Makin' It Magazine

Believe me, I was just as surprised as you to find out that Atlanta rap mogul, T.I., was opening his first of a string of daycare facilities. It’s been a hell of a year for the rapper who has been an undeniable force on both the charts and in the box office. Grand Hu$tle Child Care promises to stand apart from other child care providers by being a 24 hour program catering to low income families. T.I. has made it very clear that he will not be a passive investor in the facility, but will participate in the day to day care of the children (feeding, changing diapers and all). In fact, the entire Grand Hu$tle roster including Young Dro, Big Kuntry, and Super producer Khao will be on staff teaching and caring for the children. This move by the self proclaimed King of the South has prompted other rappers to follow suit. Young Jeezy has also decided to give back to the community by teaching an after school tutoring program at Martin Luther King Jr. High School…
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There’s no denying the relationship between hip hop and basketball and no matter how many changes they make to the dress code, the culture is still going to bleed on to the court. In between the fact that every rapper thinks he could’ve went to the NBA and every basketball player thinks he can spit a hot sixteen, I don’t see this relationship coming to an end any time soon. Go to any basketball game and you’re likely to hear MIMS, Jay-Z, or Nelly playing throughout the arena. Turn on MTV or BET and you might just catch a story about Jay-z or Nelly buying a team.

So when John Ameachi outed himself, becoming the first openly gay man to have played in the NBA, I had to turn my head toward the hip hop world and wonder… Which one of our favorite rappers is living a life on the Down Low? Now, I’m sure Wendy Williams would love to give you a list of names with addresses and telephone numbers, but for our story we’re just going to focus on one, Kanye West. It’s no question that a lot of rumors have been thrown around regarding the Chicago rapper’s sexuality. And while a lot of it stems from his diva-esque Grammy rants and prima-donna attitude, I believe there was no bigger contributor to the rumors than his notorious outburst on MTV regarding homophobia in hip-hop. For those of you that don’t remember lets just rewind the clock back a few years to late 2005. Kanye was fi lming a special for MTV to promote his new album, Late Registration.

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Now just wait one G– D—- minute, you telling me that rap music is to blame for Don Imus calling a predominantly black female basketball team a bunch of “nappy head hoes.” Well if you let Oprah Winfrey or the ladies of Spelman tell it, you might be led to believe Don Imus was bumping the new Young Jeezy CD on his way to work that morning. It’s crazy how the media has spun a cut and dry case of a bigot making an obviously racist statement into a crusade against hip hop. For the second time in less than a year (Don’t forget about Kramer) a white man has made a racist outburst and instead of us examining the institutionalized racism that permeates every aspect of American culture, Oprah Winfrey and the Ladies of Spelman have chosen to focus on rap music. Now, I got nothing but love and respect for Oprah and the ladies of Spelman but they have clearly got a problem with hip hop. The way Oprah has used this racist outburst to rally her followers against rap music, reminds me of how Bush used 9/11 to invade Iraq.

I must say I was very disappointed to see Oprah and the ladies of Spelman attacking rap music and blaming it for the downward spiral of the black community, but I suppose that’s much easier than looking at the role they play in the situation. It has become increasingly obvious to me that the primary concern of our so called best and brightest has turned from collectively advancing our people to distancing themselves from them.

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Who killed hip-hop? I’ve heard some say D4L killed hip hop. I’ve heard others say it was Dem Franchise Boys, Lil Jon, Three-Six Mafia and even Young Jeezy. Right now we are on the verge of an East Coast/Down South feud that I am sure the media will sensationalize until we loose even more of our talented young men and women in a hail of bullets and bullsh*t.

Everybody’s talking about who killed hip-hop, but the last time I checked you don’t investigate a homicide without a body. With Three-Six Mafia just winning an Academy Award and T.I. nominated for multiple Grammies, hip hop is looking very much alive to me. It seems the more important question on everybody’s mind should be, “Who in the hell said hip hop was dead?” Before we turn this into an East Coast vs. The Dirty South beef lets remember that Smoke of Field Mob, just this past summer was quoted having said, “…hip hop is dead and D4L killed it.”

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