Music. Film. Culture. Fashion. Literature. Party. Art. Sex. Politics. Politrix. Travel. Sexuality. Being Me. Exploring Me. Happiness. Making money. Spending money. Pushing it to the limit.Undefined limits.
The song was originally sung by migrant workers who toiled in the bowels of Apartheid South Africa. In addition to facing oppression as black people, they experienced alienation from their families when they were forced to live away from their families in single sex hostels close to the mines of Apartheid South Africa.
The legacy of this element of the migrant labour system is the systematic and eventual break down of the African family unit: fathers, husbands and brothers left the reserves where black people had been banished to (let's not forget the Southern African migrant labourers whose sweat, blood and lives helped build the white economy), leaving mothers to fulfil both the role of mother and father in the home. Children grew up without fathers and the men working in the cities would eventually form new families in the city.
When these men sang Shosholoza, they weren't singing to celebrate that they had jobs, nor were they celebrating a victory. They were coping with trying to eke out a living in a system that was designed to break them, a system that controlled all of their movements at all times.
That is a small part of why I cringe everytime I hear the song being sung at sports games or in expression of some kind of South African pride. That and people sound like douche bags when they can't be bothered to pronounce the words when singing the song at rugby games while waving the old flag.
I really love music. Like, I LOVE music. Everything I do has a soundtrack or a song. Corny, I know, but I don't mean to do it- it just happens. Some of my favourite moments in life are when I listen to an artist that I can totally relate to, an artist that takes me back to a place that my memory alone can't take me to. I'm reeling right now because I've just been transported back to a point in my life where nothing really mattered- except contemplating the complexities of life, and not necessarily living them. But I'm older now, and the real world is oh so real. I now engage with music on a very real level: I question why Snoop leads two black women on a leash into the MTV Awards (and then consciously listen to his music selectively). Ja ne... Boys need better role models. So do girls. Lil Kim is a self confessed ho and her face is falling apart. Foxy Brown stays beating people up and the lesser known Trina's music straight up puts her out there as a whore. Then again, maybe she isn't a whore, seeing that Rick Ross isn't really gangsta. Still, we need good role models.
So here I am stalking the e-streets and I findAMANDA DIVA. Think Lauryn Hill circa '96 when she killed the Fugees' album The Score- before she flipped, cross that with the fierceness and feeling of Mary J, Gil Scott-Heron's poetry without the heroin- actually, scratch that- Ima give her Saul Williams smooth poetry. Oh shit, this woman's got me. According to Amanda's myspace, she's about to save female mceeing from itself. I know we all listen to all the Lil Kim's; the Trina's and the rest of their ilk but for real, we don't take them seriously, and I doubt the industry does either. If the case is that women won't be taken seriously unless their half nekked (lies, because no one takes Kim, Trina and Foxy seriously) then it's time for someone to step up and rep for a women on a smarter level. I hope Amanda proves that you don't have to be a Hip Hop bimbo to be heard. She's with The Aphilliates and everyone knows if you roll with DJ Drama's movement, everyone is bound to PAY CLOSE FUCKIN ATTENTION. For real though. Listen to this chick. I'm digging her. Amanda Diva Official Site Amanda Diva on Myspace
So Remy Ma- the bitch that walks around with a two-tone weave as if it's a good look was found guilty of shooting her girl in the stomach. If I were a gangsta bitch, I would make sure that whatever transgression I made against the law, I can eat that charge up so quick that no one would even remember it for a second. That's really gangsta. Being gangsta aint howling loud enuff for me to hear you all the way from Joburg, South Africa. Yeah, she cried like a little bitch when they told her she faces 25 yrs. Dumb Bitch. lol@ Papoose tryina make an honest woman out of her skank ass before she goes to jail - you gotta love this Ghetto Love Story. Why don't hood moms teach their daughters how to be ladies? I mean, I'm somewhat rough around the edges but if I need your ass shot up, I'll make a call and it'll be done. I don't need to do the damn shit myself. Real bosses have minions. I got mines...
In other ghetto ridiculous (in this case, ghetto fabulous more called for) news... Trina aka the one who said Tha Baby, has her album "Still The Baddest dropping this week. No doubt there'll be a song in there somewhere dedicated to Weezy F. Baby, Please Say the Baby- I wonder if she ever got rid of that Wayne tat that she got back in '06. Shouts out to YBF for the pic.
