Tupac @ MindSay 
rap
but I feel so lame
I forget the names
Of those gents and dames
Don't tell me I gotta hustle
Cuz I have some of that muscle
I have the pieces of the puzzle
I just need a little nuzzle
Just give me another chance
And see how long I last
Just give me one more shot
And I'll give you all I got
I'd pretend I was through with you
But I have so much still left to do
Who knew I'd rise again
Just like Tupac should have been
I'd fear for my life
Or become somebody's wife
But I got a lot on my list
And I don't have the time to diss
Just give me another chance
And see how long I last
Just give me one more shot
And I'll give you all I got
No don't tell me what I'm not
Or ask what battles have I fought
I got a lot on my list
And I don't have the time to diss
Just give me another chance
And see how long I last
Just give me one more shot
And I'll give you all I got
Celebrating Tupac and all hes done
Four shots and he still holds on
Heart stopped beating at 24
But we still remember him forever more
His legacy spans the shining shores
Throughout all the open doors
Story of a social activist
Fought for rights an shit
Fought an believed in dreams
An yet this society doesn't even know what it means.
Story of a man gone down
Legend that rose from the underground
Personal favorite is "Broken Wings"
Spits meaning, truth of life an different things
Born into a worthless world of full violence
Brawling throughout life to fight off tyrants
Restringing his life from loose tied ends
Looking forward to freedom, but what by then?
Only to be shot down again and again
Through all the worlds faults
Supremacy and all the cults
He struggled to survive, and fight for equal rights
A single man to take a dive, into the heartless darkness
Even after he's dead and gone
His voice and legend still holds on.
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This is just because I'm feeling a beat inside my mind right now lol.
We gangsta, we're thugs
But you don't know us
No you don't know us
We sell tha dime bags for a living
To sleep under a broken ceiling
No you don't know us
You don't know us
In front, riding them spinnin wheels
Behind empty walls lookin for deals
Because a nine-to-five
Won't work for an ex-convict life
Working to pay, paying to work
While my child sits at home crying, hurt
Can't understand why we so poor
Can't comprehend the gangsta's war
Real thugs working to live
Bitches are working to die
One's workin to survive
Can't tell which one leads this life?
Well let me paint if for you
This is the child that you grew and knew
We gangsta, we're thugs
But you don't know us
No you don't know us
People on the streets expectin us killing
You dont know us deep inside, forgotten feelings
No you don't know us
You don't know us
Don't you think it's a little fucked up
A young one holding up a glock
Ready to light up a desperate block
He's got his mind set on death
While his dad shoots up meth
A child out for revenge in a world so small
Even then somehow we don't hear him at all
His silent plea, and empty calls
Another boy's body took a shot and had to fall
This little one's mind still trying to catch up with it all
We gangsta, we're thugs
But you don't know us
No you don't know us
Growing up with an empty feeling
Shots that'll make your skin start peeling
No you don't know us
You don't know us
Now twenty and still serving time
Wishing that his life would just rewind
From the robbery, just to eat yah see
To the drugs he sold, just to have some dough
To the bullet in the gun, that had to end a youngun.
From the fake ass bitch, tryin to start some shit
To the dad inside, too damn high
To realize, through empty eyes
That a child's life, is worth more then guns and knives
In the end, you don't know us
We're gangstas, we're thugs
But you don't know us
We're the one's too broke to live
And find ways with the end of a shiv.
| This week has seen Brandy gain some level of legal closure over compensation for a 2006 car accident that left a woman dead (see Grind Mode Connect 'News' section). However, she has still to finally settle with the woman's husband who refused $1.2 million in compensation for the accident. This instance may point to the man not having really dealt with the tragic loss of his wife. Then again it may point to a feeling that he can gain more financially. While we can speculate, we cannot know the true reasons behind the husband's refusal of compensation. However there does seem to be a spate of celebrity suing - often for far more trivial matters. Whether it is Justin Timberlake's restaurant, Kanye West losing his temper at LAX or Michael Jackson's concerts - a lawsuit never seems too far behind - regardless of whether the celebrity are themselves at fault or not.
While real grievances should be taken through the courts and awarded relevant compensation, could it be that we are going slightly overboard with the whole thing?
