‘Burn a Bush’? Michelle Obama invites rapper Common to a poetry reading
First Lady Michelle Obama has scheduled a poetry evening for Wednesday, and she’s invited several poets, including a successful Chicago poet and rapper, Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., AKA “Common.” However, Lynn is quite controversial, in part because his poetry includes threats to shoot police and at least one passage calling for the “burn[ing]” of then-President George W. Bush.
Back in 2003, First Lady Laura Bush held a poetry evening, and she invited several poets to reprise the work of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. Although none of those poets had urged violence against a president, Bush canceled the event after left-of-center poets protested and threatened to disrupt the event.
Here’s a sample of Dickinson’s work that could have been presented at Bush’s event:
I’m nobody! Who are you?
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Here’s a sample of Common’s work, transcribed from a 2007 video with 837,613 viewers on YouTube. Students, please compare and contrast the two poems. You’ll get extra credit for counting the death threats. There is no extra credit for identifying spelling errors. By the way, ‘Uzi’ is slang for a compact machine gun:
A Letter to the Law
Dem boy wanna talk… [indistinguishable]
Whatcha gon do if ya got one gun?
I sing a song for the hero unsung
with faces on the mural of the revolution
No looking back cos’ in back is what’s done
Tell the preacher, god got more than one son
Tell the law, my Uzi weighs a ton
I walk like a warrior,
from them I won’t run
On the streets, they try to beat us like a drum
In Cincinnati, another brother hung
A guinea won’t see the sun
with his family stung
They want us to hold justice
but you handed me none
The same they did to Kobe and Michael Jackson
make them the main attraction
Turn around and attack them
Black gem in the rough
You’re rugged enough
Use your mind and nine-power, get the government touch
Them boys chat-chat on how him pop gun
I got the black strap to make the cops run
They watching me, I’m watching them
Them dick boys got a lock of cock in them
My people on the block got a lot of pok* in them
and when we roll together
we be rocking them to sleep
No time for that, because there’s things to be done
Stay true to what I do so the youth dream come
from project building
Seeing a fiend being hung
With that happening, why they messing with Saddam?
Burn a Bush cos’ for peace he no push no button
Killing over oil and grease
no weapons of destruction
How can we follow a leader when this a corrupt one
The government’s a g-unit and they might buck young black people
Black people In the urban area one
I hold up a peace sign, but I carry a gun.
Peace, ya’ll.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/09/burn-a-bush-michelle-obama-invites-rapper-common-to-a-poetry-reading/#ixzz1LubfWVoy
My bad....Apparently Michelle does have class inviting "Common" to the White House, contrary to my originally posted tone of sarcasm. "Burn a Bush" was apparently meant to convey a message of lighting up a joint - not a personal threat of igniting former President Bush. It's silly how one can confuse something so simple. Oh, and apparently Common and Michelle as well as our illustrious Leader all shared a uniting faith through their attendance together at Reverend Wright's church in Chicago. Well now.... it makes it so much more understandable and acceptable that Michelle would invite a rapper who speaks of killing cops, to the White House. Stay Classy Chicago!
ReplyDeleteMichelle is a lot like her man, a very charismatic leader who is so misguided that I am not sure she will be able to see the truth if it were placed in front of her.
ReplyDeleteIt is my opinion that rap music, generally speaking, glorifies and endorses everything that is wrong in society. Lyrical content that supports drug use, the abuse of women, violence to one another, and gang content, all combine to make me think that if there was no rap music the world would be a much better place.
Okay, bring it on people who think I am over simplifying, but .1% of all rap music does not fall into this category. And I DARE anyone to prove me wrong.
This poem is a metaphor. It's commentary on police brutality and the policy of shock and awe. Common is a pacifist. If you would spend five minutes doing some research into his work you'd know that. He speaks out against misogyny. He's anti-gangsta rap. He's pro-life. He calls on black men to take responsibility for actions. He's devoutly religious.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, read some of his other lyrics.