We no longer only make songs we make statements.
Forgive us, if these statements are more freestyles than anything, and more importantly if they are not as eloquent as Jay’s.

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So,

Statement 1: I really watch movies and listen to albums. American Gangster made my list.

Many of us, many of you, rather many people have stopped actually watching movies in full and listening to entire albums. I’m not sure if its because of a general lack of interest in the artists that are producing film and music, a shift in people purchasing more single songs than full albums, or my lack of connection to the “underground community” of people who really revel at the opportunity to know a film in and out or listen to an entire album, front to back, first track to last. I have lots of ways of watching films and listening to albums. I won’t bore you, but I will share.

For every “Gangster Film” I entertain watching, I see it at least 3 times, working carefully to understand the importance of the characters. For every Jay Z album, I always wait a while before actually listening to the album. Jay’s albums have sat on my desk for weeks before I open them (yes, I still buy music too.)

I always let the smoke pass, allow the advertising to settle, before I really sit down and just press play. I’ve just recently both watch the movie and listened to the entire album. Outside of really appreciating the opportunity this give us for critical dialogue, I am overall conflicted by my emotions and opinions of the value of this effort to tell these stories. I mean Frank Lucas walked out to Public Enemy in the Movie, and Jay Z has a ridiculous amount of double entendres that have both historical and metaphorical value, still its again another addition to the hundreds of big picture, or straight to DVD films, having been produced on this particular subject; the success and ultimate downfall / detriment of our American Gangsters. In an earlier post, I wrote: “It was never the gangster that people were mad at. It was the negativity, the youth losing their lives over the ideas they embraced, and not for revolution, or growth, but for material wealth. I’ve long struggled with the idea of what was the best way to describe to people why this was intricately linked. A simply good man in Hip-Hop would always do far less than a Good man who had muscle. That was what I always saw in Malcolm. The reformed gangster, not the gangster who got rich and continued to destroy himself and the community… What was my role?”

This is what I’m questioning now. This is what I would assume Jay is questioning. This is what I hope someone on the set of American Gangster was anticipating.

Statement 2: I am not as prepared to make this statement as I would like to be, but we need more Hero’s.

Though this inability has not stopped our community from making statements before. So, this is not immature, its just not as worked through as I would like it to be. Still, here goes.

It is one the most difficult things to explain right now, my swaying in emotion and opinion (both frustrated and in favor of) the telling of our communities stories. I often ask people who are excited by movies like American Gangster, if these are our only hero’s. If these are the only stories worthy of mass distribution? Is this our only Blue Magic? Have we no more? Is this our only blues, and our only magic, the perfection of Gangster?

If I say the whole hood says yes to that question, I feel a fraud, a liar even, knowing the many other heros that also gave us turkeys on thanksgiving and gifts on christmas (anyone who says that’s crazy, hasn’t grown up where I have). I remember being one of those kids in the street, thankful for being remembered. And though, I could feel as if these stories of our American Gangsters are the only ones American is interested in really telling, I remember others, rather refuse to not take those hero’s into consideration when asking this question. Who are our hero’s? What is there place in our legacy?

I could say it in a cliche way. I could say that in the brick building that built me there were more stories of street entrepreneurs like Barry Blue, Chino and Knowledge Build, than there were stories of the countless of mothers, teachers and community activists that we admired.

But this wouldn’t be true. We admired many. Many, many, both wonderful and the worst. We admired many, championed many, because in some way, maybe in many ways, we understood that though we couldn’t perpetuate those actions that hurt our community, we also could never offer those trespassers up to a system that we don’t trust in the first place. These stories just never made it to the movies.

Its difficult too because you then begin to think about all the people who had opportunities to really add value to our communities before Crack hit, and the many chances they missed, were unequipped for, and or merely incapable of living to realize. This is difficult to discuss, primarily because it is difficult to live, live through and/or remedy, this problem of drugs and violence in our communities. And though there are answers, those answers aren’t always helpful. One answer in particular I hear often that doesn’t help is, “we did what we had to do.”

Again, I don’t have the language to describe exactly the way this feels like right now, but I have recorded a quick little video to help work through it. Sometimes its easier for me to talk than it is to write, especially late nights like this. Here is a video. This is how it has been top of mind recently though:

Statement 3. American Gangster Can Be Remixed, Refined, Redone.

Nick James from Oakland, CA is an incredible producer. He remixed the American Gangster album. And it’s a great remix. Listen to this version of the album allowed me to listen to Jay Z’s lyrics in another way.It made his words more clear, and I was in many instances able to hear him more than the music.

Again, many of us don’t actually listen to albums anymore, and so I can’t trust that many people even listen to lyrics anymore. I can say Nick has made it much easier to appreciate the complexity of Jay’s lyrics by bringing to Jay a series of equally complicated music.

The American Gangster remix, The American Producer, allowed me to at least really listen to the questions Jay Z was asking of his listeners, if not himself as well.

You can download it here.

That’s all for now.