When you hear anything about Chicago that is good, bad or indifferent, I bet your mind associates the city with a warzone. The more I learn about Chicago and the so-called “gang culture” and the growing perception of drill music being evil, I have the burning question stuck in my brain. “Why don’t they just leave?” Don’t act like I’m the only one.
We tend to judge other’s by the way we would handle things in our own lives and that is usually based on our limited life experiences, but the human experience is much more broad. It’s human nature to be ignorant. That’s why we educate ourselves. And, some of us share what we have learned and they call them teachers while others become the resource that a teacher would use.
So if you want to have a resource that may answer that question? “Why don’t rappers’s like Lil Reese simply leave, Chicago?” Even though I wasn’t asked Im’ma give you a way better answer than we all have seemed to come up with, “they must have a death wish or are just plain crazy…..”
I can’t wait to give my bootleg sociological theory. I’m about to use my “hood” sociology and calm my tormented mind. There has to be another explanation. One that makes more sense than the conclusion that the new age rapper is crazy! My delusional self can’t wait to break down my theory, I’m literally chomping at the bit, so without further ado, lets’ get started….
I can’t even begin to tackle the burning question without first giving you the information that can be used as a point of reference, to help you accurately make an assessment, and it be closer to the true answer.
Remember the question? What is my opinion on why rappers like Lil Reese won’t just pack up and leave Chicago? I get it, nobody asked me. But dang it the hood is always getting a bad rap. I love the hood, but still avoid the hood. So excuse me if I put out another narrative, ya dig?
Just in case you think all so called “hoods” otherwise known as neighborhoods are the same, they are not. But when we talk about the “hood” in context of someone like Lil Reese, if you do not know how things operate then you cannot make an informed judgment. When we talk about, leaving the hood first lets define the mystical place that Black urban youth call their “stomping grounds”.
The Hood Is Hypnotized, With Hatred And Love……
We all know what Boosie said. Was he only speaking about his “hood”? No, he gave you an explanation of his opinion in a interview in the reference section at the bottom of this post, watch it, and then resume reading this post…..
I want to add something to that point. The hood is where rappers get the most love and its real. The hood watches you grow up before their very eyes. I guarantee Lil Reese would be walking in the hood and some random grown lady grabbed his arm to say how proud she was because she “went to school with his mama” or, “remember when he was yea high”…..the hood is excited when someone from their “hood” makes it big. Why would a rapper want to give that up? Even if the love turns to blind hatred….
Eff The Hills Having Eyes….The Haters Are Always Glaring…
Boosie said, and I am paraphrasing, the hood is full of jealousy, envy, pettiness and most of all I would posit, shame. Why else would you do things like try to purposely humiliate another man on social media so the whole world can see their embarrassment?
You don’t want him to die, because if you wanted him to die, you would simply kill him. You have aggression, but you temper yourself to show how helpless he is, even if he is outnumbered. Your hate blinds you to how the situation will appear to a man sitting back observing you laughing, poking, pulling on the clothes of a man who despite being outnumbered and obviously punch drunk is still fighting back. Only silly rabbits fall for tricks because they are for kids….
You wait, possibly until another rainbow haired jealous punk ass loser who cant rap to save his pitiful loveless life, buys the footage. And he’s the messiest of the messy so he promotes it. Are you kidding me? He will pay money to crack his favorite rappers face even though he is secretly a fan, he still can’t stand the god in him. It disturbs the bitch-ass-ness inside him.
But a real man knows what it means to take a real “L” in these streets. You can never take the love away from a person who always shows the hood love…..the hood is loyal when others aren’t based on what they know is the true narrative, because the hood sees you all the time. Want the real story, ask the hood because they know you. The rappers who left? They knew them but haven’t seen them in a while…..
The old school rapper used to go to school with your cousin who used to live across town but now he lives in a mansion, on a hill, surrounded by a moat with killer scuba diving pit bulls protecting him, for real.
