Elfie is Watching

Kiddo has been on an Arts & Craft spree these days, but then, it’s Giftmas season and she is hyped beyond what you can believe.  That and we are doing our best to con her into believing in Santa.  If that means Elfie “brings” Santa an ice cream treat every once in a while… Well, then, I guess Dada needs to munch an ice cream treat at night.  LOL

And Elfie is back.  Our little Elf on the Shelf is a great prop as well.  She’s fun to hide and move around.  It’s also fun to go Elf Hunting in the mornings with Kiddo.  She loves looking for Elfie.  She’ll even talk to Elfie occasionally.  Or leave Santa letters under the tree, which (along with the ice cream treat) need to disappear occasionally.  

Beyond that, Elfie is great for J and I.  The other night, Kiddo didn’t want to go to bed.  Bad dreams, lonely, night light needs to change color, etc.  Didn’t need to threaten take away of iPad or anything like that, just nope and night night.  “So, this morning when we found Elfie….”  Kiddo’s eyes got wide and suddenly…. “Oh.  Elfie.  Gonna go to sleep now.  Love you Mumma and Dada.”

We could see her thoughts.  Oh snap!  I forgot Elfie is here and she talks to Santa.  I gotta behave and get to sleep.

That’s life right now.  Kiddo being Kiddo and Giftmas excitement.  In two weeks, break starts and J and Kiddo get three weeks to chill and away from school.  We have some small plans and a day trip or two planned, but with Doc J and Mr E coming (we hope, with Mr E just losing his father, things might need to push a bit) and with Kiddo in her first year of school, we wanted to just keep it simple.  Keep it local.  Just be us.  Not travel and explore.  More bunker down and just be us.  See a movie.  Swim and play.  Go to the library.  Have little adventures instead of one big adventure.  Besides, we could do 5ish days on an island or elephant sanctuary, but then have 18 days to fill in BKK.  What if, we did 5-6 adventures here.  Make days out of those little things. 

Besides, rumors from Elfie is that Kiddo will be getting a bike.  

Other than that, I wanted to get back to music before I go today.  I was gaming and listening to a playlist of some rap and hip hop that I listen to on occasion.  Last night, I was in the mood for it.  I was just zoning out and gaming, but a lyric caught my ear and I wanted to share that today.

It’s from Eazy-E, sorry if his work is a bit explicit for everyones tastes, but something in it caught me.

And I’ll peal caps if need be

And ain’t nothing you can bring gonna see me.

Eazy-E, before becoming a founder of NWA and a pioneer of Gangsta Rap, was a gang banger and drug dealer.  Now, put that in context of the above lyrics.

I’ll shoot, but only if needed

And if I want you dead, there is nothing you can do to stop me, because you won’t even see me coming; Regardless of protection.

That’s the lyrics, broken down into plain English.  That’s a HARD line.  Even for the times.  Ice Cube was doing his own thing.  Dre was doing his own thing.  NWA had split.  Saying things like that was putting a target on yourself and daring people to shoot.  TuPac and Biggie both saw how that went a short time later.  Both shot dead.  Easy died of complications from AIDS.  

Sure.  It’s violent.  It’s over the top.  It’s braggadocios.  I 100000% believe that Eazy meant it and lived that life, knowing that he was that hard and that connected.  Heck, he faced off a man named Suge (Pronounces Sh-oog, like the beginning of Sugar) Knight.  Suge was high level gangster.  Who is currently in prison for murder.  And Eazy faced him down, writing those lyrics (in part) as a warning to Suge and those with Death Row Records about coming after him.  

That would be like me naming a high level Mafia Don in a record and challenging them, telling them I’m untouchable and if and when I decide to come for them, they won’t be able to stop me.  

That jumped at me.  Caught my ear.  And made me just sit and think for a moment; About a lot of things.

About the violence in rap and that being a big reason it is decried by a number of people.  But, these are men (and women) talking about things they see daily.  About the life they live.  NWA didn’t rap F*** tha Police for fun.  They rapped that because that was the life they saw daily.  Much like the 60’s singers and song writers who wrote about the war and the gov’t and life around them, rappers are doing the same.  Giving a window into their world.  And it’s (largely) ignored because it’s just “violence and cursing”.  

I hate to break this to some of you, but Bob Dylan is closer in spirit to TuPac than to Zeppelin, Metallica, or Nirvana.  John Denver and Dee Snyder have more in common with Rappers than Axl Rose or Taylor Swift.  The Beatles (post 1966) have more in common with Rap than Pop music.

Yeah, but they didn’t curse and call women bi***es.

No.  They didn’t.  But they also didn’t grow up seeing and hearing that (and worse) daily.  John and Yoko did a “love in” and got national attention.  Pick a male and female rapper and let them have a “love in”.  How long until the police drag them away?

That’s the difference.  White men (and woman) writing music that calls out hate or the gov’t or anything else and they are part of “a revolution.”  Rap has been around for 40+ years now and no one is calling it a revolution, but if we looked at, thought about, and empathized with those men and woman rapping about their lives and situations, the ghettos and projects they grew up in, maybe it wouldn’t be so violent, because it would be improving.  Instead… It’s crass, obscene, and violent.  And ignored.

Because that’s life for them.  And we ignore it as a whole.  And sometimes, I’ll peal caps if need be, and ain’t nothing you can bring gonna see me.  Even if that is just with my words and the 3 readers of this blog.

Let’s go, Kiddo… Giftmas is nigh, Elfie is watching, and sometimes doing what’s right, what’s moral, and what’s just requires words and actions we wouldn’t normally tolerate, but we also need to know when it’s time to fight.  We only peal caps if need be, but when the need arises, we hope you have the language, the courage, and the empathy to know what’s right.  What’s truly right.  Not legal or illegal, but right.  Strike, with fist or force of the collective, to advance… not just yourself, but others and society.  You’re already well on your way and Mumma and I see that.  And we love you for that empathy and courage.