Hate is Easy, Love Takes Courage

Hate is a spiritual warfare that will affect the mind and soul to the point in were a person can become debilitated by it. When a person hates someone, what they're really doing is giving them power over their life. If a person hates you, you control their every thought and move. Hatred is overcome by subtracting yourself out of that person's equation. They become like a tennis player in a match with no competitor, becoming defeated by a score of love {0/0}. One can not compete in a match when no one is competing with them. Bed-Stuy Brooklyn Rapper, Maino's new song is a take on hate. Maino makes it very simple. His motto is : "Pray for my enemies" and "Hi Hater."

"My song is a universal topic that most people can relate to," begins Maino. "Hi Hater" is about confronting that hater and thanking them with a smile and hello," he says laughing. "You can't take a hater seriously cause most of the time they're hatin' based on assumptions and jealousy. At the same time I'm never going to allow anyone to disrespect me or my friends."

In the article, R&B Star Lloyd shares his Lesson in love, Lloyd's thoughts on self esteem were directly based on our conversation about Maino's theory on haters. Lloyd believes in the positive approach and was telling the kids that those type of actions were attributed to a lower self-esteem because he said "we all go through points in our life when our self esteem is challenged, it's human nature. Everybody does." He stated that : "as artistic people when we feel bad we might channel our feelings in our art by writing a song or whatever skills we have. Someone else might channel their feelings by cutting you down which isn't right but you can't really get mad because they might not have the outlets we have and their opinion doesn't matter."

I personally don't get pleasure out of other people's pain because that's not my innate nature. I'm not a naturally disrespectful person but I have a very low tolerance for disrespect. Like Maino, we were taught to never allow anyone to disrespect us because if we did then they would get comfortable with doing that. Now I just don't care. I refuse to waste my energy on someone who hates me. I told Maino a person is only as important as we make them out to be. If I have a bad moment usually I read things to inspire me, talk to my sister and friends about it, or I paint or play the piano and afterward I'm over whatever might have upset me. Whatever someone else wants to do is all up to them. I don't entertain it.

Maino disagrees with this approach and my personal theory of peace and light based on his own experiences. {It's not time for me to tell that story yet} I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I don't ever try to force people to believe in what I believe in. I only share my thoughts with them and allow them to take what they want from that. I'm inspired by the philosophy of Jolie Magazine Publisher, Alicia Marie Rivers who encourages us all to "Live Pretty, no matter what." My experiences have taught me that reciprocating negativity is counter productive and it keep us from doing what we're supposed to be doing and I told Maino that. Because I have nothing to prove to anyone I don't feel the need to respond to whatever someone says about me. It doesn't matter to me, what matters is what I think of me.

Most people in hip hop knew that Maino and Rapper, Lil Cease had differences that resulted to a physical fight. I'm a person who is able to not hate one person over another based on their differences or what everyone else thinks. I never saw the DVD's that everybody on the East Coast and in magazines and forums talk about. For some reason I never even correlated Cease and Maino with a feud. Maybe I just didn't care. Who knows? The funny thing about it is that there are both from the same neighborhood and at one point we all lived in the same vicinity. So when Cease was talking to me one day he was actually surprised and seemed annoyed that I didn't know what he was talking about (the so called feud with Maino). He said "everybody knows about that." He thought I was trying to be funny but I seriously didn't remember anything about their fight.

Ironically Cease said he was just coming back from T'Yanna's birthday. T'Yanna is the daughter of the late Christopher ("B.I.G") Wallace. Lil Cease was a member of B.I.G's group, Junior Mafia. He said that Faith had brought all the kids to celebrate T'Yanna's day. He had said if i got the chance I should try to reach out to T'Yanna and send her a little love and support.

