MISSING THE POINT: How trying to appear cultured can make things worse

As a liberal I often get a bad rep in politics as a weak, dream-thinker with no foundation in the real world, almost as if I think most of the worlds problems can be solved if we all just “get along” and not use naughty words. Ironically, it’s as a hip hop producer that I get a completely parallel reputation as a thuged out mindless caveman who lives in a tribal warzone mentality, unable to discern higher levels of thought like tolerance and reflection in lieu of more practical things like “getting dat money”. Which is why I find myself at a rather frustrating crossroads with the recent dog and pony show from the master of dog and pony shows; Berkeley Artist Lil B.

For those that don’t know, Lil B is a former (ongoing?) member of hip hop group “The Pack” who are most known for their song “Vans”. Since the initial group success Lil B has gone the shock jock route with much success to the point of becoming a deity among the skinny jeans wearing Xtasy pill popping crowd in Cali. Its not uncommon to listen to a Lil B album and hear a jumbled mass of random cuss words and sound effects that somehow work on the excellent production he chooses (keyboard kid on the tracks), the most noticeable of which is his unusual habit of calling himself a “fag”, “faggot”, or even “pretty bitch” (he also believes he looks like a number of people who cause him to have “bitches on his dick” such as Hannah Montana, and even the savior but that’s a different story altogether). It appears Lil B has seen gold in dropping the gay bombs as he has decided to name his upcoming album “I’m Gay”.

THE PROBLEM:

First of let me say that the following is not going to be gay bashing so don’t worry. Secondly let me also say WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE TO SAY THAT!? Have we really gotten so PC in this country that to say anything bad about something gay instantly makes you homophobic? I hate Perez Hilton because he is a jerk does that mean I’m homophobic?

Ahem, moving on. Lil B is playing the white community like a fiddle and having them eating out of his hand. Within days he has a front page article on Huffington post about his “bravery” for the name of the album. He has even gone as far as to say he has received death threats over the title. He’s a regular martin Luther king! Better even! (Who the fuck was that MLK guy anyway? He was probably a homophobe!). The problem here is this. IT’S ALL BULLSHIT. Lil B hasn’t named the album “I’m Gay” to make any point about the gay community, or to take a stand for gay rights. He simply named it this because it would get attention, and it’s working.

I know what your thinking

“But the hip hop community hates gays he won’t sell anything”

The hip hop community (its arguable hatred for gays aside) hasn’t had a say in who sells albums since 1999. Its more important to get a cosign from the Disney channel than Hot 97. We all know who really moves units for hip hop artist these days and they sure don’t look like the artist. Middle (and upper) class suburban white kids. That guy that wants to look “down” at the party by telling you he has a Drake cd. Lets keep it real here. This is great for Lil B’s career. He’s going to be labeled a “hero” and “brave” for doing such a thing and no one is going to pay attention to the actual content of such an album. This album is going to be full of plenty of “bitch fuck a bitch bitch pretty swag bitch bitch fuck a bitch bitch fucking bitches on my dick because I look like Joe Bidden” and people are going to talk about it like it was as powerful for the culture as Marvin Gaye’s what’s going on record (hey didn’t he change his last name from Gay to Gaye? Homophobe!).

Why you ask? Because simply, IT’S ALL BULLSHIT.

See being actually about something and thinking is hard. Being a real person takes a lot of energy and focus and thought. People don’t have time for that shit, we have to make room for checking our ipad (2’s) and updating our twitter’s, facebook’s, tumblr’s etc.

As a counterbalance, rather than doing things to actually make us more enlightened people, we just do stuff to make us LOOK more enlightened as a people. Why plan a protest against an oppressive rule that bars two people from marrying each other when you can simply retweet a celebrity saying down with prob8? See how much easier that is?

Why go through all the trouble educating people on how there really is no difference between the straight and gay communities when you can have Hillary duff and Wanda Sykes pop up on TV and tell you not to say the G word to describe stuff in a cute and (un) funny way?

Hell why even bring up stories on the inequalities of LGBT people when you can spend your day emailing local radio DJs and telling them to not say no homo [friendly jab]?

After all isn’t this what that (homophobic) MLK guy like, had a dream about or something? I know he said he hoped that one day his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, but I’m sure he meant he dreamed to live in a world where people just couldn’t say the N word. Same diff right? *Presses like button*

The point is rather than actually doing a little research on Lil B and seeing right through this stunt (a simple YouTube search and clicking on the very first video of his where he goes on and on about his favorite subject would clear up any misconception that he named his album out of anything pure), people are just going to cosign this guy to oblivion because it makes them appear like they are concerned about this subject all the while not knowing they are the butt of his joke. This wouldn’t really bother me (it’s actually kind of funny) except for one thing; WHY DOES LIL B HAVE TO SACRIFICE THE HIP HOP AND BLACK COMMUNITY TO DO IT?

In the Huffington post/ MTV article the rapper goes on to tear down the hip hop community as being slow, un-evolved, and close minded (all the things he knows his new mainstream audience would want to hear)

"Hip Hop is a culture and environment which does not provide a safe place for an artist to come forward or to come out," he wrote. "If you listen to many rap lyrics they promote hate and gay-bashing. It is an environment where the thug and gangster mentality is prevalent. Artists boast of a hyper-masculine bravado, with their crotch-grabbing, degradation of women, and their braggadocios lyrical slaying about the number of women they've slept with and children they’ve produced."

It's those types of examples that Lil B said he's trying to fight against.

Really?

The same guy who just made THIS?

Seriously thinking that Lil B named his album “I’m Gay” to truly address anything regarding homosexuality and/or the lack of tolerance from the hip hop community is like thinking Howard Stern made his character “Fart man” to help raise awareness for prostate cancer. Now go back and look at the comments on how smug the people on huffpo regard us “cavemen” in the hip hop community. See what I am talking about and look at the lions Lil B delivered us to. I wonder if they will realize they’ve been had when he drops his next album “I’m going to rape Kanye West in the azz” (yes he really said this).