The other day a friend, who works with 'at-risk' youth in Wilmington, DE, and I were driving around listening to Tupac. We both can't stand the derogatory stuff Tupac had to say about women and his lust for violence. However, there is no way to ignore the urgency and prophetic nature of his music. I am not suggesting that anyone glorify Tupac's rather insane, and perhaps underutilized, life. But we'd all be stupid to ignore what he had to say. Some of the urgent cries for help and change in his music speak directly to our brokenness. I often think that his music is some of the most direct messages of man's 'fallen nature' that there is. Unfortunately, I don't think Tupac had enough answers as to how things could change and he (like most of us) chose death (in behaviors not exactly literally) as an alternative to the world's evil. And you and I can do the same, we are given the choice to pick between life and death each day. Seeing the pain out there in and around us and continuing to live in (and even embrace) that evil as an escape is no escape at all. But it is often the only option that we see.This brought up an earlier blog idea I'd not yet posted. Many moons ago (October) I set out on my own personal odyssey from Los Angeles to San Francisco via the arid Central Valley and spent a night in the tourist haven of Fresno. Fresno is somewhat of a backwater and the Central Valley is considered the back alley or at least 'armpit' of the magical and mythical California. Having lived 4 years in Jersey I wasn't too worried about this, in fact I was embracing it in order to see where all of our food comes from and see something beyond the surfing fantasy of The OC or The Hills. Whilst driving, somewhere past Bakersfield in an incredibly arid, smoggy and flat terrain surrounded by agriculture on all sides-I heard a new(er) Wyclef song and it hit me, hard. Now I don't care too much for Mr. Jean or the rest of the crew on this cut (Lil Wayne, Akon, Nia) but that isn't the point, I can rag on them later. Despite not being a big fan, they did a heck of job with the track "Sweetest Girl" from Wyclef's new cd Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant. The song deals with a girl's struggle and decline and sonically is very cinemeatic. The singing and production on this great track is perfect for going 80 through the desert.
Having spent the earlier part of my day driving aimlessly through LA and thinking too much about what 'it' (SoCal, America, suburban, multiculti life) means, hearing this track touched me. "Sweetest Girl" is such a great song to the point where it makes you joyful, but in such a tragic way. Here is a track about something so beautiful and so damaged that it hurts so much it almost makes you feel better.
Like some earlier Tupac work, "Sweetest Girl" is again speaking to the brokenness of the human experience. Akon's re-singing of the old Wu-Tang line 'Cash rules everything around me' from the classic song C.R.E.A.M. is a little derivative, but it speaks a rather nihilistic point that our lives are completely controlled by money and this drive for cash causes us to do all sorts of debased things. In essence it is true, though I don't think it is just money that is 'the root of all evil' as Massive Attack once claimed. Money can surely be evil, but sin in man is the root of it, and man did not start to perform evil once money was invented or capitalism was coined. No, it all goes much much deeper than that.
This song speaks about our contemporary world. And driving through California, the so-called bell-weather for American culture in all its decadent glory was an interesting place to imagine this tune. As I listened to the lyrics, driving through a bleak landscape and imagining teenagers of all shades growing up in a suburban California where who you are is defined but how you dress and the money you have and the car you drive, the song came alive. Sure it's about hookers, but the message of life being defined by money is the essence of the American experience. Sadly 'Clef and company had no new answers for us as to how we should get out of this truly American dilemma, but I feel like he or I or God should give some alternatives to these teenagers in California or wherever they might be. Our life on earth DOESN'T have to be defined by these material things and such superficial pursuits. We can have a different life here on earth.
As the Bible states in Deuteronomy 30:19, "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him."
This is the alternative; we can have another life, there can be heaven on earth. This song doesn't need to ring so true. There is hope!
The video below isn't anything official as the real one by Wyclef is some stupid thing about refugees that doesn't seem to go with the song, I like this homemade thing.
Just listen to it and think about our country, our young people, our future, and what an alternative can be and IS.
