Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Smell the Smoke




Hollywood or would they not


Make us all look bad like I know they had


But some things I'll never forget yeah


So step and fetch this shit


For all the years we looked like clowns


The joke is over smell the smoke from all around


Burn Hollywood burn

Chuck D. from Burn Hollywood Burn…Fear of a Black Planet Album


I was under the covers and just about to shut my eyes and get to sleep before my normal 1:00 AM bedtime when I saw the commercial that made me get up and write this blog. I was watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central when I saw the commercial for the comedy roast of Flavor Flav. I don’t know if any of you have seen a Comedy Central Roast before but it’s basically a bunch of B-List comedians making fun of some B-list entertainer who needs to get some publicity. Flavor Flav is not some desperate entertainer at all. He is a member of hip hop royalty. See, I have been a loyal hip hop fan since I was nine years old and my daddy let me buy the first Fat Boys album. I consider it to be the music that has most shaped my personality. I actually look at it as more than music. My favorite hip hop song is Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos and the group that sings that song, Public Enemy is our most important group. That’s why I got out of bed to send a special request to Biggie, Pac, Jam Master J, Scott La Rock, J-Dilla, Mc Trouble, Just Ice and all the other hip hop legends in the sky to please, please, please, don’t let Chuck D. be in the audience. I have already accepted the fact we have lost Flav to the struggle. As a 25 year hip hop fan, I have survived Vanilla Ice. I made it through early 90’s without buying a pair of M.C. Hammer pants, and I even survived all those wack G-Unit albums these kids love. I’m still standing and dedicated to the art form. Watching Chuck D. giggle while some washed up comedian makes jokes about Flav’s crack addiction will be more than I can stand. The sad part is that 18 years ago when I was 15 years old, anyone making fun of any member of Public Enemy like this would have started a revolution. We have come a long way in the wrong direction. The only thing that would make this show enjoyable for a cat like me is if right when the crowd is laughing hysterically at some bad joke about Flav, Chuck, Griff, Terminator X and the S1W’s bust through the door of the venue with leather straps and starts to whip everybody’s ass in the room. That would be the only way I would find this shit enjoyable.

And that is as real as I can keep it when I am this sleepy. I am going to bed listening to my It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back CD.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whenever I hear "Burn Hollywood Burn" I think of Condoleeza Rice when this line comes around:

"For what they do Aunt Jemima is the perfect term--
Even if now she's got a perm"