Calling street dudes 'stranger' corny (which they are) does nothing.
Not my circle, I move around with intent and not starting unnecessary BS to prove a point.
Besides the bolded, I agree with everything you say.
No use convincing nikkas Harried Tubman would've shot....some of these are in the way
Not ready for the jewels individuals like yourself will lace'em with it
Real shyt and good posts from you in this thread 🫡
To clarify, I don't mean calling individuals corny. I mean calling the activities and values associated with it as corny and treating it as such.
Like as is, "the culture" subtly reinforces much of these things in many ways, and we do have a say in combatting this. Like beyond just the music, look at the language.
Like look how words like "finessing" popped up to give a cool sounding term for lowlife activities like stealing and scamming.
Or black culture honorifics like "Real nikka" where murderers & drug dealers unquestionably qualify but tax paying citzens have "Square" or "Lame". People will tell you there's nothing wrong with being a square but will be ready to shoot you if you called them one lol
Its not us and our respective circles. Its about the greater narratives of our community. And in my humble experience, it works personally.
A young bul who grew up in my church lived in a decent area but still decided to become a crashout (typical story). My circle grew up with him as like a little brother, now he out catching bodies n shyt with nikkas in the projects. When we finally caught up years later at a group outing, he would be so excited to tell us about his war stories and street shyt he was getting into.
None of us were impressed. Most just disappointed. I straight told him straight up he was speed running himself to becoming a dusty dude with no options by 30, like most of the old/former gangsters you see in the hood. He played it off that day but weeks later on a different occasion he broke down in tears off the henny while bringing this conversation up.
And I understand. Dude risked his life and took others for, in his mind, a right of passage type deal and nobody cared (except young cacs who still kept him at arms length) Because the honor is fake, the reality of a life of criminality is nowhere near as cool or lucrative as the media made it seem. And being in the streets doesnt make you special.
Years later, current day my boy has a job, is living with his gf and getting kinda serious about life. I like to think that we helped.
This is the only example I have really (im not around young buls that often) . But so much of the street glamour worldview goes unchallenged that I think people would be shocked at how much of the narrative can be seized at an individual level. i think the biggest problem is many black people are terrified of going against the grain and looking "lame" as a result. (which reinforces my point lol)
People don't want to look like the stuffy old folks of the anti-rap generation so they co-sign everything and follow the trends to keep up with the kids. But the people manufacturing the current trends