The hood rapper used to go to school with your cousin who lives across town and he used to live in the raggedy house his grandma left him but now its renovated so its laid and you just was over his house kicking it with him the other day…..and that’s real too.
There’s a difference. Can you see it?
The hate you have for yourself, you project it onto others. A hater is possessed with a spirit. Something inside you crumbles inside when you see someone from your hood is successful and you aren’t. You get to thinking….
This dude had the same 24 hrs as me. He was in the same dysfunctional environment with the same jacked up opportunities and the same ignorant ass family and he made it…..rather than being inspired your heart turns black.
Nothing will calm the spirit within a hater. They want to see you bleed. Most of them are unaware of why when they see you they start to glare. They tend to be problematic but usually the irritation is mild.
It’s the ones that be on that bull s*** that pose the greatest threat. They would even sacrifice themselves if it means they can watch your downfall. They are on a suicide mission. Haters will declare war but here is the coldest of plot twists….rather than go where you are, you go to them.
The haters are the ones setting you up. Yes an enemy is a hater but in the hood, you could be cool with someone who is praying for your downfall and you never had a clue. A hater is proficient in all manner of manipulations and there is no one that has mastered the skill of gas lighting better than the haters in the hood. Pay attention younguns. A hater depends on you letting them tell you what you see. But how does the energy feel?
You always see him smiling when you come around, or is that a sinister smirk? Could it be he finds it funny, here you are shaking his hand, and you don’t even know if you should all of a sudden, spontaneously burst into flames? He wouldn’t even spit on you if he thought it would give you relief from the fire…..yes. It’s the truth. He will watch you burn while he feigns incompetence.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Here you are jumping up and down, fanning yourself and here they are playing stupid.
“What seems to be the problem?”
You are rolling on the floor, screaming…
“COULD YOU PLEASE HELP ME?”
They play like they haven’t a clue.
“Help you how? First, tell me exactly what the problem is, and then tell me how it is I can help you.”
“I’M ON FIRE! RUN AND GET SOME WATER! HELP ME PUT THE FIRE OUT!”
“Dang homie, that must be rough. I remember I burned my finger making this bomb grilled cheese that one time.”
And here you are completely covered in flames.
“Hmmm. Answer me this. What size container should I get to put the water in when I go get the water to help you put the fire out?”
The rat bastards are heartless. And it starts when they are lazy, uninspired kids….
A hater will rip up your 2000 thousand word perfectly edited term paper you struggled to edit all night, just so you can’t turn it in. They are tired of you getting the recognition and tired of being dragged to the award’s ceremonies. So when you are not looking? They throw the paper in the trash and hope you don’t see the secret look of satisfaction on their face while they help you look for it.
The most insidious spirits reside in the hood right amongst the salt of the earth….Here you are checking on your sweet, Southern Belle of a granny, to get a few pieces of her delicious fried chicken, and all of a sudden a sometimes suicidal and now homicidal maniac runs up on you and empties the clip right into your -caught off guard- dome.
And when he is on his way to do life in the mental asylum he will announce to anyone who asks the only reason his psychotic muddled brain can come up with And it will be the reason that resonates with him, And the voices in his head the most And his only answer to why he blew your brains out, on your grandmother’s front porch to her horror And awe?
“He thinks he is better than me so I had to prove him wrong….”
Yes an uninspired, unmotivated, emotional rooty poot will murder you or even worst your son, in the streets like a dog. Do you really blame a father for making sure he doesn’t have to face the mother of his child after she is told by a scary, yet well protected punk, that he hopes her murdered son is resting in human excrement? Well some men decide if you go there…..you, your sons, your daughters and anybody else unfortunate enough to share your bloodline ought to do the same…..they can all rest in piss you disrespectful demons from hell will all go to meet Jesus. And if yawl have to smell like urine, so be it. Some men will decide if its good enough for his son, then everybody can go out like that, foh.
Those are the games a protector will not play so he stays away from the hood or very seldom comes around and if he does its unannounced. Not too many people better start to show up on the scene either, why?
