Childish things we put away!

"Hip-hop you're close to 50, when can we grow up?"


What a question! 

I recent years I listened to Hip Hop music less and less. The main reason for this being that many artists' lyrical content nowadays are usually very similar to their content of yesteryears with only a small minority progressing i.e: discussing social issues, personal challenges in adulthood, no longer rapping on the same things they did 15+ years ago. 

This seems to transcend music genres and traces of the 'Peter Pan syndrome' entered society, in general. I mean, do we really need people over forty years old suggesting we should party hard, or get yours first. As Mos Def said "...that's the kinda illin' fillin' up the cemetery". 

In Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth, he proclaimed: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things."

I believe he is trying to warn against the ignorance that exists in immaturity. Once we grow up can we really blank out that which is clearly visible. What are we as the older generation going to do with ourselves? We can't choose, we are role models, whether good or bad.

There's nothing wrong with being youthful in the heart, but real responsibility and concerns for others really needs to be a paramount investment of our lives once we past our years of adolescence.

I'm not saying it's easy and I don't claim to be the embodiment of what this "grown up" but one thing that seriously get me, is when I chose to switch off from fantasy and switch on to reality and see the craziness in this world. The later part of Sho Baraka's third verse does highlight an important factor in this. 

At the end of the day, while this question is directed to "Hip Hop", I think it is really an important question for us, ask yourself do you need to grow up? What do you represent and what do you promote?