GatewayRedbirds.com

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx ... 6&GT1=7702

There's another side to Alicia Keys: conspiracy theorist. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist."

Keys, 27, said she's read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead," according to an interview in the magazine's May issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing."

I'm not really sure what to say about all that, other than it must be hard going through life making millions of dollars with a persecution complex about your race.

I don't know why making money means means that you can't recognize something like racial persecution or whatever. This happens all the time when it comes to professional athletes too. The minute someone is critical about something someone else is always ready to point out how much money is in so-and-so's bank account.

I would get on her so quick.

Hmm, that may have been a little harsh, Spider John. I'm not sure that's exactly what you meant, but chalk it up to a personal pet peeve.

it's always easier to believe silly conspiracy theories than to believe people just kinda suck in general.

haltz wrote:I don't know why making money means means that you can't recognize something like racial persecution or whatever. This happens all the time when it comes to professional athletes too. The minute someone is critical about something someone else is always ready to point out how much money is in so-and-so's bank account.

Not too harsh, Haltz, you're right. Money has nothing to do with pointing out a wrong. But this is a pet peeve of mine. Instead of pointing out legit racial persecution, she's just spouting her own brand of racism. Was racism the reason for the creation of gansta rap and the East Coast/West Coast feud? Do you think anyone was afraid of what a great black leader Tupac or Notorious B.I.G. would become?
Ridiculous.

If she wants to talk about racism, point out real racism that exists, not misplacing blame.

I really meant to post this in Rants.

Word, Spider John. Quit with the chickenlittling and the boywhocriedwolfing so we can talk about real racism. This sort of nuttiness just plays into the hands of the racism deniers.

I'm pretty sure gangsta rap really existed. What else was N.W.A. singing about?

Anyways, Tupac or Biggie as the next great black leaders? That's a pretty big reach.

Not all the crazy conspiracy theories are false. Much of the government/establishment was terrified by the social movements of 60's and did what they could to try and destroy them. That included covert action, most notoriously the FBI's COINTELPRO program. This included, for example, an effort to try and get MLK Jr. to commit suicide by forging a letter supposedly from a supporter threating to expose King's marital infidelity. That's only a small example. Many strange and messed up things were going on.

I don't believe that gangster rap is a government plot, but unfortunately, there's enough truth to similar stories to make people believe this sort of thing.

Arthur Dent wrote:Not all the crazy conspiracy theories are false. Much of the government/establishment was terrified by the social movements of 60's and did what they could to try and destroy them. That included covert action, most notoriously the FBI's COINTELPRO program. This included, for example, an effort to try and get MLK Jr. to commit suicide by forging a letter supposedly from a supporter threating to expose King's marital infidelity. That's only a small example. Many strange and messed up things were going on.

I don't believe that gangster rap is a government plot, but unfortunately, there's enough truth to similar stories to make people believe this sort of thing.

I don't see the similarity. The suggestion is that huge numbers of individual artists were either fooled or were complicit in this, despite numerous intelligent explanations of the genre over the years from those same artists. She's being lazy and completely ignorant of evidence in this case.

The only thing she's right about is that the media fueled the feud, which is also true of any high profile feud.