Thedewsperspective

In a city where opulence and black excellence is more common than anywhere else, and streets literally seem paved with the remnants of gold, how could two crews, led by two of the biggest names in hip hop crash out?  As men, what do we want more than success, fame, and financial means that can potentially provide generational wealth for our kids kids kids?  And after infinite prayers, spoken and unspoken sacrifices made, and countless hours toiled working on your craft, what would make the younger version of myself, any successful thug or young fly nigga who obtained monumental success jeopardize it all?

This morning, my wife and I ventured down the rabbit hole of the Diddy documentary on Peacock.  Most people would probably hate watching television with me because I speak throughout the entire show.  I’m the narrator.  Even when there is a narrator.  But this is an enjoyment my wife and I share when we watch television together.  So, as I’m prone to do, amid so many different inquiries, I started thinking aloud, “what kind of person would I have been if I amassed millions of dollars, fame, celebrity, power and worldwide status in my twenties?”  Who would I have become?  Would I have also crashed out and potentially thrown it all away?  The answer is simply, “YES”!

As a matter of fact, I’m convinced that everybody I know would’ve done something stupid to jeopardize our blessings, at a young age.  Just think about it for a second.  There isn’t a celebrity we know of who obtained the envies of the world that didn’t have an incident to occur in their celebrity life that did not almost derail their blessings or destroy their blessings.  Whether it’s been domestic violence, assaults (both physical and sexual), accusations, shootings, stabbings, murder, drugging, taxes, gang related activity and every other offense described under the felonious definition of the law.  There have been a number of people that we’ve seen paraded in the media through court tv or have their staged photographed perp walk captured by TMZ on the evening news.  Or talked about relentlessly in a daily gossip column.  But they’re not alone in their indiscretions.  I’m certain that if whosoever the powers may be focused their attention on anyone in the realms of celebrity, especially those who attained their fortune as a young person, they could find something in their past that could potentially be criminal, civil or at the very least, change public perception of them.

It’s hard to not be who you are.  Whatever your vices are, those are your vices.  We all have them.  Some of our vices are just more visible and less discreet than others.  And I can only assume that wealth and celebrity both heighten and magnify ones vices.   Just imagine as a kid in your teens and twenties, with the whole world at your disposal, lacking true knowledge of self, life and understanding, what would you have done?  I’m certain you’d place yourself in some compromising situations.  Hell, I’ve done that with little to nothing.  So, I can imagine what I would’ve done if I had it all.  The sad part is, no one could have told me otherwise or done anything to stop me from doing dumb sh!t.  What’s more frightening about that is the fact that I’m one of the more intelligent and rational minded thinking individuals.  Nevertheless, I too would’ve been swallowed up in the worldly fiction of opulence and success with the emotional intelligence of a child. And I too would’ve crashed out by not completely disassociating myself from foolishness and doing dumb sh!t. At the end of each night I’d have to pray for forgiveness from GOD and give thanks for allowing me to make it home.

Nowadays when I watch documentaries, interviews, snippets from trials, and news stories of young successful people in our culture risking it all, like an old hating hypocrite, my first thought is “how could they be so foolish to possibly throw it all away for…”?  Then I give it more thought and be honest with myself.  And I conclude, it’s a strong possibility that I would’ve potentially thrown it all away as well.  Who do you become when you come from the hood and you amass every monetary blessing you’ve ever imagined, and then some?  Who do you become when you’re catapulted into the spotlight and become revered by people you don’t even know?  Who do you become when everything you want is at your beck and call?  Who do you become when you’re not grounded by GOD, but start to believe you are god?  Who do you become? 

Whenever I see young celebrities in our culture living it up.  Walking around with bags stuffed with tens of thousands of dollars inside them and another $10k stuffed into their jean pockets, online talking reckless, showing off their flamboyant lifestyle, I look for the adult in the crowd.  Where is the voice of reason?  Where is the person or persons amongst you that got you?  The one that can differentiate a marketing ploy from reality and know when to tell you to turn it off?  Who’s going to save you from yourself, I wonder.  Then I quickly realize, “probably nobody.  Life is going to have to teach em.”  I just pray (and I mean this sincerely) that jail, death, public shame, embarrassment and ridicule don’t have to be the price you pay to learn.

Some life lessons cost too much.  And we pay these tolls for what?  To prove I’m still hood, I’m still connected to the streets?  To prove I ain’t forget where I come from?  To prove that I’m untouchable and can do whatever I want to do?  I don’t know what millions of dollars can potentially do to ill prepared young men and women from extremely humbling beginnings.  I just don’t think it’s farfetched to watch them become who they are being narrated to be in the eyes of the public.  And it’s not that I understand.  But I do. 

I don’t condone any of the less than becoming behavior of our young celebrities.  As a matter of fact, as a seasoned Urban Educator, I deplore the bad decision making by them because I constantly battle with students who find the inappropriateness cool and appealing.  They aspire to be like them.  Still, if I’m gonna keep it a buck with you and myself, I must honestly admit.  If it would’ve happened to me, in my twenties, my parents and my community would’ve been let down by my behavior, at some point in time.  They too would’ve had to have a sit down with me. I can already envision how that conversation would have gone.  Sadly, in one ear and out the other.