By Odeisel

A few weeks ago, Hip-Hop got its panties in a bunch when Ashley Judd cast it as “rape culture.” A few days ago, panties were again twisted when the Right-Wingers cast Common and Jill Scott as cop killer-supporting griots. Of course they were collateral damage in a much different war, but for all that is positive in Hip-Hop culture and music, we will always be characterized by our darkest moments.

The reason Hip-Hop is always so subject to these whims of public opinion and media is because we don’t self-police or recognize any legitimate standards of behavior. When rappers get arrested for dumb shit, what do we do? We hit the block and the airwaves with “Free____.” We don’t like when people call us on things, and we always have excuses ready, but as a community, we never hold each other accountable for our collective integrity.

There are literally hundreds of websites and magazines with an even greater number of readers/subscribers/followers. When people point to violent, misogynist lyrics, we often get insular on the basis that if you aren’t part of the culture, you wouldn’t understand. What we don’t understand, is that we’re no longer a burgeoning movement; we’re a full-fledged culture and a way of life that has to give account of how we interact. Not that these lyrics need to be snuffed out or that everyone in this life has to be an angel, but as gatekeepers and media especially we have a responsibility to call things how they are.

Saturday, rapper Cassidy (real name Barry Reese), who managed a fair amount of success, is possessed of a fair amount of talent, and who has been blessed by the powers that be to survive a coma-inducing car accident, and who ALREADY beat a murder charge a few years ago was arrested in Hackensack, NJ. The authorities were alerted by police in Philadelphia that there was a warrant out for his arrest on parole violation charges and that Reese was a person of interest in a murder and two attempted murders in Philadelphia. Reese was apprehended by Hackensack without incident and is presently in custody awaiting extradition to Philadelphia.

Imagine being given a second chance at life and surviving a coma with your mental faculties intact. Imagine your street life catching up to you and facing jail for the rest of your life, and managing to escape with a short bid. The parole violation is bad enough. Another body and two attempts? Even if he’s innocent of these charges, it’s a clear indication that something isn’t going right in his circle. This kind of repeat criminal behavior is similar to the well-chronicled travails of T.I.

We have a tendency in rap media to cover up the mistakes of Hip-Hoppers, much in the way baseball writers used to cover up the wild partying of Mickey Mantle, or Chicago media covered up many Michael Jordan mishaps in his Bulls heyday. I suppose the idea is to keep the golden goose going. But when the eggs being laid are rotten and not golden it leaves us all stinking.

That’s the real problem with these things. Humans screw up, that’s in our genetic code. The problem comes when we become apologists for people who don’t deserve our sympathy. Just as we have trained ourselves to separate the musical merit from the malevolence, so must we begin to separate that music from the person. Sure his album is good. Sure the beats are banging. But an ass an ass. Wrong is wrong. And in the case of some Hip-Hoppers, a criminal is a criminal. Just as we exhort outsiders not to cast us all with the same light, so must we say being a Hip-Hopper doesn’t give us license to ill.

Heaven help this guy if he’s innocent and lock his ass up if he’s guilty. When we’re all able to separate this madness from the music, we can call a spade a spade and have a real leg to stand on when people go, “Well what about___?” The real answer isn’t apologist rhetoric or excuses. The real answer is, “Yeah, what about him? Nice album but he’s right where he belongs. One less anchor on the culture. “Free___” t-shirts end up as nice dishrags, but the bigger we get, the harder the fit.

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