nosdnuos:

kingdrake1:

spaceagehustle:

brandon4serious:

dalatu:

spaceagehustle:

Roach Gigz “Pop Off” (Internet, 2010)

Shot by Aris Jerome on the days leading up to, and the day of, the Mehserle verdict in the Oscar Grant case. 

The manslaughter verdict reached by the jury (in the face of evidence pointing to second-degree murder) is yet another example of a corrupt justice system, both at the state and federal levels.  As Noz (and others) noted on the day the verdict came down, it’s not simply “fuck the police”, it’s “fuck the system that allows the police to get away with criminal acts”.

-$M

(via Mister Wheeler)

In talking about the song, I only have to say that Roach Gigz is not and has not stopped being better than most rappers. Strong rapping, quality hook writing, a great ear for beats, and seems to never be in a video that does not look great. What can Roach not do?

Ugh, Roach is whatever. This is more to do with Soft Money’s mini political assertion. The person responsible for Oscar Grant’s senseless death did not “get away with” a “criminal act”—he simply didn’t receive the sentence, you and others, who weren’t there for the trial, etc. think he should’ve received.

This is important. And you need to watch your language when you start spouting off the politics you grabbed from rap records or the politics you grabbed from rap fans who grabbed them from rap records.

Yo it would be nice if my words were quoted accurately before they were allowed to spark arguments. Not that I care enough to actually weigh in on this mess (as is the case in all matters pertaining to anything, I side against Brandon Soderberg) but I never once used the phrase “criminal act” in my original tweet.

And Brandon - as a reasonably well educated adult, I don’t appreciate being accused of grabbing my politics from rap records. Your penchant for bleeding toxicity into any conversation is truly unmatched.

Oh gee, thanks. Correction: Reducing your more complex and informed politics into sloganeering made popular by rap records. As is often the case, this devolved into a big dumb rap blog pissing contest almost immediately, but my point remains: Stop with the pithy, solemn loaded political statements, no matter who you are. It’s just a bad look. SM commenting on Grant’s case (or any other case, crime, story) in a way that you know, funnels into his already-developed thesis on the system and the law is far more toxic than whatever I said, which really comes down to disagreeing based on both of you guys’ actual statements which relied entirely on a parsing-out of the phrase “fuck the police”.

Real quick. Think of this: Someone who’s less knee-jerk about the government and authority and all that might come out of the Grant verdict with a sense that indeed, justice was finally served and this sentence is a pretty big deal because usually cops walk away with a “not guilty” verdict. They would also be pretty dopey if they just sorta tossed that out into the Tumblr world with little to no thought, but you know…