Stic.Man From Dead Prez Says Hip Hop Has 'Lost Its True Heart'

Stic.Man from the group Dead Prez gave his take on today's Hip Hop scene in the wake of Pop Smoke's murder.

Dead Prez may the most celebrated political and conscious rap group since Public Enemy. They broke onto the scene in 2000 with their classic LP Lets Get Free, and Stic says Hip Hop as a culture has gotten horrible since then.

 

 

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As a culture in Hip Hop, broadly speaking, we seem addicted to glorifying supporting perpetuating and celebrating negativity. We support and celebrate mysogyny, self hate, fratricide, homicide and genocide, and we do it with pure arrogance and ego, in almost everywhere you turn in mainstream and social media. Rappers have become the joke of the culture, spitting out nonsense in flashy and catchy ways for the chance of fame and financial gain. Every major radio channel amplifies it. Men and Women accept and participate in the negative atmosphere. All in the name of money, notoriety and glorifying the cliches of the streets. We have watched the same cycle breed death and cause harm in numerous ways over and over and over and over again. Your favorite rappers will speak out when a fellow rapper life is cut short due to the same nonsense mentalities that most of their own music perpetuates. It’s not that we don’t know better by now. It’s a choice. And those of us who keep supporting the same are feeding the flames of the foolishness. Of course we are happy to see the young ones getting to the bread and be in positions to make a difference but too many times all that potential goes down the drain because of the atmosphere that surrounds the success. I know solid cats like Malcolm X and others were killed for their voices as well but in this day of age, we have completely sold out our culture for popularity stunts and we have become a tool of our own oppression. Everybody wanna act cool and look the part and talk greasy and not enough are willing to embody real values and represent something helpful for our communities. For me hip hop has lost its true heart and traded it in for poor values, negativity and fools gold. If we want a better world and life for our community, families children and each other, we have to be willing to let this corny ignorant weak self destructive bullshit die. #RIP to all the BS and let’s live like REAL ONES FOR REAL REASONS IN REAL WAYS FOR WHAT REALLY MATTERS. 🙏🏿

A post shared by  stic of dead prez (@stic) on Feb 19, 2020 at 3:45pm PST

"We seem addicted to glorifying supporting perpetuating and celebrating negativity," wrote Stic on Instagram. "We support and celebrate mysogyny, self hate, fratricide, homicide and genocide, and we do it with pure arrogance and ego, in almost everywhere you turn in mainstream and social media. Rappers have become the joke of the culture, spitting out nonsense in flashy and catchy ways for the chance of fame and financial gain."

"For me hip hop has lost its true heart and traded it in for poor values, negativity and fools gold," he added. "If we want a better world and life for our community, families children and each other, we have to be willing to let this corny ignorant weak self destructive bullsh-t die."

What do you think about Stic's message?