When Real Isn’t Real At All: Our thoughts on Rick Ross, Rap Industry, and the Real Dope Game

Back before…Kiss Me Through the Phone and Chicken Noodle Soup and Tip Drill and the saga of make it rain rap songs…we used to have this thing…a culture…her name was Hip Hop.  Back then hip hop had rappers. And those rappers were real or at the very least, rapped about real ISH. (insert the word SHIT here then take it out because this is a public blog and I’m trying to teach you to do better!).

As I write this, it all makes sense to me, I’ll come right back to hip hop in a minute.

In the 80s The Establishment introduced crack-cocaine to the inner city…okay…we don’t have PROOF they introduced it so I won’t make that statement (then again, you don’t really think people in the hood were trying out different recipes of cocaine, baking soda, water, and heat in order to find a way to make a drug that was more potent even though it meant that they were losing merchandise-cocaine-every time they tried out just because they just happen to think of it—do you?) Let’s say…they LOOSELY introduced it and/or allowed it to take its course…and we do have proof of that…ask the REAL Rick Ross.
Since no one really knew what a CRACKHEAD looked like (it was NEW remember?) a lot of people did crack…entire families were broken and well…we’ve all seen New Jack City…

Fast forward it a few years later to 1986 in the middle of a rushed election (elections means time to make things that make people look good…well, look good!) and the same Establishment passed the Federal Mandatory Minimums Sentencing Guidelines, which basically says, if you are charged at the Federal level you have a MANDATORY sentence of say, 10yrs to Life In Prison and you actually have to SERVE that time (no good time off, probation, etc.).  This includes the conspiracy charge which means, you didn’t actually have to get caught with the dope and they don’t have to PROVE that you sold or distributed the dope to get charged, indicted, and sentenced.  Suspicions behavior (coming in and out of buildings) which counts as “irrelevant conduct” or someone’s testimony of your involvement, could in it of itself count as a conspiracy to charge and get a defendant the mandatory minimum.  They also added clauses to make hard/cooked cocaine (in other words what black men sold) carry heavier weight and time than soft/uncooked (what white men sold) cocaine.

Let’s see if you are following…the Establishment introduced a drug that was more potent and addictive and had never been seen before (so people didn’t really understand how severe it would be), the population got cracked out and increased the demand (crack heads DEMAND crack) for young black males to deal/sell crack, and then they created and passed a law that would give out large, MANDATORY, sentences that would put away males for decades at time.

At this point it’s safe to say, we have an inflow of black fathers going to prison and deserting their children for decades…enter the single black mother and the breakdown of the black family nucleus.

That was the 80s.

The 90’s came and we had a stronger economy.  And because black people are who they are, surviving, beautiful, smart, tenacious, people out of the tragedy of the 80s (see above), came an equally strong, beautiful, smart, tenacious culture that would span the world with its influence, lyrics, and beats.  This thing was called Hip Hop.  The world was mesmerized by its raw power, its lifestyle, its clothing, and its language.  The protagonists of that Hip Hop story where rappers and even black fashion artists (remember Karl Kani and Phat Farm?).

Some of you have forgotten, but I remember there was talk about the black buying power, the future of America.  Blacks were getting MBAs and were taking over business.  Magazines like Black Enterprise where thriving.  There was this thing…in the air…it was black progress.

10 years into 2000…you have to ask yourself…what happened?

Could it be that in a time of the internet and the Smoking Gun and investigative reporting, the Establishment could not get away with introducing a drug to the inner city again without being unmasked before the world with ease?

And that given this fact, in order to kill the rising strength of the black empowerment and business movement of hip hop and the 90s, the Powers that be, would have to find another, smarter more clever way to kill, steal, cheat, and destroy black people and their progress?

What if the Establishment could influence that which they held so dear? Which was the distribution of everything black…Hip Hop?  What if it could influence record companies and what they wanted? Selected? And Signed?

And just like that…it happened slowly…so slow, that we barely noticed…what was once about reflection, and voice and progress…became…FUN. We had fun beats, Annie was singing on a record, we could make songs about video hoes, and instead of gold necklaces we wanted to be laced with…diamonds! Yes, diamonds…blood draped, African, bling.

With this new shiny, diamond wearing BLINGED out world of hip hop came excess.  This Establishment paid out more money than they had ever paid black artists in history for any sort of entertainment!  Rather than screaming community wealth and fashion creativity, we suddenly traded urban fashions.  We wanted designer European fashions! Gucci, LV, Channel…We also became less employable!  Artists promoted grills and tattoos because nothing makes you poorer than…not being able to get a job!  How lovely!

Guys, this is way better than crack!  Yeah, crack was too messy!

Oh, wait…yes, Hip Hop…Rick Ross…

A follower on Twitter today popped off a conversation about how Rick Ross has kids rapping and singing about King Ping this and that…

It reminded me of how Hip Hop isn’t real anymore.  Not at all. Not when you have a guy like Rick Ross making records and hit singles and tours.

For one, we DO know, his raps are not autobiographical.  We do know, the guy was accused and then confirmed to be a CO, under the name of William Leonard Roberts.  Now, if you live in the hood for real you know that CO’s and PO’s touch dope too so let’s say, that in respect, we can’t just toss that he’s touched dope because he was a CO…okay, we can give him that, maybe. But, I’m sorry, kingpin? Um…not so much.  (By the way, here’s the info about Rick Ross http://bit.ly/9S0J0w )

For two, Kingpins don’t rap. They don’t work on an image. They don’t send out demos.  They don’t take other men’s names…living men…in prison at that…no matter how big the rep is.  It would have been totally different if the Real Rick Ross had christened him before his first album, and put him out into the world like, “this is the real deal, he’s from the streets, I’m giving him my name.”Not the case.  And, by the way, Jay was Jay before he became iconic. Now that’s real.

But my point is way past Rick Ross, I can care less about him.  I mean, we could have picked Nicky Minaj and gotten to the same place.

My point is this…I want people to question what has happened to Hip Hop and why.  I want us to see that the influence of Hip Hop as it is today is as dangerous as the introduction and distribution of crack-cocaine in the inner city.

I want us to see that it isn’t real to glorify dope selling…when it isn’t real at all.  The numbers don’t add up.  Their quantities don’t add up.  Their prices and numbers don’t add up.  Ask a real dope boy.  People moving that much dope and not getting caught doesn’t add up.  Unless, they are old white men or Mexicans with established government connections, businesses, trust funds, and attorneys. It sure the hell isn’t Rick Ross.

These rappers are the pied pipers of our black boys and they don’t live the real street life.  They are on the same Establishment’s payroll as the DEA agents that sat in the sidelines in the 80s.  Their kids don’t go to the Title I schools you’re kids will go to.  They won’t face a 50-60% dropout rate. They won’t sit in a class with 40 other kids and no heat.

Put some real numbers in your rap and talk about the Federal mandatory minimum and then I’ll tell you if you are real.

And for the record boys and girls, a Federal charge of CONSPIRACY to distribute 5kilos or more (remember rappers are rapping about 20-30 bricks in weeks or days, or whatever fit their rhyme) with a “Kin Pin” title, will get you 13 years. Just FYI. Now what’s real.

Check out Families against Mandatory Minimum’s website: www.famm.org