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"Keeping It Real." I hate that phrase and any and all derivatives thereof. I hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Why? Cause the people who use it usually don't know what they are talking about.

Rappers talk about guns, drugs, women, money and killing people and then say they are "keeping it real." Bullshit. Let's just "keep it real" for a moment. Rap music is produced by music companies. As the Artist said, the record isn't done until the executive says it is done. So the music is heavily influenced by the music executive who is trying to sell the records to raps main audience. . .white teens. So what does the music executive push? That's right. All that "keeping it real music." Now I am not dissing all rap music. But I live in the community. I grew up poor. Reality is not what is protrayed in the music.

Reality is often poverty, crappy neighborhoods, lack of education and miseducation, laziness, crime, hard work, success stories, loving families, criminals, good citizens, churches, single parents, nuclear families, etc. It is not the one diminsional portrayal that is handed out with the keeping it real seal of approval. Your reality is different than mine. Our collective reality is different from your point of view. But no view is completely negative. Every woman in the black community is a bitch or a whore. That's not real. You been flossing in a Rolls Royce. That's not real. You can't find a job cause the white man keeping you down. That's not real. And by saying that it is, people betray reality.

The other peeve that I have with the phrase is that it is used by people who cannot articulate what it means. "You know what'm saying" (my other peeve) doesn't mean anything and no I don't know what you are saying and neither does anyone else.

Nuff said.

9/17/1998 09:00