Video: Go Hard In The Paint
Waka Flocka Flame: Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
Paul Scott
"All my brothers eatin' chicken and watermelon, talk broken English and drug sellin'"
My Philosophy-Boogie Down Productions
Last night, during the premier of the Hip Hop version of "Are you
Smarter than a 5th Grader," 24 year old Waka Flocka Flame, went up
against nine year old up and coming rapper, Willow Smith. However, the
show ended, abruptly when during the introductions, the host asked Flaka
how many years he had been rappin'. After counting on his fingers for
several seconds, a puzzled Flame stormed off stage, cussin' at the
audience and accusing the host of asking him a trick question...
Waka Flocka Flame is, undoubtedly, one of the hottest artists in Hip
Hop, right now. You cannot turn on any Hip Hop radio station in the
world and not hear one of his songs blastin' through the speakers.
However, what is making Waka most famous these days is not his music but
his interviews. Grandma used to tell me that it is better to keep
silent and be thought a dummy, than to open your mouth and remove all
doubt. Apparently, Flocka didn't get the memo.
On a recent episode of BET's 106 and Park, the host, Terrence J asked
him about education and Flame responded by saying that he was going back
to school to study "geometry." Later when the other host, Roxie asked
him about politics, the boy genius said in classic Captain Caveman
fashion "oonga boonga...votin' cool."
What is most disturbing, however, is the follow up interview that he
gave on a radio station where he suggested that " Waka Flocka Flame" was
just a character that he created in order to relate to the boys in tha
hood. So my issue is not really with Juaquin Malphurs, the product of
the American mis-educational system, but with his alter ego, Waka Flocka
Flame that is being used by the industry to make being dumb, cool. A
classic case of "I'm not really an idiot, I just play one on TV..."
The popularity of black folks actin' the fool has its roots in the mid
1800's with the black face minstrel performances. In the book, "Split
Image: African Americans in the Mass Media," (Janet Davis and William
Barlow) historian William Van Deburg is quoted as saying that in a time
when many whites feared slave insurrections "the early slave image
offered white audiences a comforting , psychological reassurance." He
writes that "such intellectually inferior clowns posed little threat to
white hegemony."
Such as it is today with black rappers in black face like Waka Flocka ,
who, despite all the hood talk are only a threat to the residents of the
hood and not the socio-economic well being of those in the suburbs.
What is most disturbing about Waka is that he plays into the hands of
those who still believe that black folks are more "Straight Out the
Jungle" than "Straight Out of Compton." It must be remembered that
barely a hundred years ago, African people were being locked up in
monkey cages at zoos and forced to perform for white folks. According to
Dr. Harriet Washington in her book, "Medical Apartheid," around 1903, a
missionary explorer, Samuel Phillips Lerner, captured Ota Benga, an
African "pygmy" and gave him to William Hornaday to put on exhibit in
the Bronx Zoo. However, in 2010 they have stopped putting black men in
cages but place them on stages.
To hear Malphurs tell it, the Flaka Flame character just represents the
collective mentality of young urban males who have been victimized by
society and he is only using rap music to express their collective point
of view. Anyone who knows anything thing about Hip Hop history will
tell you that that is a bunch of bull.
Back in the early 80's during the Reagan Era ,when times were ,arguably,
socio-economically worst for black folks, rappers like the Treacherous
Three and Funky Four Plus One More , expressed themselves very
articulately, despite coming from conditions that were worst than those
faced by the multi-millionaire rappers of today. We must ask ourselves
why do the rappers of the 80's who were teenagers in the Reagan- Bush
Era sound more intelligent than grown men in their 20's and 30's in the
age of Obama? Just compare the lyrics of a young Kool Moe D or
Grandmaster Caz with the ramblings of Waka Flocka or Gucci Mane. So the
"product of my environment" excuse just doesn't fly in the face of
facts.
What we have is the mass marketing of ignorance, a classic case of
supply and demand. There are people who want to see black buffoonery and
an industry more than happy to give it to them in large doses.
As we enter into an era where some people are trying to "turn back the
clock" on African American progress, the actions of Waka Flocka Flame
cannot be viewed in a political vacuum. In a time when many people want
to put us back on the plantation we don't need rappers to supply the
lyrical whips to beat us into submission.
So, what should we do? In truth, legitimate illiteracy is a major
problem in poor communities. However, these folks should be helped and
not exploited on TV. Perhaps there should be some "United Negro College
Fund" for rappers to encourage artists like Wacka Flaka to obtain a
higher education or develop a Hip Hop Rites of a Passage where more
socio- politically conscious rappers take artists such as Flame and
mentor them.
If that doesn't work, then it is time for some tough love. Like the old
"scared straight" program, stupid rappers need to be "sacred smart" or
risk being pulled off stage like KRS One did PM Dawn back in the day by
crowds of disgusted black folks who are tired of seeing us portrayed as
buffoons.
Either way it goes down, a change must come.
These are critical times for African Americans and we are in the fight
of our lives against ignorance. We are at the bottom of the ninth
inning; the end of the fourth quarter; down by three points with two
seconds on the shot clock. There is a time for subtle diplomacy, but as
Waka Flocka Flame said himself, there is also a time to "go hard in the
paint."
Paul Scott writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com or (919) 451-8283. For more information on the "Intelligence Over Ignorance" Campaign go to http://www.ioimovement.com/. Join the Right Wing Rap Attack http://www.facebook.com/rightwingrapattack
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