Anybody down with the Call To Oneness – or good music, with or without the unity – needs to get with Huggie Brown.
“Let’s take back the streets,” well-intentioned people say, not even hearing the aggressive imagery in there. You try to take something back from somebody, don’t be surprised if they give a hard yank in return.
Or pop you.
“We hug the block back,” Huggie raps on his record Hug the Block, released last year by the local label Frozen Food Section.
There is drug-slinging slang in there, yes. And there can be no question that Huggie came up off the streets. But it sounds like he wants to really, actually, physically hug the block, as in give the people love, not drugs.
(This is said with the understanding – taken for granted in the hip-hop scene, like it or not – that marijuana does not qualify as drugs. Reefer, known in Huggie’s verses by the old-school term “trees,” is part of the vibe on the streets, not the crime wave.)
You have heard, by now, of Thug Rap. Welcome to Hug Rap.
“I don’t bring guns to shows,” Huggie raps.
Not that he makes it sound easy. It is not easy to be pushing hugs in a world of thugs.
“I’m on the verge of insanity,” Huggie raps, early in the record.
Later in the record, he’s in no better shape. “I’m still looking for my sanity,” Huggie raps.
The good ministers leading the Call To Oneness would do well to tune into Hug the Block, so they can learn more about what they are up against. Huggie had all this figured out more than a year ago, and what he had figured out was that it isn’t going to be easy to fix what has been badly broken for so very, very long.
Like, he loves the women from the block (most definitely, he wants to hug them), but he is realistic about their origins and what to expect from them as a result of what they have seen.
All his “ladies,” he says, were “raised by thugs, with drug-dealer boyfriends.” Preaching on Sunday morning, even out on the street, will not change any of that.
And when you struggle to change, Huggie knows how much fun that can be. Try, no fun at all.
“This new life got me challenging demons, while these (brothers) are wilding and screaming,” Huggie raps.
This is the voice of a man who knows very well that “wilding and screaming” is a ticket to the prison or cemetery.
But have you challenged any demons lately? If so, how is your headache doing? Your insanity?
“I hope my love for my people won’t be the death of me,” Huggie raps.
Say that one again, Huggie, you “hip-hop reverend” (his words).
“I hope my love for my people won’t be the death of me.”
Not that he is all self-important or self-righteous. He does not even have those pompous crutches to rely upon.
“I’m feeling myself too much,” Huggie raps, to keep himself real.
He knows there is a lot of that going around. The liberal teachers talk about “low self-esteem,” but Huggie knows the streets are just as plagued (maybe more plagued) by really whacked and overly high self-esteem.
“Everybody say, ‘I’m feeling myself too much,’” Huggie raps.
Go ahead, everybody, say it.
“I’m feeling myself too much.”
Huggie has the answer. Same answer a lot of people have. Simple answer, but getting there is anything but easy.
“I’m on a paper chase for big lump sums,” Huggie raps.
“I’m a businessman,” he says at one point; and, at another, “I’m an entrepreneur.”
People need “sweet tooth dollars,” on Huggie’s block. People needs jobs, options, money. The way to Oneness runs through economic opportunity.
“That’s the streets,” Huggie raps, “we’re here to follow up.”
Follow up! Yes.
Huggie knows it’s no one-time deal, no march and then (poof) Oneness comes.
He’s here to follow up. Follow him!
Huggie Brown performs on an eclectic bill (mostly rock music) Saturday, July 5 at the Tap Room, 2100 Locust in Downtown St. Louis. It’s free. Look for him on MySpace or thefrozenfoodsection.com. Or get with him at 314-479-1392.
