Take It Personal!

So I was in the car driving back from my mini-weekend trip from Dallas, and I had XM Satellite radio playing. The station was set on Jamie Foxx's new station, The Foxxhole (149). Its the bomb (I don't know if that lingo is still hot..probably not, but I digress)! So on this particular station they have a mixture of comedy, live talk show, and all types of music--Old school/New school/Neo Soul/ R&B. So a song came named, "Take it personal", by GangStarr. The lyrics to this '92 hit goes as follows:

I never thought that you would crab me Undermine me and backstab me
But I can see clearly now the rain is gone
The pain is gone but what you did was still wrong
There was a few times I needed your support
But you tried to play me like an indoor sport
like racquetball tennis fool whatever
All I know is you attempted to be clever
Nevertheless cleverness can't impress
Cause now you've been expose like a person undressed
cause I see through you, I'm the Guru
Now what you gonna do when I step to you
and when I pay you back I'll be hurting you
This ain't no threat so take it personal
Rap is an art you can't own no loops
It's how you hook em up and the rhyme style troop
So don't even think you could say someone bit
off your weak beat come on you need to quit
I flip lines and kick rhymes that never sound like yours
There oughtta be laws against you yapping your jaws
Originality overflows from in me
and the truth is, that you wish you could live the
life I live and kick the lyrics I kick
But bear in mind that you can't think as quick
So Premier drops a beat, for me to say verses to
And if I sound doper then take it personal
Don't be mad cause I don't come around the way
like I used to, I don't have time these days
I'm keeping busy making power moves
Don't try to say I don't remember you
You shouldn't let your jealousy show like that
I stopped coming by, cause of the way you act
Telling my business to kids I don't even know
You're like a daytime talk show, and that's low
So you can tell everyone, that I'm jerking you
And if you don't like it, take it personal

HAHAHA! Crucial lyrics! This definitely goes with my mantra. Keep it real only if you want me to keep it real too!

Too many times are people confrontational about how they are living or better yet.. how you are living! All in your face saying whatever they want just because they can. But these same people are too fragile to handle any type of commentary from you, even though it may be beneficial for them to hear. Example...

Example #1

When I was younger, I was अ free spirit! My parents raised us, my brother and I, to be self sufficient and trained up to be able to make smart decisions with input from them when decisions were extremely complicated or when decision we made they knew would have long term detrimental effects on our lives. Don’t misunderstand me, my parents ALWAYS had the final say, but they never wanted us to be so dependent on them, that we would never be able to grow up. Many people didn’t like my parent’s methodology. We had many conflicts with my friend’s parents, telling us that we need more discipline and supervision. They told my parents that my brother would end up being a criminal and I would end up pregnant. We were labeled the problem children. This foolishness could not have been further from the truth! Behind the scenes, what was really going on was that THEIR children were the problem kids. Mischievous, lying, promiscuous, back talking, sneaking around, smoking, drinking… you name it they were doing it! We would try to help our shady friends out! Try to keep them from going too far and reeling them back in to safety. It didn’t matter.. we still got blamed for everything. The majority of those people who we grew up with are “out there” doing the things that they were doing secretly as children, but are now adults with their problem in the light. Now everyone can see the difference between my brother and I versus the other supposedly good kids. Its hilarious! Ok, not really, but it is sobering that the people who took so much effort scrutinizing how we were being raised, didn’t take equal amount of effort to examine their own parenting techniques and the lives of their children. They should have kept it real with themselves and maybe they could have been better parents to their children.

Example #2

My little sister is 16yrs old and is a little spit fire! She is the ultimate daddy's little girl, spoiled rotten (no hate here). My parents decided to take her out of the local Adventist academy and send her to boarding academy. She didn't want to go, neither did many of the people in my home town. Concern for a child in your community is admirable, but many people took it too far! They asked my parents.. "Have you prayed about this?", "Have you asked her if she wants to go?"... They also made comments like.. "I don't think you should send her!", "If she were my child I wouldn't send her...", "We hope she doesn't go..", "We think you are making a mistake and you will be sorry". What?! Are you kidding me!? How dare they! If ever either of my parents even made a suggestion about what some of these people did with their children.. it would have been an all out-in your face- "don't tell me what to do with my child"- neck rolling- cussing and screaming- fiasco. So why did these same people feel justified for saying these things to my parents??

Example #3

Since I am new to blogging and this may be read by people who don't know me. I have been in a relationship with Steven L for almost 8 years. We meet in summer before senior year of high school and began dating shortly after. We dated all through college and we are still together. Many of our friends who meet during college are now married and some have even started families. This is really nice :) However, many people do not understand why Steven and I haven't tied the knot...jumped the broom.... entered into eternal bliss.. We tell people that we want to finish school (we are both in PhD programs at TAMU). We have a plan that is working for us, so why do so many people feel the need to harass us constantly about when our wedding plans will become finalized? Why does it matter to these people? What is good for some may not be good for all. And truth be told, far too many of the people who ran to the altar, will probably end up running to the courthouse to dissolve their silly union for reason I will discuss in a later post. Why is patience, especially in a supposed lifelong commitment wrong? I’m just keeping it real because they feel it’s necessary.

Example #4

If you read my introductory blog post, you would have noticed that I mentioned my political associations. I am NOT a liberal. I disagree with many of the liberal political policies. I find it interesting that many people who look like me (black folks), refuse to appreciate that fact that other people (blacks especially) might have a different political stand point. I have been berated by many people about my view that are different from theirs. Why is this such a problem, when the majority of these people couldn't give me a solid support for the things they "believe in", so why attack me? Do my viewpoints offend you in some way other than your ignorance of the subject at hand? If I were to actually respond to the harassment I receive it wouldn't be so nice and many people would have their feeling hurt by their blatant lack of understanding. Now, don't get me wrong there are some educated people who disagree with me, that's cool. But the name of the game should be... Stay informed, come to your own conclusions, READ, and discuss with other people to confirm your understanding on a topic. Don't take what people tell you as sole truth. Most of the time people are lying and making up stuff to get you to go along with their plan.

Bottom line, be careful about the comments you make when your objective is "keeping it real". Let me do me... you do you.. and we can all be happy! But if you insist on being in my business and you find you don't like how or what I do.. then TAKE IT PERSONAL!