The Instrumental Explained

"The Instrumental" is a take on two individuals in similar objective circumstances but with very dissimilar subjective frames of mind, one of immense admiration and the other intense abhorrence but the end result being both individuals rationally addicted to the irrational circumstances they find themselves in.

The television and the radio have been deconstructed to simple boxes each sending endless streams of information both useful and useless.

Th first individual constantly observes the box under the faint pretext he will observe information that will instruct him on how to discontinue his obsession with the box. He is caught in a feedback loop (also a principle of marketing) which has an inherent mechanism that infinitely justifies its own existence to the observer by playing on his or her ignorance (which speaks on the nature of the observers limited pre-existing circumstances & conditions before their encounters with the box) as well as the observers gullibility, natured or nurtured. The incessant need for this information that will somehow bring about the observers liberation reactively makes him a slave. A self fulfilling and self similar element that reflects the paradoxes of life i.e. A Slave To The Idea & Act Of Being Liberated From One's Own Slavery. The chains & lock represent the strong connectivity & attachment to the box but can also be interpreted from a couple perspectives. My favourite is that they are bonds of love even though the tethering was a product of hatred. 'Love' because of the prerequisite of strong connectivity that is in the definition and description of the act and idea of being in love. The paradox being in that it was all done out of hatred. This is a very " what-is-on-the-surface" based interpretation.

The Doctors are us. In the sense that they are observers but also within their observation they are distorting and effecting what they are observing with just their very presence (see Theory Of Relativity, Quantum Mechanics etc.)

The removal of the voice is a very deliberate act and speaks to the act & idea of interpretation itself. The voice of what is being observed has been silenced and replaced with the voice of the interpreter who goes on to redefine the motive and intentions of the observed piece based own their own knowledge and experiences. The world is merely an instrumental where the vocals are provide by the observers who critique and associate value thus completing the score.


The second individual is less theory and more realistic in origination. Maybe later...
The rest i leave to your dare i say 'interpretation'...

"Nice with the blah, blah, blah..."

FNF UP!!!

FYI...We are also both of the individuals...The song is based on real life events...Just look at what you are doing now...looking to the box for answers...

Source

Disease = Falsehood

When asked by a fan what 'disease' is being talked about in the song Streets On Fire. Lupe's only reply was "Falsehood".

Really... Who has the patent to TRUTH?

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

The Streets "The Peacock Mentality"

This is a great speech Dr. Cornell West gave and he touches on two things I find very interesting. First, the notion of "History's debt to humanity" and secondly materialism which led to Lupe tagging The Streets as "My darling fraudulent Angel". Here's some food for thought....



"I am not Cornell West, am Cornell Westside" - Lupe Fiasco(Just Might be OK)

Lupe Talks Streets on Fire

This is what Lupe had to say about his motivation and conception of the song Streets on Fire. What I find very interesting with his explanation is that it clearly relates to the theme of The Cool concept the we have been looking into lately. That of "Sin as Disease". And also manages to capture the controversies and debates over the existence of a God and also who is really responsible for setting the moral code. This debate was at the center of Friedrich Nietzsche's works, though Nietzsche thought the solution to this whole problem was the "Over-man" or the increased reliance on the self in order to realize man's true power. And again this discussion is channeled in questions of "what is real?", "what is the truth?" and "who decides on the truths?"

“Streets of Fire” is pulled directly from the pages of [George Orwell's] 1984 -- more the mood of it. The First verse is talking about a disease, but there are all these questions about whether the disease is real. It’s the same rules as doublethink. Is there really a war or was it something that they created to keep the public in check? I injected those really basic structural ideas that were set up in 1984. I always love to have triple and quadruple meanings. I learned in the process [of making The Cool] how to do it on a macro level. I’ve always been able to do it with my rhymes, where a metaphor means many things, but that song represents AIDS, it represents the hysteria around coolness.
But “Streets of Fire” is really the story of The Streets, the breakdown of that particular character, that temptress. The Streets is a walking, talking temptress with dollar signs for eyes and tattoos of her dead boyfriends across her chest. She’s the age-old temptress who tempted everybody from King Tut to Al Capone. But that’s just the literal level. Figuratively, she’s the [real] streets. I represented her as a [female] because it goes back to a biblical story where Jesus asks God to show her the world, and God shows him the world in the form of a woman. She was a princess, she was beautiful. She had these long robes and jewelry. But as he got closer, he saw that she was ancient. Her eyes were sunk in, and she had a skeletal form. Her robe was tattered. Her jewelry was dull and looked fake. Don’t take everything for how it seems, you know.
One thing is that there is no such thing as absolute, not even absolute weather. It’s a false construct. But how much falseness do we chase? One thing that Nietzsche said was that we live in a world full of falseness. It’s weird to believe in the things we believe. To me, the dopest thing that [Nietzsche] ever said was we allow ourselves to be lied to every night, every time we go to sleep.

