Well… Seaspot is 19 years old y’all… And one of the original Hip-Hop columns based in the Pacific Northwest is 16-years old – yes, What The Dilly, Yo?! has been in circulation in one way, shape or form since 2001… And it is fitting that it be brought back home where it was born, The Seaspot Media Group. Just in time for a new national era of federal leadership, at the and at the cliffside of a new era of philosophy, politics, culture and vision – for nearly everything. From Hip-Hop and urban culture to the social temperature of the United States of America and an ongoing saga and crisis of violence, gluttony love, hate and then some – we enter the era of Donald J. Trump and the wild imaginations that predict his reign.
What is most pressing as we begin this new Trump Era, is first my interest in him being successful. I truly hope that he and his determination against all odds and logic to win the vote (if Russia and any co-conspirators did not actually rig this election) can be contagious and a kick-starting factor, minus the emboldened scores of racists, sexists, closet-vindicators and vengeful-spirited hordes, for the United States’ citizenry.
It is obvious that Trump supporters are upset and seemingly in a mental place of ‘…target, lock-and-load and execute’ on an uncertain number of political, social and economic levels that many in the Hip-Hop, Urban, ‘Hood and Diversity-related communities may be sleeping on. Just take the time to conduct a cursory evaluation of Trump and his team, as well as his track record of ‘helping’ people and then compare that with what are our communities doing to build and fortify themselves? Trump’s record in business is that of a dominant champion of conquering strategy – at all costs. He has ot been an active advocate for small business as so many of his constituents seem to think, as revealed in exit polls. But rather than jump to conclusions on what he might do as president, a more significant question could be, ‘What will you do?‘ A good number of y’all have been lulled to sleep in the past 50-years of ‘comfort and apathy’… So now what you gon’ do? as Lil’ Jon and Lil’ Scrappy put it so well.
MY words are not for the dedicated servants today – but more so for those polarized, petrified and maybe paralyzed by the incoming president, Donald Trump and his unabashed intent to change the game up. These words are also for those who seek direction, guidance, conversation, dialogue and action in an era where these elements are arguably absent or have been widdled down to the status of dull.
Our own publisher at Seaspot, the luminary and public servant, Chukundi Salisbury aka DJ Kun Luv recently took to Facebook Live for the first time ever (suprsisingly as he is active in the social media universe) to express his concern over people focusing on Donald Trump while Black folks are continuing a self-perpetuating cycle of community suicide. He spoke poignantly about two shootings in Seattle as we begin the new year – apparently two men were shot in separate incidents that may leave both of them with disabilities, if not worse. With these cookie-cutter-style, unoriginal crimes of senseless violence and weak displays of conflict resolution, it seems the gears of racism are now (and have been on) cruise control – meaning that the plan of the legendary/mythological consultant of the Slave/Human-Trafficking industry, Willie Lynch and his much easier identified counterparts – the architects of racism (The U.S. ‘founding fathers, The Klu Klux Klan, The Federal Bureau of Invesiigation and too many more to name here), discrimination and many other social sicknesses, no longer require action to watch their masterwork of mental illness take hold. Yes, the worst of what racism was built to do, has finally become a self-inflicted mental, social, psychological, emotional and cultural kryptonite against the process of problem solving and cultural and intellectual revolution – as Malcolm X had referred to the process of mental rebirth.
So, as 2016 has transitioned to 2017, what shall we change? Or are we still depending on the good works and faith of communities, institutions and people who have failed to deliver – as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expressed in his final terrorized years of life? As for scapegoating Donald Trump so quickly (before he has even taken office), has anyone even considered that the most vain aspects of our beloved Hip-Hop/Rap creation are championed and very well represented by Donald J Trump himself?
I was doing a cursory comparison and could see with plain eyesight that my culture of Hip-Hop/Rap has without significant (or at least effective) challenge begun to share the same values of sexism (you cannot raise young ladies, by referring to females as bitches as a “norm”), disregard for the so-called underclass (where has the volunteerism, care and connection with our most desperate, desolate and dysfunctional community, family and friends gone – no one is forced or required to do anything, but some of us do nothing outside of our own self-absorbed existences – and many of us who have ‘made it’, come from very humble beginnings), pursuit of opulence (‘Money Over Everything’ is a common slogan and popular mentality, phrase and pursuit) at all costs and carelessness as the man who people have proclaimed to dislike and even curse, on record. The stance of those who are ‘not with us’ (in the vein of ‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us – and thus an adversary) is present – within both Hip-Hop/Rap’s most simplistic, selfish and thoughtless quarters – blindly defying the very values of perseverance, sacrifice and endurance that delivered our ancestors such miraculous success in such desperate times.
So, if my premise makes any sense, contains some degree of truth and logic and carries any weight to anyone, how much sense does it make to target Donald J. Trump, whom is a distant so-called ‘threat’ to our democracy, while destructive members of our own community continue the suicidal, self-defeating and insane tradition of upending, treacherous and destructive behavior – from within…? This self-abuse and lack of value for life, is a taught and learned behavior dating back from the era of our social parents of European descent – after the Moors of Spain to the era of “Buck Breaking”, “Tar and Feathering” (research the terms please) and public lynchings. I know the European colonial masters were dope and slick with their game that dominated and continues to dominate the Earth, but how long will you continue to fall for a half-millennium-old strategy, plan and operation?
What The Dilly, Yo?!
Jose S. Gutierrez Jr …The ProFRE$HA (011717)
Seaspot
