Rapper Megan Thee Stallion posts heartbreaking video about being shot in both of her feet

@byeclown as a woman who loves hip hop even more than Common used to, I know it’s real just like Dead Prez and Lil Kim told me. But there is a Bermuda Triangle of mystery shrouding the process by which the Hip Hop industry became the biggest economic engine in all of contemporary music globally. And is it any wonder that the mythos of Rick Ross and Suge Knight are such key touchstones. They represent the incestuous relationship between gangs and the prison industrial complex. Ask the real leaders of O.G. Hip Hop culture, like my personal heroes KRS-One, Nas, Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill, and they will all tell you that the CIA really did do that whole crack thing. And the real reason wasn’t the Iran-Contra lullaby they push as the dominant narrative of Reagan’s portrayal in the history books. The real reason was to stop the rise of “B.M.F.”, the Black Mafia Family. When crack first hit, B.M.F. was centralizing their power in Detroit and Chicago, with a network of cocaine dealers stretching as far south as Tijuana and as far north as Toronto. The 80s were shaping up to usher in a mass redistribution of wealth through the purchase of mountains of cocaine by rich white shareholders from the many black entrepreneurs who were risking their FREEDOM in the name of acquiring the almighty dollar. Like Method Man said, Cash Rules Everything Around Me. But in the end, the mantra of Shaolin will be outshined by the more salient truth emanating from the South Bronx, Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone. So let them keep the black market for the white mafias, the Cartels and the Yakuza. The Sicilian mafia’s illegal dumping of waste at the behest of big pollution has a higher estimated market value than McDonalds, but cash in the shadows won’t have the lasting impact that art always will. Instead, Hip Hop will take Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer and the class on Tupac being taught in the literature department at Berkeley. Was Dylan’s poetry getting recognized by the Nobel committee not prophecied by the Dangerous Minds of Coolio and Michelle Pfiefer? And you know the Boyz N’ the Hood came Straight Outta Compton to put Hip Hop on Hollywood’s map of stars. But did you also know there have been auctions where works by Basquiat have fetched over $110 million. That’s more than most Picasso paintings go for. And Banksy’s work is already hauling in over $20 million a pop despite the fact that we don’t even know if he really is a white man who built his career appropriating the uniquely African-American invention of graffiti art. The irony is dizzying. An art form literally defined by it’s subversion of private property is now responsible for creating some of the most expensive pieces of private property that anyone could possibly own. This is why feminism needs hip hop. The homophobia, misogyny and black-on-black violence in Hip Hop is a dire outcome resulting from the hidden hands of big money, patriarchy, Christianity, and geopolitical maneuverings coming together to push brilliant artists who are close to the edge until they lose their heads. Kanye much? Or maybe you heard the stories of A$AP Rocky and Kodak Black? These cautionary tales demonstrate the balancing act demanded of today’s up and coming rappers who are compelled by dollar signs to project toxic masculinity but reveal through their art that their predatory behaviors are the perverted entrails of good intentions corrupted by the slithering serpent with a head like a hole. There is hope though. Imagine if Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and Lizzo all went to some kind of feminist boot camp run by Erykah Badu, Maxine Waters and Assata Shakur. Let’s have some feminist culture built on respecting the wisdom offered by being mentored by our mother figures. Flip that shit and reverse it baby! We are on the Eve of a ruff ride, but with Hip Hop culture on our side, feminism will be equipped to slay any foe. All we have to do is follow the blue print laid out before us in the Formation of our Queen Bee. If you think Wet Ass Pussies are a problem, wait till you see how Crazy in Love the next generation falls when a real feminist hip hop leader speaks truth to power with the voice of an angel and the wordplay of a Mistress of Ceremonies. Watch as she rocks that Fenty Beauty billion dollars style while riding the beats resonating from those immutable atomic structures of the genre: two turntables and a microphone. Now that’s where it’s at!