8th Post: Is COCAINE making a COMEBACK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Chances are if you're reading this, you were probably born sometime between 85' and 90'. And if you've ever watched Scarface, Blow, or any other movie about cocaine, you'd know that the 80's was a HUGE time for cocaine. Billions were made, hundreds of thousands (probably millions now) died from crack overdoses and the ever so hilarious "Richard Pryor incident" (i know HE didn't die, but others did. You CANNOT light yourself on fire people!). But make no mistake, there was nothing funny about it, the only people using this as a "party drug" were those who could afford it at the time. Eventually even those people had to make a decision whether to stop or become junkies. Now, my entire life (88 till ----) the only drugs i was introduced to via pop culture was weed, and maybe a pill or two here and there. But it seems that cocaine is making a comeback in pop-culture (though I don't think it ever left, i.e. the mid 90's). Everywhere I turn its a song referencing in some very obvious way use of or distribution of cocaine. Needless to say they make it look VERY cool (that is their jobs, right?). And even on television, the LAST place i thought I would see coke peddled (not sure why), it is obviously being pushed as an accepted deviance. Now, weed is one thing, sure it's illegal and makes you act a little funny, but it never broke up a home or made a woman (or man) sell themselves. So I pose this question to the artists, their managers, and whatever PR firms is helping this degeneration: Why would you make it acceptable en mass via pop culture to sell and/or use cocaine? Who is paying you for this? I mean, if I were any worse of a conspiracy theorist, I'd say the U.S. Government was tied to this correctly (example: gun store, liquor store, fast food place, and church, the formula of every hood in america. Funny eh?) But I digress, people, if you weren't down with it before, don't flip the script because pop-culture says its "acceptable" now. Be you. Be yourself.

Peace.

7th Post: It's YOURS, not THEIRS!

Alright, i'm back. Apologies for the time lapse between posts, but life has been moving at a million miles an hour. New job, new roommate, but regardless, same R.I.C.O.. And that's the topic of today's column, staying true to you. Now a lot of people have a misconception of "keeping it real" and this eventually leads them to doing things that are, in all actuality, outside if their internal moral code. This could be anything from drinking when you know you usually wouldn't to (enter worse case scenario). Regardless, there is a VAST difference between staying true to yourself, and "keeping it real". One thing the people that constantly scream about "keeping it real" tend to forget is that the human being as an organism is ever-changing. From the time we are conceived to the time we die we are constantly changing, morphing,growing, shrinking, etc etc. So with this in mind, obviously the way we think is going to change over time is well. So if someone tells you that you're not staying true to yourself because you're not in the same mind frame you were 2-3 years ago, take it as a compliment. You've grown! Congratulations! There will be balloons!
Another thing people allow to dictate what is "them" and what is not is, unfortunately, other people. It's been this way for a loooooooooooooooong time (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery my ASS!). People tend to look to the crowd to find themselves and those that are shunned by the crowd are considered "weird" or "different" (or nowadays "underground" or "hip"). Honestly with all the groups and cliques in the world, if you can't fit in somewhere, well, thank god for the internet right? And to those of you that have a different mindset, possibly a positive one, that you think could be of some use, but nobody has your back, emotionally, or physically, guess what? A lot of people that started great revolutions were considered either "outside the norm" or if you really want to push it, "terrorists". I think my best example of this would be the Black Panther movement of the 1960's. Now here you have a group who is by all legal means justified in what they are doing. But not even the entire BLACK community could agree on whether they stood behind the panthers or not. And of course the masses considered them armed terrorists (which is why the FBI, CIA and COINTELPRO collectively oversaw the demolition and eventual media slander of these black power movements, but thats another post). But this did not stop the originators or their children from continuing the legacy and fighting for them same beliefs, despite obvious attacks and no support from the government. So you have to look at these things and realise that the masses aren't that smart. And the people that control them, do not have your best interest at hand. YOU have to have your best interest at hand.