Common on MSNBC

[GetInTheTruck]

Rappers are one part of the Black community, and certainly not the most qualified to speak on systemic and policy issues. Interviewing rappers about this stuff is part of a racialized subset of the media's ridiculous celebrity interview culture. At the end of the day, I don't care what insight George Clooney or Common have to offer about social issues and politics. Dave Chappelle already covered this with his bit about Ja Rule.

And Common is not qualified to speak about poor Black America since he neither grew up in it nor studied it in any serious way. The things he said here are things any well-meaning white liberal (and many conservatives) would say when asked the same thing.

first thing that came to my mind.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

"The South Side" isn't synonymous with the ghetto, though. The article specifically says "he was lucky enough to grow up in a black middle-class Chicago neighborhood." Also, he went to Lutheran High School South, which is a private school.



I agree, you don't have to be poor to speak on it, but I offered two standards- either know from experience, or know from real learning. When you're just saying the same stuff that the average white liberal says, which is what Common is doing in this interview, you clearly don't meet either standard, or if you do, you aren't doing anything to show it.



I don't know where you're getting this from and I disagree. Most great Black leaders who actually sparked real change were not poets. That's not to say poetry doesn't have a place, but presenting the situation as if poets are the ones to turn to for what's really going on and ignoring people who do the hard work to analyze society and come up with viable solutions is misguided, in my opinion.



You may be right, but that itself presents a problem. Is it worth it to sacrifice substantive discussion on real solutions for an audience? What does it say that our society is more likely to watch unqualified people repeating truisms over and over again rather than people with substance to offer on politics and social issues?

Eh...Common didn't grow up poor, but he is from the southside of Chicago and he was obviously exposed to and around a lot of the people and the element he's referencing. He was part of the 4 Corner Hustlers and I'm sure he had a lot of associates, friends, and family that were poor and into gangs, drug dealing and the like.

He didn't grow up on sugar water and government cheese, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say he's unqualified to speak on it. It's not like he grew up like Carlton Banks or something.

 

[The Message]

At the end of the day these murders will have to be address by the communities themselves. I don't see anyone who is outside of those communities answering the problems that plague them. In my city the reason we have a extremely high murder and violence rate is due to the poverty. Saginaw and Flint, MI are too small for some of the shyt that goes down in these cities. Its poverty and messed up family dynamics. Someone has to step up. All we can do is try to offer chances to to succeed in those areas. Education and jobs. Other than people preaching about "things we have to do". This mess is generational. These kids have a parent or parents that are living the same life the kids are. The kids are just acting on what they know most of the time.

Word. For Flint and Saginaw to have that high of a murder rate when you add in how small of a city they are is crazy. I went home to Flint for Christmas and I lost it when I heard the police chopper flying above my parent's house. lol As bad as it was growing up, they never had a chopper. It's worse now. But when you see the lack of economic opportunity for people you see the parallel.

 

[The Real]

Eh...Common didn't grow up poor, but he is from the southside of Chicago and he was obviously exposed to and around a lot of the people and the element he's referencing. He was part of the 4 Corner Hustlers and I'm sure he had a lot of associates, friends, and family that were poor and into gangs, drug dealing and the like.

He didn't grow up on sugar water and government cheese, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say he's unqualified to speak on it. It's not like he grew up like Carlton Banks or something.

Maybe I'm being too hard on him, but personally, I don't believe the 4CH thing and even then- I knew a lot of suburban white boys who claimed Blood, got "jumped in" (really just got taken advantage of) and so on. I'm not saying he's completely disconnected from the hood, but I also don't think his comments in this interview capitalize on any connection he actually might have, if he does.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Maybe I'm being too hard on him, but personally, I don't believe the 4CH thing and even then- I knew a lot of suburban white boys who claimed Blood, got "jumped in" (really just got taken advantage of) and so on. I'm not saying he's completely disconnected from the hood, but I also don't think his comments in this interview capitalize on any connection he actually might have, if he does.

He did make a very general statement that we all have heard before, but that doesn't mean he was incorrect. In my opinion i think it's good for our entertainers to try to speak out and say something substantive, as opposed to this.

 

[Robbie3000]

“I really feel that we need to restructure the black family,” he said. “Within the inner cities, we don’t have a lot of correct parenting and we have to change that. We have to figure out what we can do to change that. We know we’re starting from a deficit right now. We have to figure out what we can do as elders and as young people to support each other.”

This is a real problem in black America.

 

[cheek100]

to my knowledge Common hasnt made a mistake yet when representing urban black folks.. excluding any acting gigs, When has he slipped?
bruh is alright in my book

at saying rappers arent qualified to convey our struggle to whitey

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

Rappers always say some silly shyt in serious interviews tho. Have you ever heard an interview with ? shyts terrible. I saw that roundtable where he was using some silly ass etymology rationale to justify rappers saying 'bytch'. You don't have to go into the romance language root of the word n***a to get your point across, just chalk it up to creative and artistic freedom

 

[cheek100]

Rappers always say some silly shyt in serious interviews tho. Have you ever heard an interview with ? shyts terrible. I saw that roundtable where he was using some silly ass etymology rationale to justify rappers saying 'bytch'. You don't have to go into the romance language root of the word n***a to get your point across, just chalk it up to creative and artistic freedom

for real some of them cats can fukk up a serious interview.. somethin like cam when he did

sometimes we get caught up in the "way" shyt is said instead of "what" is meant.. we also write off a good point because it wasnt said "how" we feel it should of been articulated.. my point is that rappers are usually on the front lines of the struggle- like infantry.. they get all banged up and scarred, but when the return they have useful intel

