Rap; Like it or Leave It?

[Reijin]

I think I love Tapion for expressing my thoughts on a lot of people. He named my hated ones (though I have to admit, every now and then Lil' John might put one single song out that I have to listen to for some weird reason that escapes me- however, like most rock songs, the novelty wears off quickly). Mike Jones is retarded. He rides the "pimpwagon" route of victory. In other words, he just makes cds where 90% of his lyrics are his freakin name, and talks about how much everyone should be just like him, and about how much of a "gansta pimp" he is. I think if I had one person I hated the most, it'd be 50 Cent. He's all about the money. All about his ego. He isn't about pride for "I can finally take care of my momma" or anything. He's about "I can spend enough money to fuck any bitches I want and get the finest coke around nigga". I hate that, as it causes a massive backlash stereotype.

I live in North Augusta/Augusta area. Which means I'm not too far from Atlanta. And we have enough black guys that come in and act like their favorite rappers. The ones that want you to believe how broke they are, but when I'm serving them, they have gold caps over their entire mouth (I am NOT exaggerating). Picture it. Family of three. Father is sitting back at the table almost asleep, but somehow has a cellphone attached to his ear. While he's talking, you catch the glint of gold emenating from his mouth. He has a du-rag on with a brand new hat on top of it, not even pulled down onto his head, just kinda floating on top of it. The brim is completely flat, in that new style. His jersey that he's wearing hangs down to his knees and says Michael Vick on it. You catch the image of a belt through the sheer jersey material, but the belt is somewhere in the middle of his knees and crotch area, to show that he's "saggin' yo". He wears brand new Nikes. Across his jersey hangs four chains that somehow are more gold looking than his teeth are. While talking on the phone, amazingly, he also has a set of headphones hanging out of his ears to run down to the iPod at his pocket. The mother is sitting back in the chair and has waterfalls that would make Marge Simpson shy away. She's wearing a really tight shirt and has gold caps in her mouth as well, but only in specific locations. Her hair is dyed purple and red. She has diamon looking fake earrings that hang down from her ears to her shoulders, and her fingers are adorned with multiple big rock rings. She also, amazingly, is talking on a cellphone, to a different person. The son sits back in the seat, with a du-rag and hat on also. He looks to be about 17 or so. I never catch a sight of whether his teeth are capped or not due to him not smiling or even speaking much. He has a large FuBu shirt on and brand new Nikes. Sagging pants and all just like his father, and he's listening to his own iPod. I lean in to take their orders, and when they pry away from their appliances, they friggin' WHISPER their order to me. I ask again, apologizing. They whisper again. I mean half as loud as they were on the phone. I lean in further, and apologize again, blaming the acoustics of the room. They look angry, but whisper it again. I finally read their lips to figure it out. Fillet Mignon, Lobster, and Shrimp. The most expensive thing on the menu. All three want that. Throw in three sides of Teriyaki Chicken, and then two 7$ Jumbo Long-Island Teas (alchohol drink) and you have a bill that comes out to be quite large. Over 100$. When it comes time for them to pay, the guy sits back not saying a word, and shoves his elbow at the mom when I try to hand him the bill. She takes it, and pulls out an envelope (from the bank I assume), pulling out two 100$ bills. She throws them onto the bill and I hurry to go pay it. I bring back her change, and her son is talking to her dad about getting up about 3 in the afternoon the next day to play their new XBOX game. The lady takes all of the change, tells me "Thank you, you been a fantastic waiter." She gets up, takes her reciept and hands me the tray with no tip, and they all leave, the son holding his pants up by the front (apparently he has no belt).

THIS is that stereotype that most people associate with black people, and I can argue that this is not the normal case. This IS, however, a very large amount of people. The people that try hard to be "crunk". How many cokes do I bring these people wearing caps before I have to wonder if its "a tough life that can't afford toothpaste to brush with" or if its negligence and a hope for the "crunk" lifestyle? This is what Lil' John does to people. That above scenerio was my fifth table today, on a Friday night, at work. And trust me, that pisses me off. We tip 7.5% of the total sales to the chefs at the end of the night from our tips. So if we makes 15% (normal tip) from every table, we are ok. But when you get alot of tables like this, that stiff you on a bill that is like 150$, you owe a lot to the chefs. Let's see... ten percent of 150$ is 15$. Half of that, aka five percent, is 7.50. So add those numbers together and you get 22.50. That is what I should have gotten tipped. Not only did I not make anything, but take half of that number, 11.25. That's what I LOST from what I'd already made BEFORE I TOOK THAT TABLE to pay out the chefs. Because they decided to splurge. These same people show up every week, never tip, and always act just as "crunk." And if there is a birthday celebration (we break out a drum and give a beat and let customers dance) they start with the "WHAT! YEAH! WHAT!" chants that Lil' John does. This is the type of people I can't stand, the type that are only into things for what they can get and refuse to give back at all. When has anyone seen Lil' John donate money for a relief effort? On the flip side, there are many rap artists and rockstars that have contributed for such things. Those people should get the credit, even if its just a publicity stunt, because at least they made effort. Someone that doesn't have a job and gets up at 4 every day to play his XBOX from welfare money is not making an effort. That's when the "hard life on the streets" excuse becomes overused. They cause the people that actually live on one of the many "MLK" streets (Martin Luther King Street) to get severe backlash from these stereotypes, which makes them grow up to be scorned, and that's not fair. The MLK reference, btw, is from a Chris Rock standup, where he talks about how noone should go anywhere near a street with that name, b/c somehow, the worst ghettos seem to appear magically next to them. And on my many trips to Atl for Magic tournements, I can vouch. On my trips to Richmon, I can vouch. Chattanooga? Yep. Augusta? Uh huh.

This essay has been written and copyrighted by Reijin.
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