Alright y’all. I know I’m a little late on this one. This article isn’t about T.I and his son. I’m just going to analyze Black youth culture as a whole and how Hip-Hop makes way more young people think the way T.I.’s son was thinking. I saw another video of T. I. and his son, King Harris on the Complex You Tube channel on better terms while laughing and joking. They were debating GOAT viral moments and rap albums. It was posted 16 days ago as of today. Let that warm and fuzzy video marinate in your head more than the altercation video. This world loves negativity and controversy.
But before you do, I want to talk about the thought process behind the video of King Harris arguing and fighting with his parents at the Atlanta Falcons game that went viral. The buzz surrounding the T.I. video has died down now. It’s probably not trending as much anymore.
To recap, a couple of weeks ago, a video went viral with rapper T.I. and his son having a little verbal and physical altercation. T.I and his mom, singer Tiny Harris were teasing their son about sucking his pacifier until he was 12. T.I.’s son, King Harris, in turn started yelling and acting tough. The teasing started when T.I. asked his son if he had ever woken up with a roach in his ear while also stating he had a silver spoon in his mouth. T.I. was basically saying he had an easy upbringing. His son said “he stand on business” in any hood he goes to- basically saying he can hold his own in a tough environment.
We all know Hip-Hop music encourages this type of thinking. T. I. himself used to rap about the streets. The point isn’t to criticize T.I., but simply to criticize the mindset that was indoctrinated in our culture.
Many rappers will argue that they don’t glorify street life and that they are simply rapping about what they witnessed or what they lived. For many, that is true. For others who say this, they are being disingenuous- or in layman’s terms- lying like shit.
The fact is, many do glorify having felonies, “putting work in” or their “names ringing bells” in a certain area at a certain time. Those are the phrases many rappers used to use, or maybe still use(I don’t know for sure if they still do because I don’t keep up with rap music anymore) to refer to their old criminal ways. If it wasn’t the actual rappers, then maybe their meat-riding (slang for fawning and ass-kissing) homies who vouched for them in documentaries about their street persona- whether real or a staged street persona.
But if you are authentic and actually put work in the streets, you are letting the elites use you. They are using you by cherry-picking you as the drug-dealing rapper with a criminal record who isn’t conscious, and passing up the 9-to-5 rapper without felonies, who is more socially conscious.
This, in turn, gives our youth the impression that we have to live this lifestyle in order to become a credible rapper- or a credible and tough person. This also gives mainstream society the impression that this is how all, or most young Black men live. Then some White cop from Idaho or Montana, who has never met a Black man in person, and only watched them on TV rap about drugs, guns, and murder, becomes scared shitless of all Black men, and shoots even one of the majority 9 to 5ers who aren’t in the streets.
But then again, it’s others who own the labels who only look for street rappers as opposed to other more socially conscious rappers to help destroy our image. It almost seems like record labels are in cahoots with police and the justice system. But whatever. I’m just some ol’ wokety woke conspiracy theorist, I guess. Shout out to T.I. and his family. Hopefully King Harris walks the good path and that was just an isolated incident. Let’s change our youth and popular culture’s mindset. I’ll explore more on this topic as a whole, outside of just T.I. in future articles. I have plenty more content coming. Y’all stay up.
