• » Name: Meka Soul
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Slap-Boxing With Jesus

No Child Is Left Behind...

I guess in the haste to get Curtsy to stop violating out ear drums year in and year out, I’m going to assume that a good percentage of those who flocked to purchase Graduation feel as if not only are they trying to “save hip-hop,” but also as if it was their civil duty to buy the mush mouth’s long-player. While I’m somewhat appeased at all who bought either of the albums (especially since you’ll hardly see me doing the same nowadays), I can’t help but feel even more estranged from the target demographic I’m allegedly a part of.

Many people possibly felt the desire to buy Tooda’s album more because despite his rampant Elton John-style diva tactics in the public eye, he attempts to bring a sense of mortality through his music. No disrespect to my future ex-wife-in-law A.H.L.O.T. - as she knows him on a somewhat personal level - but I honestly haven’t been convinced of that since I bought his first album three years ago, and that stemmed from mixtapes like I’m Good, where a hungrier (and more mush-mouthed) Silk Shirts was somewhat able to balance both out his ego and earnestness to the point where it was more endearing than annoying.

The most logical sense behind this is that Tooda doesn’t try to come off as a BALCO-ridden warrior as does his Interscope counterpart, which is understandable. With yesterday’s snotty-nosed kids growing into adults with normal responsibilities, it’s pretty dumb for us to idolize a gangbanging drug lord “from the streets” who is well into his thirties. At the same time, I can’t really get down with the college campuses that look up to the other guy as if he were some kind of valedictorian, when it’s a well-known factoid that he never finished college to begin with [1]. In that manner, I’m more impressed that a group like Kidz N The Hall continued to pursue their musical aspirations, and finished college to boot. But you’ll rarely, if at all, see that happen.

Perhaps the reason why some people look up to Kanye is in fact because he dropped out of school to become a Brazillionaire. If that was the case (and I fear it most certainly is), Tooda’s contributions to the game is just as – if not more – damning as Curtsy’s empty threats of violence. In a country where even a blithering idiot could grow up to become, I don’t know, President of the United States of America, I’m not so keen on that ideal being such a motivational force in a country that consistently ranks last in standardized test scores, with the “No Child Left Behind” policy resembling more like a bad joke than anything else. But then again, that’s probably why I haven’t exactly fit into that demographic in a long time now.

[1] I still can’t shake the distrusting feeling that the underlying themes of Tooda’s albums are nothing more than him thumbing his nose at those who finished college, only to either make way less than their value at an underwhelming job or pay back the loans that stockpiled while they were in school, whereas he simply “dropped out” to become a multi-millionaire. But that could be just me.

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