For as long as I can remember, and as far as I’m aware, Hip Hop has in many but not all cases always been about being larger than life. It has always been about heart, pride, attitude, and showing the world you’re nobody to be f***ed with.
Nobody really needs to look far to see how this is true. This ego exists in the aggression of the beats and instrumentals, the braggadocios energy behind the lyrics and the overwhelming display of wealth in the music videos.
This makes me wonder how some artists are able to uphold this idea in their heads as well as the heads of their audiences, when maybe deep down they’re not doing so great or not feeling as invincible as they’re making themselves out to be.
I once heard one of 2pac’s close friends in an interview talking about different he was to his usual self in the weeks coming up to his death. It was interesting to hear of the vulnerability In Pac despite the perception that he created of himself to the world and everybody around him.
It goes to show in many cases that vulnerability is something to be accepted as opposed to being denied. My craft allows me to imagine myself as someone who’s more outgoing, defiant and in control when in many aspects of my life this simply isn’t the case.
I’ve been meditating on this idea of vulnerability because in truth I find that because everybody in this sport believes themselves to be larger than life, the game turns into a competition that’s extremely fierce to the point everybody is trying to tear each other down.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m really built for this, because if I’m being honest I don’t have the thickest of skins, and I’d be surrounded by people who have zero qualms with stepping over me to get to where they want to.
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