(J)ournal (O)f (K)1ng (E)ljay – “The Evolution Of…”

"Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin like a fool with your pants on the ground..."

Sometimes, there are things that I just don’t understand.

I know that when there’s something you just can’t understand or come to terms with then you have to be comfortable enough with yourself to look away and not let it bother you, but it’s definitely something of a different circumstance watching this situation develop.

In short, it seems like ignorance is evolving. Maybe it’ll change for the better, but right now, it seems like it is in more places than normal, and embodied by more people than normal. The best examples of this all lie in the now-rotating rap music on the radio.

Firstly, you have Soulja Boy. He was famous originally for making a dance and then being put on by Mr. Collipark (who was hot at the time for making beats for southern acts such as The Ying Yang Twins, David Banner, Bubba Sparxxx, etc). He then took that popularity, platformed into other new dances, and literally became one of the first rap artists to use the internet aggressively to market himself.

The problem with him is that he was a kid at the time, but as time progressed, his kidlike mentality (and rhyme schemes) stayed the same. It actually seems like he acts WORSE and raps WORSE than he used to, which is not flattering at all if you consider anyone can write his raps for him.

Then there’s Lil B, who’s been doing the same thing through marketing himself through videos online. He’s supposedly down with Soulja Boy (that should be reason enough to understand the mention), and has the “other” side of the internet in a frenzy by all of the colorful phrases he says and calls himself, which include (but not limited to):

• “Pretty b***h.”
• “Base God”
• “Grand Chef”
• “Handsome”
• “Lesbian”

…and has completely offended Christians with his phrase/song/video recorded in a church with the hook saying:

“H**s on my d**k ‘cuz I look like Jesus…”

His reasoning behind this is that he’s based, which means essentially he can do whatever he wants to do. For some reason, people rock with this as well, although it’s been proven time and time again that Lil B is actually lyrically competent.

Then there’s Waka Flocka Flame, who we STILL don’t exactly know what his name means. His songs are highly energetic, but lacks in every other category, from cohesiveness to lyrical content to… well, just listen to a song of his and tell me what you get out of it.

All three of these acts have seemed to embody the evolution of ignorance in some way, whether it’s Soulja Boy choosing to not mature as opposed to advancing his career and his mindstate, Lil B actually being a promising rapper and choosing to NOT pursue that avenue in favor of more insane credentials, or Waka Flocka just… being Waka Flocka, it seems as if they’re comfortable where they are as opposed to advancing and evolving into something better.

That takes me to the real problem… They don’t have to.

People that actually listen to their music as a whole and say that they love it genuinely scare me. It proves to me that for some youth, there is really no hope. I’m not 100 percent old-school with my hip-hop preferences, but at least the music I listen to make sense. If I play Krunk music (I know I spelled it with a K, because that’s how Lil Jon originally spelled it before his “Crunk Juice” LP), most of the lyrics are going to be revolving the concept of getting’ Krunk. If I listen to gangster music, I know to expect “drugs and/or gangs”, to quote Riley Freeman of the Boondocks.

I listen to them, and there’s no subject matter. Whatever pops into their head, they’re saying it, and people are okay with that for some reason. I really just can’t understand it.

Truthfully, at the end of the day, you really do have to respect their work ethic because they’re everywhere, and they seem to constantly be honing their craft. The problem with that is that their craft oozes moments that make you feel like you’re destroying your own brain cells as you dumb down to listen to it. Nowaways, you can’t even run from it or cut it off, because they’re everywhere. From the radio, to television, to internet, and, most importantly, Google (which is a completely different entity from the rest of the internet, LOL), there seems to be no escape.

Steel yourself; the ignorance is coming for you soon….

K1ng Eljay