Rating: 4.5 stars
Ignorance. Yea, ignorance motivates most people to talk against rap and hip hop culture. Each time some ignorant and comfortable journalist opens his dirty mouth to spread his disrespect about a culture he is totally ignorant of, my heart is bleeding. Each time white America is making a mean statement about ghetto life, the truth seems to get buried very deep into a comfortable America’s conscience.
People don’t wanna hear the truth from the underprivileged’s mouth.
No matter how deep you bury the voice of the ghetto, it will scream from the innocent victim’s coffins. No way: you can’t stop the truth from marching on.
NWA legend Ice Cube raises his voice loudly and the truth comes out his mouth. To all of you who are spreading your ignorant lies about hood life, open up your ears.
The video is introduced by some powerful keyboard sounds and rhythmic tracks. Ice Cube points his finger at the American government as he introduces us into the LA ghetto.
George Bush wonders why thugs act the way they do?
« They give us guns and drugs
Then wonder why in the fuck we thugs
They wanna count the slugs
Then come around here and fuck with us (Uh huh)
They give us guns and drugs
Then wonder why in the fuck we thugs
They wanna count the slugs
Then come around here and fuck with us  »
Watch prisons, drug and gun traffics, watch the misery all around you. You probably think ghetto inhabitants are the animals? No. You Mr President are the real animal. You created the system:
« I’m from the land of the gang bang
Since I was little, ain’t a god damn thang changed
It’s the same ol same
Bush run shit like Sadaam Hussien
I cock and aim, clinically insane
To deal with this bullshit day to day
If I sell some yay or smoke some hay
You bitches wanna throw me up in pelican’s bay
Call me an animal up in the system
But who’s the animal that built this prison
Who’s the animal that invented lower living
The projects, thank god for Russell Simmons
Thank god for Sugarhill
I’m putting a different kind of steel up to my grill
Y’all know what it is, scared for your own kids
How these ghetto niggaz taken over showbiz »
You created a place where you isolated people and condemned them to a miserable life.
« Thugging » and hustling are ways of life you created. Why the hell do thugs act like thugs? Because you Mr Bush created horrible conditions of life in the ghetto where each day is a matter of survival. Ever thought about that, all of you who prompt to condemn people who live in the hood, their music and their culture?
Every day is a fight to survive in the jungle where you can get killed in no time:
« It’s boyz in the hood, it’s toys in the hood
Y’all wanna know why there’s noise in the hood
Cause there’s drugs in the hood, thugs in the hood
Nigga killed a crip and a blood in the hood (For real)
Cause when niggaz get tribal
It’s all about survival, nobody liable
I got caught by five-oh
Grandmama came to court with her bible
But when the judge hit the gavel
Now I’m too far from my family to travel (Fuck)
I just came unraveled »
Life is hard and blood get spilled in no time in the hood. Yes, every hood looks the same. The government created a disaster and is unable to handle it the right way.
Black people who are taken to Court pay their crimes harder than white people and are jailed in a inhuman system.
I have corresponded with a roommate from Arizona jail for three years and I could barely translate all the horror about jail I read in his letters.
Being black means « second zone citizen » to the American government. Being black means less chances to get a proper education in high schools. Being black means being discriminated against on a daily basis by the cops.
There is injustice everywhere and comfortable people would like to shut down the voice of the hood.
Corruption is everywhere. They put you in jail for years and it is so hard to get the right defense.
Damn) I can’t take the pressure
Pulled the fo-fo up out the dresser
Grabbed the weight up out the closet
Po-po coming but I’m scared to toss it
Y’all know what happened last time I lost it
Can’t tell you niggaz what the fuckin boss did
The game got a nigga exhausted
Gotta go for the plea bargain they offered
Twenty years for what?
Breaking these laws that’s so corrupt
Taking these halls and fillin ’em up
Some powder cake shit that’s about to erupt
Ay y’all, I’m about to be stuck
Until the year two thousand, what the fuck?
In the hood, don’t press your luck
Cause these motherfuckers will set you up, word up
You can’t stop the voice of the truth. You can’t stop hip hop soldiers from raising their voices and pointing a finger at you.
Hip hop culture is a powerful tool against racism, injustice and discrimination. People from all countries have joined it and are ready to fight for the truth to shine on.
Lyrically and instrumentally, Ice Cube’s song is a masterpiece. The video is beautifully handled from the beginning to the end.
The video ends up, showing all of them Compton legends who always had the courage to fight the system. Black men from the hood? Yes, but with an attitude.
Watch Why We Thugs here.