 

[The Real]

He did make a very general statement that we all have heard before, but that doesn't mean he was incorrect. In my opinion i think it's good for our entertainers to try to speak out and say something substantive, as opposed to this.



http://cdnl.complex.com/assets/CHANNEL_IMAGES/MUSIC/2012/11/content/tumblr_md7iuzwaka1qko[/quote]

[quote="cheek100, post: 2833381"]to my knowledge Common hasnt made a mistake yet when representing urban black folks.. excluding any acting gigs, When has he slipped?
bruh is alright in my book

:rudy: at saying rappers arent qualified to convey our struggle to whitey[/quote]


Ok, since people seem to be getting conflicting messages from my posts, let me clarify.

I am not inherently against rappers being interviewed about Blackness or the state of Black life. When I said that they ened to stop interviewing rappers as a window into Black life, I meant that no other group of people has to see only their entertainers interviewed again and again as a window into their entire race. There are a few token intellectuals, sure, but even that is a sign of the problem, since others don't have to deal with it. I don't know about yall, but I find that strange.

Additionally, I'm not talking about "representing the Black community" or "communicating our struggle." This interview is about policy concerning gun control and poverty. What substantive contributions does a rapper offer on policy matters? That's why this interview expressed nothing other than generic statements. You may like those statements, and I don't find them disagreeable, but let's face it- they have little to do with the topic at hand beyond the most shallow level.

There are many community activists, researchers, legal scholars, who can speak about the issues and policy with substance. I'd rather be seeing them on tv discussing this issue than Common. Artists have their place as social commentators, but not like this.

 

[cheek100]

Ok, since people seem to be getting conflicting messages from my posts, let me clarify.

I am not inherently against rappers being interviewed about Blackness or the state of Black life. When I said that they ened to stop interviewing rappers as a window into Black life, I meant that no other group of people has to see only their entertainers interviewed again and again as a window into their entire race. There are a few token intellectuals, sure, but even that is a sign of the problem, since others don't have to deal with it. I don't know about yall, but I find that strange.

Additionally, I'm not talking about "representing the Black community" or "communicating our struggle." This interview is about policy concerning gun control and poverty. What substantive contributions does a rapper offer on policy matters? That's why this interview expressed nothing other than generic statements. You may like those statements, and I don't find them disagreeable, but let's face it- they have little to do with the topic at hand beyond the most shallow level.

There are many community activists, researchers, legal scholars, who can speak about the issues and policy with substance. I'd rather be seeing them on tv discussing this issue than Common. Artists have their place as social commentators, but not like this.

gun policy and poverty have everything to do with the black struggle sir..
however i respect your views.. i just had to stand up for common

 

[The Real]

gun policy and poverty have everything to do with the black struggle sir..
however i respect your views.. i just had to stand up for common

Agreed, but the Black struggle is a large and general field. I think rappers are qualified to communicate some parts of it it in some ways, but not others, just like people with other backgrounds. I personally think that rappers and other entertainers get called upon too often to do that in contexts where it isn't as appropriate, just like other celebrities outside of race issues.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

You kidding me? I loved that Camron and Bill O' Reilly interview. I loved it before I liked hip hop. I was like who is this guy? He's using Bill's tactics against him

 

[theworldismine13]

to my knowledge Common hasnt made a mistake yet when representing urban black folks.. excluding any acting gigs, When has he slipped?
bruh is alright in my book

at saying rappers arent qualified to convey our struggle to whitey

maybe he was representing urban black folk by doing it but imo he went down a notch by trying to justify using nikka when whats her name complained about it

him and kanye i think have tried to hard to be hard by riding with the "nikkas and bytches" type of rap when they dont even have to, i find it disappointing, i dont think they have struck the right balance between leading and repping

that being said, common is the fuking man, when i saw him live he put on the best concert ever, he was talking all this metaphyiscial stuff and he had me zoning, no homo but i thought dude was talking to me the whole time, like we were the only people in the room and we had bonded, it was weird

 

[cheek100]

maybe he was representing urban black folk by doing it but imo he went down a notch by trying to justify using nikka when whats her name complained about it

him and kanye i think have tried to hard to be hard by riding with the "nikkas and bytches" type of rap when they dont even have to, i find it disappointing, i dont think they have struck the right balance between leading and repping

that being said, common is the fuking man, when i saw him live he put on the best concert ever, he was talking all this metaphyiscial stuff and he had me zoning, no homo but i thought dude was talking to me the whole time, like we were the only people in the room and we had bonded, it was weird

this is the root of the real argument.. that fine line we cant cross between leading the sheep and not "selling out".. so many cats could be great leaders if one or two (or 100) sheep didnt blurt out SELL OUT! when they were trying to lead.. we black folks are good at sitting safely on the side and telling all the other black folks why "this nikka aint got no business tryna tell me what to do".. damn near every black leader has had to deal with this type of treason
as far as justifying the use of "nikka"... this word is as american as baseball.. it aint going no where in our lifetime.. not saying its right, but even if us negroes stop using it, whitey nem gonna keep it alive.. gotta role with "nikka" breh