He Said WHAT?!?

By: Georgia Trevor

 

 

 

 

“Pop a lot of pain pills.

Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels.

Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till. Yeah”

 

            These are the lyrics that famous rapper, Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter decided to use in his verse for rapper Future’s song titled “Karate Chop Remix” This is what has sparked chaos and controversy over the world. Makes me wonder when freedom of speech has its limits. Given Mr. Carter has a daughter just around that age, you’d think he’d put more thought to his lyrical decisions. Above all of this, IT’S BLACK HISTORY MONTH! If this is a salute then we don’t want it! It’s a disgrace to our race because people are reciting it and continuing to support rappers like him that have nothing better to talk about but nonsense! I got a chance to have a very brief chat with Roger Suggs, better known as the rapper Vigalantee is an emcee, speaker, and social activist based in Kansas City, Kansas and he had so much to say about this topic. Matter of fact, if you follow this link, http://youtu.be/xPLEQO-4CD4 you can get the full interview he had on YouTube.

 

“We’re losing our culture, trying to be like everybody else when at a time everyone wanted to be like us, especially when it came to hip-hop.” -Vigalantee

 

Black history was established to give incite and celebrate African Americans that made a difference and fought for what we as African Americans now have. Freedom, Equality, Peace, Unfair justice, inventions, accomplishments, books; everything we have can be trailed back to those who couldn’t imagine having what we now have.

 

“We’ve got to start educating our kids about the history so they don’t make the mistakes as Wayne did.”-Vigalantee

 

We’ve all heard of the story about a boy named Emmett Till. If not, let me give you a brief background. Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam arrived at Till's great-uncle's house where they took Till, transported him to a barn, beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound (32 kg) cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. His body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later. He was beaten so badly, his own mother who raised him on her own couldn’t recognize him.

 

Tragic.

 

This was a major controversy around the world to how unjust this world truly was and that equality had yet to reach the hearts of many hateful racists. It showed that the system of progression still had ways to go for a better US.

 

 “When it comes to a black issue, nobody cares…we’re doing this to ourselves. It’s ridiculous.”-Vigalantee

 

The reality of it all is that if people of African American heritage don’t value and covet the history that gives them the ability to live so freely in a country so hell bent on keeping them oppressed, why would rappers as Wayne? Who will respect a race of people who does not respect themselves?