Make It Rough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hKaxRSm2zY
Oh, for the halcyon days of our distant past when injustice was met with mere riots and destruction, which was only limited to parts of cities…mere “neighborhoods”, rather than global thermonuclear war. It was troubling to watch ‘those people’ rioting in their own community, whether you were comfortably across the country, or comfortably in your glass walled mansion in Pacific Palisades. You may have been able to see or smell smoke in your exclusive community, but you probably still watched the news footage from your own designer couch.
Ice Cube had the better part of a nation tut tutting about his violent lyrics as he expounded on his views of the Rodney King arrest, the outcome of the trial, and the general treatment of a specific group of people in a particular community. I wont minimize Cube’s lyrics. He wouldn’t either. He starts his rhythmic rant with the words, “make it rough…”. I encourage you to listen to them yourselves.
Cube makes a coherent case for social violence. I self-edited the word good re: the case, because “good” gives a confused meaning. I wont morally endorse what he said, and I sense that Ice Cube doesn’t seek anyone’s absolution. Now that that is out of the way, we can address the structure, content, and meaning in his call for destruction. ( In complete fairness, his words were written after the destruction, but the implication re: social justice remains extant).
Let’s look at the blueprint. The first verse begins with,“Not guilty! The filthy devils tried to kill me.” Ice Cube cites two grievances here. The first refers to the verdict(s) regarding the officers tried for the beating of Rodney King. “When the news gets to the hood, n***** will be hotter than cayenne pepper…”. That is fairly easy to understand there. No translation is necessary, right? “Kickin’ up dust is a must…”. This is an interesting line. It isn’t just a simple rhyme. The writer is actually taking an ethical leap here by claiming that riot and disorder has become a moral imperative. Again, I am not endorsing this view. I disagree with it. I am just pointing it out, as I am the entire song, so that it can be seen how this idea grows. I think it is safe to say that this is a case being made for violence.
Verses 2 is generally about listing specific individuals and violent fantasies about how this new moral imperative will deal with them. It doesn’t contribute much meaning to list it specifically here, you get the gist.
Verse 3 does have some interesting devices in this dark fantasy apologia. Those who riot in their own neighborhoods are often criticized for…destroying their own neighborhoods. They suffer, so they are ignited into an activity that brings further suffering to their neighborhood. The ill-logic is right there on the surface. One interesting line in this verse reflects that. “Now I’m stealing blunts, and a cake from Better Crocker. Orville Reddenbacher. Don’t fuck with the Black owned stores, but hit the footlocker…”. This is dark, and sad, in the ways that it invokes a racist motivation, as well as an economic strategy. It’s sad like dark, sad movie, but still fascinating. The 3rd verse ends with, “we had to tear this motherfucker up, so what the fuck…”. It is followed by a line that alludes to a “guerrilla” who was killed by the cops after having killed some.
He has taken a step completely outside of civilization here with destruction, and then with death. It is about as dark as it gets.
If you want to get darker, contemplating destruction of where you live…consider armageddon.
05/05/2024 @ 11:57 pm
Ice Cube has a coherent case for social violence. I get it. What happens when a system works against you based on who you are? At what point is preserving a hostile system in your interests or even the right thing to do? This isn’t a simple question.
This is essentially what caused Zionism. It wasn’t Rodney King, it was Alfred Dreyfus. A Jewish French army officer was on trial for treason in 1899 and the case got a lot of international coverage. The evidence as far as journalists were concerned added up obviously for acquittal and, as it turns out, they were right; several years later, Dreyfus was retried after serving time in Devil’s Island, acquitted, and the real traitor found. When he was convicted at the first trial, a Jewish Austrian journalist by the name of Theodor Herzl wrote an article saying that if Jews couldn’t get a fair shake in civilized France, we couldn’t get one anywhere, and our only option was to be a majority somewhere. And so Jews started moving to Palestine and buying land.
As might be expected, a lot of the same people who were fine with Jews’ status then objected to their solution and still do. Way before Rodney King, Black people tried to come up with their own solutions at times such as forming separate communities. The result was the Tulsa Massacre. I’ve never thought of it in these terms before, but in many ways Israel is Tulsa with nukes. There was a lot of hatred for Tulsa, and that hatred was based on success, on a minority being Uppity. Israel is extremely analogous to this. The problem with Israel’s success as far as a lot of the rest of the Middle East was concerned was exactly this, that a previously subjugated population was uppity and, worse, successfully so. This observation isn’t new for me; it’s something I’ve been saying for years, using that term because we don’t have a term that fits like that. It’s no accident that Arabs thought they used to get along with Jews great (and sometimes did), leaving out “as long as they knew their place.”
