Choosing Not to Speak

Southern rap is not cool. Sorry, it's not. The lifestyle, the beats, the teeth and most importantly the fact that their songs are usually about ABSOLUTELY NOTHING drives home that fact.

That being said artist like Gucci Mane and Soulja Boy have impacted communities, black and white, in the most Parasitic and destructive way.

Southern rappers have taken the potential positive influence of music and used it to tell their followers to get their cars painted the color of Cotton Candy, fill their mouth with metal so they can never pass a metal detector silently, and scream out inaudible cacophonies to let people know they are present and ignorant (e.g. "aayyuuppp" and "hheeennggg").

I turned on the television today and ended up watching a random music station in the 200's on Fios. One of the videos on was of this thug looking rapper from the south that sounded kinda dope (for a southern rapper). Not because of somewhat appeasing beat, or his decent flow, but because of his content. He was talking about positive things: kids becoming better people, not selling drugs, helping the community and how he found himself through Jesus, all without sounding preachy. I was amazed.


Pressing the info button on the remote I realized I was watching the Christian Gospel Channel (I was upset at myself for a second for that mishap) and a rapper named F 1 Diamond, aka "The Pastor of the Trap." HA!

He was actually worth listening to, he had a mainstream sound with quality content. I'm not into the whole extra "praise Jesus" rap and r&b, but his approach to the song kept me from automatically cringing and wanting to change the channel (I eventually did). I even enjoyed it.

I hope, although unlikely, he gets the chance to enter the mainstream. F 1 probably will have to curtail his rhetoric a little to mainstream views, but I feel that he is one of the few Southern Rappers out their that can, and is having a positive impact on people everywhere.