A recent piece of news in politics has been Obama’s long awaited decision on begin is pull back of the troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. With Republicans immediately jumping to the opposition and chastising our president, one begins to ask how such a decision could be wrong for a country whose own priorities are screwed, and an internal clean up should be happening instead of an overseas extermination. According to Republicans, pulling our troops out of this area will only give opportunity for our enemy Iran to come in and take-over Iraq, who have still not yet recovered from the Iraq-Iran war many years ago; a war fought by Muslim Shiites on both sides. Attempts at control of these regions have happened for centuries, and the amount of bloodshed and deterioration of government lost at this expense is an ethical embarrassment.

Hip Hop, like political boundaries, has always drawn out clear lines in which artists are patriotically aligned too, whether it’s the East coast, West coast, South, Mid-West , (and supposedly North.) It’s interesting to note though, that the height of the boundaries didn’t take completely shape until the mid-west finally came into play as the fourth and final coast around the mid to late-90’s when Chicago hip-hop received help from Cleveland and eventually St. Louis. Now briefly fast forward fifteen years and take a good look at those boundaries again…. They’re almost gone. This is thanks to artists who broke out of these coastal cages and reached out to artists of other coasts in order to blend the best of each coast. Outkast made music with Raekwon. Nas recorded a fire track with Scarface. TI can record a track with Big K.R.I.T and make a remix to Watch the Throne, (another example,) and execute both just as flawlessly. Now you have crews like Slaughterhouse that have three coasts represented, and a fourth coast is brought into play with Yelawolf being signed with them under the Shady umbrella. The BET cypher proved that the NY cat didn’t have to be the most lyrical one; and the down south rapper wasn’t spitting at two miles per hour. It was all just one unit of styles that meshed because the individuals worked well together, not because of where they were from.

So why can’t these politicians learn from hip hop and make an attempt to blur these political boundaries that they so seemingly need to destroy others over. Biggie and Pac aren’t the US and the Middle East; they’re the individual soldiers and civilians who are forced to give their lives every day for a war they never had any part in creating, just upholding because it was they’re duty.

The most beautiful part of Hip Hop is the true freedom associated with it. The radio doesn’t play what you like? Shut it off and plug your iPod in – problem solved. The internet has given equal opportunity for all artists and gives the people the chance to tune out whoever they consider bullshit and focus on those they prefer. Wouldn’t it be nice to do this for our government? If we don’t want you, we should be able to shut you off. If I don’t want you using my taxes to pay for a war I don’t want part in, I’m cranking up the volume on this Pusha T mixtape on you and driving off. The Hip Hop fan is a direct influence on this “government” of urban music. If only our voices were heard this well in politics huh?
If everyone in every government sat back and realized the major changes that have occurred in hip hop throughout these wonderful 30+ years, they could learn a thing or two. Rap beefs are rare occasion; we’d rather hear awesome collabs than a diss track. If only wars were treated as such… but in the end what do I know? Fuck it…