November 9, 1993...

...and the world hasn't been the same since

Let the man finish...

We human beings don't live in a completely humane world and that is unfortunate. We have been, are, and will continue to be our own worst enemy. We kill each other. We lie to each other. We step on each other. We cheat each other. We steal from each other. We do all types of terrible things to each other - without remorse - and consistently without fail. A quote I read recently which really opened my eyes to something I knew but never noticed stated, "The evening news usually opens with 'Good evening...' and then proceeds to show you why it is not."

Mr. Cee is caught in a whirlpool of shit. He's a Black male DJ with island roots who spins music with historically misogynistic and homo-sexually-feared based lyrics for an industry all but distributed by white hetero- AND homosexual men who apparently aren't afraid to make shit-loads of money from said music so long as everyone is happy. That's not a knock on them (for now) but that's pretty much how the world works. So long as the end justifies the mean, people will be comfortable on some level. In my humble opinion, the recording industry has LONG known who Cee was, inside and out. But hat is not his issue.

His issue is that he doesn't live with THOSE people. He only gets paid by them. Cee lives and most likely regularly interacts with people from HIS culture. The West Indian culture is NOTORIOUS for anti-homosexual rhetoric and feelings which has lead to public humiliation, shame and very often violence. This is not Cee's first time getting caught and the back-and-forth of his situation is frustrating to a fan of the music he plays because it removes the focus from the music. I've read many opinions being thrown around that he should just come clean and do what's 'right'. Well .... it's way to fucking easy to sit on the outside looking in and tell him - the man that's going through the problem - to just 'quit denying who you truly are' and 'free yourself'. As far as I can tell, he *IS* being free with himself. A little TOO free, if you ask me. (You shouldn't be getting arrested THIS many times in such a SHORT period of space.) We, the listeners from afar, are not 'his people' though. We're his fans and appreciators of what he does FOR AN INCOME. Whether we enjoy his talents or not SHOULD be the only thing that matters to Cee ... because that affects his INCOME.

We live in a very real world where Cee understands that stories as distracting as this tend to work on the side of the Universe which controls the negative forces. It's not like coming out as gay/bi is going to get him MORE spins on the radio. All it's going to get is people looking at him differently. And being looked at differently USUALLY affects your income NEGATIVELY. Rap music has inundated our ears for decades about keeping it real and there is nothing realer than making sure you keep making money to feed yourself and your family. He was keeping it real to himself and that's fine by me. He was shutting up to keep his belly full. Whom am I to judge?

Outside of whatever law or personal moral code he's broken with his wife, family and CLOSE friends, Mr. Cee did nothing wrong to ME ... except threatening to stop playing the music. His nickname is The Finisher and that's what I suggest we allow him to do ... finish his time on this Earth tackling his personal issues with whatever energy he's got left after blowing out the speakers.

Bigg Russ

Returning To Form...

When I started this blog, it was to rant/rave/share my views regarding rap music and any and all thinks pertaining to the culture of hip hop as I saw fit to discuss. Somewhere, along the way, I misplaced (not lost) my motivation to write. I say misplaced because I knew it wasn't gone entirely. I just knew I had to refocus. Eventually. Someday.

I haven't stopped loving hip hop, not in the slightest. My enjoyment simply became a lot more internal as the days passed after my last entry.  I found new music and did not care to share how I felt about it. I read stories, both funny and not, and did not care to discuss them. I simply couldn't find the strength to kill that end boss that kept me from saving my desire.

Thanks to some very special friends and occurrences over the past year, my desire to share is back. And that makes me happy. It should make you happy too because I've decided to expand my focus a bit from just hip hop. I'm going to start writing about other genres of music and art which I feel interacts or cross-breeds with hip hop on some level and shouldn't be missed. I look forward to sharing again. Thanks for being here.

Bigg Russ