“Better get in where you fit in ‘cuz it’s crucial” OUTKAST, “Mamacita,” Aquemini, 1998

“No, nooo, noooooooo. I’m so tired, it’s been so long – struggling, hopelessly settling for the day. Heyyy. Ohhhh, I sacrifice every breath I breathe. To make you believe, I’d give my life awayyyy. Oh lord, I’m so tired, I’m so tired. My feet feel like I walked most of the road on my owwwwn.. All on my owwwwn, weeeeeee… We alive but we ain’t livin, that’s why I’m givin until it’s gone. Cause I don’t wanna be alone (I don’t wanna be alone). I don’t wanna be alone.. yeahhhheeeeee. If there’s anything I can say, to help you find your way. Touch your soul, make it whole, the same for you and I…There’s not a minute that goes by that I don’t believe that you die.. but I can feel it in the wind. The beginning or the end. But people keep your head to the skyyyyy.” OUTKAST, “Liberation” Aquemini, 1998

BALANCE, HARMONY, RECIPROCITY. I just can’t help myself. 30 Days of OUTKAST has been more political than personal if I can say so myself. Maybe it’s politically personal. Perhaps personally political? I’on know. All I know is it is a testament of the level of social and political commentary that is really inherent in their music. Of course, they don’t fall into the “conscious rappers” category, but then again what’s a conscious rapper. Maybe I’m just feeling real defiant right now because so much is going on around me, and listening to Big and Dre helps me manage it.

For example, I am not an immigrant so I do not know what it feels like to need to leave my country for America. But I am part of an oppressed population – descendants of slaves brought to these shores by force. So in a way I have a level of compassion and empathy for other oppressed populations. I imagine, just by listening to people who have family in a place like Mexico, that the environment in some of the cities is pretty harsh. It must be really bad if people continue to pay smugglers thousands of dollars in order to pack themselves sardine-style in trucks where the conditions are nearly unbearable. And they do it to come to a country where they have to hide from the police, work for less than minimum wage, and if in Arizona or Georgia, avoid situations where they risk deportation if they can’t reproduce on-the-spot documentation that they “belong here.” Why am I talking about this today? Well, in recent news, over 500 people from El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, India, Nepal, China and Japan cramped into 2 semi-trailers to try and make their way to America. Check out the story below as it appeared on CNN.

With no luck, because of the increased security at Mexico’s borders, they were detained in detention centers. I could imagine the smugglers repeating their own version of OUTKAST’s line “better get in where you fit in cause it’s crucial” or perhaps in their own language they might sing some form of “Liberation” – especially Ceelo’s part when he sings “I’m so tired. I’m so tired. My feet feel like I walked most of the road on my own.” Staying alive in that semi, surviving the journey, and making it to America are all crucial. I’m sure the risk alone brought on a level of exhaustion and fatigue. So I know they were tired. Viewing the pictures of the truck and the x-ray photo of the cramped passengers, I had a flashback to the movie Amistad and all of the other re-enactments of how Africans looked while they were unwillingly packed in a boat and taken to strange and foreign lands. To this day, I can not wrap my mind around how it must have felt to be forced to come to another country. Now people place themselves in harsh conditions to come here. The irony blows my mind. Really it does.

The DDR: There are certain things that are crucial to me. Liberation is crucial to me. Educating myself, young leaders, and those who are around me is crucial to me. Keeping it real at the intersection is crucial to me. However, I do not know if anything is so crucial that I would pay $7,000, pack myself in a truck with hundreds of others, and risk my freedom if detained. On the other hand, I do realize that I am fortunate enough to live in a country where I do not ever have to think of leaving if I don’t want to. Again, the irony of this blows my mind – especially because I’m part of an oppressed population, but I don’t consider myself an oppressed person. Strange huh? Is anything so crucial to you that you would pay money and risk your life? Are you an immigrant who suffered harsh conditions to travel to America? What is so crucial to you that you would suck up whatever consequences, and get in where you fit in to join the cause towards liberation? Shake that load off…Shake that load off… Shake that load off… Shake that load off…