It’s November, the time of scheduled thanks. Come
the fourth Thursday of this month, we will reflect on all the awesome
things that have happened to us this year and figure out who besides us
had a hand in making it happen. Then we will give them a big up by eating a weeks worth of food in 2 hours. I’m
going to dedicate the stuffing to my mom and pops because they never
say no, the mac and cheese to my buds because they loan me stuff even
though they know they won’t get it back and the turkey to AHH because
they give me space to post my rants. However, there are some whose thanks are a bit more confusing.
Case in point: Soulja Boy
I’m
sure most of you have heard this already, but for those of you who have
not; I’m going to hip you to who Soulja Boy will be thanking at his
house this fall season.
Slave masters.
Yup, slave masters around the globe, take heart in knowing yooooooouuuuu have at least one ig’nant rapper in your corner. Mr.
Soulja Boy wants to thank yooooooouuuuu for importing both him and
diamonds from Africa so instead of digging for them, he can wear them. If
it wasn’t for your inhuman, evil ways he would never be in a position
where he could release mind numbing music and actually get paid enough
for it that he can give a portion of the cash back to yooooooouuuuu in
exchange for bling. Sweet!
When SB was being interviewed by Toure for BET’s Black Carpet, he dropped this little gem. Toure asked him who in history he hated the most. Soulja Boy gave him crickets, so Toure made some suggestions for the youngster; Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Slave Masters? Maybe he had never heard of Bin Laden or Hitler before, but slave master rang a bell. Instead
of espousing his hatred for those who would sell past members of his
family into bondage though, he gave them a shout out.
“Oh
wait! Hold up! Shout out to the slave masters! Without them we’d still
be in Africa. We wouldn’t be here to get this ice and tattoos.”
Even my 8-year-old realized how obnoxiously dim-witted this statement was.
It is discombobulating to say the least. I searched my brain for excuses for this young man. Maybe he didn’t understand the question. Maybe this was a tasteless joke. Maybe he and Wayne mistakenly exchanged plastic cups at some earlier function. Maybe he was in the studio the day they talked about slavery in history class. There is no way he could know what he was saying. He couldn’t be that type of self absorbed. Could he?
Millions of deaths have been alleviated by shiny rocks? Men
in his own blood line were whipped, tortured, castrated, drawn and
quartered; but that’s alright as long as he can get tatted? I’m sure he
thinks if he were one of the unlucky souls to have been spared the
middle passage he would still be wearing a loin cloth and beating on a
drum in the sand.
I know he’s only 18, but that type of unawareness can not go unchecked. His momma needs to put him in remedial history class or something; make that dude watch the entirety of Roots one weekend. Or better yet, read the book. Have him watch Amistad, Glory and A Woman Named Moses. Take him to Africa so he can see how those who work in the diamond mines live. As
he figuratively steps over the dead bodies of those who made it a
possibility for him to live like he does; as African children grow up
without appendages for allegedly stealing stones from the mine owners,
as we still reel from the damage done to us; he trivializes the most
horrific human tragedy this earth has ever known. That’s some sad nicca s###, but I guess we shouldn’t expect anything more from someone who blows their nose with c-notes.
We could attribute this to his youth and disconnection to his past. At
least that is what I will try to do as I determine whether or not to
buy his new album for my son; if he still wants it. We have accepted
some p### poor behavior and odd comments from older, more seasoned
artists in the past few years, folks who in my estimation should have
known better. So I’m totally expecting the apology and this faux pas to be carried away by the breeze.
However,
in the interim it would be nice SB if you could step off that
hovercraft your rich nicca ass uses to move those 6 feet from the
kitchen to the living room and bird walk your narrow butt to the
library to learn a little something about your past and culture.