A Spotlight on Hip Hop

People are judgmental--
Quick to pass judgement on things
They know nothing of
Based on hear say
Coated in rash generalizations
And topped with assumption...

There are two sides to every story--
Two pictures on every coin,
A positive and negative,
Opposite but equal reactions
Stem from this one point of origin.

A sea full of voices
But the radio only plays a few,
The media, the news, the charts
Slave to shock and awe,
Controversy sells...
Mainstream insanity; nonsense
To prevent messages of truth and inhumanity

Voices suppressed and hidden
Squeezed between vulgar hooks
Or money maker tracks...
And while one's out broadcasting violence
Rapping about money and sex,
      sex and money--
      drugs, money, and sex
The whole world's missing the beauty
Lyrical revelations of struggle
A poetic empowerment of invisible voices
Alive and brave behind microphones.

Favorite Lyrics

2Pac

"You know what makes me unhappy
When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up"2 Pac - "Keep Your Head Up"

Tupac/2Pac

"Come on come on
I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself,
"Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?"
I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.
My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch
Cops give a d*** about a negro?
Pull the trigger, kill a n****, he's a hero.
Give the crack to the kids who the h*** cares?
One less hungry mouth on the welfare.
First ship 'em dope and let 'em deal to brothers.
Give 'em guns, step back, and watch 'em kill each other.
"It's time to fight back," that's what Huey said
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead.
I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere
Unless we share with each other.
We gotta start makin' changes.
Learn to see me as a brother 'stead of 2 distant strangers.
And that's how it's supposed to be.
How can the devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
But things changed, and the's the way it is."2Pac - "Changes"

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he's frowning too
Because only God knows what you'll go through
You'll grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you're playin', where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You'll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them, huh,
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpokets, peddlers even panhandlers
You say "I'm cool, I'm no fool!"
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you're unemployed, all non-void
Walking 'round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you've done did
Got sent up for a eight  year bid
Now your manhood is took and you're a may tag
Spend the next two years as a undercover f**
Being used and abused to serve like h***
Till one day you was found hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so youngGrandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - "The Message"

Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes

Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes

I seen a rainbow yesterday
But too many storms have come and gone
Leavin' a trace of not one God-given ray
Is it because my life is ten shades of gray
I pray all ten fade away
Seldom praise Him for the sunny days
And like His promise is true
Only my faith can undo
The many chances I blew
To bring my life to anew
Clear blue and unconditional skies
Have dried the tears from my eyes
No more lonely cries
My only bleedin' hope
Is for the folk who can't cope
With such an endurin' pain
That it keeps 'em in the pourin rain
Who's to blame for tootin' 'caine into your own vein
What a shame
You shoot and aim for someone else's brain
You claim the insane
And name this day in time
For fallin' prey to crime
I say the system got you victim to your own mind
Dreams are hopeless aspirations
In hopes of comin' true
Believe in yourself
The rest is up to me and you.TLC - "Waterfalls"

Common

Common

Knowin' you the best part of life, do I have the right to take yours
'Cause I created you irresponsibly
Subconsciously knowin' the act I was a part of
The start of somethin', I'm not ready to bring into the world
Had myself believin' I was sterile
I look into mother's stomach, wonder if you are a boy or a girl
Turnin' this woman's womb into a tomb but she and I agree, a seed we don't need
You would've been much more than a mouth to feed
But someone I would've fed this information I read
To someone my life for I would've had to lead
Instead I led you to deathCommon ft. Lauryn Hill - "Retrospect to Life"

Lil' Wayne

Lil' Wayne

With everything happening today
You don't know whether you're coming or going
But you think that you're on your way
Life lined up on the mirror don't blow it, woo.
Look at me when I'm talking to you
You looking at me but I'm looking through you
I see blood in your eyes
I see the love in disguise
I see the pain hidden in your pride
I see you're not satisfied
And I don't see nobody else
I see myself I'm looking at the...

Mirror on the wall, here we are again
Through my rise and fall
You've been my only friend
You told me that they can understand the man I am
So why are we here talkin' to each other again?Lil' Wayne ft. Bruno Mars - "Mirror"

Eve

Eve

Hey yo, I don't even know you and I hate you
See all I know is that my girl friend use to date you
How would you feel if she held you down and raped you?
Tried and tried, but she never could escape you.
She was in love and I'd ask her how? I mean why?
What kinda love from a n**** would black your eye
What kinda love from a n**** every night make you cry?
What kinda love from a n**** make you wish he would die?
I mean s*** he bought you things and gave you diamond rings
But them things wasn't worth none of the pain that he brings
And you stayed, what made you fall for him?
That n**** had the power to make you crawl for him
I thought you was a doctor, be on call for him
Smacked you down cause he said you was tall for him, huh?
That wasn't love, babygirl you was dreamin'
I could have killed you when you said your seed was growin' from his semen

Love is blind, and it will take over your mind
What you think is love, is truly not
You need to elevate and findEve - "Love Is Blind"

K'Naan

I start out, just to vibe out
I ain't about to bow out
I'm more gangsta than you are
But I ain't about the rou' rou'
My season'll come, it has to
Honestly I feel like I'm ten months pregnant or somethin'
I'm passed due. Sincerely I'm touchy these days
I can't take nothin', I'm tryna treat my record like the law
S***, I'm dying to break something
And mostly, I'm up and stressin'
When other folks sleep
Believe me, I know struggle, and struggle knows me
My life owes me, like an overdose
I'm slowly, drifting in the arms of trouble
Then trouble holds me
And nothing else is close to me
More than pain unfortunately
Like a self fulfilling prophecy, I'm supposed to be

Strugglin', and it's trouble in
In the circumstance I'm dwelling in
I find myself in the corner huddling
With some angry men and I gotta settle s*** again
Before they gotta kill againK'naan - "Strugglin'"