Just in case you are totally unfamiliar with the legend of Robert Johnson, let's do a quick re-cap on quite possibly one of the most important and controversial figures in music.
Born in Hazelhurst, Mississippi on May 8th in 1891, Robert Johnson was a middling guitarist, plucking the strains of Mississippi Delta Blues as a young man, without any real recognizable talent for playing. Then, at the age of nineteen, Johnson dissapeared and later returned to Hazelhurst, playing infinitely better than he had before he left. In fact, his playing quickly took on the stuff of legend, a legend now deeply woven into the fabric of the american music tapestry. You see, Johnson travelled down to a place called "The Crossroads" where he allegedly met up with Ole Lou himself. Legend has it that Johnson made a Faustian pact with the devil, in exchange for the ability to play, like, ahem a demon. All he would have to do would be to exchange his soul.
What gave the legend legs was the amazing transformation that Johnson seemed to undergo, flashing new and impressive powers with the six string. Penning tunes like "Me and The Devil Blues" also went a long way towards sealing Johnson's fate as a supernatural figure of note. He eventually wound up dying at a house party at the age of twenty-seven. Some said he was poisoned, others stabbed, but no matter how he died, they all agreed that just before his death, he crawled down the street on all fours, howling like a wounded beast. Unless you count Paganini, Johnson became the first man to have sold his soul to rock and roll.
Fast forward to 2008, July 28th, it's close to 3am and I am transfixed, I mean transfixed by a slough of videos detailing Jay-Z's involvemet with The Illuminati, you know, the guys in The Da Vinci Code. World conquest, total enslavement, you get the picture.So the videos range from laughable to compelling, some even link Kanye and Nas to Jay-Z and indict them both as Illuminists. In fact there are even a number of videos that show Jay-Z, Nas and Kanye, not flashing gang signs, oh no, but exchanging Masonic handshakes on stage. Then there's a lot of detail around J-Hovva's pyramid sign that he's always flashing, of course with his left eye, peering through the top of the pyramid.
On top of the visuals, there's the subliminals, lyrics and symbolism in the videos, and backwards masking in the songs, one stretch of lyrics is clearly audible and you can hear Jay-Z say, "Murda, Murda, Murda, Jesus, 666." There's also a lot of rampant speculation that Diddy is in on the game as well and in fact a guy by the name of
"Armed MC" breaks down Tupac's
Don Killuminati album indicting Diddy and Bad Boy also as tools of the illuminati. Keep in mind that Shakur was raised by a Black Panther mother and knew all about agencies like COINTELPRO and the power structures that back covert ops.
All of this blowback hitting Jay-Z and Kanye doesn't surprise me. Whenever I look in Jay-Z's eyes, I see a dead man and I have never found his rhymes to be inspirational or even remotely compelling or groundbreaking. I had held out hope for West, thinking him to be the link between the underground and mainstream, adding some headiness and politcal savvy to the game, especially after he called out George Bush on the Katrina fundraiser, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he's crossed over as well.
It makes total sense that Jay-Z would be up to his buggy eyeballs in Masonic/Illuminist influence and favor. Just like Robert Johnson, Jay's rise to the top of the game was meteoric and he's been on top far longer than most MC's. He would be a very key asset to have, to reach out and influence a nations youth, keep them pre-occupied with the quest for cash, their upwardly mobile material status and not engaged in any kind of internal dialog regarding the merits of such a lifestyle. In fact there was once a time when black music had a social conscience. Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron all had voices that questioned the status quo with more than just occasional frequency. That type of fury and debate cannot be heard in the mainstream rap arena and hasn't been since the demise of Public Enemy.
If you were a small cabal of insanely rich men with a plan to subjugate those less evolved than you to a life of soft slavery glossed up like the cheap whore of consumerism, wouldn't you want voices in the world? Voices that would reach out into the minds of the youth? Voices that would speak their language and inject ideas and memes into the mainstream? And if you were a kid like Jay-Z, coming up from the streets, wouldn't you want to work with the biggest and baddest (or so you thought) dons on the block? And wouldn't you do it if they promised to make you insanely rich and gift you with the sweetest pussy on the planet? I don't know of many poor kids that wouldn't take that deal in a Bedstuy minute. But when it comes to sell out, we're not just talking about the forfeiture of one's creative vision for the immediacy of financial reward by dumbing it down for mass consumption. No, we're talking about selling out the most precious gift of all.
I guess that's why they don't all it "soul music" anymore.