I can just imagine it now; there I am walking down the street, looking down to check my phone, when I notice a shadow fall across me. Before I have a chance to fully look up or react I have encountered Puffy (or 'Diddy' - call him what you will), who accidentally steps upon my new trainers (that's "sneakers" in America). Stopping to assess the damage I notice that he has creased the leather on one toe and scuffed the outer layer slightly. What's worse is that he seems to have also crushed my foot very slightly. Hobbling to a low wall I sit down and gingerly remove my shoe and sock. Yes! There it is! A slight graze on my foot. I quickly take a picture before shouting, "I'll see you in court" at the rapidly retreating mogul, my $80 shoe quickly turning to potential millions before my eyes.
OK - I'm joking and of course such a case would never stand up (would it?). Plus I would actually be too ashamed to carry it out. But there are certainly those out there who see celebrities as paydays; whether it is the victims themselves or, perhaps more frequently, at the behest of 'concerned' friends and relatives. It is a shame that sometimes regular mistakes are followed up by victorious legal action. We put our celebrities on a pedestal and then act hurt when they fall from grace, forgetting that for all their talents they are people like us. Their egos may be a little expanded at times (that's the fame) but ultimately they share the same basic hopes and dreams as everyone else. In our 100-mile-an-hour culture of instant celebrity and instant money (without the effort?) it is all too easy to see the dollar signs, but integrity can't be bought. Like respect, it needs to be earned.
I hope that Awatef Aboudihaj's husband, Marouane Hdidou, can find peace over the loss of his wife due to Brandy's car crash - but I also hope that such a real tragedy can help put the frivolous claims of others into perspective...
|
| With the global downturn in the economy it seems that almost every industry has been hit, including music. While many will be gleefully cheering the demise of the traditional major record labels as the economic downturn speeds up the process begun by a changing of the way we buy and listen to our music to an increasingly online format it is worth taking a minute to ask if it’s really that good.
Of course independent labels have always existed alongside the major labels, offering a niche market alternative to the commercial heavyweights in the game. However even these lower overhead outfits are feeling the pinch, with last week’s fall of independent distribution company Pinnacle leaving many independent labels without the means to get their product out to the marketplace. As independent labels find themselves struggling too we have to wonder how safe it is at the majors?
With major labels like EMI suffering losses recorded last year at £757 million, Warner seeing it’s share-price plummet to 28% of it’s value three years ago and BMG cutting ties with Sony, it seems that the major labels are not in a healthy state either. But this doesn’t affect the artists surely?
Unfortunately, it does – and not just those who are no longer relevant and may find themselves squeezed out by budget cuts. Those looking to get signed will find it more difficult as labels seek to justify the expense of launching a new act to the public while elsewhere labels will be less willing to take a chance on edgier, less formulaic sounds from those acts who they do maintain on their roster. Many executives will feel more comfortable dropping sure-fire hits over anything that may not sit neatly into an easily marketable box.
The result could be a terrifying new world where the boundary-pushing acts of the past will be left out in the cold in favour of a saccharine sounding pop onslaught that will no doubt move numbers and please fans – but only those who demand little artistic merit from their music. Reality music television programming may become the staple of the pop charts as Simon Cowell’s no-risk brand of assembly-line pop takes hold amid fears of taking a chance with something that may not offer the necessary returns financially. This will be exacerbated by the public’s feeling that they should be able to get their music for nothing via downloads and media give-aways (Prince recently gave a new album of material away to readers of a British newspaper) further hurting the coffers (and therefore the risk-taking) of the labels. And, as consumers seek to get their music for less expense (if any), those genuine artists that write and record the songs will find that they have an ever-decreasing incentive to remain in the game until, perhaps one day, they are priced out of the business altogether leaving a conveyor-belt line of Cowell’s personality-less pop automatons in their place.
In the end it will be all of us who lose as the labels become increasingly conservative and the latest releases become inter-changeable pulp. Brave new world where the consumer is king and the labels are sidelined? Not if it means an end to those who produced innovative product for a not-so mass market….
Tom Clover- WWW.GRINDMODECONNECT.COM & WWW.GRINDMODEPRESS.COM |
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