To Migos,
I hear you guys are going to teach a class on culture at NYU. Congratulations! You played yourselves. While I may feel as though you fell for another ploy for white faces to study “black boys,” I at least hope you tell them truth. While your class may be relishing in the colloquialisms of the youth, I still hope you tell them truth. Somewhere between explaining how to properly “dab” and why you guys chose to misspell “bourgeoisie,” I hope you tell them about the ill effects of the lack of education that is plaguing the black youth.
I know that the music industry glorifies songs about selling drugs, and I am not here to shame you for taking advantage of that (I mean….maybe a little bit). I just hope you tell them the truth behind what it’s really like to sell drugs. I hope you tell them about the many children who roam the streets looking for their mothers. I hope you tell them about the sick feeling a drug dealer has to force himself to forget after watching a mother smoke or inject the poison he just sold her. I hope you tell them how the “boys in the bando” don’t really want to sell drugs. Think about it. Why would anyone purposely place themselves in a position to become another victim of gunshots or police brutality? Last but not least, I hope you tell them about the effects of gentrification.
The same faces that are looking at you with wild curiosity as they try to understand black culture are the same faces that will graduate with the highest of degrees. Upon graduation they will obtain a high paying career and will soon need a place to rest their heads. They will no longer see the neighborhood you grew up in as the slums. Instead, they will see it as an opportunity: “Move the niggas out so we can make this neighborhood great again.” However, I’m sure somewhere in between explaining the need for fancy cars that depreciate in value as soon as you drive off the lot, gold chains, and plastic surgery built women, you will explain black culture honestly.
BLACK&GIFTED 