The Mentalities of Hip Hop. A chapter from "Directions in Understanding" by Akintunde Amenosis

Allah school, 126st in Harlem, Rakim Allah, Prince Rakeem Allah [RZA], Niggas Wit Attitudes

The Mentalities of Hip Hop
While its still fresh in my mind, i would like to give you a review of the different mentalities involved in music today. This review will be in four sections: The Homeboy Mentality [Creator of Hip Hop], The Gangsta Mentality [West Coast Homeboys], The jew Mentality [ the record co/media outlet owners], and the americans [white folks]. First, what is a mentality? It is a group of patterned thoughts shared by those of your subculture, or, the way your hood looks at things. These patterns of thought dictate and are manifested in our behavior and actions, and are detectable. So lets detect them in terms of our best potential unifying force today.....Hip Hop.
The New York Homeboy Mentality.
The mentality that i grew up under is this one. It has several key features, all of which can easily be seen in a hiphop record, indeed, these key features ALLOWED us to create it in the first place.

1] I Could Never Be Wack.

This phrase best sums up thought pattern #1. Its translation is i could never/will never be the worst in any area of human life. The clothes i wear are THE clothes to wear, my slang IS the correct slang, whatever standard there is for whatever thing, i will always, by nature, be at the top of the list. I could never, EVER, be wack. The corresponding "I am master of the universe" view was not ignored either. When you hear the massive ego involved by all hiphop artists, it goes back to the old hood saying from the 70`s. Looked upon at a higher level, we homies were attempting to cure ourselves from slaverys self hate injuries by "knowing" that no matter what anybody, including krakkas, said about us negatively......we could never be wack. In concrete reality this was expressed by competition, and it can be seen by rappers always claiming to be better/harder/richer than the next rappper. If you are wearing 100 grand in diamonds, how can you possibly be wack? If the next man is wearing 500 grand, thats how. It also manifested in sports, where losing to a white team in any sport spelled shame [ny public schools are segregated]. Why this did not carry over into academics will be discussed in the jew mental section.Teach yourself and your children to love themselves.

2] The Blackman is God, the whiteman is the devil.

This statement sums up our entire socio-politico-religous thought patterns. I was 14 or 15 when when my homie Tony told me his name was now Allah Savior, and that he was a god, and whites, all whites, were devils. I instantly saw the truth of the second statement, and pretended understanding of the first. Savoir gave me a stack of "lessons" [transcripts of WD Fard teaching Elijah Muhammed in the 30`s] and told me to study. Joining the 5%ters as "Divine Mathematics", i had to be ready for an entire city seeking to test my knowledge, as it seemed like the entire city of homeboys was 5%. Growing up like that, every day spent debating on exactly how and why the Blackman is God, makes paltalk debates seem like child`s play, as no "universal beatdown" was coming for failure.The corresponding adoption of "ALLAH" and the discarding of all things christians was also city-wide. No church-going good boys were to be found at a hiphop in 1979.....to even mention u had respect for Jesus meant u risked a universal beatdown. The lesson "the Blackman is God" allowed us to "know ourselves" enough to create a music, even if our understanding of its meaning was young and immature, like we were. You can hear 5% theology in most ny records up to the year 2000, check Nas, Rakim, and Wu Tang. On a higher level, 5% was the perfect vehicle to prepare us for the Kmtic versions of "know thyself", as both share the fundamental principle of Man`s Divinity, we refused to study most other subjects back then, especially in school. Those of yall that teach, consider this: 5% Lessons" were studied daily by the hardest cats in the city, bros who HATED school. Why?

3] "Get off my jock".

This phrase literally meant stop copying me, stop imitating me, because you could never be as great as me. Being "on my jock" was proof that "i could never be wack", why steal my style if my style is wack? I mention this phrase because it was the first time in my life i noticed a destructive idea manifest in behavior. All of nyc used this phrase, the idea was universal, and in a city of millions squashed together, it symbolized the individual and his/her uniqueness. When 3 million ppl live in your section of the city, finding shoes no one else has becomes a major thing. With all these ppl around you, how do you stand out? Remember, you CANT be wack! You stand out by having something new, by being creative! Remember, you are a God! In your dress, in your rap, in your music, be creative. This caused us to sharpen our creative powers, as a rapper, u had to have a style/lyrics/flow that was unique. When it was copied [proving it wasnt wack] you then had to "protect" said style, lest too many copy it, and it becomes ordinary [wack]. You protected your uniqueness by telling copiers to "get off my jock", if a rapper or dancer, you said "stop biting"[my jock]. Consider this: if you are a "fan" [fanatic] of a rapper, you would be "on his jock", or, on her "bra-strap". The negative side was, anything favor/help you gave anyone was answered with "you on my jock" so friendship became almost impossible, which is why my hood banned the term when its harm was detected. In hiphop, this mentality combined with #1 became the "battle" or "cypher"of mc`s.

