social commentary – Artistic Apathy

A Commentary On Menace II Society (1993)

Warning: *spoilers ahead*

The film Menace II Society takes place in the city of Watts during the 1990s. The riots are over, drugs have made their way into neighborhoods and now gangs and violence wreak havoc in the streets. It’s the perfect portrayal of the American nightmare. A haunting tale about the cycles of poverty and violence that grip neighborhoods all across America. This movie is still relevant today, covering major issues in the urban black community which are explored throughout.

The opening scene gets right to the nitty gritty when O-Dog and Caine walk into a store hoping to buy beer and end up involved in a crime scene.

Such seems to be the life of poor Caine who from a young age saw death and corruption around him. His father was a drug dealer and his mother was a drug addict. Needless to say they didn’t play a very active role in his life. He’s sent to live with his religious grandparents, who just can’t seem to get through to him. His grandfather even asking him if he cares whether he lives or dies. Caine is deep in the streets. Has been ever since he came out on that stoop when he was young and got initiated by Pernell.

Pernell brought him up on the G code but was absent in his life when he got sent to prison.

Caine manages to graduate high school. An extraordinary feat for someone like him. Everything seems rosy for a while but as others would be knee deep in books, Caine is getting knee deep in the streets. He gets involved in a cycle of hatred and violence so hopeless and never ending. Violence being a common theme in the movie portrayed in a gruesome, raw, and unfiltered way. Caine and his comrades are desensitized to violence. As a result they have no problem taking a life or parading around a stolen tape of a murder they were involved in.

I just knew I could kill somebody. If I had to I could do it again. – Caine

This is the environment that Caine is growing up in. After going to a house party, him and his cousin have an altercation that lands him in the hospital and his cousin dead. Caine is lucky to be alive. This isn’t the first time he ends up in the hospital either. The difference this time is that he came close to dying. You would think Caine would turn over a new leaf after coming so close to death. Still, he can be seen watching old gangster movies in the hospital room. One of many foreshadowings in the film.

Another one being when later in the movie, the son of Caine’s love interest, Anthony, asks if Caine is going to die.

Caine even ends up in jail albeit for a short period of time. This still isn’t enough to set him on the straight and narrow. They bring him in for questioning. In the interrogation room we can see two types of light coming through the windows. On one side there’s red. Which could easily signify peril, doom, fatality and on the other, a brighter more lighter shade. Caine is at a crossroads for most of his life.

There are many voices of reason throughout the movie. Sharif, one of his closest buddies is a converted muslim and very pro-black. He doesn’t want Caine to go down the wrong path. And although he’s different from Caine and the rest of them, he’s kept throughout the movie. Caine even narrates as someone who sounds like they are reflecting on their choices. There are subliminal messages throughout the movie as well.

Another voice of reason is Ronnie or Pernell’s girlfriend. Ronnie sobered up after having Anthony. The connection between Caine and Ronnie is more than Pernell however. There’s love interest brewing here too. Caine gets even more-so attached via her son Anthony who is exactly like him when he was younger. Anthony is meant to symbolize Caine in a lot of ways. We even see things come full circle when Anthony comes out on the porch to hang with the grown folks much like Caine when he was younger.

No father, growing up in the hood without a role model. In the movie Caine is being asked to step up and be a man, if not for Anthony then for himself.

This movie’s core theme seems to be cycles in the urban communities. Caine is just being the way he was brought up to be and Anthony is mirroring what’s in the environment around him. There’s a certain street code you follow and that often leads to more violence. Caine is provided with an out on various occasions. Eventually he accepts to go away with Ronnie to Atlanta although reluctantly only to end up another victim. In a tragic irony, he does leave the life but not in the way we had hoped. Sharif is shot dead as well as Caine. Leaving O-Dog to grapple with the reality and possibly continue the cycle of violence.

The theme comes full circle with this quote as Caine narrates:

I guess in the end it catches up to you. My grandfather asked me one time if I care whether I live or die. Yeah I do and now it’s too late.

The final words at the end convict the viewer and cause them to reflect on all the past events that led to this young man’s fatal demise. It seemed like he was doomed to repeat his mistakes or suffer the consequences for his actions from the very beginning.

The Deal With Posthumous Releases

In a day and age where late rappers are becoming a norm, we are seeing more and more of the release of posthumous work (i.e. work released after death.) A few prolific rappers stand out in this conversation, including Lil Peep, XXXTENTACION and Mac Miller.

All at the height of their success when they passed. It’s truly unfortunate we couldn’t see the further development of these artists especially when they were so ambiguous in their work and so promising.

Often when these artists die there is still a plethora of music left behind, yet to be released. In the case of Lil Peep, the rising emo rap star, there was an immense amount of work unreleased. The label partnered with frequent collaborators of Lil Peep to bring about projects that the fans could accept. Following the release of the polished Come Over When You’re Sober collection, label heads, with input from Peep’s mom decided to release the more raw and authentic Everybody’s Everything. Which doubled as a soundtrack to the documentary on his life.

A lot of controversy was stirred when the label continued to release music under Peep’s name but rest assured his mother Liza was behind it every step of the way. Saying:

“What do you do when a young artist dies long before his time, leaving behind a legacy of finished and unfinished work, and a legion of heartbroken fans?”
– Liza Womack

It seems like the honorable thing to do to honor the late artist and put out a body of work that most closely emulates what the artist in mention would have wanted.

