As an original resident of the bay area (Pacifica, SF west bay), I moved to experiene a change of scenery down to San Diego for college. But let me say, I feel very, very homesick, in nearly all aspects of life.
The most important or that implies to all of us is the liberal state of life we have up north as opposed to down here. In the bay area, rebellion and voice has always kicked up dirt, and because of that there is a lot of reform and change that goes on in our area that doesn't other places.
My best example is the police down here. I hear stories about the police in Oakland and in other places, but it can't nearly be as bad as it is down here. The police down here run this place like Third Reich Germany; I have seen teenage students being hit, thrown into cars suffering bruises from the top of cop cars or the cage on the inside. Their crime: minor in possession of alcohol, drunk in public, pretty much bullshit. And I must say, with our liberal views that we apply to society, we would stomp through the streets demanding action, while here students seem to almost abide to the oppression being forced on them.
And I think that it IS our liberal views, are actions, and our past that provides us with a chance to take a stand on the future state of America.
In the 1960's San Francisco was the center of the counter culture that eventually influenced all of America. In the late 60's and the 1970's there is a worthy argument that the Black Panther Party was started in Oakland and not Chicago. Oakland was also the place that put "crack on the map" as many say and the bay was a center for the crack epidemic along with Los Angeles and Miami that oppressed people in the 1980s. We got a lot of history here.
The 1990's went by, and not a lot really changed in the bay. We saw the crime rate steadily drop, but we also saw second, third, even fourth generation bay area people kicked out of their neighborhoods by an invading force of yuppy ass, Starbucks sipping 30 year olds...
Now its 2002, and the whole UNITED STATES has changed in a way that WE DON'T like. It seems like 99% of people in this generation are ignoring the fact that Viacom is censoring and filtering our music, Clear Channel radio chooses what we hear on the radio. They don't seem to be concerned with new laws that allow the government to censor and limit our civil liberties. Our politicians aren't a representation of our people, and our "war" on terrorism is turning into our war on oil.
A lot of times I post, I explain or relate a lot of political shit to just about anything, because life is politics, and whether you are listening to what I am saying or you are one of the 15 year old gangbangers on the board you know more than a lot of people. The subculture of music we have here in the bay area is plain and simple a rejection of popular culture and TRL dressing Abercrombie punks who are so set on buying their next media-fed P Diddy CD that they fail to understand or explore other forms of music and media.
People of all races, colors, and ages can get on this board and argue whatever they want, and they all have one thing in common, they can see that "POPular" culture is bullshit. When you go to bay area rap concerts, you see unity, you see white and blacks and mexicans and asians choppin' it up, kicking it like a United group of people, you see Lugz and jeans, puff jackets and beanies, not Abercrombie sweatshirts and Old Navy painter pants. We see society for what it is, a good portion of our government is our enemy, they are getting in the way of OUR interests.
So now that I've rambled on for 5 or 6 paragraphs you are probly sayin, MaddDogg, what the fuck is your point? Well my point is this, in the Bay Area, we got our own subculture. We are one of the only places left in America that is different from the rest of the country, you goto KC or the south, New Jersy to Nevada, you'll see a lot of the same clothing, hear the same music, see people believing in the shit that was spoon-fed to them all their lives, whereas the bay, the most liberal and equal part of America around, we don't believe everything we hear, from the rich folks in Danville to the middleclass people like me to the poorest person in the Ject's in the Moe. We choose our way of life despite what popular culture says.
Basically, this post is my Ode to the bay. Had I not spent 18 years of my life near the City by the Bay, I would just be like every other ignorent motherfucker I see everywhere else. Basically, I owe the bay area a lot.
And let me say, if I ever make it to a position where I can influence society, we are all commin up, because the Bay is the realest place I've ever seen, and I would penetrate popular culture with the controversial shit in our lives, in our cities, in our music until POPular culture is wiped off the face of the Earth.
We got style, we got unity, we got music, we got liberation, and most of all, we have a voice.
So I urge the artists, the distributors, the educated students, the music lovers, the general board, do whatever you can to change things. The bay is a great place to live, if I had the chance to look back on my years and change anything I wanted, I wouldn't, because I grew up and I learned to be a man and THINK because of the culture we have here. KEEP OUR CULTURE GOING, artists keep releasing dope CD's that society will ignore, keep getting our SICCNESS out to the rest of the states, keep thinking critically and looking at life from a different view point than the next man, because when this generation of time is over popular society will be known as "Generation PUNK" for their conformity and ability to consume whatever society tells them to, and we will be known as the bright people and "educated," whether street or bookwise or both, who CHOSE for themselves, who rejected the bullshit they were fed, and hopefully as the people who will make a change with their VOICE, their ideas, their music.
