KHARTOUM STAND UP

I usually hear about weird stuff that shows up on the internet as soon as it happens, but I only discovered BANGS about a month ago. He's a Sudanese rapper out of Khartoum, Sudan who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, and he's something to see alright. BANGS raps about a lot of things, but mostly the shawtys, and more specifically, taking them to the movies.



It's got close to 3 million views. About this video I need to say a few things.

1) If you can watch that silly-ass music video and not laugh and/or fall in love with the utter so-bad-it's-goodness of BANGS then I'm afraid you need to go drown yourself in the toilet cause your life is just not one worth living.

2) Where the hell did BANGS get an iPhone? And why do the parts of the video where he's on the phone have such high production values? It's like they spent all their money on the iPhone scene and then the budget ran out so they had to use the iPhone to film and edit the rest of the video. Still though, iPhone status gets BANGS mad points, cause I live in America and I still use a Motorola Razr.

Like any respectable hip hop artist, BANGS has a fairly sizable community of haters, which are quite vocal in comments on reposts of the BANGS videos on Youtube.

"good lord this dude is just downright awful. most likely one of the if not the worst rapper I've ever seen. you suck" -mrpotato623, mad cause BANGS is stylin on him

"can anyone else not see how horrible this is? and the government wonders how we get broke! you guys investing the wrong money to the wrong people GOD DAMN..." -kennyboi619, mad cause his videos never broke double-digit views

There's this type of hate, but then you get stuff like THIS, which I have a VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH.

"your music is a joke but if you were 2 rap n your native language or rap about all the things that are happening over there or educate others, i think you would make a greater impact that trying to imitate what you think is going on in America ok" -caramelcutie313, RACIST

That's right caramelcutie313, you're fucking racist. And I will explain in great detail why.

To demonstrate this we're gonna look at a rapper that is very very different from BANGS... K'NAAN was born in Somalia and as a young boy lived in the Capital city of Mogadishu at the height of the brutal Somali Civil War, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands through combat and starvation. At age 13 K'NAAN and his family were able to move to New York City and then Canada, where he learned English and began his rap career.


Themes of K'NAAN's music include the state of world affairs and current events, uplifting impoverished peoples, and reflections of his Somalian roots. He has recorded several tracks in his native Somali. He's a talented and successful rapper and I like him.

Now, what does he have to do with BANGS?

Exactly. He has nothing to do with BANGS.

Fuckheads like caramelcutie313 think that because a rapper is African he can only make cultural NPR-y hip hop about genocide and shit, and if you ask me it's downright disgusting. K'NAAN and BANGS are two people who moved from states of oppression to the free world, in which they are able to pursue their own dreams and forge their own destinies. K'NAAN has chosen to make socially conscious rap because that's how he expresses himself as an artist. But ya boy BANGS is a different guy from the sky, and he just wants to rap about taking girls to the movies, and if you think there's something wrong with that then there's something wrong with you.

I hope you enjoyed the blog post,
Cause I did too,
Anytime you wanna read again just holler at me.
Baby girl, we can make it,
To be better than before.
Anything you want me to blog,
I can blog it fo' sho.

My Head is Bloody, but Unbowed

Last week I watched that movie where MORGAN FREEMAN plays NELSON MANDELA and gets wrapped up in the South African national rugby team as he fights to bring an apartheid-stricken nation back together again. It was a very good film, and I was especially happy to watch it since South Africa is one of those places that fascinates me while remaining a complete cultural mystery. While the work itself as a whole was impressive, what left the strongest impression on me was the poem Invictus, which the film is named after and uses a number of times throughout the story.

I don't really dig poetry in any kind of a deep way, so for a poem to speak to me it takes quality. In the film, NELSON MANDELA shares this poem with the captain of the rugby team saying something to the effect of "these words helped me to stand up at times in my life when all I wanted to do was lie down."

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

The message of this poem is beautiful to me. It inspires perseverance in difficult circumstances through the power of self-knowledge and self-determination.

When I took sociology my senior year of high school, one of the concepts they taught us was the idea of people being products of their environment. Individuals get so caught up in living up to the expectations that other people set for them that they become internalized, and people lose sight of all the potential they have to do what's best for them and what makes them truly happy. This is what I like to call mental slavery.

