In years gone by, I have been guilty of accomplishing the direct opposite of what my goal was. As a blogger, what I write gets attention. A lot of times, I would rant about some person or some cause. By doing that, I gave the subject free publicity. I have written about various charities and people who founded GoFundMe pages.
People have donated to causes based on what I wrote, which is something I did not want. Some donated to said causes in my name. Well, no more. That is why I don’t write about teenagers who did something stupid that could have put us all at risk. Those articles included links to Go Fund Me. If I wrote about those people, donations would be made. That won’t stand.
Having learned through mistakes made in the past, I no longer write about those people. Not because I went all noble, but because I have learned my lesson: no free publicity for charity drives unless I want to give those drives attention. Look, I typically get 200 to 500 visitors a day, even after all these years and even when I’ve done nothing to warrant visitors.
Yesterday, 319 people visited. Of those, 297 read more than one article, so I am still drawing in the eyeballs. Last week, I gained a total of 3,073 visitors after Sofia Schkidchenko, a Ukrainian yodler, singer and producer and a person whom I interviewed almost exactly two years ago, was the subject of a massive amounts of hits. People came to me through search engine results, showing that even in recent years, I am still a viable blogger. Not as viable as before, but enough to warrant the time and expense that goes into running my site.
The numbers that I pull in each day may not be much, but if I write an article about a person or cause, those visitors could potentially donate because of me. Not gonna do it. Not anymore. Sorry Schidchenko is deserving of all the free publicity that comes her way. Dead teenagers whose families pathetically do GoFundMe drives do not.
Given how loathe I am to give certain things publicity, I am going to swallow the bile and write about a person and his song. I speak specifically of a song called I’m A Thug, a 2001 song from Maurice Samuel Young, a man who performs under the stage name Trick Daddy. The song did well in the United States, clocking in within the top 10 positions of several charts.
The song is awful, not only because it’s hip-hop and rap, but because of the message that it sends. When speaking of the “thug life,” Young says, “this is the life for me.” It did occur to me to reach out and get a comment from him about this article, but as a blogger, I am not obligated to tell all sides of the story.
What makes the song and its associated music video appalling is that the song features singing children. It’s one thing to perform disgusting rap lyrics as an adult, but children were dragged into this. Judging by the voices, more than a few are White, not black. That is downright evil. What kind of parent of a White child would allow their child to participate in something like this?
The Wikipedia entry for this song reads in part:
“The track serves as an ode to Trick Daddy’s labelmate Buddy Roe, who at the time was serving a life term in federal prison for possession of cocaine. Lyrically, Trick raps about being perceived as a bad person due to his race and resemblance to a thug, in contrast to who he really is, and condemns the judicial system. The track also features a choir of children singing about being a “thug” with enthusiasm.”
Well, there’s a shocker. Music from a black guy who’s rapping about being associated with people who were sentenced to life for committing federal crimes. Sadly, Roe has since been released from prison.
It’s tempting to feel pity for black people for being judged as being a bad person, but don’t you do it. Of course black people are bad people, and of course Young looks like a thug. It is perfectly okay to judge him, because he proudly sings about being a thug. He brought this upon himself. He claims that he is in reality not a thug, but I am not buying what he’s selling.
Just like Roe, Young has a criminal history that involves drugs. A year before this song was released, he was arrested for DUI and, surprise surprise, DUI. We’re not talking about a small bit of marijuana here. No, his case involved cocaine, and that’s reprehensible. It should be noted that Young was stupid.
When Young was taken to the police station for processing, the drug slipped out of a dollar bill. So he’s a thug and he’s retarded. He wants people to think that he’s not a thug, yet he pulled stunts like that. At the time of his arrest, there was an outstanding warrant for DUI, something that to me is unforgivable.
So, we have a two-time loser and a self-proclaimed thug.
It’s important to note that those DUI and drug charges weren’t the result of a one-time lapse of judgement. Not that that would make it okay. No, he has a hardcore rap sheet.
Below is a list of arrests that I was able to find during a simple Google search, and I am obligated to say that these are arrests and arrests are not a conviction. In my opinion, an arrest is enough to judge someone in the court of public opinion regardless of the disposition in a court of law.
- In 1991, he was arrested for possession of cocaine.
- In 2003, he was arrested for assault and gun charges. That same year, he was arrested for allegedly making violent threats and for assault.
- In 2014, he was arrested for cocaine possession as well as gun charges. He was also allegedly driving on a suspended license.
- In 2020, he was arrested on allegations of DUI and drug possession.
As a result of his bad behavior, he spent more than two years in prison. He also served probation for some of his other charges. He has also served time under house arrest. And he’s a felon. If that’s not being a thug, I don’t know what is.
Given Young’s proven arrest record that goes back to when he was a teenager and at least one conviction, he really is, in my opinion, a thug. With that song, he was trying to tell the world he is in fact not a thug, but when you take just a cursory glance at his record, you can easily agree that he has he is in fact a thug.
A long time ago, I was in charge of programming at a small local television station. One of the front office people sent me a copy of this song and suggested (asked, actually) that I make a quick portion of this song the background for the FCC-mandated top-of-the-hour station identification. That would have meant giving the song ten seconds of free publicity. I rejected the idea.
This song is the ultimate epitome of being a wolf in sheep’s clothing and in condoning drug possession, DUI and violent behavior. As a parent myself, I would never allow my children to be a part of something such as this. I have to wonder if those kids’ parents knew about his record when consenting to having their offspring be a part of this garbage. Maybe they knew, but didn’t care about his history of DUI and cocaine. Then again, they may have been aware, but money talked, making those parents, in my opinion, slime.
I realize that by writing this article, I am giving Young and his song free publicity, but I just had to do it to point out the truth behind what I believe to be the lie. And rest assured that that life is not the life for me.