Life Is Perspective

1-20-25

What is reality? Are you really living in reality? Is your reality the only reality? What separates a dream from real life if you think a dream is real until you wake up?

Your perception is based on senses and your brain relaying these to your consciousness. Sight is your eyes seeing light, sending that to your brain and your brain making a 3D image of that based off light and shadows. Your brain turns those into colors, depth, and shapes. Who really knows if what I see is what you see? I know because eyerones' eyes see different. Some see sharper than others. Some see a color and like it and others hate it. Am I seeing the same color as you, or does my brain just perceive it as good and you perceive it as bad. 

Simple senses can be associated with memories and subconscious feelings. A smell that was once good can bring back bad memories. A food you once ate too much now the smell alone can make you sick. So just like smells can automatically bring emotions, so can sounds. A simple song can change your mood in less than a second. So if the media keeps associating sounds with images they can really trigger emotions. Notice I say trigger.

Hip hop is one of the most popular genres of music, if not the most popular, yet so many people associate it with negativity. Negative images in the mind of violence, sex, drugs, and a stereotypical thug image provoking fear into the hearts of many. What is it you are really afraid of? Because most movies have violence , sex, drugs, and vulgar language, many times much more than music, yet Hollywood stars are seen as positive role models. "They're just acting" "It's entertainment"

Is music not entertainment? No rappper is rapping 100% his life. Its not possible, and it wouldn't be entertaining. Nobody want to hear :"today I woke up, ate breakfast, checked my email, walked outside ,...." If I say put your hands up, it causes a reaction. If I say "I'm gonna shoot you." It causes a different emotion and reaction. Its about making a rollercoaster of emotion, just like a movie. If I just say what you've already heard a million times, boring, but if say something so crazy it makes you say "what did he say?" and makes an emotion. Emotion makes a memory. 

My point is songs can be more than songs. Music influences lifestyles. A lot of white people were really living drugs, sex, and rock n roll. "Cowboys" who live in cities walk around with their hats and boots living in the county star's image. Girls want to dress like their favorite singer. So hip hop is just as influential and they know this. Hip hop can get people to join together and party, make social movements, and make people express themselves and have no fear. All those things are still going on, but have been turned negative. Party = drugs, social movement = gangs and violence, expression = swearing and disrespecting one another, no fear = not caring.

The way we associate party is different than before.  Back in the day party meant gather round and have fun. Simple music and dance, food, family, friends, and a good time. Now party means get high, get too drunk, fight, go to the club and spend money,  have a hangover the next day... But the word party hasn't changed. Our peception has. How did this happen? The media. When they show a movie with a party, it always ends with a fight. It shows loose women so now men expect that. Women dress like the girls they see on the videos, thinking it's a good look. Frozen outside no jacket shivering like a fool. You don't look "hot", you look cold.

Now hip hop is associated with thugs, guns, violence, pimps, hoes, and everything bad under the sun. Yet I don't know one ascpect of the world that doesn't deal with violence. Religion causes wars. Politics causes wars. Every movie has violence. Every book even the Bible has violence. Nature has violence. Yet hip hop gets the blame for causing violence. The world is violent and has always been that way. If hip hop is reflective of the surroundings of the author, how can they not talk about violence? 

Try to not see violence for one day. It can't happen. People start their day with the news. Violence. Get home from work and eat dinner watching the news. Want some extra violence with your potatoes? And end the day again with the nite time news. More violence right before bed. Oh, but they end with a baby elephant. Awwww. So its ok. 

We need to know what goes on. That's why people watch the news. Well that's what hip hop was. The hood news. The media is not going to report on the real problems and when they do, it's through their perspective giving false narrative. It's all about a fake agenda with the media. Gangs are everywhere, and spreaded heavy in the 90s. Same time "gangsta" rap took over, movies like Colors, Menace II Society, Blood In Blood Out, American Me, Goodfellas, and all these gangster movies were heavily promoted. Yet movies are rarely blamed as much as the music. Movies have images and stories about killing. A cowboy movie has the "hero" kill 100 natives by the end of the movie and leave with their woman, but he's the hero.

White people are associated with guns as defending themselves. I can turn on TV and their are entire stations with white guys and their guns. I never have seen someone who isn't a white guy on that channel. Respect to them defending their rights, but what are they really defending against? If all the white guys have guns to defend, who are they talking about shooting? Why can't anyone except white man defend his land? If any other race gets on TV or online with a gun, its a problem. White guy with a gun, oh he's a freedom fighter. Mexican guy they'll call a cartel member. Asian guy must be a terrorist. Black guy must be in a gang. It's all racial bullshit.

Hip hop continues to be associated with negative images through false narratives. The media will always promote the newest diss tracks between two upcoming rappers, pitting not only the artists against each other for their selfish benefit, but putting the fans against one another as well. People can no longer play a song without automatically picking sides in a conflict that doesn't really effect us. Well, it shouldn't, at least. Conflict in the music industry often spills over into the streets, whether it be the entourage waiting to prove themselves worthy, or a die-hard fan putting their lives on the line to ride for their favorite artist's reputation. Kids bullying other kids based on what music they listen to. Many making fun of the same artist they once listened to. The artist that was number one last year, but this year is labeled cheesy, a has- been. An artist can get insulted for falling off and selling out at the same time. So really there's no winning to some people.

So the point of this, is to live your life the way you want. Nobody tells you what food tastes good. Listen to whatever music you enjoy. We need to stop listening to music through another person's lense. Meaning we listen to songs thinking what others would think, instead of being in our own head and one with the song on a personal level. I purposely make songs that sound different. I want my style to be unique and even every song stand out from another. Most people, however, only listen to the first few seconds of a song and see if it fits the current style, and anything that doesn't, gets no play. Because they want to listen to what the popular kids listen to. Well sorry to break it to ya, but the "popular" people never set the trends.

Popular means pop, for the mainstream population. Trends are actually started by, well, trendsetters. These are only like a 1-2% of people, and usually are perceived as very weird at first. Like an evil genius or something. Think of like a Kanye. When he started, he looked out of place in hip hop. Everyone had jerseys and he had pink polos and little backpacks. Few years later, there's an entire era of backpack rappers. I've seen an article that showed what he wore in 2004-2005 looking weird, with side-by-side picture showing how everyone took his exact look in 08-09. Polos, flannel fleeces, LV scarves, and all that. So just do you, pause, get you own style, just be different. Not too different, but what's even different anymore. I feel like I'm considered weird for not having tattoos and piercings.

Oh and Happy MLK Day everyone. Let's continue the work he put in. We have to move forward not backward, yet still learn from the past. Before a plant grows on the surface, you must water the roots.