Nas’ introspective lyricism in “Daughters” shows a father navigating the challenges of raising a girl in a world that doesn’t always respect her. Hip hop has given us a window into the complexities of fatherhood in a way few other genres have managed to. My people have been persecuted.In a culture where toughness is a badge of honor, these songs expose vulnerability and capture the raw emotional spectrum that fatherhood entails - from joy, hope, and pride to fear, regret, and longing. As the court jester of rap, Flava Flav, once shouted into the mic, "I got a right to be hostile. But when gunfire and drugs are the norm, when friends get killed and poor schools for most are standard, when police are seen as both friend and foe - and when all of this happens while television portrays lifestyles of ease and comfort just miles from your home but light years from your reality - hostility and anger are expected responses. My father took responsibility for his community and took under his wing many of the young guys we grew up with whose dads were not around.Ī couple of them changed the course of their lives with his help. I got into Cass Technical High School, one of the best public schools in the nation, and had a family that prized nothing more than educational success and character. Growing up in a family of greater means than most in the neighborhood, I was lucky. We're still trying to figure out where he got a box of dynamite. The guys inside the neighboring house then went scattering from side windows and back doors to keep from being targeted next. The fight resulted in the friend opening his trunk and pulling out a half stick of dynamite (!) that he lit and threw onto the front lawn, causing dirt and grass to fly in every direction. My brother still tells the story of a friend who got into an altercation with a group of guys over a car parked in his driveway. In these neighborhoods, criminality can become comedy. The crack-crack of gunfire was so familiar that as a comedian once joked, we knew who was shooting by the direction it came from and type of gun: "That sounds like a 9 mm from over on Pasadena and Wildemere. The day it happened, Dad drove me through the neighborhood with tears in his eyes to the corners on Dexter Avenue where the drug boys worked, and promised that if he ever heard that I was in that life, I should hope the police found me before he did and they didn't let me go.Īt 16 I was carjacked in the driveway of our home, along with two of my younger brothers and my stepmother, who had a gun put to her temple. At 14, the child of one of my father's best friends was shot in a drug-related crime. I grew up in a similar part of Detroit and know the mishmash of pain and progress that exists in our communities firsthand. Surrounded by the worst of the reality behind statistics in urban America are Americans doing their best to pursue all of the small and big dreams that this nation promises. Common is from the South Side of Chicago, where drugs, gangs and crime exist alongside stable families, kids trying to get educated and people working every day to provide for them. When he does write about violence and misogyny, it is a reflection of those things in the environment. Many would consider the song "pro-life" because he and the mother decide to keep the baby, proclaiming, "$315 ain't worth your soul." The conservatives chose to ignore that in their critiques. In fact, he once wrote a song called "Retrospect for Life" about the struggle over whether or not to abort his unborn child. Common is by far one of the most community-focused rappers, with lyrics that try to educate and stimulate thinking and positive behavior. Artists tend to reflect most immediately on their surroundings and interpret them for the world to see and hear.
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