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The Gangsta Way

from The Rebel Cell by Mud Sun

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lyrics

The Gangsta Way

I met a man today
Said he didn't like rap that emancipates
Told me I should rhyme in a gangsta way
And this is what he had to say

Now Dizraeli
I haven't heard what you do
But I've heard the criticism
And every word of it's true
I agree that it's important
To keep alert of the truth
But I'd like it more
If you talked about murking my crew

Tell me you're a murderous dude
Servin' us
Giving us third degree burns
'Til we learn not to be rude to rappers
It makes me inexpressibly happy
When a man I don't know threatens to stab me
So call me fassy break my nose bone
And smash my teeth
Tell me you're making mad G's
Off the cream that you're getting from the back
Of selling crack to teens
Say you'll slaughter all the members of my family
Except my mother
You'll give her the special treatment
Rape and bugger her until your testicles are bleeding
I wanna know how many times she came before you finished
And after that
Please explain how big your dick is
Is it really big?
Like the size of a large salmon
Do ladies leap upstream the minute you start shaggin' 'em?
The kind of fish marine biologists can't fathom
Is it a Moby Dick?
Does it break apart galleons?
I want to know every detail of your arrogance
Penetrate me with your big rap talon
Flay my back and write your anger on my skin
I don't want art I want punishing

I met a man today
He tried to blame me for his mental state
Said when I rap it programs his brain
Well this is what he had to say

Baba I know you
I've heard your flow and it's smooth
But you can't understand what your fans are going through
I can't get over you
So tell me what I'm supposed to do
When every word you speak is a command
I can't say 'No' to
According to my personal therapist
Your verses and characters
And surgical narratives
Are converted in my nervous system
Into urgent imperatives
That I'm virtually unaware of
So where have my original thoughts gone?
It's all yours
And it's really unfair to your devoted followers
To impose your code of honor on us
By quoting philosophers
And exposing us all to your so-called knowledge
Leaving hip-hop addicts
With the thought patterns of Rhodes Scholars
Don't you even know why we listen to rap music?
It's supposed to be black and abusive!
As fans we're attracted to scratches and bruises
It's not a mass movement
It's a masochist movement
You can't use it for good, man
You'd have to be stupid
Your optimism is nothing but a massive illusion
And you need a cash infusion fast
Your fashion sense proves it
But I ain't makin' excuses for the slang that I'm usin'
I'm just actin' out a gangster plot and being ruthless
'Cause I've got planks to walk
And all you're doing is mocking all the angst I've got
Can't you leave a brainwashed man in peace with his angry thoughts?
Damn
Thanks a lot

Listen man
What I was trying to say was
I know rhyme can't brainwash
Just the music and the games that we play
That's the substances that our minds are made of
And you saying black is abusive
That's exactly the stupid attitude that's created
Inflated, packaged, produced, and perpetuated
By gangster music
Don't you think?

No man
That was my attempt to satire
The kind of ignorant fan that you imagine rap inspires
That's why you're mad at their descriptions of violence
'Cause poetic license is wasted on the literal minded
Rap is just a form of action fantasy
You want to censor Quentin Tarantino too?
Stop being a drama queen

That's the view from in the bubble, Baba
Of course what we spit is harmless
When you're in a box seat of a minstrel show
For the middle classes
Like “Pass the popcorn, watch the poor folk fight,
We'll be safe walking home at the close of the show
Right?”

Wait
So a white kid who tries to epitomize "blackness"
Is worse than a white kid who sits back and tries to criticize rappers
In a British guy's accent?
Besides, the middle classes who fetishize rap
Just give it better finances

There it is again
You think blackness is wearing hats backwards
And bragging about stabbing kids
In a matter of gangsters
That shows the damage done
By ambassadors like Warren G
And Snoop Dogg has not lifted blacks from poverty

Maybe not
But he has encouraged fans to think positively
About their chances
Rappers are examples of what kids can achieve
But what they say is just words on a page
And their power is inflated by your moral outrage

Nah
The power the bullshit hyper-inflated gangster idiots
Comes from middle class sadomasochism
The fascination with creatures on the other side of the class division
That want to kill us
How deliciously crass and thrilling
We have the same fascination in accidents
And cancer victims
We hear a scream of agony and we have to listen
Of course we don't have to act to give actual assistance
We prefer to give cash to the killers and stand at a distance
The other power of the rapper is the power to make culture
Which society buys 'til teenage soldiers stands on every corner
And labels pass the profit to stakeholders
And leave the consequences of the horrors to the coroners
Art creates culture
Culture makes behavior
This behavior makes day to day danger
So I'm not for censorship
But giving kids critical ears to listen with
And tools to question what they hear
In simple English
That's common sense isn't it?

Yeah, okay
I can see the vicious cycle's action
It's psychopathic how much violence happens
When kids imitate the lives of rappers
That's how our minds are adapted
We're intrigued by a scandal
But skip the criticism
Let's flip the script
And lead by example
Right?

credits

from The Rebel Cell, released August 1, 2008

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Baba Brinkman New York, New York

Science rapper and inventor of several novel hip-hop variants. Canadian transplant to New York. Pathological optimist.

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