Ever consider the consequence of a Metaphore?

"...Where were you the day hip hop died?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Is it too late, to late, is to late, is it to late to late..."
- Talib Kweli / Too Late / Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought

Dictionary.com defines a metaphor as the following:

metaphor
n.

1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in a sea of troubles or All the world's a stage (Shakespeare).
2. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol: Hollywood has always been an irresistible, prefabricated metaphor for the crass, the materialistic, the shallow, and the craven (Neal Gabler).

Maybe now all you "Gangta" rappers and emcees can understand that what you say, isn't always what you want them to think. In other words... STOP BULLSHITTIN'!

I was recently working away listening to some hip hop when a classic Talib Kweli track came on. Expansion Outro from the album "Train of Thought". If you don't have it you should really go out and buy it... if not the album hit itunes and get the track! Give it about 1:15 before it starts... then he comes in with lyrics that only give you a brief understanding of what he was thinking when he wrote the track.

He starts explaining an old Nina Simone track called 4 Women, Get that too if you don't have it, and turns the discussion into his version of the song. The song explains the lives of 4 Women. A slave, The daughter of a slave who was raped by her master, a teenage prostitute runaway slave... or so that is what you think if you only took the words for what they were. I see the entire song as a metaphor...

The song breaks down the lives of these 4 women with so much definition of pain and personal understanding that you can envision these women as they walk through life. What got me is that I could picture someone I knew in each one of those verses. No I am not black, but enslaved is another question. Given to poverty... we shall rise!

"...Chasin' the real brothers away like she confused in the brain."

Yup, know one of them.

"She tried to get in where she fit in
on that American Dream mission paid tuition
For that receipt to find out her history was missing and started flippin
Seeing the world through very different eyes
People askin' her what she'll do when it comes time to chose sides"

Know one of them.

"She lived from nigga to colored to negro to black
To afro then african-american and right back to nigga
You figure she'd be bitter in the twilight
But she alright, cuz she done seen the circle of life. Yo!"

Know a few of them...

I guess it is frustrating to me because sometimes, you just can't help. The realities of life is that this is still going on today. Poverty, slavery, prostitution, drugs, crime, teen pregnancy and the list goes on. History repeats its self... or maybe just never changes in the mind of the individual. This song gave me a new perspective of what some people have experienced in life. It also gave me many hours of reflections. Thinking of all of the people I have crossed in my life caught up by what these women went through then, today. I saw the metaphor. Then I realized, we are the metaphor. Me, you, Talib... I would've loved to have met that woman who was 107. But you don't need to go that far to meet someone who has dealt with racism and hate like that. Not in Long Beach. I'm sure not in many parts of the world. That is another conversation. Another idea. Another time.

Right now my frustration is Talib Kweli. A Yo Kweli! So why did you come with so much heat and passion on your first solo album with hi-teck but fell off with them other shits? I still copped them other shits you put out on the strength! Yo... I turned 21 at your Root Down Show in 2000 L.A.. I was down with you sun! I just don't understand what was able to push you away from making soul music like your version of 4 women... lets not even get into the heat you came with on Black Star or the other tracks on this album. But now we see you blinged out kid. "Respiration" should be enough for you to drop into the ipod and take you back sun.

"It's a Small Wonder, like Vicki, why I'm picky
These niggas suck like hickies, and still get to slip they shit in like Mickies"

Come on kid... all I am saying is bring it back home for the team. Them commercial kats don't understand. Even your boy Mos Def said it in his "The New Danger" album.

"Put ya hand down youngen this is not for you!" - Mos Def / The New Danger

Yo... bring it back home B! Or next time be wise with them metaphors... I guess what they say is true... Not the messenger, but the message. This may be an old album... but it still gets air time no doubt! More than any of that shit they play on the radio... Hell, more than any of your new albums cause I can't say you did me right with them. I will always support, but as a fan that helped push you out of the Rawkus closet I feel I have some say in that shit at this point. You see me Kweli. Stop bullshittin with them hooks and come with some "passin the mics like quaterbacks, of course its phat" type shit. I would hate to resort to downloading your album next time around simply because you didn't come with the heat... once again. Yo, that 4 women track made me wanna paint, spread the sound, share the metaphor, I played that shit for so many people and had them read the lyrics as they heard the track just so they can get some understanding in life. Now I play them other kats music. I know you don't, but just incase, don't sleep on them hi-teck tracks and Mos Def collabs. You need that shit like tables need needles!

Word up sun! Come through in the clutch!

"Cause no matter the weather, niggaz be needin cheddar" - GURU / Havoc

"I call my nigga sun cause he shine like one" - Method Man.