The hateful looking individual you see above is named Andre Hicks. Mr. Hicks hailed from the city of Vallejo, California. In 1992, he began serving a five year jail sentence for conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery with his gang, called the "Romper Room Gang" which operated out of Vallejo. While in prison, Mr. Hicks recorded one of his albums over the inmate phone. In the lyrics of one of his songs, called Back 'N Da Hood, Mr. Hicks taunted the cops who had been unable to tie the Romper Room Gang to the string of bank robberies attributed to them. Here is a sample of the lyrics. I warn you - profanity abounds:These punk police won't let upOf course the law had the last laugh. At Mr. Hicks' trial, his own rap lyrics about the gang's shenanigans were submitted as evidence. After being released from prison in 1997, Mr. Hicks began cutting albums, touring, and making a name for himself in the gangsta thug rap culture within California's Bay Area, and the Sacramento area as well. On November 1, 2004, while on tour near Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Hicks was shot to death in a - surprise! - gang related shooting.
They trying to keep me down and keep me in a ditch
But the only thing they doing is making me rich
They painted a picture of a ruthless villain
Told all my fans that I was stealing
Jealous mothafuckas, I never steal
I make more money than you never will
Mac Dre arrested for attempted heist
The mothafucking feds ain't nothing nice
They said I was the one doing all this shit
But banks just keep on getting hit
Feds trying to send a nigga up the creek
But Dre ain't worried cause the case is week
They say I'm the one calling all the shots
But fuck them feds and fuck them cops
And to that punk mothafucka Detective Nic Dic
Hear me loud and clear, fool: suck my big dick
Does this man sound like the kind of guy you would want as a role model for your children? I have bad news for you - he is. Andre Hicks is better known by his rap moniker, Mac Dre. In the wake of his death last year, the latest fashion statement being worn by the hip-hop obsessed boys at the school in which I teach - and I'm sure plenty elsewhere - is an oversize t-shirt with a print of the above picture that memorializes this piece of garbage. This is who is memorialized in the black community nowadays folks: a two-bit criminal who corrupts our youth with the worst sort of mysoginistic, violent, nihilistic "music" imaginable. And the worst part is that he is continuing to do this from beyond the grave, as his death has made him even more popular than he already was.
But wait, the black community isn't finished. Just yesterday, Black Entertainment Television (BET) handed out its award for 2005 "Person of the Year". Did they pick Barack Obama, the up and coming senator from Illinois? How about Oprah Winfrey? Better yet, how about Lieutenant General Russell Honore? Haven't heard of him? He was the Louisiana National Guard commander who helped save perhaps thousands of lives through his leadership of rescue assets in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He also popularized the phrase "stuck on stupid" when he dressed down a reporter asking him stupid questions. Nope, the good General didn't get the honor either. Instead, BET listeners picked none other than Minister Louis Farrakhan of that well-known bow tie cult, the Nation of Islam. Speaking of Hurricane Katrina, you might remember an earlier post of mine where I mentioned that Mr. Farrakhan accused the U.S. government of purposely blowing up the levees in New Orleans in order to save the white neighborhoods by flooding the black neighborhoods. BET justified the award by saying,
"An overwhelming percentage of our users agreed that Minister Farrakhan made the most positive impact on the Black community over the past year and chose him as the person most worthy to receive the honor of BET.com's 2005 Person of the Year."BET stuck the knife in a little deeper, stating that Mr. Farrakhan,
"mobilize[d] hundreds of thousands of Blacks around the issues of atonement and empowerment, and to convince the masses of our people that we must be the primary catalysts and engines for positive change in our communities."How? By fanning flames of racial hatred? By making spaced out conspiracy theories about imagined machinations of those "blue-eyed devils"?
I weep for this country.
Good Day to You, Sir
10 comments:
Yeah, you suck this is one of the worst persuasive papers I've read in my life. The fact that you slander one of California's best rappers-right next to Tupac-is fucking outrageous. and it's kind of weird how you failed to mention all the good Mr. Hicks did by opening up rec centers to keep teens off the streets, and cleaning up gang related graffiti. So, yeah, you suck.
Hi Luis,
Thank you for commenting on my humble blog. I was actually so moved by your kind remarks that I dedicated my latest post to your comment. In case you come here directly to see if I responded, I have copied and pasted today's blog post where I answered your assertions about your hero (and still a piece of garbage), Mac Dre:
Fan Mail!