From Rhapsohy

Streets On Fire Week - SIN EQUALS DISEASE

(With this article the main focus of the discussion is going to be the similarities between "sin" and disease. Lupe gives off the idea that The Streets' role in the The Cool is that of a temptress for sin. The glamor or lights lead one into committing sin in pursuit of respect and admiration of the streets."With the logo of our dreams, the purpose of our sin(scene)"- The Coolest. So does this mean The Game takes on the role of the devil/ Satan/ Lucifer? Is the actual disease Lupe is talking about actually "sin"? What does alcohol and drug addiction treatment have to do with this concept of sin as disease? Can these questions even be answered? This is a nice article thats shades some insight on some of those questions) 

Written by Pernell Johnson

Advertising campaigns specifically targeted at African-American communities attempt to delude us into thinking that smoking or drinking will make us more prestigious, smart, attractive, or popular. Research has shown that we as African Americans spend an inordinate amount of time in front of the television set. Therefore, we are disproportionately exposed to television’s grandiose, yet false, and ultimately harmful message; that grave personal problems can be effectively resolved in thirty minutes or less. What if there were a drug that could chemically induce feelings of upper classness? It would be a lot like crack.

In recent years, "addiction" has become an extremely popular term for describing a wide range of behaviors formerly called "sins." Many would agree that defining sin is best left to religious communities, but convergence of religion and science in the 12-Step recovery movement has brought us full circle to a most pernicious mind trap called "addictive disease."

The common meaning of "sin" in America is "an offense against God or against religious law, or a state of separation from God." Among the religious denominations, ones with more liberal theologies trust the person’s subjective relationship to God as the final guidance in matters of personal conduct. As a general rule, the more fundamentalist a religion is and the more it relies upon the objective content of scriptures, the more objectively "sin" is defined. The dynamic interplay of theology and politics is one of the most admirable aspects of the U.S. Constitution, which has been called "The Great American Experiment." Because of the separation of church and state, we have become a great nation---not so much in the economic sense, but in our ethical stance among nations.. that priceless separation insists that while laws may regulate behavior, sin cannot be objectively defined, and government has no business combating sin.

Alcoholic and other drug abuse/dependence is a behavior that has been assigned the designation of a disease or the disease concept of addiction and still it has not been relegated to the physicians and clinicians but is subject to the law of the land and mandatory minimum sentences. It is the belief of this writer that the above described behavior is a sin and all of the related disorders and behaviors should be addressed by the religious community and the medical community i.e. American Society for Addiction Medicine.

Without question the African-American community is hit the hardest and disproportionately by what is called the disease of addiction (sin). The 12-Step recovery group movement, however, has vaulted over the U.S. Constitution by disguising itself as a treatment program for a disease epidemic. Sin-disease has infected the American consciousness to such an extent that the government has undertaken to stamp it out. Once again, our courts are hearing cases pertaining to sin, and sentences are being handed out requiring religious indoctrination.

A great, government-supported industry, the treatment community, wages war on sin. The disease concept of addiction is an article of faith. The experts are divided, having the same doubts and confusion as the general public. remember, also that the addictive disease idea has been around for hundreds of years, but it became accepted only through strenuous propaganda efforts by the recovery group movement. In the absence of supporting evidence, the disease concept gains acceptance on other grounds.

Doctors say it’s so, and they should know. The American Medical Association says alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases. People in recovery, the survivorsthemselves, say they have a disease. It is vital to the survival of alcoholics and drug addicts to accept that they have a disease, so that they may receive life-saving treatment. Challenging the disease idea is dangerous, resulting in suffering and death for others.

Employment in certain jobs and holding public office requires endorsement of the disease concept of addiction. One may receive leniency in court and be granted early parole from prison by admitting to addictive disease. Community programs based onthe disease model are more favorably reviewed and funded than if based on other concepts. Addicted people are told that unless they label themselves accordingly, they will die. Typically, they are under great stress, seeking anything that will help. Family members are told that addiction is a family disease that will destroy them all unless they admit they have it and get treatment.

The profit motive accounts for much of the enthusiasm for the disease concept of addiction. Addiction is an incurable, insurable disease. The addiction treatment industry is an expansion of the 12-Step recovery group movement into the money economy.

The Streets On Fire Week

This week is going to be dedicated to the song Streets on Fire. This is probably one on of Lupe's best written song. It is so wide and insightful that I sometimes doubt Lupe fully understands the true genius of the song. The week is going to feature articles that relate to the various topics the song touches on. The week will be concluded with a summary of my opinions about the song.

