Barack v. 50 Cent

This an interesting piece, but frankly it scares me. I have respect for the work Byron Hurt has done. Also, I've never been a huge 50 fan. But I worry about the scapegoating of 50 here as much as I worry about making Barack into some sort of savior. One thing that concerns me is that I think many of the people in this piece critiquing 50 aren't actually fans of modern hip-hop. I always thought if you wanted to know what was up with hip-hop in the 90s, and the problems inherent with Biggie or Puff or Snoop, you'd be better off listening to some Lauryn Hill or some Jeru, not talking to (no disrespect) Stanley Crouch.

I'm really scared of us becoming what we hated when we were hip-hop heads in our 20s--blowhards who didn't really listen to the music, but feeling the need to critique it. Even the choice of 50 as somehow a representative seems dated. Is he really as "right now" as Barack? I don't know. I want to hear from my under-25 peoples. I'm not seeing many of them speaking in this video.

I need to think more before I write anything else about this--the broad sweeping generalizations about "black masculinity" are really worrying. We are headed into a new place here, we need to tread lightly. Maybe think more. Talk less.