The Hottest Track of All
written by Doesn't Matt R'
written by Doesn't Matt R'
I’m sitting around watching my daily dose of sports television and PTI (Pardon the Interruption) has a story about a basketball player, Josh Howard, making some comments on a camera phone about how he doesn’t celebrate the national anthem. “I don’t celebrate that sh*t. Cause I’m black.” I’m not even going to take the time to argue with him about his views. Free country. Free speech. Free thought. That’s a pretty good deal. Yeah, this guy makes his living playing a game. He earns more money in a year than most do in a lifetime. He has openly admitted to smoking weed. He got arrested for drag racing. And he threw himself a birthday party after a playoff loss in the middle of the series. This is not about being black. It’s about being stupid. Not to insult anyone’s intelligence. Stupidity is a relative term. For example, it is not a smart move to say things you may or may not mean on a camera phone. It’s also not a good idea to come off as another spoiled athlete when the country is hurting financially. Yes, the video is old (from July), but gas prices were up, mortgages were being foreclosed upon, and the people who buy the tickets to see these NBA players were certainly hurting in the wallet way before the stock market hit today’s low.
This isn’t about Josh Howard. With all the talk on here about craving intelligent music. About the importance of lyrics. Of taking the time to think out your concepts and write your rhymes, I just wanted to take a moment to salute the hottest track of all. The Star Spangled Banner is like listening to Grandmaster Flash’s The Message. The beat is a little old fashioned. The performance is slightly outdated. And today’s audiences have probably heard it, accepted it as a classic, and never paid much attention to it after that. But it stands for something real and important. The birth of a new era. A proclamation that no matter how bad the times are, we will make it through the night. That although we may be close to the edge we’re not there yet, but don’t even try to test that. So while we can argue about politics, personal beliefs, injustices (and yes, there are plenty of those), or whether or not tracks based on dances should be hits, one thing is for certain: the intelligent ones amongst us in society can be thankful that we have the rights to do so, even if other people take them for granted.
4 comments:
Its ironic. Part of what makes this country great is that you can say how f**ked up you think this country is and have no reprocussions.
But yeah, some songs are bigger than the record business, bigger than even the artists that created it. The songs are simply about its impact. Perhaps, that's music in its purest form.
...I'm trying not to lose my head.
So I'm finally fully back online!! This is a great day. I thought I'd celebrate by posting a comment.
Yeah, this post was definitely outside the box, sir. I never thought of the Star Spangled Banner as a classic track. I think I kinda took it for granted. I wonder what it was like writing a song that you knew could possibly represent your nation forever. Wow.
What about the BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM?
And why is it that there always has to be a "BLACK" something?
Isn't it a contradiction when we say we are all the same, but yet there is always something we attach the word "BLACK" OF "LATINO"? Just interested in your thoughts...
I think the trouble that we get into is saying that we are all "the same". Cause while as human beings, we are more alike than we are different (99.9% according to the human genome) but that .1% is the shit that we see and all the stuff that is learned culturally. The fact is we are equal, but different and it's hard for many to grasp the fact that "right" isn't mutually exclusive from "different". A.B.
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