Like stated before, this isn’t without its controversy as the bodies that distribute this late work are often met with backlash. Like when the BMW that XXXTENTACION died in was on display at an album event.

This begs the question of if an artists’ legacy is best left alone. Of course the family and friends of the artist have an idea of what the artists would have wanted in a project, single releases, etc. but the artist isn’t there to provide input.

Prior to his death, Mac Miller was busy at work on a follow up to his album Swimming. The album featured production from one producer named Jon Briar who later went on to finish the album keeping in mind the vision Miller had for it.

Again, it is nice to still get new material from an artist after their death but it often spurs a slew of questions about how exactly these releases are being handled. It seems that the ones in charge of these releases put immense thought into the given project before releasing but without the touch of the artists in question something is somewhat lacking.

That being said, you can’t please everyone. Especially on the internet. Someone will always have an opinion. Admittedly it is nice to see songs that didn’t have a proper release get one finally and for unfinished projects to see the light of day but the motives of the people at hand are often in question.

Sorry to say, these artists are gone and all we have left of them is the music. If we can continue their legacy going even for a short time, then maybe the details don’t matter so much.

Why Gaming Culture is so Important

Nowadays, young people suffer more than ever. Especially during that transition period from young adulthood to full on adulthood. It seems like just yesterday we were playing on the playground and now we have bills to pay.

Life can be tough but that’s why I’m thankful for video games.

Video games allow you to explore places you’ve never been before, meet mysterious people, join in on the action, realize a legend and more.

When I was younger, I got made fun of a lot for the games I liked to play. At some point I just wouldn’t tell anyone what my interests were. Then years later, things like comic books, video games and anime were brought into the mainstream and suddenly it was the cool thing.

Also with help from content creators like RDCWorld1 and Cilvanis (just to name a few) things that were once seen as nerdy are culturally relevant.

Gaming culture has become so much apart of our culture that now big companies are advertising at gamers.

Music artists are partnering with franchises for promotions.

Safe to say, gaming culture isn’t going anywhere. People who were old enough to remember when gaming first made its way to homes are now old enough to have families. These people are still playing games and even with their children now. So we will still see this going on for generations.

This is so important for us all today. Gaming provides an escape. You can forget about all your worries and get involved in a complete storyline or a whole new world. It allows us all to tap into that inner child. I believe there is a game for each person out there. Perfectly tailored to your tastes. In this day and age, now more than ever we need ways to go back to those days on the playground and feel like kids again. If even for a moment.

Gone but not Lost

I sit in my bed, not knowing what words to type. What lines to scribble on the page. My ink runs dry.

My heart feels heavy. I’m tense. I want to cry but at the same time I’m feeling hopeful and there’s an underlying sense of peace.

This one is different. It’s about the pain and suffering in the world and everything we put ourselves through.

You would never imagine some of the things people have to go through and yet we’re surviving every day.

I’ve never felt like my life was in danger but I fight a battle too. Internally. These people are fighting an external battle.

I wonder if we could all put our weapons down one day. If we could all surrender. Raise that white flag…

Let’s give up on trying to punish each other. Let’s give up on being judge, jury, and executioner to our fellow man.

I’ve been thinking, and that thinking is that if we do anything important in this life it’s that we love one another.

I know it sounds like something on a Hallmark card but it really is the antidote to the poison that has so infected this world we live in every day.

I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not that I feel so heavily for other people. Maybe it’s a burden and maybe life would be easier if I just didn’t care what happened one way or the other. But I do. I care what happens. Give me the chance to do the right thing and not just for goodness’ sake but because I want to do the right thing.

Allow me to choose between love and hate and I will choose love every time. Allow me to choose the path of animosity or forgiveness and I rather live and let die.

Again, my heart is sore and I don’t quite know where that leaves me. Without love, none of us can keep on living. We may think we’re living but really, we’re dead inside.

A friend of mine told me to write freely tonight so here I am.

I hope my words can carry me farther than my imagination can. I hope that these words are like a song that my trapped cage bird soul sings. This is my gospel and its only mine.

Forever.

I Miss: Music Video Countdowns

Do you remember waking up early Saturday morning and flipping to VH1 or MTV to maybe catch a glimpse of your favorite music video? Remember coming home from school and catching the “Top 20 Countdown”?

This guy here does.

They were simpler times back then. Times when music videos weren’t ready to stream at a moment’s notice.

I remember watching entire countdowns from number 20 to number one just hoping that my favorite song would be in there somewhere. I remember 106&Park everyday after school. These countdown shows were also a way to discover new music and to find out what was really hot in the music world. Sometimes they would premiere a brand new artist and it would be exciting.

I’ve never gotten over that. I still love music videos. I think most people do. But I pay special attention to them, the direction, use of animations and colors in the video. Sometimes I like to recreate that “countdown feel” by making a playlist on YouTube or letting the algorithm autoplay songs.

Still it’s not the same as watching a countdown anxiously for your favorite videos in between commercial breaks and finding new songs to go and hurriedly download onto your MP3 player.

I guess I’m just feeling nostalgic but I think there was something so pure about how we discovered music in those days. Not to say I’m not thankful for all the advances we’ve made thus far.

Do you have any special memories about watching countdowns on TV? Let us all know, we’d love to hear from you.