"So Curtis Jackson will be getting a television show on MTV. Viacom must be drooling. The executives there must salivate inbetween laughter at the thought that a ex-convict, crack drug dealer, making them money legally. It’s such a dumb idea that it probably will work."
Well in that post I also had a Youtube video commentary.
Now that commentary received more than just a few vulgar comments. Few were in english and contained a full thought. But one did. And I present that well thought out, interesting comment.
"Dear VassMike:
In your youtube rant, you have brought up many good points, and others that are not so good, witch I intend to address in this letter.
First, you are right, the whole 50 cent show is laughable if not a bad idea. It probably promotes various bad influences, however, no more so then any other shows aiming for the same adolescent audience group. The same group that 50 targets to make his money. And it works, he is filthy rich.
As for your proposal that he does not know any business other then crack and rap, is mislead. He had many other business movements. Such as a clothing line, bottled vitamin water (which he sold to Coca-Cola for millions), and probably more. He is very skilled and knowledgeable in what he does.
The rap is an easy skill comment shows ignorance in the subject. Rap is not an easy skill, in-fact it is very hard. To create flow with rhyme, syncing with a beat, and remaining comprehendible is no easy feat. Hence, most rappers do not know how to do this.
50 Cent (not 50 Cents) chose his name because 50 Cent was urban talk for something, which I can not recall at this time. It is not based on dollar value. This is why its 50 Cent (singular).
Now, I am hesitant to mention this because I am not 100% sure on this, however, I will write it anyway. 50 Cent, I am pretty sure, had put lots of money into urban areas in an attempt to make "hood" life better, but kept it hush hush so that it would not tarnish his name. And by tarnish, I only mean in the sense to make him look soft and lose record sells.
As for the crack "poisoning" people comment, I would like to say, no more than Players or Demoria cigarettes. Tobacco and alcohol poison people. I seen parents buy cigarettes over food for there children. The very same thing you are smoking in your video. I understand it is a lesser evil, but an evil none the less.
Please do not take this letter as an attack. You seem to be a clean cut, self respecting, and political kind of guy. This I like about you. However, I just feel that your attacks should not be so much on 50 Cent, and more on the whole video game/movie/music industry that allows this "its cool to be a gangster" concept come into play.
I myself do enjoy such music/movie/video game violent concepts because it acts as an outlet for my aggression, its entertaining. But I do not act in such a manner in the real world. It is a shame though, for those who are influenced and act out as they do on TV. There just needs to be better parents.
Sincerely,
ShadowsAndGhosts "
My reply will appear as a comment below.
1 comment:
Shadows and Ghosts,
The fact that several programs are targeting the youth with absurd trash is never a good thing. I am no less critical of any of those other shows that I am aware of than 50 cent. But the fact that he is a Black man, and a former crack dealer does focus more than the average about of criticism from me. That may be unfair, but I'm sure he will deal with it.
But to note his wealth, it's really not that much. Yes he makes a lot of money, but the real wealth is no where near him. The music industry executives that he prances and raps for are the real filthy rich. They make the dollars to the pennies he is given. When some buy his items on the thought they are helping out a Black man, they are in fact funding the executives that stand in the shadows pulling his strings. And that is just business fact.
As for his other business ventures, I admit a bit of ignorance. He may have had a clothing line, as does every rapper these days. Slapping your name on the efforts of others does not make you a designer, nor anything other than good at marketing. The real prize there goes to the music industry execs that promoted him to where his name has a value to anyone. And he may have sold something to a soft-drink company. None of that absolves or removes the primary means of making money he spent his youth and early adult life doing. Selling crack. Legitimate money does not wash away the blood money his life is based on.
And I differ with you on the ease of creating rap. 6 year olds do it, and some quite well. Rap has been around for some 20 years now. It can be done by those without intelligence as well as those with. It can be done by those with the inability to speak, or speak clearly, as well as those that do. Anyone can make a rap, just as they can make a poem. The music comes afterwards. The real question is how many can do it in front of crowds. And then the other factor is marketing. Because everything else is relatively easy. And there have been more than enough rappers to prove my points on this.
While his name is based on a slang, it is still based in the english language. While he and others may not have used or bothered to gain the educations that were given to them (before they dropped out) that knowledge still applies. In choosing this name he chose to accept the criticism that goes with it. And that includes the idiocy of a name that is too illiterate to fully express.
As I have said many times, if he is doing good he needs to. Because he was a blight on the communities he lived in, and is a blight on the nation for what he promoted daily. His hush money may be an attempt to buy his way into heaven, but it does not mitigate the wrong he publicly promotes. Were he to use every dime he makes on good for every community in America he cannot undo the problems he creates. Still I would love to hear of proof of this charity, because I don't believe it.
Yes smoking is bad. Yes I am a smoker. [For the record I smoke Marlboro Menthols] No I do not believe that smoking is the greatest evil since nuclear bombs as some would have us believe. But for all the ills of smoking, and alcohol, there is no comparison to crack. While there may be some vile parents that would abuse their children for their own needs, the majority would never do so. But a crack addict always will.
Crack addicts will kill, steal, and harm ANYONE to be able to get more crack. They directly kill themselves with a quickness and in that process directly affect everyone around them. Smoking and alcohol have been around for centuries if not longer. While many may have died, no one was killed for another cigarette to my knowledge. No matter how you would like to equate the 2, crack is without question worse. Curtis Jackson knew this from day one, and made the choice to sell crack and kill people for money. That is abominable.
I am not taking this as an attack. And I do feel that more focus needs to be on other areas, as I speak about often in my blogs. But at the same time, when a public figure stands before me and lauds his gains off the deaths of people I feel I must respond. I will not fail to comment on his actions because there are larger interests to target. In fact I use him as a tool as much as do the record industry executives (though without the lucrative benefit). By focusing on him as long as he is in the public eye I create the debate we are having. I get to bring up questions and thoughts many would otherwise ignore.
I don't care about Curtis Jackson. I don't know him. But since he is a public personality, and he advocates a style of life I despise, I will use him. It's something he is well suited for and does daily. Ad when his usefulness ends, the record companies and I will discard him for a better example - for them to make money and for me to highlight the ills that exist.
And again I do understand and agree with you. I support the ability of any artist to express themselves. But that does not obligate me to support it. Adults have the ability to chose what they will support, and how they will use any legal product. Good parents instill that kind of choice and reasoning in their children. All that is the American way.
But so is making clear the thought that drugs, and those that deal them, are wrong and vile. That the "ghettofabulous" lifestyle is just a slavery of the mind that they can choose to be chained to. And that if there is an afterlife I hope that the deaths Curtis Jackson - 50 Cent or whatever he is called - is responsible for get accounted.
Shadows, we disagree but I enjoyed the thoughts. Do keep reading and commenting. That's what this is all about.
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