'like a pimp' was some ignorant ass shit. definitely not feminist-friendly. or regular woman friendly, even. "real girls get down on the floor." on the floor. put me and your mothers and sisters in a more submissive space? please?
such music is my guilty pleasure tho. i bobbed my head to it whenever i ran across it on the radio lookin for npr or a smooth jazz station, or when i came across the video on BET whilst in hot persuit of the preview channel.
the video. have u seen it?
virtually nothing to do w/ the song & its lyrics. klansmen? burning crosses? where do they fit in in yo pimpin, playa?
david banner is more than folk make him out to be. the lyrics of 'like a pimp' may not exactly scream 'i have a mater's degree,' but his plan sorta does: step 1- get em listenin. deep fry a bass line southern style. add a pimp cup full of willing women w/ fat asses. mix in a verse from lil john or some other already established southern cat. spread on a cracker, feed to radio stations, lather, rinse, repeat.
step 2- slip in some knowledge & positivity & optimism when nobody's lookin.
that's what he's tryin to do. that's why the video has nothing to do with the song itself.
and erbody made such a fuss over kanye's jesus joint, but yall ain't hear david banner. (and whoever typed up those lyrics a-fucked em up considerably.)
he knows more than folk who dont know better credit him with knowing. and who knows how many other southern rappers are on the same wavelength? and who knows when we'll ever know? seems like unless its outkast, if it comes from south of the mason dixon aint nobody tryna hear it unless it comes in a pimp cup.
but i digress. sort of.
"this is for mississippi--and everybody yall treat like mississippi."
therein lies the real reason why i dig david banner. i remember hearing him growl this on the intro to 'mississippi: the album' and just smiling, shakin my head and goin 'damn...' id explain why if i cld.
"...dedicated to that muhfkin state yall dont scream on yall songs..."
i love mos def. one of my favorite emcees, hands down. he shouts out brooklyn on virtually every track he does or appears on & its understandable. its natural to be proud of where u come from & whatnot. i am. david banner is. and so is mos and i aint mad at him for that.
but hearing him do it gets to me sometimes, not because he shldn't be proud of brooklyn but because it makes me think. ill prolly do a bad job of explaining this too cause its hard to capture some feelings sometimes, but.. i listen to him, so full of pride for his home, for new york, the epitome of modern civilization according to some, and i think about the scores and scores of emcees there to supplement his repping if he misses a beat. if they aint shoutin new york, they shoutin LA. or philly. or chicago. and i be like--what about us? what about mississippi and alabama and tennessee and ky and all the other places that gave birth to the folk who gave birth to yall?
it's so sad that we are so easily forgotten. just think of all the famous american writers that most ppl wldnt even recognize as being from the south because they weren't recognizeable until they went north.
im sure i have an inferiority complex. its so easy to discredit and ignore us. we're the backwards, cousin-fuckin, lazy-tongued sloths still living in and resisting reconstruction but too dumb to even notice it. we'd die if there was ever a pork shortage and we dont know enough to stop perming our hair. nothing creative comes from here. we were too stupid to leave and head north when evrybody else did.
(or were we? )
"...my grandparents watched your grandparents run while our brothers and sisters died..."
maybe i dont have an impressive list of superstars from my city or my state to brag about. there is still plenty here and all pts south to be proud of. we deserve a place in the music world and an image that does not include pimp cups or pimp canes or half-dressed blk mothers with their asses in the air. maybe david banner's method isnt the most effective right now but he's makin an effort whether folk see it or not. he's using what he has and what was forced upon him to try and do some good shit for mississippi & evrybody treated like mississippi.
and he makes me wish my accent was thicker than it is.
