Do You.....

What it look like folk? Its been a minute since I blogged. Not much been crackalakin. I was gonna blog about Steve McNair(r.i.p) but couldn't find much to say about it. Oh, for those of you wondering and that have hit me up and asked, me and butterbear are getting it together. Thanks for your concern, or at least your nosiness disguised as concern. But let's get down to bidness. Shall we......

Disclaimer: in no way is this post meant to degrade any muslims or the religion of Islam....if you sensitive about that then curve.....

Take a look at the image above. That's Loon. The dude that used to rap with Ma$e and Diddy. Now his name is Amir Muhadith. He looks like a terrorist. He has just converted to islam and posted videos on youtube speaking on his conversion. This in and of itself is fine. Nothing wrong with a man(or woman) finding God and peace with religion. But why do people(black people in particular) have to take this shit off the deep end? The pic above is a screenshot from an interview he did on al jazeera. Now peep now on the left he is there in his sunni uniform. Al Jazeera deemed it necessary to do a split screen. On the right they ran clips from his videos. Videos of him grinding on pretty young tenders. Whith his shirt of. Consuming(or at least pretending to) alcohol. Not to mention the guy who interviewed him, most likely a life long middle eastern muslim, looked like he stepped fresh out of a wall street boardroom. Clean shaven, crisp suit, gel in the hair. Despite Loon, oops I mean Amir's best efforts to distance himself from his musical past, the reporter went as far as to request a rap. Bottom line? The reporter didn't buy what Loon was selling, no matter how tight his kufi or how long his beard.

Do you. This is a proclamation most commonly heard in hip hop circles. Most commonly it means for a person to do what comes natural to them. Basically be yourself. I've been noticing a regression in this attitude among my people. Especially in the inner city. Historically black people have been stripped of everything, from our language to our names. Most commonly these things were replaced with the names, languages, and religions of our opressors(gasp!!!! Yup even the muslims). So its kinda sad to see us in this day and age using these things to identify who we are as individuals. As I said, there is nothing wrong with being muslim, christian, jewish or anything else. But that shouldn't replace or sublant what or who you were before that.

Who am I? I'm a man. I could throw hundreds of adjectives before man. Black. Intelligent. Funny. Emotional. Sensitive. Fat. The list is long. But that's the core. Sure I could also wax poetic about my own perception of myself...but I won't. But the type of answers I hate are, I'm a father. Well I've only been that for 6 years. Was I nothing for the other 20? That doesn't identify anything about me. Its a part of what I think a man is(providing he has children). But that's not some proverbial bookend to where I begin or end. Because I DON'T begin or end.

So folk, friend, foe, readers. All I'm saying is you are more than a religion, a place, a job title, a degree etc. Our potential far exceeds that. When you limit youself to a title you limit your possibilities.

I'm out