I agree that we shouldn't just put all of the blame on a young kid like Chief Keef, but there's been a long line of rappers who have essentially turned violence into a business that came before him. I agree with Myke that people who hype Keef up as being great have a hand in this as well.
I'm late but I just saw this. Why do we make rappers feel obligated to speak on issues? They should ONLY speak on things if they want to. And all this "we can't cry over Trayon if we listen to violence in music" miss me with that bullshit. It's entertainment. I'll say it again IT'S ENTERTAINMENT! VIOLENCE EXISTED WAY BEFORE RAP!! Rap had NOTHING to do with his death! As far as stereotypes, Black people are stereotyped and that's way before rap! Stop blaming rap for everything wrong in the world!
you cant blame hip hop for the violence in African American communities. hip hop is an entertainment platform. do we blame Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino for violence in the white communities because of the violence in the movies they create? its entertainment.
This is by far and away the best conversation about the George Zimmerman verdict I've seen. Instead of talking about things needing to change people should first address why things are the way they currently are, and this is the only video I've seen do that.
The fact that over 70 people getting murdered here in Chicago in sometimes only a two day stretch is getting ignored by mainstream media as something that is "ordinary" is terrifying to me. It's as if we don't exist. There is a mentality in this city that essentially pegs the Northside (the upperclass side) as the only existent part of the city. And I hate it, I exist too.
True. I'm a fan of DEHH. But, first impression was that they may have felt obligated to talk about Trayvon and that the discussion wasn't going to be anything I haven't already heard about the subject. But, gotta say that DEHH surprised me on this one. So intelligent and balanced. I even showed this to my mom who doesn't even listen to much hip hop and she thought it was fantastic! She thought it was better than anything she's seen on television. I hope this goes viral!
I'm gonna have to disagree with myke (which funnily enough I rarely disagree with him). I think myke is transferring too much of the blame away from zimmerman and onto the black community. We should not make excuses for zimmermans ignorance just because he believed in stereotypes of black people.
"surprisingly?" DEHH provide better opinions on albums than most "popular" reviewers out there! I always agree with at least one of the crew on their opinion on a project and they raise phenomenal points! This discussion doesn't surprise me, before I clicked on the video I made me some dinner and sat my ass down with some water cause I knew I was in for an emotional, mature and well thought out discussion. RESPECT to the DEHH crew.
i completely agree with myke. i was so angry when everybody focused so much on this one case. and acted as if they knew what happened/was there. this case in particular is not anymore important than all of the other cases of black/white people killing other blacks in the "hood".
I think it`s actually a good thing that you guys chose to address this topic. The varying opinions make for an entertaining and intelligent conversation. I personally feel like Myke is right on point. We must address the underlying problems rather than point to any single case as the catalyst for racial oppression in this country.
Man, I love this type of serious discussion. You guys should do more, i'd watch you guys talk about music, politics, sports or whatever. It's such a nice diverse set of opinions and mentalities. Keep it up.
Why is everyone talking about the specifics of the case if what you're repeating your subjective point of view on it? I agree with Myke's approach to the conversation, this should really be about the issues that the case has bought back to the forefront, rather than a verdict that we cannot change and a case that none of us truly know about...
Wow. Kudos to DEHH! This is surprisingly the most interesting dialogue about Trayvon Martin I've heard yet! Forget MSNBC! Forget CNN! Forget Fox! I never would have thought that a hip hop channel would have such a balanced, thought provoking conversation about such a upsetting/controversial subject.
The point though, is that the kid who was shot for "looking black in a black hoodie" was recognized as that, was recognized as a danger, because of how hip hop portrays black youth in our generation
Kelly is absolutely right about what she said referencing the African girl's view on how America tells a story. We completely lose the context of the story. It's spun to sound in correlation to a specific audiences bias, whether it be Black, White, Hispanic, gay, straight, Democrat, Republican, or Independent. This is something that Blacks deal with on a constant basis. Nobody cares about our context, only that we are continuously vilified.
MykeCtown was really on point in this video. I may not agree with everything he says, but more often than not, I'm on the same wavelength. Much props to Feefo as well. Really enjoyed this video. The lady in the video is fine as hell too.
I think asking if hip hop should respond is soon nothing but continuum the ducked up cycle were already in. You should be asking if music should respond. This affected the country not just the black community.
And that's why it should have been criminal negligence, he was reckless to follow Trayvon, but murder and/or manslaughter wasn't going to hold in court.
Another opinion of mine. I think we need to focus on one race. The human race. All this talk about our own people and "them" is only hurting society as a whole. Being conscious of cultural differences is one thing but the abundance if exclusivity in this country is fucking us up.
He didn't just defend himself, he profiled and followed the kid, the kid reacted like any kid who thought he was in danger, he did shoot in defense, but served no time because what the court is saying is basically that racial profiling is legal. That's what blacks are mad about, him not doing the case proves its ok to profile people.
Hip Hop should respond because in this culture there's a lot of trayvon's out there trying to make it in the music industry. It would be foolish of hip hop to ignore the Trayvon case.
It's stupid to me that the Zimmerman case is what was needed for this discussion to happen because I don't think race was a factor in what happened. But I'm glad you guys had this discussion.
Those injuries weren't life threatening. Trayvon wasn't robbing him either. He was just scared of Zimmerman because he didn't know who he was. Zimmerman didn't attack him because he was black either. And let's not get on gun control. Zimmerman had every legal right to carry that firearm. This situation was just a result of poor communication, poor judgment and being at a bad place at a bad time.
