“You actin’ like a lil’ b***h right now!”
O-Dog in Menace II Society
I know y’all ain’t gonna like this one. But I don’t care. There is a lot of b***hing goin’ on these days and it’s time we address it. By b***h I mean b***hy ways. B***hy attitude. B***hy….what’s the word I’m lookin’ for… umm….ness. There is an air of b***h among us that is eating away at our collective psyche. Why it has reared its ugly head is up for debate, but I have a few theories on why it is becoming so prevalent. Stick with me.
The b***h in us has come on in a very strong way. The most visible way I see it is in the way we have allowed “beefs” to dominate our Hip-Hop culture. I remember when I was a child and I first heard the line “Ain’t no talk time!” This line was usually delivered right before somebody caught one to the jaw. Where I’m from there is not a lot of bickerin’ back and forth. There is keep your mouth shut or get to rumbling. Men don’t go back and forth like a bunch ‘a b***hes. Men get to it or move on and let that s**t slide. Men fight it out or squash it and twist sumthin’ up. Men act on it or let it die. B***hes on the other hand keep up a lot of mouth. They let the emotion drive them to do something irrational. They bark and bark and bark until they bark themselves into a situation they can’t get out of, usually resulting in a good one to the jaw.
Rap beefs to me seem like some b***h ass s**t. Especially when I catch myself all caught up in them like a lil’ b***h. You heard me right. I get all caught up in the latest dis that some dude said about the other dude. Like a little cheerleader. I download videos and songs and send them to my folks, just fueling the fire. If that ain’t high-tech “he say/she say” what is? We don’t usually catch ourselves but we are doing it en masse. Collectively actin’ like a bunch of little girls. Think about it. If your son walked in the house with a whole bunch of “he say/she say” what would you do? You’d talk/smack/kick, (depending on who you are) the b***h out of him. You’d tell him that men don’t do that. You would explain to him how women don’t like a man who gossips unless he is they’re hairdresser or choir director or the like. LOL. Think about it. Could you see your grandfather downloadin’ what Muhammad Ali said about Joe Frasier? Hell to the naw! He just waited until the fight and that was the end of his involvement. He and Nana ain’t sit around goin’ back and forth about it. She would have had that n***a “talked” to by her brothers. Catch my drift?
These days we spend so much time on this “he said/she said s**t” that it is embarrassing. And I’m not just talkin’ about in Hip-Hop. I’m talking about Black men in general. It’s on our morning radio shows, usually perpetuated by black men. It’s in the barbershop talk. It’s prevalent in our magazines and on the sites we go to to get our information. It’s everywhere. Look around. We actin’ like a bunch of metro-sexual funboys. Cat’s even be talkin’ about the latest Lindsey Lohan s**t. No disrespect but, f**k that b***h. We’ve got a ton of other things we need to address, that are much more relevant and tangible to our condition, than another privileged child star gone bad. Ain’t like Lindsey Lohan the first or last white woman to do a Margot Kidder. (OK that was little cruel but you understand what I’m sayin’). [Editor’s note: in an effort to make Joe more cruel, let it be known that Kidder has bipolar disorder and the disorder led to a breakdown in 1996.]
I think that part of the problem is that a lot more men these days were raised by their gossipin’ ass mammas and their aunties than generation of the past. I for one was raised by my moms during the week and saw my pops on the weekends. My oldest brother, may I add, came out of the closet when I was twelve. While my mother wasn’t very gossipy she did enjoy the occasional two hour ‘girl did you hear about’ phone call. My brother and his friends, male and female, kept some drama going. By the time I reached college age I was already a cheerleader by osmosis. One time during a fight on campus my buddy Paul calmed me down by telling me to my face that I was a cheerleader of maximum proportions.
Since then I have worked hard to kill that punk ass s**t. Did anybody notice how I handled the whole East coast – West coast thing when it was at its hottest? I sat in the middle of it day in and day out and held my ground like a man. I didn’t take sides and go back and forth. I considered each side’s point of view and let them air their grievances. I could have made millions by fueling the fire, but I felt I had an obligation to take a higher ground. In my public life I try to keep my …umm… b***hiness to a minimum. I try to project, in my own little way, a vision of masculinity that any woman would be happy to model her son after. I don’t have the strong chin broad chest thing going for me but I do keep a level head and hold all that emotional “lemme go get my gun cause this n***a hurt my feelings” s**t at bay.
Lemme stop right here and continue this next week, ’cause I feel myself getting emotional. Look for part two soon.
PS: What’s with n***as and this two earring s**t too? I had to say that.
Cleezy is rumored to be an avid reader of illseed’s rumor page. So, head on over to the rumors section and have a ball talking it up about other people![;)]
