“American Gangster” and the Hip-Hop Generation

Bambu, a militant rapper from LA, blogs about the movie American Gangster:

i’m glad this movie sucks. if this movie was better than malcolm x (which it ain’t) that wouldn’t sit well with me. why the fuck do we idolize frank lucas anyway? because he flew to saigon to buy heroin? because he came from nothing and turned himself into the biggest heroin trafficker in new york? he killed a lot of his own people! a lot! with the biggest voice in the world today, we, as the hip hop generation, have decided to make albums based on the lives of these people… we’ve taken the names of italian mobsters, we put pimps in our videos and we treat the mothers of our people like cigarette butts on the street. why? jay-z can make any kind of record he wants. he can make a record about elmo and muthuhfuckuhs will buy it — what does he do? jumps back in the studio after watching this weak ass movie!!! inspired by frank lucas. would he have done the same if they did a noteworthy movie on bobby seale? or assata shakur? probably not. let’s stop glorifying those figures in our history and in our present who get rich over the graves of our own. c’mon, hip hop generation, wake up…