The Black and Jewish experiences are mainly very different, but every once in a while there are similarities. I borrowed a term from your experience and, in fact, the best description of the Tulsa Massacre is a term from mine: pogrom. If you ever had any trouble understanding that term, think Tulsa Massacre, because that was a classic pogrom.
There is another similarity between our experiences and it’s a bit new to both of us, “new” in this case meaning taking place over the last half century or so more than previously. That similarity is majority denial, revisionist history, revisionist facts of what’s currently going on. It used to be that bigotry was obvious. Now it’s denial of our experiences. When I talk about race to people on the Right, the biggest obstacle I face is their denial that the playing field isn’t level. It’s not that they approve of racism, it’s that they don’t admit it exists in any way that has functional consequences. For Israel it takes a different form, a revisionism of history, both recent and old. Hitler did this. He created a myth because he needed one to keep his racial superiority philosophy. He needed someone to blame the Master Race’s loss of WWI on. Now myths are created about Israel, only they don’t stop with Israel. It’s victim blaming. We share that.
I’m kind of surprised to find the similarities because what I’ve noticed most over time is the differences.
05/06/2024 @ 10:33 am
We will drive 30 miles one way to watch little children run, kick, squeal and laugh in two days, as they give their very best on a soccer field. It’s not just the joy of their moment that will stay with us, but a lingering wonder if they will ever look back on their youth.
There is a very slow pealing of a bell that seems now to be in the distance, its purpose unknown.
It’s better left alone.
05/11/2024 @ 3:03 am
jpHart
04/17/2022 @ 2:35 PM
It is about negative power — Putin’s incapacity to stand down. Our hate of Hitler. Our innocent suffer. The bold defend. Enuff: this ruble toss. Easter Sunday, Ten (10) Commandments prevail. Deep within rubble. Weather wrong. Tranquility as song.
Eternal question:
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE …?
33 degrees, 1:11 PM — an eternity off Friday’s lit sunset — last night’s moon rise — scarlet humanity blood — may we respond first — our concerted deep breath:
I thought only I now hear Jackie DeShannon:
‘What the World Needs Now is Love’. After immersion
with Brian Wilson and Gary L Usher ‘In My Room’.
All of it {once upon a time…LO;} Ron Powell’s ‘A New Mass Extinction…!’ Oddly Piano Man omitted one of his many AMENS. Hey!…thought I saw him walking…
05/11/2024 @ 5:14 pm
this is about as much fun as barbed wire crawls {LO;} and simulated landmines in Lackland AB early DEC’69! Hence, ‘Lil bit and me are LOUD-miming Bette Midler Greatest Hits … HEY! fresh pedicures … cyber bumpity-bumps to all pacifists … just about a year ago all left already red glare nary a CARE be afraid be AWARE vroom someday soon
05/11/2024 @ 5:20 pm
Fun is a destination. Little is learned from it. Pain, misery, suffering, and perseverance are the journey that bring knowledge and wisdom. Don’t let fun lull you into the low orbit of dull complacency.
05/11/2024 @ 8:09 pm
Bill, it’s not as though we’re playing 21 on the Mayflower:
dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot
A
M
E
N
05/14/2024 @ 5:00 pm
Dot dash. Dash dash. Dot. Dash dot.
O etching I learned many years ago having an avid ham (radio amateur) for a grandfather and a Naval communications officer (noncom? Chief) for an uncle.
05/14/2024 @ 5:01 pm
Something, not o etching
05/16/2024 @ 12:56 pm
Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins, Bee Gees, Eagles, Foreigner 📀 Old Love Songs 70s,80s,90s
Was I just called. My father’s eyes? Why can’t I impose that Getty image of Paul Newman in Milwaukee in 1968?
Bill, Koshersalaami, the old love songs here upon are over toned with absolute tranquility dai dai dai 0 LO:}
I AM back with Beach Radio; today’s brass ring is euphonious audio/visual therapy albeit several of the older-wiser in my audience have visual challenges … one of my profound ‘edenics’ is prone to a keen paraphrase of Dylan Thomas’ ‘ONE WARM SATURDAY’ and she insists on tossing her Trivial Pursuit cards in that bowler. We just took delivery of Smoothie Kings and ignited our session with: !CHICKEN BONES! & all those straw wrappers a-blowinin-the-wind
05/16/2024 @ 1:43 pm
!flags & fifes!
MAY B Club Random will (keep-looking over that four-leaf clover, Bill!) and interview Lorien Pratt, Ph.D!
LP’s
‘Link’
LO;}