Hip-Hop Is Dead

Very interesting article this week by Jason Whitlock about Sean Taylor's death. A reasonable person would assume that Jason would talk about the unfair and unjust killing of an innocent man and how we all should pray for his family and mourn this loss, but Jason goes down a different road. Instead of talking about the depressing circumstances surrounding Taylor's death, Whitlock discuses the anger and the blame that he feel should be put on his own race for this unjust death. He blames hip hop music and the "gangster mentality" of the new generations of blacks for Taylors death. Frankly, I couldn't agree with him more. He brings up the unheard of argument that his own race is what is corrupting our society today. He doesn't blame past discrimination or present prejudice, he blames the music that the blacks are creating and he blames the mentality that the new generation of blacks have about murder and the like. I believe he does a perfect job of bringing up an undiscussed topic pertaining to Taylor's death. He will likely receive criticism for his explanation, but at least he voiced his own opinion that others were unable to discuss, and bring this topic to the table of debate. Among the various parallels Jason uses in his article, this parallel speaks the most. "Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant." These words go directly to the heart and convey a summary of the whole article. If I was included in this group of people that Jason talks about I would be at a slight outrage but at the same time feel contempt with myself because I see that he is right. He is justifying his reasoning not only with one choice word but the parallelism used in "untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant.", speaks volumes more than just saying "untreated". It is used in such a way to say that this hatred is spread far and wide and nobody has done a thing to fix it. It is only getting worse in Jason's eyes and he is displaying his feelings in one brief sentence to the entire black community. He uses this parallel very efficiently to clearly state his main point in one sentence for everyone to understand.
So now with one simple line from a song, Hip Hop is Dead by Nas: "What influenced my raps? Stick ups and killings, kidnappings, project buildings, drug dealings criticize that, why is that?" He says this without any regret at all. Now, we can clearly see why Jason Whitlock does not want his race and our world to go down this horrific road anymore.