The roadrunner aint got nothing on a Big Baller trying to avoid the little homies. It’s literally, now you see me, now to you don’t. Why wouldn’t it be that way?
Well it shouldn’t have to be that way so if there is an absence of positive role models in the hood, who is to blame for that, the youth? So, if the hood is full of haters why does Lil Reese walk the mean streets of Chiraq knowing at any minute an op, enemy, frenemy, hater or hoe ass n***a, could murder him out of spite? Who would go out like that?
A dude with love, roots and solace in the hood would take the risk.
The cutest and the coolest girls are in the hood. The best “weed” is in the hood. The hood got jokes and style. The hood is where it goes down, and the hood is where you get the most accurate news. The hood rejuvenates after you have to be out of your comfort zone and be around people who did not grow up with you and question the very values you embrace no matter how dysfunctional. The hood understands you. There is no love like the love the hood gives and it just feels real and that makes it feel incredibly good. You haven’t made it, until you go back to your neighbor “hood” and feel the love.
That kind of love makes you risk the dangers. And that leads to another point I would like to make. The reason the “old heads” or old school rappers cannot reach these younguns is very clear to me.
Where yawl been? The old school rapper made his money and dipped abandoning the next generation to poverty, and dingbats for mothers, according to some. Why? If you grew up in the church you would hear, resist the devil. The hood is full of demons. So they take their families and get the heck out of dodge….peace out! And if this next generation doesn’t recognize real they are not paying attention.
Okay, some of the gangster rappers do fit the description of the infamous persona called the, “studio gangsta”. But remember even some of the studio gangsters grew up in the hood. They still understand that there are unspoken rules like, “the hood will take you under.” Some of them are pooh butts, but some of them are men. They refuse to allow a hater to stomp them out, pack them out, punk them or touch nary hair on their child’s head. Not because they are cowards but because they know they will retaliate and then it’s all bad. When a man defends his family, he will do it with his life and freedom on the line. A wise man isn’t going to take the chance because there too much for him to lose and too many people coming for you with foolishness.
The hood is immune to deterrents. There will always be a loser with nothing more to lose but their life so they let the devil use them. Some people that move from the hood do it because they were always scared, so when the opportunity came they left with the quickness. Some people that move from the hood are righteous; they move their family out of the hood because their wives, children, and possessions are investments. They want to be set up for a peaceful and happy life. These are the men that will protect their families at any cost so they move rather than lose everything they worked so hard to get and maintain.
The hood is full of stupidly that is upheld by stupid people who will make you beat the stupid out of them just to prove a point. Or even worst, would love you to lose it all by going to jail behind their petty jealousy. Do you blame a real man, who is a father, protector and provider for not wanting to go out like that? A wise man would just move his family to an area that suits their lifestyle.
So after seeing hood ninjas make it big and never do anything that doesn’t involve a photo op in the hood, the babies start to feel some type of way. You put your arm around them and hit them with the, “I might not know you but I can relate speech” and get offended when these little ni**as shrug your arm off them and growl “Old ni**a I don’t know you!” And then proceed to get away from you with the quickness.
What can I say? Because it was the mothers in the hood are the ones that taught them not to talk to strangers. Why would they take advice or direction from a perfect stranger because a loved one in their eyes would never leave the hood, and it cant be bad cause you left them there…..
Can I get a round of applause? Did I give another plausible, possible theory to answer the question? Well let’s just do a little bootleg review, or as the old school teachers used to say, “Let’s check our work. Retrace our steps and see if the math adds up…..”
Why, despite the hood being the most certain way to a tragic death, do some rappers choose to stay accessible and present in the hood? Because they know how it feels to be abandoned. They can’t for the life of them understand why anyone would leave a place that is so unapologetically honest. They understand the rules and weigh the risk against the rewards and opt to be secretly hated and begrudgingly loved than to be surrounded by in authenticity.
Because real love feels better than fake love.
But what do I know? I’m just a bootleg sociologist who nobody will listen to so I started a blog……….
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