Lupe Fiasco visited Chicago's St. Sabina church at the behest of Father Michael Pfleger to talk about the violence plaguing the city and the importance of faith. His visit comes after a recent tribute to slain Chicago infant Jonylah Watkins. The speech touches on the transformative power of faith and the ability it has to positively affect an individual's life decisions. Lupe makes powerful statements about metamorphosis and escaping the worldly cycles of suffering affecting the world. He gives voice in some ways to the feelings of helplessness and frustration hanging over the city that has experienced a barrage of catastrophic losses in a matter of months. He makes his point through references to pop culture, fine art and even the names of the city's most recent victims in order to convey the the fragility and significance of human life in real time. The six part video series runs for about 72 minutes. Check out the fifth segment below. Scroll down for a look at Lupe's recent Twitter-festo further illustrating his feelings on the issue of gun violence in the city of Chicago.
Violent music (and all violent media) effectively says its “ok” to be violent. It provides positive reinforcement for negative actions. If you rap and make violent music then own up to it. Stop hiding behind “art imitating life” as a way to evade the guilt. “How the hell you gonna tell this man not 2 be violent?, Cuz he dont need to go the same route that I did” -Eminem & Dr. Dre “Choices”. Sorry…”Bad Meets Evil”…”Guilty Conscious”…sorry…lol correct title of the song aside, U know what I meant! The issue stands that violent music puts violence into this world one way or another.It creates the atmosphere that violence is an acceptable means to an end. Agree or disagree doesnt really matter at this point honestly. But to not even acknowledge the possibility that violent music has even the most minute effect on violence in the world is frankly bullshit. Ive made violent music. Done violent things. Most my friends are violent. Lived in violent neighbors. Seen violence first hand. A certain point you start to get tired of it. You ask why? why is it like this? what is causing this? why is this ok to live like this? Then you turn on the news and see that a 12 month old got shot in the face by two teenagers in Georgia for no reason at all. Then you hear a song on the radio talking about “shooting everyone in sight”…bad times man…fuck… you may not give two shits about the next man and his troubles and thats cool with me…live you life…but I do and most people I know do. but dont sit there and act like high ass inner city murder rates are just falling from the sky for absolutely no reason… everything plays a part…EVERYTHING. Take responsibility for the part you play. motherfuckers can at least start there. yeah I got issues. My hood aint been safe in 25 years! At the point now u can die for nothing. just random death and disregard. tired of it. I know you don’t hear me. I guess its the LAST desperate act of a desperate man in desperate times. On one…peace…
And that’s it. In That last retweet. CARE. Compassion. Empathy. Do you care? Yes or no? Sometimes? All the time? That’s the issue at hand. One more and I’m done. Promise. Somebody just said the violence in Shakespeare didnt make people more violent or had no effect. And my thought was the people who could even afford to see a Shakespeare play at the time probably got their money from the slave trade. Now ain’t that bout a bitch…bad, woman good…lol…y’all move in peace out there one love #CHI
