S.O.N.

My whole life I was taught to keep my back against the wall.  Its Us verses Them.  Us being Hip-Hop and Them being the outsiders looking in.  All we want from the world is acceptance, nothing more.  Everything else we can obtain on our own.  But finally being accepted would be our biggest reward.  From the beginning, this culture has been placed with a criminal label.  Sorta like the parental advisory label on your favorite new album, well not if you got it from Walmart.  Yes, there is graphic violence within some of the lyrics of our songs, but that does not make everyone associated with the culture a criminal.  The MC who wrote it doesn't have to be a criminal either.  For the most part, they are rapping about events that happen everyday in their neighborhoods.  Shakespeare wrote of many deaths, but no one labeled him a serial killer.  He's an artist, so why can't The Notorious B.I.G. by one as well.  Drive through Bed-Stuy and bump some Biggie and tell me he is not the tour guide.  These words weren't meant to be a tough guy act, but a simple cry from the ghetto.  A cry for help.  Something like an S.O.S.  Instead it reads S.O.N.:Save Our Neighborhoods.  A message all minorities or people from low income housing can relate to.  Hip- Hop is a way we can save our neighborhoods.