This Raw Cold Life

I don’t ever think that lyric driven hip-hop go out of style. I don’t care what trends are going on that never goes out of style. So it’s like, in regard once you infuse that in whatever it is that you’re doing, I don’t think you could lose man.

To have a man tattoo my name on his hands, and then not acknowledge why he did it is a disrespect to me, all my cell mates in for unfairly long crack sentences and the black community that was affected by the cocaine epidemic and Iran Contra Scandal. To have music labels profiteer by pushing the image of the dangerous black criminal is irresponsible.

I do the music in the first place without my mind. I’m not very rational about it. I feel that the fact that I gained the inspiration in the dark, I use music as a sort of tube, a transmitter, kind of like a transition, a possibility for darkness to become light.

I was trying to watch Sportscenter, but I changed the channel because I was sick of all the anti-Castro propaganda. None of these mainstream outlets are even providing any background on what supposedly makes Castro so bad.

All that matters is that this is America and we hate him. The ESPN anchor referred to Cuba as the island Castro “took over” more than fifty years ago. “Freed it from a brutal dictator” would’ve been a better choice of words, but that’s just me. I know it hasn’t been all good since the Revolution, but the portrayal is ridiculously one-sided. It’s a real petty look for the US.

What if a 1950’s manager had made favorable comments about Batista? You know he wouldn’t be getting suspended. You can be responsible for as much brutality as you want as long as you stay Washington’s dog.

This shit is all so obvious. Why do people keep buying it? Just bring out Tech so he can “run through Little Havana yelling Viva Fidel!”

Yeah, man. I mean, I got a history that is a lot more – to put it mildly – directly impacted [by violence] than a lot of rappers. A lot of rappers that talk all that street talk can’t really hold a candle to the kind of experiences I’m talking about. And so, why then should I have been all these years kind of in the back, just watching it all unfold? And nobody really gives the kind of credit and due something like that deserves.