Ready to Die: Suicidal Thoughts Among Young, Black Males

On July 11, 2007, Randy Parker, the son of the great MC/teacher/activist KRS-One died in an apparent suicide. I was basically raised on the music and teachings of KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions. I considered KRS-One to be one of Hip-Hop's greatest MCs and I have immense respect for him. My condolences goes out to him, his wife and his entire family.

This tragedy compelled me to write about suicide and depression among young black males. I have gone through bouts of depression in my life. I didn't grow up poor but I was raised by a hard-working single mother who struggled at times to provide for me during a significant portion of my childhood. I've battled feelings of anger, bitterness and hatred toward my father for as long as I can remember. That, along with other experiences in my life, made me depressed, even suicidal at times.

I never talked much with anybody about my periods of depression. I kept my feelings bottled up inside of me. On the surface I was a normal every day guy but deep down I was suffering. Being young, black and male, I always felt that I had to be "strong", I had to be tough. Though it's never stated, it seems like common knowledge in the black community that black men don't get depressed, right? In spite of the struggles, due to both physical environment and/or psychological issues, we're still just too cool and too tough to ever actually consider suicide, right?

Wrong.

Depression and suicide is real within the lives of black men. There needs to be more discussion and outreach around these issues that are devastating and cutting short the lives of many black men. Depression and suicide are yet two more issues that can be exposed and explored through the medium of Hip-Hop music and other forms of Hip-Hop expression.

"Suicidal Thoughts" by the late, great Notorious B.I.G. is a personal, vivid and brilliant song about a young black man, surrounded by poverty, who battles with his inner demons, contemplating suicide. Notorious B.I.G. was a masterful storyteller and the experiences and feelings that he rhymes about in Suicidal Thoughts may be a work of fiction and yet they are very real for many of us.

When you think about the epidemics that young black males face; crime and severe punishment, lack of quality education, lack of employment opportunities, racism, discrimination, racial profiling, police brutality, animosity and resentment by or directed toward black women and the older generation, growing up fatherless, absent from their own children's lives, the battle with self to do good versus evil, AIDS, drugs, violence.....

It seems highly probable to find young black males all over America who are depressed and suicidal!

The tragic suicide of the son of one of Hip-Hop's greatest and most respected MCs gives the Hip-Hop generation an opportunity to bring awareness to the issue of depression and suicide by young black & brown males (and females) who grow up within Hip-Hop culture. Hip-Hop has always told the often harsh realities of lives of the youth. Hip-Hop can expose depression and suicide in the lives of its youth and more importantly it can contribute to ending despair, giving hope and saving lives before it's too late.

Randy Hubbard Parker
Rest in Peace.