Cease said it was depressing to see T'Yanna celebrate her birthday without her father. He said, "I got done with all the negativity and so called beefs because I see what the end result is. When I see C.J (Big's son) and T'Yanna it makes me depressed and it affects my mind. Up to this day I worry about the fact that they never found the person who murdered Big and because I was right there when they shot him it replays in my mind. It also makes me think that they could be out their still and want to do harm to me or his family because you just never know about things like that." Actually, Nzingha Shakur says the same thing about her own brother's murder. You never know, so "you have to fight to keep the darkness out of your mind and it's a struggle but the only option is to embrace light." Cease says, "I've seen too much to still be part of negative things, that's why I changed my whole outlook on life and decided to be healthy both in my mind and my body." (He's got a great work out plan he's promoting!)

I was happy he said that because I know that kids always think rappers are their role models and they copy what rappers do. Lately all the kids have been chanting,"Hi Hater." From the Hood to the richest suburbs in middle America, "Hi Hater" is their phrase and they get hyped up when they're chanting it. It's serious for them. Even at sporting events they're chanting Maino's phrase. That lets me know that a lot of people are listening to what Maino has to say. I told Maino this and that my belief in being positive at this point in my life is because I've also already seen the effect of hate in its strongest element. I've experienced the visual impact of death, genocide and murder. Helping orphans directly affected by those things is a personal passion because I am directly affected by it in my own family and am surrounded by people just like me who have lost their parents but are not as fortunate as I am. It is my obligation as a sensible human being to do so. That is just commen sense for me but all of us see things different and are entitled too.

I have friends whose parents haven't seen daylight in decades because they are confined to prison cells as a result of the struggle for our Independence in it's truest sense. They remind me why I am here. I cannot be so disrespectful as to not acknowledge my own family and friends who aren't here because they wanted better for me and our generation. Most importantly negativity just isn't my vibe. To participate in the digression of our people through hatred would be insulting those people who sacrificed and died for me so that I could do what I enjoy and love.

I told Maino that the problem with hating someone so much and being very open about it at a high level is that even when that person has moved forward { like I have with some people,} other people who hate you will use the person you hate the most against you because they affect your mind most of all. I resigned from that immaturity a very, very, long time ago as did my family and some of my friends. So if anyone thinks that they're going back and forth with us then they are mistaken and must realize that they may have other enemies who don't think how we think. I tell everyone that if you don't subscribe to anything that pertains to someone who hates you will never know what they're up to. It's just so simple. Do not subject your mind to anything that is not congruent to where you're at in your heart or where you're trying to be in mind because it will aggravate your soul and cripple your growth. If everyone applies that to their own situations (whatever they may be) then they will see that a peaceful life is very attainable.

As history shows, pointless feuding always results in senseless killings. The people who are always more offended are the friends and family of the person you hate, it is rarely the actual person. This has been the biggest downfall for hip hop music. We've lost so many people over nothing and part of this is Maino's story and the story of Brooklyn. Maino and Lil Cease are not enemies anymore. When I talked to Maino he said he "agreed to disagree with Cease at that point in their lives and it's nothing now. I'm past that," said Maino. Cease pretty much said the same thing. "I'm in a different place in my life right now. I'm trying to be an example and help kids become healthy in their mind and body too."

I believe there is enough room for everybody in music and enough creative intelligent minds to where it doesn't have to be about feuds and beefs. When you are talented and confident you don't have to knock someone else down to get to where you want to be. That is the slave mentality. We're free now. There is a lot that can be articulated if you just navigate the mind in the right direction and remember what it was like when "it was all a dream."

tO achieve ambitiOns all yOu gOtta dO is live it hOw life is perceived is infOrmatiOn vivid pO stays livid cause my melanin is different at the end Of all the chapters im livin it hOw i live it ll is done fOr lOve Of the music.. idO nO naka nO kawazu.. HiphOp Is PeOple Highlighting Original Perspective -Skahlah

Professor Cornel West says, "No group of people have been systematically taught to hate themselves as much as Black people. A people who have been oppressed will always try to oppress each other. You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. If you want to save the people you have to serve the people." As Aissata loves to say, "Spread Love!"

The End