So the goon patrol has gone digital, huh? Taking
a cue from MC Bin Ladin they have dialed up the world
wide web and taken responsibility for every crime that has occurred in
the last fifty years. I’m sure sooner or later
some dude holding a .22 and wearing a full face stocking cap in front
of his auntie’s house, mean mugging through the monitor is going to
lead us to Jimmy Hoffa. As insipid as it is
horrifying, the trend has grown to the point where folks who haven’t
committed a crime more serious than jay-walking want to get on the
bandwagon. I’m sure this isn’t what they had in mind when they invented the internet.
Chain
snatching, home invading and car jacking masked marauders are tired of
standing in the shadows and behind the bushes not getting their just
due. Rappers have been taking responsibility for
all sorts of horrendous behavior recently to the sublime delight of
those who actually did it. I guess the YouTube
bandits can’t rap, but still long to be part of the most recent and
fastest growing Hip-Hop trend since skinny pants. And we all know the dregs of the Hip-Hop Nation are not about to stuff into some cherry-red nut-huggers.
I thought about this as I surfed YouTube the other night looking for footage of Katt Williams getting slapped up in Detroit. I
didn’t find any, but what I did find was someone taking responsibility
for slapping Katt Williams up in Detroit. I had seen the picture of the
dude who really did it, so I knew this wasn’t him. His presentation was
more pathetic theater than confession. However, just the fact that he thought it would be cool to take responsibility for an assault he didn’t commit was troubling.
So what do we do about this? It’s true that the more the site visitors respond to this nonsense, the more the wave will grow. Wanting to be part of a respected group, the need to belong is a serious human craving. It’s within that desire that a choice must be made. These dudes are simply making the wrong choice. Will pulling the plug make it go away? No. You simply won’t be watching the bad behavior unfold.
For some, infamy is way better than positive fame. And
in a genre where being notorious is way sweeter than being an
upstanding citizen, I don’t think we could have expected anything
different. You see, this has very little to do with Hip Hop. We are simply the most obvious recipients. In
a world where plenty of young men are forced to travel the path to
manhood alone or without a helpful support system, they scratch and
grab at any opportunity to demonstrate their sense of right of passage. For some that’s getting an education, being a decent father or a law abiding citizen. For others, it’s robbing, stealing and mugging. Yup; buggin.
Then to take it down yet another notch, every once in a while one of these numbskulls is telling the truth. Yes, folks have actually been prosecuted with their Myspace page or Youtube account. So I say let ’em get their digital confessions on. At the very least it will make for an interesting addition to one of those stupidest criminal shows.
There are a million and one places to point the finger of blame for this; society, parents, the media, the schools, etc. Is it that serious? I believe so. People are massively impressionable whether they wish to admit it or not. Their
choice to follow the bad behavior, even in their two dimensional
e-lives speaks volumes to their three dimensional lives and how
they choose to live them. I mean, can you
imagine someone with some common sense and a decent head on their
shoulders wanting to create a theivin’ ass alter ego to garner attention
from a gang of folks they will never meet? Not I.
So
yes, we could easily roll our eyes and dismiss all these YouTubin’
folks who aren’t really criminals, but just playing one on the internet. But
then we would probably have to dismiss all of our favorite
snow-blowing, cap-popping, cookie-stealing studio thug monster rappers. We would also have to shut down all the ISP accounts of the e-thugs who feel the keyboard is mightier than the video. After we do all that my friends, I’m not sure who will be left.
