R.A. The Rugged Man was almost a client of Reggie Osse, but he opted otherwise and this motivated Combat Jack to leave the music business and become a weblogger.
Get ready for Combat…
Archive for the ‘Social Upheaval’ Category
Respect The Architects…
Saturday, March 23rd, 2013
Rest In Prophetic Prose to Chinua Achebe.
I read this book in the 6th grade and my teacher went back to my parents and told them I might be turning into a revolutionary. Ha, never that.
Revolution is the act of revolving in a circle. Time lapses and you return to the position you were previously in. I am the high evolutionary. Forever moving upward. Onward.
Chinua Achebe was an author who understood the difficult compromises Africans must make living thru Western culture while trying to maintain their traditions and values. Unfortunately, things fall apart.
Peace to Okonkwo.
50 Shots Of Kimani Gray…
Sunday, March 17th, 2013
NYC’s latest display of state sponsored terrorism against young Black males is the murder of 16yr old Kimani Gray in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood. The police claim, as they approached several youth, that Gray displayed a firearm and pointed it at them, causing them to discharge their weapons at him.
This story has been repeated ad nauseam during my 42 years of life. A gun, a wallet, a package of Skittles and a can Arizona Iced Tea. Kimani Gray chose to run from the police that evening because being arrested was something he couldn’t bring home to his mother. For little girls in the ghetto it’s coming home pregnant. For little ghetto boys it’s getting arrested. These are the burdens they are ashamed to transfer to their parents.
I’m not here to tell people that Kimani Gray was some angelic child. He was a 16yr old, like all children who are 16yrs old. They are silly, childish and mostly hormonal. Growing up in a city without a permanent male role model is difficult for most young boys. The images of males in the streets and the media all point to an alpha male hyper-masculinity. There isn’t any space to be 16yrs old and vulnerable.
This drop isn’t about police brutality. Of course the police are brutal. They are cowards trained to fear these young boys, as well as to be the first line of defense when someone DOES have a gun and the intentions to do ill. The people in poor communities aren’t allowed to have their relationship with the police both ways. The only way they will have it is with police using their triggers indiscriminately. There will be no security without the sacrifice of their young. This is the prevailing theme.
But this drop isn’t about the police. We already know what their role is in this bullshit. This post is for all the 16yr old Black males still alive at the time this drop goes live on this site, or the moment your eyes find this page. All the Black boys in places like Chicago, St.Louis and Camden, still clinging to whatever life we will allow them to eke out after we have taken all their essence from them. After we have taken all of their style, slang, swagger and soul and put it into the capitalistic blender to create a Harlem Shake.
After we have taken everything beautiful and prideful from them, what will these Black boys have left?
Like the Central Park Five, all the Black boys will have left is this AmeriKKKan hell. Unless WE demand more for them.
In my prayers Kimani Gray may at least have gone to Heaven.
EFF THE POLICE!
Friday, March 8th, 2013
Not sure what the city is up to right now but I have never seen this many police encircling the city and buzzing about. Tons of cops with those secret service earpieces on the streets now also. Maybe New York City is really the largest open-air prison colony after all?
Shorty got stopped for what appeared to be no apparent reason at all
I see homey had on the ‘Gym Green’ Foamposite Pros
Maybe the police was upset with all the hair this kid had on his head
After the police wrote down his info the kid was allowed to go to his school.
SMH
Shake To This…
Monday, February 25th, 2013
The Harlem Shake has been one of the hottest internets memes over the last few years and while I generally avoid internets memes if there aren’t kittens directly featured in them I have enjoyed some of the various renditions based on this electronic dance music song called ‘Harlem Shake‘.
The song isn’t about the actual Harlem Shake dance or else it would have never become a meme. The actual Harlem Shake is to dance what John Coltrane was to jazz. The dance is both improvised and wholly formal. These Harlem Shake videos are all improvisation. That is why they are so funny.
My argument is that we shouldn’t get caught up in the formality of the actual Harlem Shake dance. Let white folks have their fun with it. This way we can have our fun too. The little kids from Harlem responsible for creating the Harlem Shake will have to create something else if they can.