Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Young Bucks

Young Bucks - Wednesday, November 17, 2004

After I posted the Servinemup Book Review of J.L. King’s , one of my friends called to tell me that the way that I approached the whole Down Low topic was very informative, professional and real. At the same time, I also received a couple of wisecracks from friends who read the article and saw the picture of me and J.L. King..

“Ya’ll sure are standing close to each other..mmmhmm”

The wisecracks were actually pretty funny to me, not just because I’m so confident in my sexuality, but also because I just have a weird sense of humor like that. But when my friend gave me the professional compliment, I realized that I was really growing as a writer. Because despite my own ‘homophobic’ hang-ups, I really had no problem talking to J.L. King at his book signing. Picking his brain and finding out all I could about book publishing and marketing tools. I was so into the business side of it, I actually completely forgot about his sexual preference, we were just two brothers talking about pushing books. But I must admit, going to the book signing did cause me a moment’s hesitation initially and if it wasn’t for the fact that I was a writer trying to get my game tighter, I more than likely would have never gone to meet J.L. King.

But when I did go, I wasn’t alone, one of my Southside podnas rode with me to check out the landscape of how book signings go. He’s actually more than just a child hood friend, he’s also the distribution manager for Servinemup Ink. When the 1st book, Real Game, hits the street this December, he’s the one in charge of pushing the product through various distribution channels..barber & beauty shops, correctional facilities, rehabilitation programs, hustle men on the block, whoever is ready for some Real Game, he’ll make sure you get it in your hands.

Some people raise their eyebrows or turn their shoulder and refuse to do business with ex-convicts. I knew my podna Curvey way back when we were small kids going to the same church together. Our mothers’ are in the same missionary circle at church as well as the church greeters, so no matter what the state of Texas held him behind bars for 7 years for, it really doesn’t matter to me. He’s been home for a minute now and he’s just as charged as I am to move on toward our higher purpose in life. Every Christian has a past and every sinner has a future. We’re hitting the block hard like some hungry pit bulls and once we lock in, they’re going to have to knock us out to make us to let go.

But if they don’t kill us, once we get back on our feet, we’re right back at it again. It’s what you call being ‘dead game’, you’ll learn more about that when you read the Lock Like A Pit story in Real Game. Christianity isn’t a fad or passing fancy, real Christian soldiers don’t give up til we go up, and in the end? We WIN!!

Speaking of winning, I was watching the VIBE Awards last night with Curvey and we saw G-Unit give their acceptance speech for Best Album of the year or whatever the prize was. What really caught my attention was when Young Buck got up on the microphone and the first thing he said was thanks to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After he said it, I looked over at Curvey and smiled,

‘Giving pub to the Almighty!!’

Curvey looked at me and smiled, ‘Hmmm..ALREADY!’

I really like Young Buck’s song, ‘Let Me In’, and I couldn’t help but think of one verse in particular in that song,

I’m sinning but I’m winning at the same time
In a lot of ways, I know that this is the prevalent attitude of all the hustlas on the street. Doing whateva it is you gotta do to handle your bizness. But as disturbing the mixed signals those lyrics bring out, it was still good to see this young brother from Ca$hville (Nashville) give props to the Lord for his success. Now the real strange part, is that later in the show, a fight broke out when some dude punched Dr. Dre, and in the midst of the scuffle, the guy who punched Dre was stabbed. And when the security personnel used pepper spray to clear the fray and later reviewed the videotape, they saw Young Buck wielding a knife. So now the authorities are looking for him. I guess this might make his lyrics from his song, Let Me In, come to life.

Homie is that real, I pray I keep livin
My momma just had a dream of seein me in prison

Hopefully Buck hasn’t just perpetrated a parole violation and I pray for his safety and well being. But this all just goes to show, that we all can profess Christ with our mouth..it’s a whole different thing to display the gospel of Christ through our walk. It ain’t just what it say baby, it’s what it DO. Those who profess their faith in Jesus Christ have a definite required conduct of the gospel to maintain:

Proclaim It Matt 4:23

Defend It Jude 3

Demonstrate It Phil 1:27

Share It Phil 1:5

Suffer for It 2 Timothy 1:8

Don’t hinder it 1 Corinthians 9:16

Be not ashamed Romans 1:16

Preach It 1 Corinthians 9:16

Be empowered 1 Thess. 1:5

Guard It Gal 1:6-8


Just like others, most of my problems come up in properly demonstrating the gospel of Christ. When somebody hits me, my natural reaction is to make sure I inflict as much and possibly more pain on them than they inflicted on me. It’s definitely not in line with the whole ‘turn the other cheek’ theology, but please be patient with me, God is not through with me yet. I’ve still got a lot of Southside mentality to work past, cuz if a n’ga hits you on the Southside, you betta lay his az out or else he’s going to keep hitting you. That’s just how I was taught, you can ask my daddy about that one. God is still working on him too.

Our Sunday School lesson this week was from I Corinthians 15th chapter, but our weekly assignment was to read the entire book of 1 Corinthians. In it, Paul is addressing the church in Corinth and if you don’t know about the temple of Aphrodite and how they were getting down BUCK WILD style in Corinth almost 2,000 years ago, then you definitely need to read it. There’s a part in there that addresses the ‘weaker brother’, and how Christians arent’ supposed to be out acting buck wild in buck wild places, because weaker believers, or would be believers will observe the stronger Christian in these environments or situations and think,

‘Hmm..he’s a Christian out being buck wild and having a good time..it must be okay to do!”

And this weaker brother can fall prey to the traps of the world, traps that the stronger brother could avoid. So that’s a heightened responsibility that Christians must have when demonstrating the conduct of the gospel, even if we can handle being around the buck wild parties, everybody ain’t able to handle it without falling:

But take heed lest by any means this liberty of your’s become a stumbling block to them that are weak. - I Corinthians 8:9