Please note that this is an oldie but goodie!
So I made it through my second attempt at the BET Hip-Hop Awards…b.k.a. Bafoonery Central. Lawd. I wasn’t paying attention the first time due to some heavy dialogue being transmitted over the numeric connect…and I can’t really say I paid attention tonight, but hey…I didn’t realize Law & Order: Criminal Intent was on…otherwise I wouldn’t have helped their ratings.
Periodically, I would stop and coo over T.I., Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes, or The Game…admiring…their edgy presence…and having momentary daydreams about..uhm…shooting pool or something…hehehe. Anyway…the point of this note is not to make the good girls like bad guys argument…that paradox is played. I’m wondering if “bad boys” are even still relevant.
At some point while climbing the education/career ladder…and sistas if I’m wrong…pleasssse let me know…I think thugs fall off of your radar all together. Some broads (self NOT included) forget that they have even read a passage from the Book of Thugs. Hoodstars used to be fresh…a hot commodity..and the idea of being a ride or die chick…nothing topped it. Sheeeet now…$100,000 in student loan debt later…if he’s not wearing Armani Exchange or if he doesn’t know what NYSE stands for…he need not apply.
Part of me wants to say…that’s some bougie…elitist bull…while the other part of me wants to say uhm…it’s a part of evolving…and wanting better for ones self. Someone once told me that bad boys don’t go to college, but academia is not the only form of education. Everybody knows somebody that hasn’t made it through the walls of anybody’s university, but knows more about the world than we could ever image. Furthermore, academia as the be all end all is a recent idea. Don’t believe me…what college did this country’s founders go to? What law school did Abraham Lincoln graduate from? He was an apprentice to an attorney, not a Yale graduate. Prove me wrong…I’ll buy you a drink.
I’m not saying there is something wrong with being educated. Clearly, I can’t feel that way, I’m working on my second masters and preparing for the day that I will enter a Ph.D. program. I just don’t agree with using education as yet another tool for “us against them.”
My quintessential bad boy will always and forever be… Huey P. Newton..
…educated, fine, powerful…I even have a mini shrine to him and Fred Hampton on my living room wall. Now I know…I know…you can’t compare Nelly to Huey P. Newton, buy they are both clearly products of their generations.
I think this Tylenol P.M. is making me start to get off topic…so I’ll stop here, but this is my question…are thugs still relevant??
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