Rest In Peace

Thinking about niggas resting in peace got me to thinking about one of the most familiar refrains in all of hip-hop:

R.I.P. B.I.G.

And that's why it is with a heavy heart -- and a kevlar vest -- that I must offer this musing. First of all...fuck Biggie Smalls!

Awww damn! You think it was hard for you to read. Imagine how hard it was for me to write. The flow was untouchable. The style beyond compare. Biggie truly represented Brooklyn--the good, the bad and the ugly--and I loved him for it. And it is well documented that he "put the NYC back on the map" in the hip-hop world of the mid-90's. Yes...

The N-O-
T-O-
R-I-
O-
U-S
You just
Can’t let go
And recognize the blood
On all of our hands
From the fuckin’ media
To the so called fans

When he went (he went)
back (back)
to Cali (Cali)


Do you realize that it has been almost 9 years since Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls, aka The Notorious BIG, aka Frank White (Niggas do love their nicknames, don't they? FYI - The police call them aliases.) was killed at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax? I drive by that corner all the time. I sit just a few blocks away as I write this shit. And sometimes as I go through the intersection, I think of Biggie. I mean, don't get it twisted. It ain't quite like visiting the Lorraine Motel. But thinking about March 9, 1997 really does make this little nigga from Brooklyn sad. But goddammit, we killed the muthafucka. And it is time to let him go.

NO MORE FUCKING TRIBUTES! I loved Biggie's music as much as any nigga...maybe more than most...but I have fucking had it! At the end of the day he was a fucking rapper not Medgar Evars and I find the whole necrophilic orgy distasteful and disgusting. And frankly, I don't think I'm the only one who has seen enough of Sean-Puff Daddy-Puffy-P.Diddy-Diddy-That ain't my gun and I don't know whose it is-Danny Terrio-Combs and his fuckin' soft shoe.

No matter how much we wring our hands, our bullshit, fake-ass tears can not wash away the blood on all our hands. It's there because we played into the shit. Niggas callin' in to countdowns talkin' shit played into the shit. Niggas writin' in to video shows played into the shit. And every muthafucka who ever reveled in the threatening, violent rhymes that were spit from coast to coast played into the shit. And I say Fuck Biggie Smalls! I say Fuck Biggie Smalls because if we were truly sorry, if we truly missed him, we would have changed.

My grandmother used to tell everybody in the family not to bring flowers to her gravesite. She explained, "I won't be able to smell them then. Bring me flowers now, when I can smell them."

I'm tired of this shit, because the truth is that we can't possibly miss Big and get so excited about the 50-Game beef that the reconciliation makes CNN. And don't blame the media either, you excuse-makin' muthafuckas. Was the media there to get Israel Ramirez killed at Busta's video shoot? If we missed Big, Nas v. Jay-Z doesn't generate millions of dollars. If we missed Big, MCs like Common wouldn't be a sideshow, they would be the muthafuckin' main event because we would be lookin' to do somethin' for our communities besides teaching three year old girls how to shake dey laffy taffy!

I say fuck Biggie Smalls! He has died in vain. Nobody learned a goddamn thing...except that a dead rapper may actually sell more records (see Tupac).

I say fuck Biggie Smalls! I will not participate in the fucking lie that has tributes to him at award shows where security has to be beefed up to deal with the riot that will almost assuredly break out.

I say fuck Biggie Smalls! Because if we loved Biggie we would be making the world a better place for the next Biggie. Maybe he (or she) would have a chance to move on from talking about five cent gums and guns to how our people must overcome. Biggie never had that chance. And I don't have any reason to believe that the nigga after him will either.

I say fuck Biggie Smalls! Because we are all seemingly content to continue on in a world where too many Black boys still know that to get theirs they better either "sling crack rock or have a wicked jumpshot."

I say fuck Biggie Smalls! In the end, it feels good to say it. At least now I don't feel like such a fucking fraud. That's a relief. How could he possibly rest in peace, when niggas keep calling his name? While they keep dancing on his grave?

I say fuck Biggie Smalls! And fuck you if you are cashing checks written in his blood! That goes for the show producers, the networks, everybody. I mean, I ain't callin' no names. But if the diamond-encrusted cap fits...wear it!