4] The Mack of the Year

During hip hop`s formulative years, a movie called 'The Mack", about a pimp named Goldie came out. Goldie became the ideal for male/female relationships, which meant that females had a hard way to go. On one hand we had our mothers, who taught us respect and love for females. On the other, right outside the front door, awaited the pimping mental, which said females had uses, but were never to be shown true respect and love. The better you were at deceiving females into believing you were "different", the more your "macking" game was respected, if female, the more money you could get from males without giving up sex generated respect. The overall criminal mindset was included, for if you couldnt "talk" your way into money, you had to take it from others by force. This deplorable state of affairs is the most visible aspect of hiphop today, the almost naked video ho. Her entire presence in hiphop goes directly back to Goldie, thats why rappers is "pimps" today. She did not exist in Hip Hop until the 2Live Crew dropped "As nasty as they wanna be", but the mindset of Goldie, updated to Luke, then updated to Snoop Dogg, now updated to 50 Cent, has existed since at least the late 60`s. I suggest u rent the movie, so u can provide help to your children when they get "infested" wit Goldie pimp bullshit.

West Coast Mental [Gangsta].

The West Coast, which made major modifications in hiphop, and is second to ny only because ny created the art,differs from the East. Im not as well aquainted with the cali mindset, but i still know the basics. First, Cali and Ny share the "pimp mental" and the "never be wack" mental, so we wont rehash those. Cali differs because of gangs. Lets go back..........

1] Gangsta!

In Cali, a young bro named Raymond Washington, who lived in LA, started a gang called the "baby cribs", to "protect" thier hood from enemies [whites], and patterned it after the pre-existing Mexican gangs. Thier "look" was apparently hats and canes, and after they pulled a robbery, the press coverage qouted a korean lady as saying "they was crips" because of the canes, and the name "Crips" stuck. A founding crip named "Tookie" [Jamie Fox plays him in "Redemption"], broke off and started the "West Side" Crips. As the Crips kept splintering [sets] they spread across the city, and some young bros on Piru street decided they wasnt joining up, and started the "Bloods". Naturally, with thier mutual oppressor safely in the "valley", Bloods and Crips manifested thier self hatred on each other, and went to war. Today, there are hundreds of "sets" in Cali, and hiphop has spread both Blood and Crip globally. You even have them in NY, where originally hiphop dispaced gang life. Gangsterism is the dominant mentality of Cali.

2] "The Big Payback"

This JB record sums up the key feature in gang life. Revenge. It dont matter what started the war, they killed my homie, so i gotta get revenge. This was concept only in NY, expressed in the love of kung fu movies, but in Cali it was reality. I found it unbelievable, the level of violence perpatrated on each other in the name of revenge, that i saw in Cali. These bros went so far back in terms of human culture that they re-invented sign language, and use it at a level not seen since the Twa heydey. The bros out in Cali carried out military expeditions based on revenge of fallen homies, in NY only money generated military responses. The gangsta way of life was put into hiphop by Cali, the guns was put in by Cali, and the replacement family that a gang offers was inserted by them also. There was nothing to balance the lack of "Blackman is God" teachings, so its ALL gangsta, and not much else. Even Tupac, the best-selling rapper ever, left the east as a "conscious" rapper, and re-emerged in the west as a "gangsta", with his conscious lyrics buried inside the gunfire and hoochies and niggaisms. Tupac IS what happened when hip hop became rap music and rap music became big business.

3] Hollywood/F*ck da police

The LAPD was a major influence on Cali homies, for the LA cops are unparralled in handing out ass whuppings to Blacks for no apparent reason. Every Cali "banger" had the real threat of beatings and/or jail overhead each day. Cops had so many ways to brutalize us in Cali it was beyond belief. Naturally, the first thing coming outta LA bros mouths was complaints about the police. We will discuss Chief Parker,[parker center in la] founder of the lapd tactic of "proactive law enforcement" another day, but he was a real devil, gene rodenberry`s "Spock", from "star trek", is based on parker. Proximity to Hollywood definitly influenced Cali, movies influenced our life out there, and made us even more suceptable to film attacks like "the Mack" and "Colors" than most places. "Colors" is probably at the top of the "most destructive" list, because its hollywood portrayal of L.A. gangsta life [Damon Wayans, Leon, and Don Cheadle as Crips???]was imitated by Black youth from coast to coast. "Colors" was the first time i really saw L.A. homeboy culture, from gangs to dress-code. Cali had fake hiphop movies like "breakin" before they even started sellin rap records, these movies show the Cali counterparts to NY institutions of b-boys/graffiti artists, like the "pop-lockers". Cali bros have a certain "showmanship" aspect to them, and this was perfect for what happened next, that changed not only hip hop, but how american Blacks are percieved globally.

4] NWA [Niggas Wit Attitudes].

NWA deserves a chapter by itself.................their effect was that bad. But it was hiphop........to be continued next post...... AKINTUNDE AMENOSIS [Born Understanding]
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