I’m So Hood!
“I’m So Hood!”
I love DJ Khaled’s song titled, “I’m So Hood!” For the past few weeks, I’ve listened to it while in my vehicle at least three times a day. And need I say that it was played at a very high decibel. I shared my affection with the song to a friend of mine and he asked, “How could you like such a song?” I pondered the question for a moment and then asked myself “why shouldn’t I like it?” It then donned on me, from his perspective, he obviously interpreted the song as one glamorizing the negativity which has a stranglehold on our community. However, that was not my interpretation at all.
Written by Cornell Dews
Years ago, Chuck D from Public Enemy proclaimed that “Hip Hop is the Black CNN.” This means to me, just as the cable news network has the responsibility to report credible news to its audience, so does hip hop artists. And this news which is supposedly reported by “credible” sources should encompass all. With that being said, nowadays if you tune into urban radio in any major market you’ll hear rap songs that consistently spew the same tales. There’s no variety of sorts. This would lead someone, who didn’t know any better, to think that there was nothing positive to champion in the hood. I beg to differ.
“I’m So Hood!” On Friday, during their lunch, I asked a class of middle school students, my students, if they liked DJ Khaled’s song. Two girls immediately raised their hands, one sixth grade student and the other a seventh grade student. I then asked them both, “why do you like the song?” The sixth grader said she like the song because “T-Pain is on the hook,” while the seventh grader said she liked the song because “the way they talk about how the boys dress.” I then asked my students, “What does it mean to be hood?” Here’s a list of their responses:o
- To shoot someone in your neighborhood
- Certain clothes you wear
- Someone ghetto
- To not follow rules
- To disrespect women
- To be disrespectful to your elders
- To talk trash to one another
- To steal
- To carry a gun
- To sell drugs
- To beat people up
- To destroy other peoples property
And one girl said, “Wearing fake hair is hood also.” I said, “Damn, maybe I shouldn’t like this song.” Then I remembered Chuck D’s statement and how this song initially registered with me.
I’m from Baltimore, Maryland; east Baltimore to be exact. As a matter of fact, my parents still own and live in the house that I was raised in and I frequent the neighborhood on a daily basis. I grew up on Harford Road and Darley Avenue, commonly referred to as Harford and Darley. It’s the hood to some, but its home to me.
“I’m so Hood!” Why would someone want to be? Well it depends on ones interpretation. If I only associated the hood with negativity then it wouldn’t be a place that I would gloriously identify myself with. But I know that the “hood” has more to offer. It has me to offer and many more like me. So, I guess I’m hood in the sense that I was raised in a section of the inner city of Baltimore descriptive of what many people associate being “hood” with; however, I managed to escape the same societal ills and pitfalls that have engulfed so many in similar predicaments. I guess I’m hood in the sense that I can honestly relate to the tails depicted in DJ Khaled’s song, but again managed to escape somewhat unscathed and minus a criminal record might I add. I guess I’m hood in the sense that I live where I teach, in the inner city. And I still find the time to return to my old neighborhood to engage my younger brothers in conversation with the hopes of inspiring them to do something different. I guess I’m hood in the sense that at times my appearance could allow for someone to misinterpret my status based on preconceived notions and stereotypes. By the way which, I welcome because it allows an opportunity for me to proudly profess what the “hood” has to offer when I detail who I really am. I guess I’m hood in the sense that though I wasn’t dealt the “best” hand, I played the hand I was dealt to the best of my ability. And though the game isn’t over, I’m convincingly holding my own. I’m hood in the sense that I know who I am, where I’ve been, what I have seen, encountered and overcome, what I could have been and some may say should have been, but I refused to accept it. I guess I’m hood in the sense that I’m proud of my experiences and wouldn’t change anything if I could. I guess I’m hood in the sense that I’m proud to be from east Baltimore and hopefully one day I can make east Baltimore proud of me.
Pac described it as “A rose that grew from concrete.” Jay once rapped “Look man a tree grows in Brooklyn.” I’ll end by saying this, “I’m east Baltimore to the core. I’ve been slick since the year before ’84. If a tree can grow in Brooklyn and a rose through concrete, then a diamond can be found on these east side streets.”
“I’m So Hood!”
Written by Cornell Dews
October 29th, 2007 at 5:14 am
excellent article. thank you.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:20 am
FIRST BIOTCHH…there’S some real talk goin on on realtalk…thats some grown man shit..
