(AllHipHop News) Philadelphia MC Dice Raw recently caught up with AllHipHop.com to discuss his provocative Hip-Hop musical The Last Jimmy, which will wind down this weekend in Philadelphia.
Tonight and tomorrow’s performances will end a six-day run of the play, which has been drawing a crowd during The Democratic National Convention.
em>The Last Jimmy was written by Phil Brown of Salt World Inc. and inspired by Dr. Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and shed’s light artistically, on the disturbing trend of black mass incarceration in the United States.
Dice Raw said that self analysis is an important part of the process in addressing the current socioeconomic conditions faced, especially with the current tension between minorities and law enforcement due to the recent rash of police shootings.
“The black man we’re such a target, we have to start waking up ourselves and asking ourselves why are we being such targets?” Dice explained to AllHipHop.com.
“Why are we the low hanging fruit? Why are we being constantly harassed? Why are we being systematically put and compartmentalized in different parts of society that don’t actually contribute anything to society?” the rapper asked inquisitively.
Dice said that although politicians such as Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders played a role in a lot of the laws responsible for black mass incarceration today their sympathy should not be expected.
“We have people who do things because their career is on the line and I can’t expect for a rich white politician to be able to sympathize with me or sympathize with someone who looks like me,” Dice Raw told AllHipHop.com.
When speaking of Kendrick Lamar’s powerful performance at the Grammy’s addressing the same issue and allegedly utilizing a lot of the same imagery as The Last Jimmy, Dice said he recognized some similarities that may have been due to the production, but will leave that up to the fans to decide.
The six-day run of The Last Jimmy will close with performances at 2p.m. on July 30 and 31 at the Proscenium Theatre at The Drake.
Tickets can be purchased here.