I read an article recently on allhiphop.com about a Chicago rapper, Chance the Rapper, who refuses to support the Spike Lee film Chi-raq.
That shit get ZERO love out here. Shit is goofy and it’s a bunch of ppl from NOT around here telling u to support that shit 🙅🏾🙅🏾🙅🏾
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 4, 2015
Now, I can kinda see why he would be upset. Let someone make a movie about Brooklyn like that. It’s bad enough that people NOT from BK already have an opinion. Well, maybe not Brooklyn now with all of its coffee shops and beanies and wire-rimmed glasses. But, I’m torn. I like the message of the movie, but I can’t get down with the minstrel vibe. It came across as a shuck and jive show. So, you know, I like the message. I don’t like the delivery. But that’s just me.
The message:
The power of the P-U-S-S-Y is strong. Yes. Women, Black women to be exact, have power. My Black women have the power to make social change is what Spike Lee is saying. The government ain’t gonna help you, your local politicians aren’t going to help you. Look at the recent cover-up about LaQuan McDonald. Over a year before his executioner, Van Dyke, was even charged and still nothing. He’s out on bail. Because society doesn’t care, Spike Lee is saying that for anything to happen, we have to care. It’s like his infamous call to action delivered by Lawrence Fishbourne in School Daze:
So why be mad?! Chicago already is called Chi-raq. Spike ain’t make that up. And pussy got power. He ain’t make that up either. Then I remembered I’d heard this story somewhere before: college. Chi-raq is just a remake of a classical Greek tragedy called Lysistrata. What, you ain’t know? So Chance the Rapper is mad about something that’s been done before.
Moral of the story:
Stand up and fix your community because no one is going to do it for you. That goes for Chicago, Long Beach, BK. We are fighting a war with multiple battles at the same time. Let’s at least try to end the battles we have power over.
Parker "PL" Lewiz 