At this year's family reunion, I was engaged in political conversation quite a few times, the first time being with a cousin who asked for my thoughts on the “Straight Outta Compton” movie. He questioned the usefulness of a film that had so much potential to be misunderstood and be categorized superficially as a caricature of African American culture. The stories are true and Hollywood will sanction it to a certain extent, but is it more hurtful or helpful to the movement? The original casting call for the movie received a lot of criticism for the sexist, racist type casting that it advertised in which women were divided according to attractiveness and there were several blatant implications that the darker you are, the less attractive you are. (Check it out for yourself.) Hollywood has taken great pains over the years to make money off of our society’s stereotypes and the hip hop industry is no exception. Even BET is owned by the same corporations that own the other media outlets. (Ever heard of Viacom?)

My response to his position was to qualify that with an opposing view despite the fact that he made very true points. What if we need these moments of misogyny, colorism, and outrage to be public? Just like the shootings of unarmed black men are receiving more media attention, the results of years of systemic division amongst the black community should receive attention as well. Documenting the colorism and sexism that was a part of that movement reminds us to critique our own culture. We are constantly criticized outside of our community as well as inside and while I do not condone criticism from those who are luxuriously unoppressed in the same way, the narrative could be used to perpetuate education instead of self-hatred. It can be used to start a conversation like the one that I had with my cousin in order to address colorism and misogyny in our community and the movie “Straight Outta Compton” also provided context for the harsh lyrics in NWA’s most infamous song “F*** the Police,” which energized the Black Lives Matter movement by providing them with inspiration and history. The foundation of the law and proper protocol allowed for officers to bulldoze houses, arrest people without just cause, and assault them, just as the movie portrayed. Unfortunately, the relevancy of this project is completely comprehensible to my generation; colorism, misogyny, and all. This is the reason why I am glad that I also had the opportunity of enjoying another conversation with a close cousin of mine who is a police officer. Information beyond his occupation will not be shared out of respect for his privacy, of course, but my conversation with him took a very interesting and candid turn.

In his county, officers have the right to draw blood from someone that they suspect to be under the influence if that suspect should refuse to participate in any other tests. Almost immediately, I was concerned with policy translation and the community’s reception of the protocol. Forcibly removing blood from someone might seem like a necessary evil to people who are concerned about drunk driving and that’s okay on paper. However, the consequences of enacting this policy in real life (especially with the tense relationship between police officers and civilians nowadays) could potentially mean dire consequences for the officer as well as the suspect. Realistically speaking, in order for this policy to work for the benefit of our society, the community has to be informed of this law (most people are not), the police officers have to be trained to draw blood from a non-consenting individual while protecting themselves at the same time, and the police have to work around hospital policies that have been put in place against samples taken from patients without consent (four counties have already reported having issues with their respective hospitals). From a policy standpoint, it doesn’t sound very practical or very constitutional, but the reality of America is that in certain counties police officers have the right to forcibly restrain you and draw blood if they suspect that you are under the influence and you refuse to adhere to their demands. The subjectivity of the situation alone is dangerous besides the medical issues that could potentially ensue.

So it turns out that “Straight Outta Compton” is necessary, but so is intersectionality. The origins of hip hop came through independent artists on the streets in the 1970’s, but NWA’s generation collided with Hollywood and big industries in a way that highlighted both sides of the horrors of the black experience. Hip hop could have been the language that set young America free, instead it has a talent for further extending slavery by buying into capitalism which continues to draw up on our divisions as a nation. The most popular hip hop songs today that reach across racial borders and completely commercialized (i.e. Whip and Nae Nae). We have learned about selling drugs and struggling to get by, but we have also bought into materialism and glorified stereotypes while allowing ourselves to feed into Hollywood’s perception of how our reality can generate the most money. We, as a people, have a cultural propensity for learning and developing through music and oral history. For the record, the origin of performing life events to a particular rhythm originated off the continent of Africa. The vibrations that originated off of that continent continue to penetrate the soul, mind, and body and the black diaspora as we can trace back many of today's cultural norms (even the Westernized versions) to the mother land. While psychological biases attempt to have us believing otherwise, I know that if you can generate the right vibrations with the right knowledge then you can allow people to come out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light. Hip hop and rap could’ve been that vibration and still has the potential to be. Talking to both of my relatives, I saw and understood that the need for both reflection and criticism of reality in the African American community is great. Being a musician, I firmly believe that hip hop is art. All art is inspired by an emotion, whether it’s greed, love, or hatred. All emotions are valid. While I cannot condone misogyny and colorism, I see and understand why it is a part of a culture that has been oppressed and psychologically disabled for centuries. In other words, to both my hip hop fans and my hip hop critics, if “art is reflection of reality” and you don’t like what you see, then you can’t complain and not work to change it.