2 things I love : music and movies...
I downloaded the Pandora app a few months ago and have a bunch of stations hehe...I have started to appreciate what the late great Tupac was addressing in his music and I noticed in the movie Tupac: Resurrection that nearly every interview for years was him waking the world up to poor, hungry kids, ghetto life, low paid wages, and yeah, black ppl getting shot by cops & black on black crime. I only knew of his hits: Brenda's Got a Baby, Keep Ya Head Up, California Love, Dear Mama, I Ain't Mad At Ya, Hit Em Up and my fave Changes. Through this app, I have been able to listen to other songs ( minus some overlooking of certain words in the lyrics): Papa'z, To Live & Die in L.A., Trapped, No More Tears, Unconditional Love to name a few and really LISTEN TO HIS MESSAGE ( I haven't heard all the songs but they are all on a playlist for future listening).
I credit the above movie w/ helping realize that when he would speak of bitches n that, he wasn't addressing all women, just the 1 chick and one of songs had the lyric along the lines of ' I don't want sex w/ you if it's that EASY' probably refers to either not wanting 1 night stands, don't have to try too hard or both and it is telling women to value and respect themselves rather than give it up for nothing' and another song speaks of women just giving it up if the dude got $/ buys you something nice, so now you're kind of a paid whore & not respecting yourself that way too...
I then tried listening to another rap group that was in my growing up days,(which I had only heard of maybe 1 or 2 songs) and that was OYNX. Not only did I not like most of their songs but quickly realized their jumbled, all over the place too fast paced & unintelligible lyrics were just basically ABOUT FUCKING NOTHING. There really is one Tupac/2Pac/Pac, his personality and intelligent, cohesive raps, writing and interview style was just truly authentic and is missed:(...
I have enjoyed watching a lot of Native American documentaries/ movies and a few eye opening docs like Elliot Page's There Is Something In The Water dealing w/ environmental racism, meat packing plants affecting the Earth/ water and it's effects resulting in numerous cancers, etc. Ppl in Nova Scotia didn't care about groups protesting for yrs until the company tried to roll their stuff through the white, better off side of town and then OUTRAGE happens..The documentary First Daughter & The Black Snake also dealt with this similar issue of oil rigs and fracking on reservations ( and ordinary grassroots groups fighting more development while trying to shut down the existing plant). I also liked a doc called A Different Kind of American Dream..
The movie Cowboys and Indians telling the true story of a Native American man who was just walking home when he was shot & killed by cops in 1988 Canada bc he 'fit the (vague) description of Native man wearing a black jacket'. The movie Skins was also good and although fictional w/ the characters, the lives played out on one of the poorest reservations in the US, Pine Ridge is not fictional..
I credit the above movie w/ helping realize that when he would speak of bitches n that, he wasn't addressing all women, just the 1 chick and one of songs had the lyric along the lines of ' I don't want sex w/ you if it's that EASY' probably refers to either not wanting 1 night stands, don't have to try too hard or both and it is telling women to value and respect themselves rather than give it up for nothing' and another song speaks of women just giving it up if the dude got $/ buys you something nice, so now you're kind of a paid whore & not respecting yourself that way too...
I then tried listening to another rap group that was in my growing up days,(which I had only heard of maybe 1 or 2 songs) and that was OYNX. Not only did I not like most of their songs but quickly realized their jumbled, all over the place too fast paced & unintelligible lyrics were just basically ABOUT FUCKING NOTHING. There really is one Tupac/2Pac/Pac, his personality and intelligent, cohesive raps, writing and interview style was just truly authentic and is missed:(...
I have enjoyed watching a lot of Native American documentaries/ movies and a few eye opening docs like Elliot Page's There Is Something In The Water dealing w/ environmental racism, meat packing plants affecting the Earth/ water and it's effects resulting in numerous cancers, etc. Ppl in Nova Scotia didn't care about groups protesting for yrs until the company tried to roll their stuff through the white, better off side of town and then OUTRAGE happens..The documentary First Daughter & The Black Snake also dealt with this similar issue of oil rigs and fracking on reservations ( and ordinary grassroots groups fighting more development while trying to shut down the existing plant). I also liked a doc called A Different Kind of American Dream..
The movie Cowboys and Indians telling the true story of a Native American man who was just walking home when he was shot & killed by cops in 1988 Canada bc he 'fit the (vague) description of Native man wearing a black jacket'. The movie Skins was also good and although fictional w/ the characters, the lives played out on one of the poorest reservations in the US, Pine Ridge is not fictional..