Brother Ali's Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitiker Lyrics

And yo whatever comes up comes out
We don't put our hands over our mouth
And whatever comes up comes out
We don't put our hands over our mouth
Whatever comes up comes out
Please mister bass-man lay it on me

Ayo, Dependin on the day, and dependin on what I ate
I'm anywhere from 20 to 35 pounds over weight
I got red eyes and one of them's lazy
And they both squint when the sun shines so I look crazy
I'm albino man, I know I'm pink and pale
And I'm hairy as hell, everywhere but fingernails
I shave a cranium that ain't quite shaped right
Face tight, shiny, I stay up and write late nights
My wardrobe is jeans and faded shirts
A mixture of what I like, and what I wear to work
I'm not mean and got a neck full of razor bumps
I'm not the classic profile of what the ladies want
You might think I'm depressed as can be
But when I look in the mirror I see sexy ass me
And if that's somethin that you can't respect then that's peace
My life's better without you actually
To everyone out there, who's a little different
I say damn a magazine, these are gods fingerprints
You can call me ugly but can't take nothing from me
I am what I am doctor you ain't gotta love me

[Spoken]
If you would please turn in your bible
To beauty tips according to Forest Whitiker
In the third chapter of the third line
Brother Ali would you please read to the choir for me son

[Sung 3X]
I'ma be all right, you ain't gotta be my friend tonight (you ain't gotta love me)
An I'ma be okay, you would probably bore me anyway (you ain't gotta love me)

Forest Whitiker y'all

I decided to use a song written by Brother Ali, an Islamic hip hop artist out of Minneapolis Minnesota. Brother Ali's "Forest Whitaker" can be found on his album, Shadows on the Sun."The Brother" uses a linguistic technique that battles the mainstream hip hop/rap industry. I feel the most commonly heard hip hop on the radio or at a dance is rooted in the empire. Most mainstream hip hop suggests the key to happiness looking a certain way (along with other shallow requirements such as having money and getting high). The empire is constantly sending messages to people of all ages and races that to be cool, and to be you, you're going to have to buy item A, B, and C. Now, this messages seems to contradict itself. I mean, if you want to be you, why would you dress in accordance to what someone else is telling you. If you want to be a preppy private school girl who's always styling, you are supposed to wear popped collars, have a tan in February, and weigh just over 100 lbs. If you want to be a tough gang-banger lookalike, you need to have a NY Yankees flat bill, fresh Nikes, and baggy jeans. If you want to rebel to mainstream fashion because you no longer care, you need to wear tight girl jeans (whether or not your a girl), a black shirt, and die your hair black. I'm flat out tired of society telling me how to be me. "Forest Whitaker" proclaims that just because your not beautiful by society's standards, or you don't wear the right clothes doesn't mean your not actually beautiful, or that you don't wear the right clothes. When I hear this song I ask myself, "Who decides who's beautiful? Or, who decides what the right clothes are?" And now I know, the empire. But, how can the empire know what I think is beautiful, or what I think is cool? It doesn't know. It seeks to know for me. The empire tries to pervert what I value by throwing me into a giant melting pot where all individualism is lost. My favorite line is, "To everyone out there, who's a little different, I say damn a magazine, these are gods fingerprints." This line reveals the truth about human purpose by declaring beauty is not found on the front of a magazine, but rather everything is beautiful because it was created by god. Our purpose is to live in the Kingdom, and allowing the empire to distract us with what our physical appearance "should be" is not living in the Kingdom. "The Brother" is not the picture perfect image of what we think of as beautiful, or rather "Hot," but this doesn't faze him. He sees his differences as beauty created by god.
Dicsussion Questions:
1)Where do you see beauty in life? And if this intoxicating beauty can be found in the first few pages of "People" magazine do you think some things should be reaccessed?
2)Why do we get so caught up with our physical appearance? Imagine all the stress that could be prevented if our self-image was not held at the high regard that empire holds it at.
3)How are you physically different? How can you celebrate "gods fingerprints" as beautiful?