I disagree with Mike C town. Rappers have zero responsibility when it comes to violence in a community and their music, they are artists. Does anyone blame James Gandolfini, Robert Dinero, Al Pachino, or Bryan Cranston when they come on their TV and murder people by the dozens? No. They just talk about what geniuses they are and how they love the entertainment. When it comes to how these "artists" behave when they are not behind the mic that is where positive change needs to be made.
Imagine if Zimmerman never left his vehicle to pursue Trayvon. Trayvon would've walked home and none of us would be having this conversation right now. But Zimmerman the neighborhood watchman decides to ignore the operator suggestion and take the law into his own hand because he thought he could. Zimmerman had a superiority complex which led to this horrible demise we have now. The tone of voice when he called 911 you could tell he was fed up and nothing was going to stop him that night.
I usually have some issues with your opinions on certain issues, but this discussion was well-directed and very objective. Props to DEHH for this discussion.
There were no rappers spewing negativity when Medgar Evers or Emmit Till were murdered (just two of the countless). Maybe everyone should just use sense experience when it comes to human interaction, rather than falsely characterizing others based on bigotry or stereotypes. I wear business attire to Corporate America everyday and still have to deal with the b.s. Wrongly equating Black skin to trouble has been an unfortunate practice in this country long before Hip Hop.
Interesting conversation. As a young person myself who listens to all kinds of rap music I can say that me and all my friends listen to rap as entertainment, we all understand where a Chief Keef or a Waka Flocka comes from. I think it's kinda crazy to assume that we all don't understand right from wrong and only listen for negative messages but other than that great video.
In the Trevon Martin case, the stand your ground law wasn't used in this case. People forgot the fact that Zimmerman was told not to get out of his car and he got out any
Great conversation..... I think the bigger question is how do we learn from these situations and begin to take steps to create the would we would like to see.
Im from South Africa Looking in from the outside and I have to say Dead end hip hop really opened up my mind about hip hop and the way we interpret it.
I liked both sides of the argument, i think they are both right. There is a problem with automatically categorizing Trayvon Martin as a threat, and judging him based on entertainment music. There is also a problem with rappers being poor role models. Both sides can be right at the same time, and i believe both are correct.
Very good topic. More people should take these needless deaths seriously otherwise we're going to just keep talking about this for generations to come.
"positivity is not profitable anymore" Not sure if I entirely agree with that, partly cause there are successful mainstream artist pushing positivity like Kendrick and Macklemore (even if I dont like him), but mainly just cause you made it sound like a change. Hip Hop has been less encouraging of gang violence now then at any point in the last 25 or so years.
Going along w/ your story: 1.How is Trayvon the "thug" when Zimmerman had the gun? 2. Why wouldn't Trayvon put up a fight and beat Zimmerman "senseless" when he was approached by Zimmerman with a gun? 3. How can armed Zimmerman antagonize unarmed Trayvon and then claim "self defense"? 4. How is Zimmerman approaching, interrogating, and antagonizing Trayvon "simply informing police of a possible suspect that matched the description of many others involved in frequent robberies in the area"?
"People automatically assume Trayvon was the aggressive one" People have assumed exactly the same thing about Zimmerman. In fact some of them have commented on this video.
First and foremost, condolences to Trayvon's family! This is about more than politics, it's about heart and compassion. We as Hiphop should be taking responsibility and we should hold each-other accountable for what we contribute to our culture (positive neutral or negative). check "Talk to Me (Tribute to Trayvon)" it's a message we all need to hear. "What if Trayvon killed a white kid/ he'd be indicted without a chance to fight it." Peace
People do not like positivity in hip hop. People HATED Eminem Recovery album. Calling him a sell out because he made radio friendly songs. But in those radio friendly songs he was talking about his drug addiction and telling people it not call to pop pills and to get out of a violent relation. Including you Myke.
People do die everyday but high profile cases like trayvons death should be used as a stepping stone for change. Zimmerman is an adult who persued a teenager after he was told by police dispatch not to do so and as a result the teen was shot. When it went to court the killer was set free. This is a prime example of what occurs in the world everyday. So shouldn't we as a people be striving to prevent senseless killings and also promote a more just judicial system?
"Hip hop is supposed to be teaching our kids about politics, history, pride..." Since when? That's what schools are for. Why listen to a rapper for something that you can get in a history/anthropology book written by someone who is qualified to talk about they talk about and has done extensive research on the topic. Armchair sociological commentary...is just armchair sociological commentary.
He didn't pull the gun out on him until he was beating him up. If George and Trayvon would have reasonably talked instead of intentionally fought then he would have been alive right now.
The fact that everybody is exploding the Zimmerman case, which like Myke said happened in the suburbs, instead of covering places like Chicago to a degree where people would want to change it is a problem.
Probably the best discussion I've seen about Trayvon, great job! This is vaguely related. I got a question for folks. Do you think there are certain topics within hip hop that white members should remove themselves from? Or does everyone have some value in their opinion, regardless of context?
the story has been blown out of proportion. it should of never been a race thing. we are quick to either state that either trayvon was a thug or that the shooter was racist. nobody was there but we are all still have to put out an opinion based on hear-say. we all are stronger together. unity triumphs over all.
Yeah when the chick was saying something like, "We should condone that girl talking how she feels comfortable even if it sounds ghetto and probably grammatically incorrect even in a setting like a trial" I was like: WTF?