Imagine my surprise when I checked my email this afternoon and saw that I received a comment on a post that I wrote almost a year ago. That's fine, I know how it probably goes: someone is Googling a subject, my blog post pops up in the search, the person reads my post, and if they feel strongly enough about it, they take the time to comment. I am assuming that is how Luis found my post on the phenomenon of the ubiquitous Mac Dre t-shirts that blanketed my middle school campus at this time last year (the fad seems to have since diminished). As you will see in his comment, Luis was not happy about my harsh words directed toward the late Mr. Dre. Read now, the eloquent prose of a proud member of the hip-hop generation:
Yeah, you suck this is one of the worst persuasive papers I've read in my life. The fact that you slander one of California's best rappers-right next to Tupac-is fucking outrageous. and it's kind of weird how you failed to mention all the good Mr. Hicks did by opening up rec centers to keep teens off the streets, and cleaning up gang related graffiti. So, yeah, you suck.
Thank you Luis; coming from you, I will take your remarks directed toward me as a compliment. Let's visit a few of your choice comments shall we?
I was not aware I was writing a persuasive paper. Luis must have learned that term yesterday in his sophomore language arts class; keep impressing us with the big words, Luis. California has a "best rapper"? I thought they were all the worst. Rap pretty much lost me after about 1989 or 1990 when happy party rap of Young M.C. and Tone Loc went by the wayside. Besides, what do you mean by "best rapper" anyway? Are you talking about their so-called musical ability? I wasn't. I am speaking of the penchant of these thugs to fill the minds of our youth with violent, mysoginistic, racist lyrics and images of a most vile nature. I don't give a crap about how good they are at keeping a beat, I care what they are doing to my country and my society. Case in point are Mac Dre and your other hero Tupac Shakur. I already mentioned in the post-in- question about Mac Dre's previous career as a bank robber. Then Luis, you go and forget to mention that Tupac comes from a family of murderers, cop killers, and robbers, and was himself arrested, tried, and convicted of sexually assaulting a 19 year old girl. He was also supposed to be in the movie Menace II Society, but was replaced after he assaulted the movie's directors (the Hughes Brothers). He also paid out about $500,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit that resulted from the killing of a six year old child who took a stray bullet from one of the thugs in Tupac's entourage during a shootout with rival gangsta rappers. Way to be an upstanding role model, Tupac! The tragedy is that so many students that I teach eat this "gangsta" stuff up and want to be just like Mac Dre and Tupac. The "thug life" did wonders for those two "artists": both ended up shot to death.
Now back to Mac Dre. Luis took me to task for not mentioning all the good things that Mac Dre did, like opening up rec centers and cleaning up graffiti. Wow! What a saint Dre was. Hey Luis, did you know Adolf Hitler loved animals? Did you know that John Wayne Gacy, the Illinois serial killer who strangled 33 young men, was a party clown who enriched the lives of countless children? It's easy to fall under the spell of the goodness of evil people, Luis. I remember when Washington state Senator Patty Murray commended Osama bin Laden for being, "Out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful." Yeah, forget the fact that Osama masterminded the African embassy bombings, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, and September 11 attacks; he built schools and roads! Forget that Mac Dre robbed banks, glorified defiance of proper authority and good order, and even in death, continues to lead our youth astray by making the "thug life" look glamorous; he built rec centers and cleaned up graffiti.
Thank you for commenting on my blog, Luis, but you really need to stop listening to that hip-hop crap and start finding some more constructive role models... yours suck!
Good Day to You, Luis
You should really go listen to some rock music because there telling kids to go cut them self’s and warship the devil and do violent acts to so stop try to talk about rap and tupac he did do some of the things you said but he was raise in a environment where violent acts happen everyday and a time where some cops were dirty and the same goes for Mac dre
Ah yes, the "Heavy Metal/Hard Rock defense". By all means, show me a school - be it elementary, middle, or high - where the majority of the students listen to heavy metal/hard rock.
I work in middle school, and I confiscate my share of iPods and MP3 players. I have yet to take one that had anything but Shit-Hop on it. The kids who listen to HM/HR are the outcasts who sit in the corner; overwhelmed by the vast, vast majority of the student body who listen to that ghetto-inspired noise that you call Rap/Hip-Hop.
Your argument is similar to the one I often get from people who ask why I should pick on Islamic terrorism, because after all, Timothy McVeigh wasn't Muslim, and he committed an act of terrorism. And just like your argument, I would answer that yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but there is this thing called "the bigger picture", and you might want to take a long hard look at it.
So, in the end, are you trying to tell me that Mac Dre and others like him are an improvement upon Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King?
