“And in the 13th amendment, it don’t say that we kings
They say that we legally slaves if we go to the bing” Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill recently released an album titled “Championships” in December of 2018. The quote comes from one of his songs on the album the name of the song is “Trauma”. In Meek’s last two albums he has spoke on the justice system in America particularly how it affects him and other members of the black community. Songs like “Young Black America”, “What’s Free”, “Trauma”, and “Stay Woke” are all songs that speak on the Justice System in America.

Meek Mill talks about his personal experiences with the law beginning in 2008 when he was first arrested. He also talks about his recent trial due to the violation of his probation. He clearly states how he disagrees with the judge (Genece E. Brinkley) and believes her ruling to be unfair. Meek also addresses police brutality multiple times in many different songs, in these songs he even suggests alternate ways of dealing with a situation other than shooting. Meek Mill also references former NFL player and now activist Colin Kaepernick and his protests against America’s Justice System.

Meek Mill has become more than just a rapper he has become a leader and activist in the black community. He continuously speaks on the hardships many African Americans face on a daily basis. He’s using his platform to try and reform the justice system and the way of thinking of many.

In today’s society, people have many different beliefs and they are allowed to express them. Some people express their opinions in better ways than others and other people are not cautious or understanding of the way different people think. Jussie Smollett, an artist and star of the Fox television show “Empire”, was attacked in Chicago early morning on February 29, 2019. The suspects were two white men who yelled racial and homophobic slurs and wrapped a rope around his neck. This incident is being viewed as a “hate crime” and has our society exasperated and dispirited.

As Smollett was walking down the street, the two men approached him yelling the slurs and began hitting him in the face while pouring an unknown chemical substance on him. After the duo fled, Smollett went to an apartment and his manager called the police. Luckily, he was not wounded as much as he could have been and he is able to perform perfectly fine. During his first performance after the attack he says “My body is strong but my soul is stronger.” This roused the crowd and everyone began yelling and clapping because this portrays how strong Smollett and any other African American person is.

This situation is only one of many examples that show how outrageous our society can be. It also shows how racism still occurs in our world after so many years. No matter how many times we discuss it or how many people face consequences, there will always be people that use violence to express their opinions to the world or will choose not to believe in equality. It is up to the rest of us to continue to demand justice for African Americans in our society and teach the upcoming culture that everyone is equal and violence is not an acceptable way to voice their opinions or believes. #BLACKLIVESMATTER!!!!    

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/arts/television/empire-jussie-smollett-attacked.amp.html

This article talks about the singer, R.Kelly, who has been accused of doing many sexual things with girls who are underaged. Even since the beginning of his career in the late 1980s, R.Kelly has been accused of these things. It all started when he started to date the singer, Aaliyah, at age 14 or 15. This caused a huge outbreak of negative comments and people began to call him a predator. Kelly was also in a child pornography scandal that involved him urinating on a young girl. Also, there were many rape charges against him. Even after all of these allegations, people slowly began to forget about these situations because he was a huge R&B sensation at that time.

These allegations are coming up again today because the girls who are accusing Kelly of doing these things have conducted a show called, “Surviving R.Kelly.” This show gives a platform for all of the young girls who were allegedly assaulted by R.Kelly to finally speak out.

This represents the huge problem of African-American women not being important in society. Most of the women who accused Kelly of these things were African American and people didn’t believe them because of that. Even the rapper, Chance the Rapper, spoke about this in an interview by saying, “(i) didn’t value the accusers’ stories because they were black women.” This shines a huge light on the problem because even a black man is saying that his opinion on the women was based solely on them being black. I feel like this is very unfair and contradicts women’s rights because people talk about women having equal rights, but then they say a black woman doesn’t have credibility because she’s black.

Featured Article: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/r-kellys-scandals-and-alleged-sex-crimes-from-aaliyah-marriage-to-cult-reports-197012/

 

 

This article talks about a young singer by the name of Jacquees, saying that he is the King of R&B. Many other singers and their fans took offense to this and they responded very sarcastically. The whole situation started from an instagram video Jacquees posted on December 9th saying, “(i) just want to let everybody know that I’m the king of R&B right now, for this generation.” Shorty after saying this, a major news profile for celebrities called “theshaderoom” posted the video where many other celebrities and people said their opinions, which were mostly negative.

One singer who responded to this debate was Chris Brown, he posted a picture on his insta snap saying “I’m loving all this R&B talk”, he also liked many of his fans comments that said he was the King of R&B. Another singer who responded was Tank, he posted a video of him singing a song with high notes and captioned it, “(i) don’t care who your KING is he just better be able to do this!”

This affected the black community because they took offense to Jacquees claiming such a huge title that he didn’t deserve. I honestly feel that Jacquees was being arrogant and just talking without thinking. He only has a three hit songs, meanwhile many other artists like Chris Brown, Trey Songz, R.Kelly, Tank have numerous hits, but Jacquees feels the need to call himself a king. I also feel like there are more important and better things to talk about than arguing over who’s the King of R&B.

Featured Article: https://www.iheart.com/content/2018-12-10-whos-the-king-of-rb-legends-weigh-in-on-online-debate/