2pac – God Bless The Dead.mp3
forreall

Your response has been truly in the spirit of MLK, explanation with compassion. Michael did not lower himself to the offensive langauge that many of MLK’s “admirerers” (quotations to express sarcasm some of ya need the explanation) did.

Listen up all of you who were quick to insult Michael, MLK would NEVER have slandered, discouraged and disillusioned a brother, he would have engaged him in intellectual discussion and have challanged his ideas not his person. Those of you who have reverted to cursing are the antithesis of what MLK wanted.

Yes, we know BIG is no MLK, if you payed attention that was part of the post. However most Black people in this world know those two names, what Michael was trying to get at is the why.

Read, think, and discuss before letting your anger defeat your argument.

MLK = B.I.G.???

sooooo, by your logic…

Mother Teresa = Madonna
Malcolm X = Chuck D
Ghandi = Bono
Barack Obama = Jay-Z

Get a fuckin’ clue. This post is just offensive.

I think its great that all the comments are from people who have gathered their own interpretation of what I wrote, and based on that disagree with me. We have to challenge each other, and call each other out. Difference of opinion to better understanding.

I love that people are standing up to say our political leaders have more importance than our musicians. Priorities are key. These comments (for the most part) prioritize politics over music. And we NEED to hold politics high on our list of priorities.

It is tremendous that there is such a protection over MLK. I understand why people are sensitive to the notion of comparing anybody to him. Again though, I am not saying Biggie is like King in political importance but in being a cultural icon. If any of you work/engage/or speak with young people between the ages of 15-23 you know there was an overwhelming majority of them who sought out the Biggie movie, and embraced it. These are folks who mostly were not even teenagers when Biggie was alive, almost an entirely different generation. Yet even at the theater I was at, they were cheering for him, singing his songs word for word, and damn near reliving his life.

My challenge is if you do not think that B.I.G. is culturally significant in any way, how do you work with a young person who thinks otherwise? How do you tell them biggie is “not apart of Black history, worthless” etc…

This article attempts to show that the content of our music is not removed from our political struggles, no matter how far-fetch it seems. Is Kid-N-Play or Soulja Boy’s dance music political…hell no. But do stories about the ghetto, hustling, violence… is that stuff social commentary…definitely. And our political struggles are directly tied to these political commentaries. Hip-Hop definitely should make us feel good, and dance and all that. But it has tremendous power to be politically potent…by telling us about the socio-economic conditions that exist. Malcolm X Grassroots Movement organizes Brooklyn communities around the conditions, behavior, and culture that Brooklyn rappers like Talib, Mos, and Hov talk about.

The idea of this article, is that the sick, troubling, disturbing shit B.I.G talk about and lived is the stuff that Dr. King would have been trying to understand and work around and against. MLK would of tried to help young men and women with the adverse affects of the crack epidemic, of Reaganonics, of social institutions like schools failing them; and he would have tried to show these young people that violence, drugs, and misogyny are not behavior to engage in or to condone.

Dr. King disagreed with Malcolm X and many other people on philosophy and political approach, but still respected them; he was willing to speak with them, to try to understand their perspective, and to find ways to work with them. He never wished ill-will on even the most violent racist. Indeed this is why he is greatly important.

Would he have cast aside Biggie, and render him non-important and useless? or recognize what he means to some people, and try to bridge that gap?

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Great post man, I’m feeling you on this one!! Keep up the good work

You need to apologize to people all over the world.

Thierry,

Paris, France