As an old hip hop head, reformed felon, empath, and mom there were certain elements of the newer generation of hip hop I didn’t care for. The death of XXX Tentacion really opened my eyes and got my mind going in so many directions. For example every generation of music (not just Hip Hop), the older generation would down it, saying its not real music . All the way back to Elvis when rock and roll was first developed. My parents said it to me, took CDs away from me , and I have said it to my son when we would we speak of Hip Hop. XXX Tentacion is my sons favorite artist, to be honest I didn’t like the head lines I seen on him, but after my son was very adamant about him changing and spreading positivity with the Helping Hands Challenge and making music for kids with depression, I decided to follow him. I too was on a wrong path before and have went through a change process myself, so I respected that. A few days later he was shot and killed. My son was very distraught and wanted to be left alone, so I digged into researching X fully so I could help my son find peace and my soul hurt immediately for judging this man. You can read my last blog where I fully discussed this in detail. It ultimately inspired me, and I hope to be a part of the change process of getting people to not judge a book by its cover and instead of judging actually try to help people. I actually now have a lot of admiration for the new era of hip hop ; in the fact of how they are transmuting the negative energy into positive by using the hate to build. Now I just hope more artist take onto what XXX Tentacion was trying to preach before his life got cut short.
So I started following more new hip hop artist. Tekashi 6ix9ine being one of them. I honestly feel he gets the most hate out of all the new artist. I admire how he has used the hate to build a very impressive platform. He is selling out world tours that he just finished up and even has a new app that covers his events live called XStream Pass. He recently debuted his latest single FEFE featuring Nicki Minaj . The video is very vibrant, eye catching in color,provocative, and artistic. The day before the single release Tekashi was kidnapped,robbed, and pistol whipped. The single was still released on July 21st , despite the life changing experience, and within 24 hours received 13,000,000 views on YouTube.
Before X’s passing he had started giving back to the community.
Now paying tribute to X at every one of his shows
After his near death experience he feels it was X’s spirit who was with him and saved him on early Sunday morning.
Now after the success of the release of FEFE, he has decided to donate a percentage of FEFE profits to Youth Programs. With hopes of making a better tomorrow .
Really carrying on the true message that XXX Tentacion was trying to spread through his Helping Hands Challenge . XXX Tentacion Foundation just awarded Gun Violence victim Devin Anderson, who was gunned down at the age of 22, and for the past year has been restricted to just his house due to his injuries. The XXX Tentacion Foundation with help of all his supporters were able to purchase him a new fully equipped mini van in honor of Jahseh aka XXXTentacion.
Jahsey’s ultimate message through his last music video SAD, which dropped a week after his death, was for change, love , compassion, and compromise of the world. He fought his old self in a battle to the death, first in physical form then won by defeating the old him with his mind. A very powerful and thought provoking illustration that I hope people watching caught and grasped the full meaning of it. Us as a society in general need to understand how powerful our minds are and how what you think is your reality. Keep thinking negative and more negative will appear in your life. Loving one another, showing compassion, and compromising is the only way for a better future. Never be too closed minded on any issue. As the great Socrates said “True knowledge,is knowing you know nothing at all.”
With all this said I fully applaud and appreciate Tekashi 6ix9ine, and hope he keeps the movement going spreading positivity and giving back to the community. I honestly hope to see a deeper side in his music as well.
So I will leave you with this, us old hip hop heads and people as a whole need to understand change is inevitable. The next generation will always be ten fold what the former generation was. You don’t have to love it just embrace it. Downing and insulting the next generation will only create a wall between you and them. How can you get your message or wisdom across that way? Leave your comments below!!