MAC DRE NEVER ROBBED ANY BANKS MAYBE YOU SHOULD DO MORE RESEARCH BEFORE YOU GO SAYING THINGS YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT . HE WASNT A "GANGSTER RAPPER" EITHER JUST BEACUSE SOMEONE ISNT WHITE AND RAPS ABOUT HOW LIFE IS WHEN YOU GROW UP POOR AND HAVE TO RESORT TO THINGS .SORRY NOT EVERYONE WASNT BORN INTO A FAMILY W/ MONEY I GAURENTEE YOUR PARENTS GAVE YOU EVERYTHING PEOPLE LIKE US ARENT AS LUCKY. ID RATHER COME UP POOR WITH RESPECT AND AN OPEN MIND THEN A STUCK UP JACKASS THAT THINKS THEY KNOW EVERYTHING ,IF YOU SAW SOMEONE ASSOCIATED WITH ANDRE HICKS YOU WOULDN SAY ANY OF THAT YOU WOULD LOOK DOWN AND HOPE THEY DIDNT KNOW WHO YOU WERE THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THEN A PERSON TALKING BIG GAME ONLINE WHEN EVERYONE INCLUDING HIS MOMMA KNOWS HE WONT DO NOTHING . YOU CAN TALK ABOUT THIS OR WRITE ANOTHER THING ABOUT MY COMMENT BUT WE ALL KNOW YOU AINT SHIT OR YOU WOULD HAVE THE RESPECT FOR THE DEAD AND HIS FAMILY
I didn't say he robbed a bank, I said he served five years for conspiring to rob a bank. Does your research say that he didn't do any time in prison for that?
Who are "PEOPLE LIKE US"? Are you saying that only black people are poor? Are you saying that all white people are rich? Perhaps you should get out of the ghetto in which your mind is trapped and do some research of your own.
I'm talking big game online? Do you want to hurt me, anonymous? Do you want to shoot me for dissing your loser, thug hero?
You know what breaks my heart the most? All the lives that have been lost by people who have tried to live the "gangsta" lifestyle that has been glorified by assholes like Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks.
Oh man. i hope you dont teach english.
"I already mentioned in the post-in- question about Mac Dre's previous career as a bank robber."
So yea, u did say that actually.
"Then Luis, you go and forget to mention that Tupac comes from a family of murderers, cop killers, and robbers, and was himself arrested, tried, and convicted of sexually assaulting a 19 year old girl."
tupac slapped a girl on the ass.
bret farve sent a pic of his dick to some really hot chick. what is common about these things?
some girl got paid
oh and you forgot to mention that tupac shot 2 off duty cops in the ass because they were wildly intoxicated, out of jurisdiction, and assaulting some poor guy.
damn vigilanties that arent completly blind.
and your really racist man.referring to the black community and associating them with poor choices of influence.
yea lets take a couple sheep and make a story shall we.
did u know that hitler idolized the spartan community that killed children if they were not suited to their needs? what about the romans and their senate pretty much raping their coummunity and sending slaves to kill eachother for entertainment?
What about britan owning our federal reserves? that $14 T. debt makes you a slave, because that debt is wrote off as the people of america.
you should read "The Prince" by niccolo machiavelli. learn some political science.
by the way im white. if you were smart maybe you would actually research people and see their motives and not just what the media blows up.
for example, you know that wanted a "master race" of blue eyed blonde haired men and women (Both of which are recessive genes). But the question that should be posed is why?
Much like the spartans, hitler was concered with, i know this is gonna sound completly wrong, hummanity as a whole. but not in a hummanitarian sence. hitler was concerend with selective breading to get the best breed of human (in his opinion) that he could.
weird. people do that all the time with animals and such. notice how the wolf has changed so much? same kinda thing.
I hope I cleared some of the fog. arrogance is a terrible thing. especially for a teacher.
language itself is a rather primative form of communication.
hope you dont project yourself the wrong way to your flock.
hatred manifests hatred my friend.
Luis, I can't say that you cleared the fog, but your stream-of-consciousness meanderings were wildly entertaining to read. And any argument you might have had was negated by your assertion that Tupac Shakur merely slapped the woman on the ass. That's it huh? You might want to read the details of that case again.
Get help.
You are just an asshole,stereotypical republican!!
Your blog sucks and you are a weak wanna be rush limbaugh.I also admit im a mac dre fan and only found this stupid blog lookin up dre,but after i read it and looked up your profile i automatically knew you were a white,middle aged republican who takes rap music WAY TOO SERIOUS!! It's entertainment!!And i know kids look up to it, but that is not mac dre's fault.it's the parents fault.You also deserve some blame because you are an educater whose job it is to teach this to kids.(also republicans have ruined this country and im not a liberal or a democrat)
RIP MAC DRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It does my heart well to know that almost six years after I wrote this post, I still manage to piss off the occasional knucklehead who actually thinks the dearly departed Andre Hicks is worth defending. Keep it coming you (c)rap music fans. By the way, who are you calling middle aged?
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