I watched the video above and broke all the way down.
Ugly crying, wailing, punching the air…
I cannot explain these tangled webs of raging feelings and muddled thoughts rationally
Cannot organize emotion into letters into words into anything coherent or consumable…
But the tears birthed a poem which I share here with you.
BIG OL’ WARNING: I AM NOT HERE TO ARGUE, DEBATE, CRITICIZE, CONDEMN, OR TRY TO PERSUADE ANYONE INTO OR OUTTA THEIR PERSPECTIVE, OPINION, OR IDENTITY ALLEGIANCES. AND VICE VERSA.
Hip hop beef and genocide
Do they ever intersect?
Or might they collide?
A wise-eyed young man from Palestine
Was my student 20 years back
A memory he shared blew my mind
Chillin’ with his homies back in Gaza
Debating the beef
Between Jay-Z and Nas
Ahhhh
Is it human nature to take sides?
To create conflict
In search of bona fides?
Is there something inherent, innate
That compels folks to
Manufacture hate?
I wonder what propels this need
To attack, to wound
To cause another to bleed
Declaring war, armed to the teeth
With words, with weapons,
With hip hop beef…
Instead of offering love or support
Many prefer
To dine out on bloodsport
Too few folks feeling empathy
While most are opting
For hostility
Students saying they won’t rest
Til their universities
Agree to divest
Kickin’ off my memories
Of protesting South Africa
Back in the 1970s
Governments snatching back rights
While citizens
Wonder which battles to fight
Consumers craving vicious disses
‘Tween Kendrick and Drake
Gleefully tallying hits and misses
Bombs rain down, body counts rise
U.S. House of Reps says
Nah, you can’t criticize
Maybe when terrors get too real
We rely on music
To express how we feel
Duckin’ and dodgin’ all kinds of attacks
You might seek solace
In some good diss tracks
Hip hop beef and genocide
Do they ever intersect?
Or might they collide?
A wise-eyed young man from Palestine
Was my student 20 years back
A memory he shared blew my mind
Chillin’ with his homies back in Gaza
Debating the beef
Between Jay-Z and Nas
Ahhhhh
Copyright © TaRessa Stovall 2024