Posted on 11/14/2004 12:05:15 AM PST by ConYoungBlack
I know this a message board and that I am new, but being a black man I have some problems with the tone of some of the comments earlier posted.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1279414/posts
While his music is a subjective matter of tatse, I don't think it warrants a "good riddance" shout upon the announcement of his death.
I am (as many know) probably the only conservative in my family and neighborhood. I am usually on the side of these things where I am the one that comes across callous and insensitive (yuk, I hate that liberal word).
In this case however, I can identify that is someones father, brother, son. I know that he chose his own road, butfrom accounts and reports, this man was mentally ill, and rich and famous. A deadly combo in my humble opinion. Especially in a business like the music business and around the pimps and hustlers he was surrounded with. It sounds like many used this mans unstable mind for a free ticket of their own to the point of not protecting him from himself and the leaches.
I find his death to be a sad tale, and just as sad as any tale of the death of Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, or Donny Hathaway. Not because think he was as talented as them. to the contrary. Because I think he was as human as them.
Not all rappers, or young blacks in rap media are deserving of death. This man, played the role of a clown. He fought his mental illness with drugs and attention. No one stepped up for him. In this case I feel sorry for him, and I hold this as another in the long line of indictments of the loss of family and community in the black culture and neighborhoods.
I was shocked by some of the more spiteful coments. Any and every death deserves either full inspection and comment with thought, or no comment at all.
Sorry to rant.
CYB
"Any and every death deserves either full inspection and comment with thought, or no comment at all. "
Sorry, no, it doesn't.
Yassar arafat died this week. I didn't need a 'full inspection' to determine my feelings on it. I was glad he died. Simple.
He had that right and he was a talented artist, sad to see him go so young but thats what happens when you live harder than your body can take.
RIP
Not much respect is given to rap artists here like Dirty Old Bastard. He lived up to his name.
In contrast, numerous times I've seen effusive posts about Jimmy Hendrix who lead a good life but also took a lot of drugs and died from them. So it's not just being black. White artists get strongly criticized here when they open their loud mouths to help elect John Kerry.
Double-secret-probation-good-riddance, (c)rapper scum.
I agree. I am ranting. I will add a qualifyer. In cases where the person in general wasn't an obvious assh&*le or someone that caused harm to others.
Is that better?
Or is it still open game on ODB simply because he was a rapper?
Don't know enough about him to make a comment. So I don't.
However, if another rapper, like, say, eminem were to meet with some unfortuante circumstancess, then I would have something to say.
Wooo, this time of night you're more likely to bring out the cranky people. That being said, there are folks here who perform the "flock of seagulls" manuever on just about any thread - they'll fly in and poop all over it, regardless of the subject.
It's not just rap music: I've seen it happen to tribute threads for dead childhood friends, calls to prayer, tributes to female soldiers, religion threads, pro-life threads, you name it, they've messed it up. They will swoop in before regular freepers even get a chance to post.
They will ESPECIALLY do it if you are new!
Anyhow, I know a lot of folks who listen to ODB and they really liked his style. I haven't talked to them yet about it but I'm pretty sure they'll be upset by his passing. But most of them don't post here, especially in the dead of night. I'm sorry if someone said something stupid... it's a big internet, and most Freepers wouldn't say something racist - it's against board policy.
This idea of respecting somebody just because they died has always baffled me. Can we speak badly about them up until the exact moment they die and then we must stop? What about the act of dying is so heroic that it wipes out a lifetime of other than honorable actions?
Laughing.
I play blues guitar, and trust me when I say that Jimi is my number one hero in that refard as a mucisian, but as person the myth just isn't true. He wasn't the fun loving, peaceful, non-materialistic guy that the media has revised him to be.
In his last year on earth, he beat two women with a brick in front of on lookers (including his own body guards) in front of his hotel . What for, you may ask? For wanting to have sex with Noel Redding instead of him, while on tour.
It still doesn't mean that I go to the other extreme and call him an ass%^le either, but you have to consider the whole measure of a man. Not just what suits preconcieved notions of stereotypes.
Jimi had his good and his bad, He was young and talented, and his death was a tradgedy for that. Same goes for Mr. Jones (ODB).
I ragged on ODB because he was a psycho and often hurtful to others. I also got to see some of his antics up close and personal, and that influences my judgment. While I'm glad Wu-Tang did give back to the north shore community in Staten Island, ODB was an embarrassment.
Has nothing to do with the music, his race or inventive orthodontry. ODB was a crazy jerk who stumbled through life with an army of enablers and left behind more than his fair share of personal wreckage.
Wherever O.D.B. may be now, I am pretty sure what people are saying about him on the Free Republic is the farthest thing from his mind.
May he find more peace in the next life than he did in the last.
Don't know anything about ODB but God bless his soul. As for artists killing themselves on drugs, it seems to be a universal form of demise for musicians. That and plane crashes.
I would wager however that country singers are the most self-destrective. Keith Whitley, Hank Williams killed themselves with booze. Johnny Cash battled drugs all his life.
Read my reply. I've added a qualifyer. I understand that I stated my case poorly to begin with. The fact of the matter is that there are some deaths that are clearly not worthy of negative and spiteful comment. Rather no comment at all. This was one of those.
Now Yasser, Saddams people, OBL, Castro, those kind of people are open game.
Sadly I feel that his "art" wasn't seperated from his "person" in these comments. People figure "If he rapped about bad stuff.......then he did bad stuff"
You are absolutely right. The list of people who would have their death celebrated on this board should be very, very small, and this guy, whatever he might have been, surely shouldn't qualify. God bless him and his family.
I'm with you, especially when it is a life we know little about. I don't have it in me to be happy with any death, even the worst among us. Whatever dignity, respect and good will they lacked does not seem to me to be an excuse to meet their passing in kind.
I think it really depends on the person - like, if it's Arafat or Hitler, yes, you stand a good chance of being able to vent.
On the other hand, if a person wants to post a "tribute" thread, usually the "if you don't like it don't read it" rule applies - it's usually meant for a tribute to be sent to families or fans of the deceased. I remember specifically a thread that was a meant to be a tribute to a freeper's friend who was killed in an accident, and it was absoLUTEly trashed by people who just showed up to make crude comments about a dead person they didn't even know (motorcycles enrage some folks evidently). I just don't think it's right to mock someone's grief, or to mock the dead. Ask people's grannies, they'll usually say the same thing. And I'm not even that old...
I was raised up specifically not to speak ill of the dead - perhaps that's just southern, or old fashioned, but it brings BAD mojo on the person doing it usually. Unless it's Arafat, and I broke my rule on that one. I hope I don't get bad luck from it... :P
This is the internet. People tend to type what they would never say in open conversation. And while I regularly see comments on Free Republic that make me queasy, it's nothing like what you'd see on Democratic Underground. FR is The Disney Channel compared to DU.
Unfair? Maybe. I don't care. Lowlifes, idiots and thugs are given a pass far too often these days. Celebrated, even. Screw that.
And how many kids did this "man" spawn and neglect? Thirteen, was it? So he's not just dead - he's a dead a$$hole.
I'd like to say that Hendrix is my model for my guitar playing but I'm just not that talented. Richards is my muse. I've been playing in nothing but 5 string open G for 2 years now. Capo to change keys of course. B flat is my favoprite for bluesy stuff. Nice to see another musician on the page. Alot of opinionated people here, myself included, was an artist most of my life so I know a little about being the odd man out politically. Try being a conservative in that world, it can be tough. Don't be offended with people, emotions run high around here. God bless America!
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