Now I know that's a pretty heavy phrase that means a lot of different things to different people, but what I mean when I say it is this; I think the root cause of why a lot of people in this world are unhappy is that they feel they have no control over their own destinies, for whatever number of reasons. This idea is most commonly applied to social mobility but if you ask me it's about spiritual mobility. It can apply to almost anybody in any situation.

Living at school has taught me a lot about exactly this kind of thing. People enter the college environment with all kinds of expectations as to what it's supposed to be like and how they have to act in order to be a part of the experience they've set themselves up for (which is different for everybody). Usually this only leads to trouble when a person compromises his/herself in that process.

I'm here to say that no matter where you are in life you ought to never stop doing what you know is right, because then you're just a tool. You've given up control of yourself and become simply a product of your environment, your past, or whatever else holds you down. You've got to know yourself, take care of yourself, and stand up for yourself with indomitable spirit.

You are the master of your fate, and you are the captain of your soul.

This Guy Right Here...

"Who dis bumboclatt Babylon bwoy bloggin bout I'n'I?"

I was actually hoping to spin yarns about some other things first. This is not a dancehall or reggae blog, it's a blog about all the general things I'm interested in. But I need to say my piece about BUJU BANTON now while it's still fresh in my mind.

Reggae music gives the impression that most Jamaicans are Rastas, but this is actually not the case. Most Jamaicans are actually Christian. Highly traditional, Jamaican christianity is often militantly anti-homosexual. The Rastas are no better in this regard (as roots reggae artist SIZZLA makes clear), with Rastafari's strong emphasis on the Old Testament (my personal least-favorite testament). It's an all around bad religio-social climate for the batty boys. TIME called it the worst representative for gays rights in the western hemisphere. Boning a dude can get you 10 years, no joke. The violence against homosexuals there is no joke either.

And the centerpiece of every article or argument about homophobia in dancehall culture/Jamaican society: Buju Banton, and this song he wrote in the 80's at the age of 15 and recorded in 1993.

The basic message of this song is that all gay people should be, ideally, shot in the head, or burned alive with acid. Boom Bye Bye is absolute hate music.

So now why would anybody (especially me, what with my integrity and all) listen to an artist like this? Because as nuts as it makes me, besides the above monstrosity, almost every song I've heard from BUJU has been musically great and had a wonderfully positive message.

I would spend many nights at home.
Woman if it means contention, I'd rather be alone.
Tell the serviceman cut the phone, I'd say block all communication, why?
If there's no light within my day, I'd rather stay in isolation.
For that special someone a lifetime I'll wait, I know that I'll be OK.
Cross my heart, every day, I live, I pray.
I know she'll come my way, night and day
For this woman I pray.

I wanna be loved!
Not for who you think I am, or who you want me to be, could you love me for me?
Real love, with no strings attached, I wanna give you my heart...

You have to know the right albums to pick. The only BUJU BANTON albums I mess with are Til Shiloh and Inna Heights, which are the ones on which he focuses more on his roots influence than his hardcore dancehall anthems. On Inna Heights there's a track he dedicates to all the single parents in the world.

Consider how they make it to the end of the day,
Working so hard, just to get paid.
As a single parent, life ain't easy,
Play the role of mom and dad.

Mama I thank you, thank you.
I never know no father yet you provide my dinner.
And I love you, oh mama,
When you cry I cry too.

Why do you look so dull and foresaken?
I know that he's gone and your heart is broken,
But we are still together,
Mama never leave us alone...

I mean, this is beautiful, inspirational stuff! This could make a person break out in tears! And it's wonderful musically as well. I didn't include any of his more spiritual songs in my examples but they are downright empowering.

All the while in the back of my mind, however, I know this guy is a horribly, horribly prejudiced person. I'd like to think that Boom Bye Bye was the product of an angry misguided youth, but he's kept his outrageously confused ideas about homosexuals up to today. So basically I enjoy BUJU's music in the same manner I enjoy SPIKE LEE movies; with a lot of guilt.

In a somewhat related point: BUJU is in prison right now for cocaine (EXTREMELY un-Rasta of you, by the way Buju). The slammer's a good place for soul searching, maybe he'll see the error of his ways.