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CHINCHECK
by Charlamagne Tha God cthagod@gmail.com
SELLING CRACK IS WHACK “Thou Must Not Celebrate the Drug Culture: Drugs are destroying the black community. There isn’t a dope boy in the country who wants to be a dope boy. The Trap is just that, a Trap. You’ll either end up in jail or dead. It’s like playing Russian roulette with your life. Trap or Die? You might as well die because in the Trap you are killing yourself and your community slowly but surely.” - Charlamagne Tha God’s 10 Commandments of Hip Hop If you have ever studied my Ten Commandments of Hip Hop then you have definitely read the Fifth Commandment, “Thou Must Not Celebrate the Drug Culture.” There is nothing on this planet that has done more damage in the black community than drugs. I’m sure there is some trap star, some d-boy out there that read that and said to himself, “Damage? Does this Escalade I purchased with dope money look like damage? You see my grill shining in my mouth, does that look like damage? You see these diamonds on my neck and diamonds in my wrist; does this look like damage to you? What the fuck does Charlamagne mean by damage?” “Damage” is defined as the occurrence of a change for the worse or causing damage to something or someone. That “something” being the community and a family torn apart because the heads of the household are strung out. That “someone” being a father, a mother or a newborn addicted to something he or she never even had the chance to deny. That “someone” is a cousin you grew up idolizing but now he’s just a fiend. You can’t trust him because he breaks in your daddy’s shop and steals a TV, raw whiting, some frying pans, and the cooking oil! Then he tries to go right up the street to one of the local traps and sell my daddy’s shit and offers to fry fish dinners for a twenty of rock! I wish I had made that up, but I didn’t. It’s a true sad story and I’m sure you can think of a few yourselves. How many people do you know that have been victims of crack cocaine? I know of athletes who were so talented in my hometown of Moncks Corner, SC. I listen to older members of my family tell me how this person should have been in the NFL or this person should have been in the NBA but then he started smoking rock. When I was young my pops used to point out to me fiends walking down the road and say to me, “Boy, that used to be one of the finest women in Moncks Corner.” “What happened?” I asked. “That rock did her bad,” he would say. That’s why I don’t understand how people can glorify being a dope boy! We live in an era where people really brag about that shit like it’s a profession! I need a Criminology major to study this shit because I don’t understand. I asked my wifey about that last line while typing this. I asked her whether I should say a Criminology major should study this shit. She said that she didn’t know because Criminology is the social-scientific study of crime and she didn’t know if being a d-boy is a crime like a murderer. Now I questioned whether or not I really wanted to breed with this young lady after she made such a dumb statement. Then I realized there are so many people celebrating the drug game and commercializing it that it doesn’t look criminal anymore, but, news flash ladies and gentlemen - it is! I don’t care how many rappers talk about selling kilos in there music. I don’t care how much weight you talked about moving on your last DVD, that shit is not legal! I proceeded to explain to my lady that A) People do die from drug overdoses which technically make the dealer a murderer; B) People do get robbed and killed for their packages. I had to remind her about Paid in Full when Camron killed Mekhi Phifer in the lobby for those bricks. Not to mention the dudes who wanted the drug money and shot the two innocent women in the bedroom and tried to blow
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Wood Harris’ brains out; all that was directly related to drugs. Sidebar: I’m about to cut all ties with this young lady. Why do I have to explain a real life issue to her using movies as an example? It is because these statistics may be over her head. According to the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 8.6 million Americans ages 12 or older reported trying crack cocaine at least once during their lifetimes, representing 3.5% of the population aged 12 or older. In 2006 NSDUH data indicate that approximately 1.5 million (0.6%) Americans reported past year crack cocaine use and 702,000 (0.3%) reported past month crack cocaine use. The 2006 NSDUH results also indicate that there were 245,000 persons ages 12 or older who used crack cocaine for the first time within the past 12 months. Results of the 2007 Monitoring the Future survey indicate that 2.1% of eighth graders, 2.3% of tenth graders, and 3.2% of twelfth graders reported lifetime use of crack cocaine. In 2006, these percentages were 2.3%, 2.2%, and 3.5%, respectively. Do you see how many people’s lives you dudes are damaging? Do you see what you are doing to the future of our country? This is what you brag about in your records and on your DVDs? Why are niggas walking around glorifying this shit? You walk around wearing t-shirts that say “Trap Star” and “D Boy,” well, you might as well wear a shirt that says “Indict Me” since you are obviously trying to make it easy for the Feds! The funny thing is, most of you dudes glorifying it aren’t making any real money! The crack business, it turns out, is a modern, brutalized version of a nineteenth THE CRACK BUSINESS IS century A MODERN,BRUTALIZED VERSION OF A NINETEENTH sweatshop.
CENTURY SWEATSHOP, AND MOST OFYOU DUDES GLORIFYING IT AREN’T MAKING ANY REAL MONEY!
Despite the popular notion that crack sellers all drive Mercedes-Benzes, wear gold jewelry, and get rich quick, most of the people in the business work around the clock, six to seven days a week, for low wages in an atmosphere of physical threat and control. Their pay is often docked if they arrive late. They may be shot or maimed if they are even perceived as trying to cheat their employers, and many fall into such debt to their bosses that they have to go into hiding. Not to mention the success rate for drug dealers sucks! You end up one or two places: jail or the mortuary. In 2004, cocaine was the primary drug involved in Federal drug arrests. There were 12,166 Federal drug arrests for cocaine in 2004. The DEA made 7,082 arrests for powder cocaine and 3,921 arrests for crack cocaine during 2004. In 2006, there were 5,623 Federal defendants sentenced for crack cocaine-related charges in U.S. Courts. Approximately 96% of the cases involved crack cocaine trafficking. You are glorifying a game you can’t win! You are betting on a fixed fight! The only people winning are the people that have been oppressing us from day one, the people who put crack in the inner city communities after the civil rights movement. The people who benefit from hours of free labor after your ass is doing 30-to-life for being a D Boy. The same people who benefit from our people being psychologically enslaved to whatever substance they choose to abuse. This is what y’all choose to celebrate? This is what y’all choose to glorify? This is what y’all are indirectly encouraging our kids to become? I used to sell crack but now that I know better, I do better, and knowing is half the battle. //