And now for the Ghetto Ridiculous...Scuse my French but...
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH BEANIE SIGEL???? THIS DUDE CAN'T STAY OUT OF JAIL!
Hov is always going on about how Beans is his boy and blah, blah, blah and he's gonna free Sigel but how do you go about saving someone who clearly doesn't wanna be saved? He knows that he's got all that Jay money waiting for him so he's got the junkie brother/drunken uncle syndrome- he's got enuff money so he doesn't feel like he has to work too hard. He's gonna keep fuckin up til someone actually gets his mind right... Shouts out to the really ghetto mothafucka that keeps going back to jail...You can't blame this one on his environment, so now I'm just gonna put it down to a case of Natural Selection. All I have to say to Jay right now is that his boy is on a path of self destruction and instead of rapping about it, he should Free Sigel. They tried to make him go to rehab & he said no, no, NO! Drugs are bad, kids.
I knew giving Flav a show would start something that just can't be right for the state of black people world wide! Well, Plies has a similar reality show coming up... you be the judge.
I’m not a straight out feminist. I use all sorts of words pretty freely. Sometimes, I call women chicks, or bitches, or tricks. In the nicest way possible (it’s possible. Or is it?). I can’t be fully blamed for the language is use- I’m a product of my environment: MEDIA AND SOCIETY (both of which apparently inform one another).
For years, the US corporate world has been in the firing line for using hip hop to make money- from paying artists big money to endorse their products, to putting their money behind the most mediocre and self-destructive ideas and artists, and to some extent, fuelling misogynist lyrics in songs because “it aint gonna sell if it aint about bitches, hoes, pimpin, cash, money, cars and moving weight”. In a nutshell, corporate America has been in shit for PIMPING the culture of hip hop- effectively pimping BLACK PEOPLE. Surprise surprise.
Matthews Phosa- former Premier of Mpumalanga, South Africa turned business man strikes a deal with Nelly’s Pimp Juice brand. He’s got the distributing rights for the drink in South Africa. Before I go any further- a bit of Phosa’s history: Before he became Dr. Matthews Phosa, he was just Matthews Phosa- an ANC stalwart; leader of the youth movement and poet. So anyway, the ANC stalwart and former youth leader goes out and signs a distributing deal with Nelly’s Pimp Juice brand. Nelly thinks himself a pimp. ‘Member the Tipdrill video? Let me refresh your memory.
Anyway, so this guy Matthews Phosa then makes a deal with Umsobombvu Youth Fund (UYF) and they’re giving money and opportunities to the youth, whom they are calling PIMPS. Yes. Pimps. Phosa and the UYF say it means “positive intellectually motivated person”. Really? Ok, scuse my really bad education- I thought a pimp is someone who uses womens’ pussies to make money. Sorry, did I offend YOU? Damn, I thought I live in Africa. Oh sorry, South Africa is but a cheap duplication of American culture. I don’t know if you would find influential members of other African societies and their government-sponsored youth agencies calling young people pimps, and feeding them such poison. I have nothing against pop culture, which they say is reflective of the society from whence it comes. What I do have a problem with are those that are in power using it for their own good while destroying young people en route to making their bag of riches. Don't get me wrong- I want a piece of the pie too, but I cannot let my aims mess with a young and impressionable African child. I don’t want my niece thinking that a boy is only good enough for her if he’s reached “pimp” status (whatever that may be), and I certainly don’t want to see my younger boy cousins and brothers growing up thinking that they’re real cool men if they reach “pimp” status. This partnership is wrong to the core, and I’d like to thank Mr. Phosa and Umsobomvu Youth Fund for putting a product like this on the market, and I’d especially like to give them props (when you do something cool, young people commend you by giving you “props”. I guess you would know that, since you also knew that the word “pimp” is cool because it actually means “positive intellectually motivated person”) for taking one more step in turning young peoples’ brains into a mass of bubble gum.
Now, chew it and spit it out.
AFTER THOUGHT:
When bob johnson started BET a lot of people were happy, thinking that his channel would properly represent so much of what's been misrepresented by the white owners of the entertainment industry machine. Years down the line, the channel has been accused of being everything black/hip hop culture is NOT. Over the last few years, incidents have occured with BET refusing to play "intelligent" or "underground" hip hop
