Just Words With Jen: When Friends Who Shouldn’t Rap Do

Imagine sitting in your basement, rolling your second spliff, yeah I said spliff, sipping that cheap ass vodka with some cherry kool-aid for your mixer, when your boy notices your daughters Hello Kitty 16 key keyboard sitting in the corner. “Oh shyt,” he says, “I’m gonna make a cd. I can rap, I got flow, and I got all I need to make the next hot shyt right here.” He looks at at you sitting across the room and says, “Flip on that microphone on that webcam right there.”

He presses the Samba beat button on that Hello Kitty keyboard, and goes for it. You’re feeling it. Your start patting him on the back, giving him love, telling him, “Damn homie, that shyt right there, that’s the truth. You’re spitting real shyt; the streets aren’t ready for you!”

Then you sober up…really what do you do? You know, his CD is hot garbage, and he puts the damn thing in your CD player in the Monte Carlo every time he gets in. He puts it in when you got the finest chick you’ve ever seen in the car, he puts it in when your mom’s in the backseat needing a ride to the grocery store, he puts it in every time you’re in the basement rolling that spliff. This CD has now penetrated every depth of your friendship.

I’m gonna pause in that moment in time right there. What do you do when friends who shouldn’t rap do? Do you encourage them to continue driving down the lane they’re in, and crash head on into the oncoming car that is public opinion? Or do you tell them to take a right turn and refocus their energy into another road in the life that is Hip-Hop? Not everyone can be the next big thing. You see it every day on shows like American Idol; why don’t people tell some of these folks the truth? People are quick to comment on the hottest website, that someone’s music is trash, is that the only way we can get through to these people?

So I need everyone today to make this statement with me, repeat it three times, till it becomes part of you, say it until you have the nerve to tell that homie of yours the truth…say it loud and say it proud. “Your ‘CD’…HOT GARBAGE!”