Party like a Rockstar
Circa Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 11:33am
First, I'm tagging quite a few of you in this note as I want your opinion. Now, this note may not be very "Politically Correct" so if that offends you go ahead and stop reading now.
I listened to the song "Party like a Rockstar" a year or so ago, whenever it came out and I thought, that's awesome, rock and hip hop have finally found each other. They will make this glorious union and folks will stop feeling so damn racially divided. Well now a new song has hit the airwaves about being "wasted like the white boys". Might I say now, I don't mind being called white. I am. Uh, what else is someone supposed to call me, North American Indian-English mutt? Anywho, so that's not my problem. My thing is this. Yes, we white folks do get wasted. We smoke, take acid, MDMA, MDA, etc. and we do it well. (Well, I used to get that wasted, not so much now) so I'm not offended by this whatsoever.
What does bother me, is the fact that these young black men have NO IDEA that a black man 40 years ago not only got MORE wasted than many white boys (one of his best performances was that of the National Anthem, where it was reported that he had at least a ten strip of acid in his headband. When he started to play, as a former CID user, I assure you, he was wasted!) but this man set the foundation for rock and roll, metal, etc. as we know it! I mean, almost every single rock artist will say this man inspired him. His name. Jimi Hendrix, of course. Now, not only did he play guitar far better than pretty much any white boy at this time (Carlos Santana was good too, but I don't believe he was "white", rather Hispanic in decent) but he did it strung UPSIDE DOWN! That's right. Jimi played left handed and strung his guitar upside down to play. That, alone takes an endless amount of talent.
I fear that many young rap, hip hop genre music artists, do not know their own roots and that this incredibly talented young black man set down the foundation for rock music, and is actually on this white girls' shirt that she's wearing as we speak. If black artists should be proud of doing anything like the white boys, they should be proud of Jimi. Without Jimi, many, many people, bands, groups, the music industry, and an entire few generations of people would not be the same. That is something to be proud of.That a black man got out there and in 1969 played guitar far better than ANY white boy at Woodstock.
SO.. I guess my point is this. Be proud of whatever you want. But please be proud of TRUE talent. Not an ability to build up a tolerance to drugs. think my point was also to not only brag on Jimi for a minute but to see what some of my fellow music lovers, artists and black friends think about this topic as well. The black community did far more for the rock community than most young black people realize. So I'd like all us black, white, brown, purple, to admit and to see that if only for one day. P.S. If you are NOT tagged in this note, It's only because I'm growing annoyed with the tag settings, so PLEASE COMMENT!
Jimmi Hendrix at Woodstock (10-20 strip included)