Recently, while in the custody of the Baltimore police department, Freddie Gray sustained life-ending injuries, and his untimely death has propelled a frustrated public to action. Baltimore has witnessed both peaceful and angry assemblies of concerned citizens who have utilized both peaceful and aggressive actions to demonstrate their frustrated feelings. Yesterday, the National Guard was deployed to help quell the Baltimore uprising.
Today Hip-Hop reacted to Gray's death and used social media to voice its concerns. Recently Kendrick Lamar, known for his probing insight and ability to convey on wax the angst of the black community, spoke with 'Mass Appeal' pertaining to the racism and exploitation of minorites that's embedded in American culture.
Mass Appeal: "Considering how Uncle Sam is a character on the album, the term "American dream" combined with "To Pimp A Butterfly" has a sinister vibe to it. If the caterpillar and butterfly represent black people, it brings to mind how prisons are full of black and brown inmates who are used as a source of cheap labor, and how the media fuels fear by constantly showing black criminals on the news."
KL: "We're in a society where we definitely are baited to pump fear and keep the negativity going. To keep the cycle continuing, y'know? It's a pimp situation."
K Dot continued, adding, "And me recognizing that, it's the start of something new. To let my people—black and brown [because I grew up with] a lot of my ese potnas in Compton—recognize what's goin' on. It's fortunate that I'm in a blessed situation that I ain't have to be 40, 50 years old to tell the story. I'm 27. I'm fairly young. A lot of people that tell the story they already old and they really can't talk to the youth because the youth don't respect them. I got the power in my hands where the youth respect me."
Does he make a good point? Sound off below in the comments section.
Source: Mass Appeal