October 29th, 2007 at 5:25 am
I am a fan of hop hop but this particular song though i have to disagree with the content and the way it is played on the radio and tv over and over because it is a direct hit of negativity on our kids. To me there is nothing good about being “hood”. I thought the goal was to get out of the hood but instead they are glorifying the very aspects of the image in which the police stereotype young men in the “hood”. SO when they get on CNN and say hiphop is bad for kids they will use this example (songs like “im so hood” and “brown paper bag”) to our downfall.
Also that brown paper bag song is terrible. Instead of me explaining why I will provide a primary source of information so you fools can understand the REAL meaning of the brown paper bag. I bet you wont sing this song after reading this…
[ In his 1996 book The Future of the Race, Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of the Afro-American studies department at Harvard, described his encounter with the brown paper bag when he came to Yale in the late 1960s, when skin-tone bias was brazenly practiced: "Some of the brothers who came from New Orleans held a "bag party.' As a classmate explained it to me, a bag party was a New Orleans custom wherein a brown paper bag was stuck on the door.
"Anyone darker than the bag was denied entrance. That was one cultural legacy that would be put to rest in a hurry - we all made sure of that. But in a manner of speaking, it was replaced by an opposite test whereby those who were deemed "not black enough' ideologically were to be shunned. I was not sure this was an improvement."
Gates was overly optimistic. The brown paper bag test remains in black culture in various incarnations, as the Applebee's case and the EEOC's statistics confirm. We separate ourselves by skin tone almost as much as we ever did. If, say, you check out the "desired" female beauties in rap videos, you will find redbones galore.} ]
…in other words, back in the 60’s AFTER slavery if you were darker than a brown paper bag you still were treated as a slave. I just want rappers to get smart and clean up the singles because if you put out positive singles then whatever is in the album is fine.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:01 am
meaning or not, music plain sucks
October 29th, 2007 at 6:11 am
too be hood it mean to not be hollywood be real with your people
October 29th, 2007 at 6:16 am
Dang, Charles King is on point. Talk about knowledge is power.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:19 am
fuck Khaled
October 29th, 2007 at 6:55 am
u rite number 5
October 29th, 2007 at 7:19 am
Being from the South Bronx.. Growin up down the street from Cedar Park where all this Hip Hop stuff started.. And typin this message live from my office in the Metro DC area.. I love this article.. You defined hood to a point.. I worry about those kids though.. Thier perception of being hood is totally off… Great Article..
October 29th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Good article and good point by #3; you definitely have to be on your grown man/woman to appreciate them.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:01 am
If I were from east Baltimore, I’d be your biggest fan. Though I’m not, I still respect and appreciate the man that wrote this article, that just so happens to be from a place I’ve never been, east Baltimore!!!
October 29th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Great article…
October 29th, 2007 at 8:21 am
great article, word
October 29th, 2007 at 9:04 am
dj khaled ain’t ‘hood’ for shit, he probably doesn’t no how to spell ‘hood’ and probably don’t no what it mean….nigga is wack
October 29th, 2007 at 9:12 am
@ number 3
Althought you’re right in your statement, but the context in which the “Brown Paper Bag” song is in, is not such as you speak in your message. “Brown Paper Bag” signifies money accumalated in the drug trade. Eventhough the context in which the song is in is not positive, I enjoy the song! music doesn’t dictate my actions, although it does influence many!
October 29th, 2007 at 9:27 am
I wonder if the KKK ever said “Im so Hood”
It is amazing to me how we forget our history and accept the BS that we glorify today
October 29th, 2007 at 9:39 am
DJ Khaled is an idiot. Period.
October 29th, 2007 at 9:58 am
i dont think we should wear hood as a badge of honor, but the hood has changed a lot of people for the better and has inspired them to do great things. dont use the hood to glorify killing your own, selling drugs and going to jail. stop trying to make these kids out here losers.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:06 am
nice article mr.dews…..i’ve always hated tht song because its doin exactly what the corporations want STEREOTYPING african-americans. i agree with your article 100%
October 29th, 2007 at 10:06 am
i understand all that shit.. but i got 2 say.. the song is bagging .. i dont give a shit..
we need 2 deliver positive rhymes and shit?? and bush is killing our soldiers fuck that..
There is more important shit in this world
So imma say: IM SO HOOOOD..