Chasing The Cool- Black Men, CNN’s Black in America, and Hip-Hop Culture

Written by Michael Partis

For the brother who:

• remembers being a “Black Boy.”
• wanted to be “The Bad Nigga” like Jack Johnson
• feels like he’s America’s “Native Son.”
• is constantly reminded he is an “Invisible Man.”
• lived by B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments”
• “seen Hoop Dreams deflat like a true fiend’s weight”
• is “Black on Both Sides”
• wanted to be “the coolest nigga”

CNN talked about us, now it’s our turn.

The depiction of Black men in America can be as varied as their life experiences are. While many Black men have formed solidarity, brotherhood, and fraternity as a coping mechanism to fight America’s persistent stereotyping, prejudice, and racism towards them, there are differences in attitude, political thought, and world-view that rigidly and bitterly separate the group just the same (if not more).

CNN’s Black in America documentary did an excellent job of showing the complexity and diversity of the lives and experiences of Blacks in America. Journalist Soledad O’Brien brought out stories of triumphant, failure, joy, and pain. For Blacks in America, the stories of pain and struggle form a thread that we can find in some part of our lives; but for many it makes up the entire of their lives. CNN failed to explain: how we got to this point, why we are at this point, and where do we go from here.

For Black men in America, this is an especially daunting challenge. We as a group have not responded to the challenge of being Black in America as well as Black women have.

Hip-Hop culture and Rap music are not the reason for this. Ludacris, Jim Jones, Young Jeezy, or any other rapper is not the person to blame. However, it is time for us as a community to look at how Black males shape their masculinity.

Popular media has accomplished a quite amazing feat in their chronicles and portrayals of Black men: they have managed to consistently feature him as the most desired, while at the same time as the most feared. He can be the sagging pants, tattooed “thug” the greater public fears; the hyper-athletic, physically imposing “natural” athlete advertisers clamor for; the smooth talking, sharply dressed, handsome “playa;” or eroticized as a “god” because of perfect bone structure, a muscular physique, and a “perfect smile.”

Whether loved or hated, all these qualities translate to one thing: being cool. And in America, a cool Black man is marketable; and mostly importantly, PAID.

Tupac, Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Billy Dee Williams, Will Smith, Tyson Beckford (and the list could go on and on.) All were/are PAID.

However it is Hip-Hop culture, and the life associated with it, that has unquestionably become the most cool. The most important point is that it is seen as cool by young Black men not just because of the lifestyle or the material gains, but because it births economic opportunity. That is the part of the equation so often missed.

And for poor, young Black boys throughout the United States there is no more important objective then making money. So you can move your moms out the hood; so you can take care of your little brother with really bad asthma; so you can get the big house, with the big chain, and the fly car.

Indeed Black men in the 21st century are not just a “Black Boy,” a “Native Son,” an “Invisible Man,” a “brother,” or a “nigga.” These young Black men are trying to become cool. In fact, they are trying to become the coolest.

Thus many Black men in America spend their life chasing The Cool. It is an idea that rapper Lupe Fiasco has brilliantly tackled within his first two albums (through the song, “The Cool” on his 1st album, and by expanding his analyze on his second album entitled Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool). While creating a metaphorical, fictional story, Lupe does speak about a young person striving for a cultural aesthetic that brings fame, acceptance, material wealth, and recognition. In his story, chasing The Cool is apart of contemporary Black urban reality.

And so the question becomes how do we change what The Cool is, and how do we bring new examples of The Cool into the everyday life of Black males?

The beauty of the Black in America documentary is that we saw examples of Black men who are living up to their responsibilities. They are The Cool.

There was Mr. Kennedy (a single father struggling to find employment and housing in Brooklyn, NY), along with several other men from all over the country; ranging from men who were newlyweds, to those who were part of professionally success, middle and upper class Black families.

We need responsible Black men teaching elementary school, as social workers in our community, and as part of the married Black couple that lives in your building and saying “Good Morning” to you on his way to work in the morning.

We need them to be present in Compton and South Central, LA. To be in Brooklyn, NY like Mr. Kennedy. We need these responsible Black role models to be present in inner-city Baltimore, in East St. Louis, in Detroit, in Atlanta; in Liberty City, FL; in Philadelphia, in south-side Chicago, and in New Orleans.

We need Black male role models in our urban Black communities that are filled with high concentrations of Blacks living at or below the poverty live; with schools that are ill-equipped to educate our young people, and filled with administrators that frequently mismanages our school systems; places where jobs that pay a livable wage were hard to come by way before our country’s current economic hardships.

We need those brothers to be on Ebony’s 25 Coolest Black Men of All Time list.

We all as a community need to come together and find ways to make those brothers to become the coolest.