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Everyone’s Trying To Have a Swagger Like Us
Swag. G. Style. Whatever the word, either you either have it or you don’t. But for those of you who don’t possess any mojo, don’t fret. You could be like Dr. Evil, as well as most folk in America, and just jack it. Before swagger was printed on an Old Spice body spray can, before T.I.’s comeback song and before he ripped M.I.A.’s voice when she first said it on her track “Paper Planes”, Black folks had style. Truth be told, they had more swag back then. Partly because everyone else was so damn corny. As a result, they had folks jocking and clocking their every move. Hard body. Back then it was straight highway robbery, but nowadays with color and culture lines so blurry is it swagger jackin? Or just a little swagger appreciation?
Oooh That’s My Song! No Really, That’s MY Song.
America has been stealing our music since they realized it could make them some money. Jazz. Yeah, it wasn’t all Kenny G and elevator muzak. That used to be all Black folk. Same thing for Rock and Roll. Yes. There were the greats like, Little Richard, James Brown (yes, he was considered Rock and Roll), Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix. I could go on and on. They got their style jacked by groups that mainstream America loves. Luckily that doesn’t happen as much now since non-mainstream music is so readily available to everyone. Technology has made it slightly tougher to just rip someone off. Plus I have to admit, some of these White Chocolate cats are just inventing their own style and holding their own. Can’t front, Robin Thicke gets a lot of airplay and has definitely gotten us dudes a lot of play.
It’s a phenomenon that gives Black men one more reason to leave their chocolate covered counterparts for a lighter fare. White women with asses an extended gluteus maximus. No, I’m not the last to pick up on it. In fact, me and my crew submitted an article to National Geographic about it years ago. What is new; however, is the fact that White women are loving it. Eating more steak sandwiches and doing more lunges. Just take a walk outside. Go to your local Whole Foods and/or bar. Attitudes have changed. For the better. It’s cool to have a booty. Shoot, I could go on and on about this topic. I have tons of research documents I could provide you. And I’d love to, but I so much more to say. So I’ll just leave you with this. Jessica Biel. Yep, thank you and good night…
Can’t Be Mad When Other Folks Take Better Care Of It Than Us
When something gets big, people either steal it or try to add on (pause you dirty minded…). Our Hispanic, Asian and Indian brethren have gladly helped to do the latter with Hip Hop culture. I mean, some of them are the kids of those business owners in the neighborhood. That couple that had the grocery store, yeah, they had a kid. And he/she grew up with us. Once some of them got older, they entered the family business – entrepreneurship. Walk into a store to buy kicks and clothes. You may be surprised to see that it’s owned by Asian cats. (Shout out to Re-Up out in Boston!) Others go against tradition and just hop right in (pause) to our culture wholeheartedly. Like Big Pun and Fat Joe. Well, more so Big Pun. Or Miss Info and the Jabberwockys.
So I don’t know homie. In the past, folks just straight bit our style. Now the lines are blurrier than my vision after a few Jack and Cokes. What do you think? Are folks jockin us or is it just a sincere form of flattery?
Seattle – Sometimes I Wear Shades At Night Cuz I Shine So Bright – Washington
11 Responses to “Everyone’s Trying To Have a Swagger Like Us”
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Yoooo Seattle…
I wear my sunglasses at night all the time.
anyway…
I just wanna clear up that latinos cannot be considered with the other races when it comes to hip hop. They were at the forefront in the beginning of the art form along with us. Many of the dominant early bboy crews were made up of mostly latinos. Although their presence was never felt as heavy when it came to emcees (until big pun), latinos are as hip hop as it gets.
In terms of everyone else… yeah… they jumped on the ship. and that’s cool.. as long as you respect the culture.
What sucks is when a black kid wants to play guitar rather than rapping and gets chastised for doing “white” things… i’ve had to tell some of these young brothers that rock is OURS, it came from blues, which is OURS.
There is no true form of American Music that does not come from Africa.
WE THE BEST!!! (c) DJ Khaled
- GUNS!!!
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Yea…I think this is most apparent in White women who get butt implants, tan regularly and have collagen injected into their lips. They’re even getting weaves now. Sigh…first they hated us, and now they want to be us (while still hating us of course)….and I know this is not true of everyone, but the vast majority are swagga-jackin hard body. EARLY. (inside joke…lol)
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i think it’s both… imitation is the best form of flattery. ’nuff said =)
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God Bless the New York Football Giants, the New York Bretts, the Syracuse Orangemen, the New York Yankees, Joe Torre, and White Women everywhere. Dont hate cuz my ivory Goddess’ are taking away sisters’ work faster than Mexicans in Texas. Good credit and a fat ass…what more can an educated black man…or any black man for that matter, ask for? (Yes, a mouth hug, but those come standard.)
