What’s going on everybody! You surviving the year? Its been nearly 7 months since my last post and it is truly wild how much the world has changed in that short amount of time.
Protests and riots in the street, a global pandemic that looks to be hitting its runner’s high and shows no sign of stopping, especially in America where our leaders pretty much just gave up on us from the jump. They are up there in private helicopters and having sex in masks in their Bilderberg meetings with all the other global elite, ya know? What do they care about the rest of us if they own the food supply.
Obviously I’m joking (a little) and I’m sure someone will give me grief for that but honestly, no one in America has taken it seriously and that’s why other countries point to us as a bad example of how to handle a pandemic. We started trying to prepare too late, did too little to really stop it while it was upon us and then gave up way too soon. This was all for the sake of saving an economy that is now plummeting even further because our consequences are finally catching up to us.
We are a country that puts economies and material over humanity and caring for each other, we value individualism over collectivism and fear over love. We do not look out for our brothers and sisters like the Bible intended and don’t treat others as our equals. We have become so divided that you would wonder how we are one country. It is because of this that we will never be free of this pandemic until there is a vaccine. It’s why Donald Trump will likely get elected next term and those that seem to genuinely care like Bernie will keep getting their legs swept from under them by their own parties and it’s why it is so hard for the disenfranchised living in America to ever create a lasting change.
Can someone please explain to me how an entire race of people can live in fear from those that are supposed to protect them in a country that is as developed and “great” as America is? How is it that America has the highest incarceration rate in the world by a very wide margin, with more than half locked up on minor drug charges in for-profit prisons? How the cops that executed a no-knock search warrant and fatally shot Breonna Taylor in her own house weren’t arrested and only one was even terminated? It is absolutely disgusting to watch and it has gotten to the point where I cannot go on social media because it actually takes a physical toll on me watching the abuse that is occurring daily in the streets. If someone can watch the videos of police brutality, especially their actions during the protests, and not demand reform, then they are part of the problem as well.
These aren’t even liberal ideas, it is literally just human rights. Somehow this was turned into a partisan issue when it very clearly should not be.
I don’t have any answers, I just know the bankers are somehow behind it all. I say we all come together as Americans and overthrow big banks and start to use community banks. They aren’t that much better but at least they try to support local businesses, not blow everyone’s money handing out loans like candy then beg for a bailout after they lose America’s money. The worst part? They don’t even get into trouble and they likely never will. They own the media so they can make the whole thing go away without a worry. We, as Americans, should throw one last protest and demand banks and 24 hour news networks be shut down or else we just straight up try to push the buildings over; or, push them somewhere else à la SpongeBob. Then we will see how quick we all begin to accept each other. Fear creates ignorance which creates hate; and this is exactly how news outlets stay in business.
It is times like these when we turn to the arts to look for beacons of unity, especially music as of late (nice segue right?). I have actually started making music using Ableton and a midi controller to keep me entertained during quarantine and it is the most fun I have had in a long time. I know I’m driving my friends crazy constantly sending them my new songs but it is so satisfying to get everything lined up and to create new sounds. I had no idea it would be this fun but I can’t get enough. Making something that is entirely your own is the best thing you can do; just the art of creating, even if it’s bad, is immensely satisfying and keeps you excited and present. When you are creating something, it is your contribution to the world and it immortalizes you forever.
By the way, that new J. Cole song Snow on tha Bluff is getting way too much grief too. In case you haven’t listened, the song was a reply to Noname supposedly calling him out, along with other black artists, for not putting a tweet up about the protests and George Floyd.
Before his song was released, both Cole and Kendrick were the subject of “cancellation” on Twitter for their silence on social media. In the words of the great Dave Chappelle, “Who gives a f*** what Ja Rule thinks?” It is unbelievably silly to try to bully great artists into giving a public statement in 180 characters when both of them have been silently attending protests and have spent their entire careers speaking out against police brutality and the treatment of African-Americans.
Right now, protests on the street are carrying the movement for equality, not public statements made by celebrities and rappers. Anyone can make a public statement with next to no ramifications (see just about any corporation, especially those that condemned the protests in Hong Kong in favor of keeping good relations with economic behemoth that is China but turned around here in America and claimed they always believed in fighting for justice), but protesting on the streets with the police ever more brutal and a global pandemic underway; that, to me, is bravery. I really do feel as if the momentum has finally shifted and some good is going to come out of this.
Anyway, in Snow on tha Bluff, he mentions how he feels that he doesn’t know how to be a leader and reach those who need to be reached, and he wishes others would help him learn about what he should say and how he should approach these difficult topics. He reinforces his belief that people shouldn’t look to him as a leader or for a statement during this time by closing the song with the line, “Why I feel faker than snow on the bluff? Maybe because deep down I know I ain’t doing enough.”
However, what I felt was the most important and overlooked line of the song was:
This feels very targeted toward Noname’s famous (or infamous depending on how you look at it) decision to stop performing and releasing music because there was predominantly white people in her crowds. In a series of now deleted tweets which can be found here, Noname details how she won’t be releasing any new music or performing concerts because too many white people showed up that didn’t understand the message in her songs and wouldn’t “challenge their liberalism”. These tweets felt very callous and out-of-touch with who her fan base really is and how she became famous in the first place. She has stated, even in the middle of her shows, that she is upset with the lack of energy and dancing and how she wished there were more black people in her crowds.
Her songs are directed more toward a black audience so she admittedly has a right to be upset; however, this is the big issue that arises when art is commodified. Artists have no way of controlling how their music is interpreted and digested and by which audience. While it may be true that she is writing music for African-Americans, she is creating songs in such a laidback indie poetry-rap style that is usually favored by more white audiences.
I have really enjoyed her music in the past, case in point.
There is too much for me to really try to break down here, as this is a very multifaceted and nuanced topic to discuss. But, I really did enjoy that line and Snow on tha Bluff as a whole. Cole understands what it takes many their entire lives to realize: fear does not create lasting peace. For Noname to truly educate and help African-Americans in their struggle for justice, she should not attack and condemn an entire race when they are often ignorant of the injustices of the past and the actions that must be carried out in order to achieve peace.
This is what Cole is trying to convey in this song. He was not attacking Noname as some are suggesting and he did not deserve the hate and “cancellations” as it is not even his own idea, but rather the messages of the great leaders that have come before us. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, all understood that ignorance is almost always the root cause of hatred and both sides must be properly educated if any change is to occur.
That is also how Daryl Davis operates on a daily basis. If anyone is unaware of this incredible man, do yourself a favor and learn about him right now. He is an example of true bravery and exemplifies the human race in the best way possible.
I want to end this blog on a positive note. Engage in conversation when at all possible. Look for similarities that help you connect and bond with your fellow man rather than the differences. Stop watching national 24 hour news networks, especially Fox News and CNN as they feed off your ignorance and fear. Travel the world and expand your horizons. If you lose that desire to learn and explore, it will be very hard to rid yourself of old ideals that ensconce you in your way of thinking and make you unable to change for the better.
There will be a better day.
If you read all of this, then congrats! Here is a playlist with my summer jams for 2020. Enjoy it.
Chipper Dreher 
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