October 29th, 2007 at 10:14 am
u know i love the hood, love it. i dont wanna live in the hood 4ever. wherever i go, i will always be considered hood, its in my blood. atleast i feel. but the problem is everyone is comparing the hood to negativity. and if u live in the hood its not all negative. theres alot of positivity in the hood too.
the scary thing is the children and the music. driving around wit my 10yr old brother in the car, i couldnt play any of the shit i listen to with him cuz i knew that i understood music at his age very clearly. i wished i had sum chicken noodle soup or soulja boy on my ipod for him to hear. but i didnt, we ended up listening to sports radio.
but i truly wish we had more faith in our youth, myself included. we all loved negative shit as teens, and sum of us including myself were the worst knuckle heads and voted the most likely to end up in jail, but we grew up, learned the error in our ways, got a 9-5 stayed off the corner and changed for the better.
if we learned cant the youth of today do it to?
October 29th, 2007 at 10:37 am
# 18 ‘the king’ stop with the essay we had enough, we don’t care if your hood or if u love your hood or if your from the suburb hood or from the wood we don’t care, if your that hood then keep your hood essays to your self, n if you don’t wanna live in the hood then get yo ass up out the hood.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:15 am
First of all, proper grammar and spelling is the key. I’m not gonna listen to someone who doesn’t know how to spell or use the right words in context. I didn’t even read the article because he’s obviously an idiot. And yes, the “I’m so hood” song is talking about the drug trade because it’s glorifying materialism through the selling of drugs, you fucking idiots. And yes, DJ Khaled is an idiot. He needs to kill himself ASAP.
October 29th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
i’ve had this same discussion with friends and family numerous times, but with the word “ghetto”. any time that that word is used, it has a negative context like there is nothing good that is in or comes out of the ghetto. the sad part about it is that the people that use these terms have no problem with it or it has never crossed their minds.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
the way the kids determine what is hood comes from their maturity, I and I believe no one can fault them for that cause thats what they immediately see on the surface or have been told about and their young minds can’t understand fully the pain and struggle nor the strength and wisdom bestowed to one that has made it thru or has witnessed others make it thru which is the reason why I at my good job in the mist of a budding career can say I’m so hood and feel blessed to be…and to those kids we, us who made it thru must always offer words of wisdom n compassion for that was once us n heaven for bid we allow them to make the same mistakes that we did w/o warning or cry the same tears that we did w/o drying them and pointing out the lesson that should be learned… and since the kids understand that they live in the hood which allows them to be classified as hood everytime this song comes on we should sang it as loud as we can and jump up and down to let the kids know those in the hood don’t always grow up or mature to be ganstas pimps thugs fiends winos hos baby mamas and baby daddys still in the hood but some of us leave the hood and become doctors lawyers pres. and vice pres. entrepreneurs respectable hardworking GOD fearing family men and women that still like their jeans wit a little room in’em and she might rock a snatch back if its just one of those days…I’M SO HOOD AND IF YOU WIT ME PUT YA HANDS UP
October 29th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I forgot, Cornell great article. When can I expect another ‘Dews Report’.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
@ #3….#15 was right, your understanding of the paper bag test IS correct, but COMPLETELY out of context. They ARE talking about getting illegal drug money like in the song “Duffle Bag Boy”
I’m guilty, I still like gangster rap at my age, but like The King mentioned about I can’t listen to any of the shit I like to bang with my 2 little boys in the car aged 7 and 9? I know people who do, and it is natural for kids to learn the word next thing you know your kid has slipped out a few curse words or call his female friend a “hoe” for not sharing her twinkie with him, or a dude friend a “nigga” cuz he heard you and the CD say it and you want to get mad at em but it’s the parent’s responsibility to RAISE children and set limitations.
When my kids are in the car, I just stick to my oldies of the 70’s(I’m not that old but I still love the music lol) 80’s and 90’s I enjoy.
P.S. I like that song and I am from NO WHERE NEAR the hood. I listened to it as a teenager too but never immulated any of the images I saw because I knew it was just entertaiment. Maybe growing up in L.A. and knowing a few entertainers along the way, I realized from a very early age that what you see ISN’T alwayz what you get!!!! Talking to my mom and older sister helped too.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
shabba doooba doo we the bessssssssssssssssssst liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisteeeeeeeeen
October 30th, 2007 at 7:08 am
OK i heard enough of this same shit…….yall are to worried about our entertainment. instead of talkin shit about people making money why not put this focus and energy on fixing the social and economic problems in the neighborhood…..If they put a ban on rap tomorrow people would still be robbing selling drugs and killing people prolly even more. so shut the fuck up with this music is destroyin our community crap cause yall sound stupid…..
October 30th, 2007 at 10:33 am
East Baltimore to the Core!!! Milt and Fed til I’m buried and dead!!! I dig the fact that you seperate all the negative aspects associated with being hood. Being hood is knowing everything you stated, knowing where you came from and where you could have ended up. Well written.