The most important or that implies to all of us is the liberal state of life we have up north as opposed to down here. In the bay area, rebellion and voice has always kicked up dirt, and because of that there is a lot of reform and change that goes on in our area that doesn't other places.
My best example is the police down here. I hear stories about the police in Oakland and in other places, but it can't nearly be as bad as it is down here. The police down here run this place like Third Reich Germany; I have seen teenage students being hit, thrown into cars suffering bruises from the top of cop cars or the cage on the inside. Their crime: minor in possession of alcohol, drunk in public, pretty much bullshit. And I must say, with our liberal views that we apply to society, we would stomp through the streets demanding action, while here students seem to almost abide to the oppression being forced on them.
And I think that it IS our liberal views, are actions, and our past that provides us with a chance to take a stand on the future state of America.
In the 1960's San Francisco was the center of the counter culture that eventually influenced all of America. In the late 60's and the 1970's there is a worthy argument that the Black Panther Party was started in Oakland and not Chicago. Oakland was also the place that put "crack on the map" as many say and the bay was a center for the crack epidemic along with Los Angeles and Miami that oppressed people in the 1980s. We got a lot of history here.
The 1990's went by, and not a lot really changed in the bay. We saw the crime rate steadily drop, but we also saw second, third, even fourth generation bay area people kicked out of their neighborhoods by an invading force of yuppy ass, Starbucks sipping 30 year olds...
Now its 2002, and the whole UNITED STATES has changed in a way that WE DON'T like. It seems like 99% of people in this generation are ignoring the fact that Viacom is censoring and filtering our music, Clear Channel radio chooses what we hear on the radio. They don't seem to be concerned with new laws that allow the government to censor and limit our civil liberties. Our politicians aren't a representation of our people, and our "war" on terrorism is turning into our war on oil.
A lot of times I post, I explain or relate a lot of political shit to just about anything, because life is politics, and whether you are listening to what I am saying or you are one of the 15 year old gangbangers on the board you know more than a lot of people. The subculture of music we have here in the bay area is plain and simple a rejection of popular culture and TRL dressing Abercrombie punks who are so set on buying their next media-fed P Diddy CD that they fail to understand or explore other forms of music and media.
People of all races, colors, and ages can get on this board and argue whatever they want, and they all have one thing in common, they can see that "POPular" culture is bullshit. When you go to bay area rap concerts, you see unity, you see white and blacks and mexicans and asians choppin' it up, kicking it like a United group of people, you see Lugz and jeans, puff jackets and beanies, not Abercrombie sweatshirts and Old Navy painter pants. We see society for what it is, a good portion of our government is our enemy, they are getting in the way of OUR interests.
So now that I've rambled on for 5 or 6 paragraphs you are probly sayin, MaddDogg, what the fuck is your point? Well my point is this, in the Bay Area, we got our own subculture. We are one of the only places left in America that is different from the rest of the country, you goto KC or the south, New Jersy to Nevada, you'll see a lot of the same clothing, hear the same music, see people believing in the shit that was spoon-fed to them all their lives, whereas the bay, the most liberal and equal part of America around, we don't believe everything we hear, from the rich folks in Danville to the middleclass people like me to the poorest person in the Ject's in the Moe. We choose our way of life despite what popular culture says.
Basically, this post is my Ode to the bay. Had I not spent 18 years of my life near the City by the Bay, I would just be like every other ignorent motherfucker I see everywhere else. Basically, I owe the bay area a lot.
And let me say, if I ever make it to a position where I can influence society, we are all commin up, because the Bay is the realest place I've ever seen, and I would penetrate popular culture with the controversial shit in our lives, in our cities, in our music until POPular culture is wiped off the face of the Earth.
We got style, we got unity, we got music, we got liberation, and most of all, we have a voice.
So I urge the artists, the distributors, the educated students, the music lovers, the general board, do whatever you can to change things. The bay is a great place to live, if I had the chance to look back on my years and change anything I wanted, I wouldn't, because I grew up and I learned to be a man and THINK because of the culture we have here. KEEP OUR CULTURE GOING, artists keep releasing dope CD's that society will ignore, keep getting our SICCNESS out to the rest of the states, keep thinking critically and looking at life from a different view point than the next man, because when this generation of time is over popular society will be known as "Generation PUNK" for their conformity and ability to consume whatever society tells them to, and we will be known as the bright people and "educated," whether street or bookwise or both, who CHOSE for themselves, who rejected the bullshit they were fed, and hopefully as the people who will make a change with their VOICE, their ideas, their music.