Look, America been jackin ish since they touched down.
“What’s this you have over here Chief? Maize you say? Hmmm…ok, great, show me how and I’ll give you this blanket…deal?”
“So Dikembe, what you are saying is I dont even need to be near water, I can just irrigate? Well I got some land I need to get taken care of…hop on my boat, show me how and I’ll bring you back…I promise.”
I could go on, but I actually do have to do some sort of work today. The American mantra has always been whatever you can do, I can do better. American ingenuity is actually the ability to make remixes hotter than Diddy. So yes, we definitely got swagger jacked hard body VERY EARLY, but it’s cool, cuz we got more where that came from. Jay hit up white boys that were wearing button ups, told them to wear jerseys and du rags, then told them to put their button ups back on. Gangsta. That being said, we’ve taken things from other cultures and have now made them our own (i.e. not snitching, mob culture etc.) So it goes both ways, but I think we have gotten the short end of the proverbial stick and as Seattle pointed out usually having nothing to show for it.
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Ha. Well, well, well! Did you all know that a black person gets swagger jacked every ten seconds. We must do something to stop this madness.
Truthfully though, its all straight exploitation. I don’t know how many of you know this but BLACKS entertaining WHITES goes back to the slave/minstrel show days and continues today in the NBA/NFL/MLB/etc. except now the performers can actually get a few pennies of the multiple dollars made of their talent. Now unfortunately, I believe the reason we got SWAGGER JACKED in the past is b/c we didn’t have the knowledge to recognize the fact that we indeed had high value; the reason we get SWAGGER JACKED today however is a totally different story. For instance, if you can run fast and catch you can get a scholarship to school to play football, so while we make BILLIONS off of your talent, we allow you to get a FREE EDUCATION (hwvr, we failed to tell you that this sport will take up the majority of your time and you most likely won’t be able to use the FREE EDUCATION to your greatest advantage!) Truth be told, we don’t even care if you graduate, we just hope you go to the pros or drop out so we can bring in the new kid to make us potentially more dollars (sell merchandise, put u in commercials, put you on sportscenter, etc.)
See, todays swagger jacking is more like give and take. WE (the MAN WITH THE $) TAKE alot, give you (the one being exploited) a little and we can do this HOW? you ask. Well we’re the one’s who own the businesses (majority), have the education to package your talent and sell it to the masses, and know that there’s always going to be more of your people who we can continue to swagger jack b/c as long as we keep you suffering and oppressed, greatness will continue to shine out of your darkness.
I could go on for days but I unfortunately have to go be exploited by the man w/the money at my job while I sell his product. Please xcuse me…
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P.S. Jessica Biel got a FATTY! To bad her skin will begin to get wrinkly in 5-10 years at an exceedingly fast rate, unless she goes the Plastic Surgery route…
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Immigration, both forced and voluntary, shaped this country. When the first of the British came over they were either thieves, peasants, or outcasts. They came with no culture [note that there is no such things as "British culture" only "British lifestyle"], no home training, and no knowledge of a human existence outside their own cultural experience. So the majority of white people definitely didn’t jock those things, nope, ALL of that is their contribution.
Everything beyond that comes from a variety of culture, the firsts of which were Indigenous, Spanish, and African. Those were the first three cultural experiences this country had.
It’s disrespectful and highly problematic that the general history of music, pop culture, and art too often forget to recognize the depth of each discipline’s respective roots.
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I have to go with the idea that imitation is a complement….I am deeply flattered that I have so many people trying to “get like me”!
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Need to institute a tariff on it. Every time I get my swagger jacked, I should get paid $1 on the incident. Nothing extravagant. Just something my pocket.
Y’know I don’t mind that the essence gets impersonated. After all, B.I.G. took his alias Frank White from the movie “King of New York” and countless other rappers have alluded to The Godfathers, Carlito’s Way, Scarface and a slew of other Italian gangster flicks. What I have a problem with is folks that don’t take it to the next level.
You going to rock a costume or make it your own?
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Yea def big shout out to Re-Up and Jessica Biel got some cake back there. Everyone is swagger jacking right now nothing is original.
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Ha Ha!! white women have always been envious of us with our beautiful brown skin and lovely lucious thick bodies, and NATURAL full lips…I think its hillarious how they look 55 by age 25 with no ass…There are a handful of white chicks with fat asses but NOT like a sistahs we born and breeded for this shit…Allways # 1 the rest of these chicks just followers Bottom Line A white woman can NEVER top our swag!!! Believe that
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