Before I begin, my heart goes out to Dolla and his family. Nobody deserves to have their life taken from them, especially at such a young age. Rest In Peace to the man. I think what hits me so hard is that he's only a few months older than me. Just goes to show the good die young.
This just adds on to the number of talented MCs who are senselessly gunned down. You can add him to the list of those fallen. This violence has to stop.
Now to the point of this blog.
The first thing I want to point out is that, with all due respect, to everyone who has said R.I.P. to Dolla through their Facebook/Twitter statuses, MySpace IDs or whatever, how many of you were actually fans of his music before he died? Who listened to him or even heard of him before he passed? The reason I asked is because alot of people bandwagon when someone dies. Hear me out on this one. There's alotta hate towards rappers nowadays for various reasons, but when they die, everyone's suddenly on their jocks. I'll be honest. I never heard of Dolla, but I still respect him. That doesn't mean I'm gonna front like I followed him since he first started. Alotta people didn't care when he lived his struggle, but they want to care now that he's dead and gone? Nigga Please
Take Pimp C for example. I remember from Big Pimpin' to the Int'l Player's Anthem, people hated hard on Pimp, sayin' he was irrelevant and not lyrical, despite being half of the legendary UGK. Once the man died, everyone suddenly ate their words and gave him the credit he deserved. My point is, why is it so hard to respect someone when they're alive and kickin' but so easy to treat them like a king/queen when they die? Kanye said it best. You never get flowers when you can smell 'em.
The second thing I wanted to point out came to me seeing a video of Jay Rock saying that this violence needs to stop. I completely agree with him. Unfortunately, Alot of rappers talk about guns and selling drugs. We all know the drug game can be messy when something goes wrong, and violence can be common in any area, regardless of the fact that it's a hood or suburb. Rappers need to smarten up and think before they speak. There's been a rise in rats turned rappers (I'm talking about you Ross, and Alfamega) who make claims about bustin' guns, sellin' coke, and all that stuff. People listen and take some of it seriously, and if they don't, some will test you on that. It is true that in certain environments, that in order to survive and live peacefully, war is necessary. That doesn't mean we can't end the cycle. We as rappers need to step up and show another side besides violence and drugs. Not everyone sold drugs or pulled triggers. It's pretty obvious. But you can't expect to talk that talk without facing repercussions. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. It never changed.
Don't get me wrong. I know it really is hectic out there and that if you leave the hood, sometimes the hood will follow you, but that doesn't mean that we have to promote the lifestyle. That's the reason why these kids are so messed up right now. They talk gangsta, but they go MLK when guns are fired. And for what? Street cred? Street cred doesn't pay bills or feed families. The worst part is that it seems like the ones who do it the most either never did it, or dropped a dime, though there are a few rappers who were confirmed to have caught bodies.
To sum it up, appreciate the people while they're still living, because they can be gone in an instant. And if you really want the violence in Hip-Hop to stop, then take the senseless bullshit out of your lyrics (if you're a rapper) and stop buying into it (if you're a consumer). Otherwise, don't be surprised if you see on the news that your favorite rapper was gunned down. I hope this got the point across, because I'm tired of seeing young talent going to waste. I'm done ranting. Peace
R.I.P to the slain
Freaky Tah
Big L
Tupac
Biggie
Jam Master Jay
Mac Dre
Soulja Slim
Camoflage
VL Mike
Scott La-Rock
Bugz
Half-A-Mil
Dolla
and the list goes on
