCM is sort of structured like the Black Panthers--all male with one single strong, intelligent female voice (Angela Davis vs Nicki Minaj) and Drake as the proverbial, light-skinned Canadian Bobby Seale. I'm not saying that they are trying to be the new Black Panther Party or that they are even daring to be political--but their messages dare to not just be beats with voices over them...they have something to sayu and have become voices of our generation. Nicki has stood up spreading messages of confidence among Black women and strength among homosexual teens. Drake is not only a heartthrob but he actually utilizes full verbal attacks where he not only sounds credible but intelligent at the same time. All the while, Weezy has rapped about everything from his own drug habit to his sexual prowess (which he has aptly showcased through his various and beautiful baby mamas) to his love for his native Louisiana and his people, and how his hustle will continue to keep him at the top. And honestly, I can't doubt him. 

If we are the Hip Hop generation, then perhaps we need to stop looking to politicians for leadership. We need to stop avoiding Hip Hop like a horrible plague and embrace it and demand that it represent the best of us and the best of them. The trouble with hip hop is it demands credibility, which almost always demands demoralization, in order to be popular or mainstream. As long as Wayne is talking about his drug use, or Nicki talks about sexing a man then that's going to get played; but more prolific lyricists like Common and Mos Def, or more serious cuts from mainstream artists (Wayne, Nicki, Drake, etc) are pushed to the back. I like the fact that YMCM and other artists are daring to be intelligent and give words of empowerment to the generation that they understand is looking to them for the next move. After all, we are all sheep, looking to be led either to glory or the slaughter. We might as well get some shepherds that have a sense of direction..