Don't Believe the Hype

A lot of times, people use music as a coping mechanism. There's music to match every single emotion imaginable. There's intelligent music, and there's ignorant music (the vast majority of which coming from Atlanta). There's peaceful music, and there's violent music. There's loving music, and there is angry, hateful music. There's music that was written with the purest, most genuine thought and sentiment possible. And then there's most music. It's just supposed to sound good so you'll buy it.

What's my point? My point is this: there are SO many people who look to music for motivation/assurance without entirely thinking of what the hell they're cosigning. Examples? I thought you'd never ask.

In a Drake song entitled "Find Your Love" he croons "I'm more than just an option (hey, hey, hey)". I remember a huge face palm the very first time I heard this lyric in anticipation of the newest breed of artificially empowered people to surface. And on cue "I'm more than just an option" tweets, Facebook statuses, and text message signatures spread like wild fire. Well, I'm sorry to play myth buster here, but statistically and realistically speaking that's a lie. There are approximately 6.8 billion people on this planet. About half are female, and half are male. Even if you ARE one in a million (which is highly unlikely), there are still 6,800 other people JUST LIKE YOU roaming around this Earth somewhere. So sorry to rain on your parade, but you're really just an option. That's it. You can sing that song if you want to, but Drake's going to have you posting personals if you get to excited with that song.

In 2008 Destiny's Child superstar Beyonce Knowles dropped two bombshells artificially empowering black women across America, and for this, I hate her. She first suggested that single women everywhere should feel gypped because "If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it" in a song ironically titled "Single Ladies." Simultaneously, everyone chose to ignore the fact that Ms. Knowles is actually married to one of the biggest names in hip-hop history, Mr. Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter. Beyonce's just trying to make an honest living. She's done no wrong. It's the single ladies taking single advice from a married woman with an ENORMOUS ring on her finger who worry me. The same women who would thrive off another burst of energy from Ms. Knowles in the same year when she dropped her smash hit "Diva", which declared that "a diva is a female version of a hustler." Let's pause for a minute.

di·va   [dee-vuh, -vah]
–noun, plural -vas, -ve  [-ve]
a distinguished female singer; prima donna.
Origin:
1880–85; < It < L dīva, fem. of dīvus god; cf. divine

hus·tler   [huhs-ler]
–noun
1.an enterprising person determined to succeed; go-getter.
2.Slang . a person who employs fraudulent or unscrupulous methods to obtain money; swindler.
3.Informal . an expert gambler or game player who seeks out challengers, esp. unsuspecting amateur ones, in order to win money from them: He earned his living as a pool hustler.
4.Slang . a prostitute.
5.a person who hustles.
Origin:
1815–25; hustle + -er1

Guys, those aren't the same thing at all. Not even close to synonyms. All of you lose. It was just a song.

This motivational music is no new phenomenon. Let's take a journey back to June of 1999, when R&B girl group Destiny's Child (Ms. Knowles seems to be a repeat offender here) dropped the fed-up women's anthem "Bills, Bills, Bills" following the success of TLC hit "No Scrubs." The chorus of this song went as follows:

can you pay my bills
can you pay my telephone bills
can you pay my automo'bills
then maybe we can chill
I don't think you do
so you and me are through

Many women adopted this as a motto while simultaneously forgetting the fact that they could not pay their OWN telephone, or "automo" bills. They failed to realize that this did not make them empowered, independent women, but gold diggers. Once again, you've failed.

My point in all of this? I guess what I aim to say is this: you look stupid. These songs were created for the sole purpose of capitalizing on the vulnerability of insecure people who would latch on to their messages as motto's on which to base their next moves, insecure people who would in turn inadvertently end up offering free promotion by repeating they're stupid lyrics day in and day out.

In short, DO NOT turn on the radio for advice. Take your lonely ass to church.

Until next time folks. Remember to laugh. There's always someone uglier than you.

If you have any topics you'd like to see discussed, drop a comment or hit me up on twitter (twitter.com/RalphRudeSays)