Change IV A Dollar.

As a disclaimer for the following post: I am not especially religious. As a matter of fact, I don't believe in "God" necessarily or Christianity even, although I do believe in some sort of higher power whether it be God, Allah, or whomever. I consider myself more of a logical person and I have a few too many questions regarding the concept of religion. I believe, more so than I do in the institution of religion, that it was only created as a method to keep the minds of people under some sort of constriction. Think of a kid; let's name him Billy. Billy wants a cookie from the infamous cookie jar, but it his mother is standing over him telling him not to take one. Under this scrutiny, Billy more than likely, isn't going to grab and run with the cookie because someone of authority is standing over him watching his every move. I believe this concept to be comparable to religion. If you are led to believe that there is someone, who is everywhere, at all times, watching your every move and you report to him at least once a week, then you will be less likely to do be do mischief. Some argue that this concept of Christianity was introduced to black people during slavery to give them more enthusiasm to complete their daily tasks and be more content with their captivity; because if God let them get beaten, raped and slaughtered without justice, it was written to be so. I'm not sure if I completely agree, but it certainly would explain why the majority of religious black people are Christian.

But that isn't the purpose of this post, hence the title of the post (an old Coolio track). In recent months, I have become completely OVER music in its present state. It's absolutely deplorable. In recent years, I have been perplexed as to why "artist's" (and I use that term very loosely) get away with the things they do. When I rarely visit the club, and Lil' Wayne graces the radio waves, chicks are proudly reciting his charmingly stated "Shut up bitch, swallow. If you can't swallow, shut up bitch, gargle." Wait. You know he's talking about you, right? Dummy. I also wonder how the industry has made it so that we, unconsciously, expect music videos to feature bare-assed women with diminishing self-respect and not take into account that she's somebody's kid, mother, and/or sister; at the very least she's somebody's cousin. No, to us she's groupie number 2 standing on the left of that bad rapping brother with the $10,000 chain hanging from his neck that's on loan until 6 o'clock. And somewhere in the world, homegirl is silently persuading little Antasha in Hood, USA to aspire to be in her line of work. And that's okay with us because Lord knows we don't need another doctor on our hands. And the songs promoting drug vending and use because that's "only way to survive in the hood".. you're too prideful to work at McDonald's but not too to not be able to feed your kids that night with certainty? You're right, that does make sense. In this puzzlement, I began to research what it is about music that makes it so potent and influential.

Believe me, this is not an attempt to begin an uprising of all things hip-hop. Hear me out.

Lucifer, what Christian's sometime refer to the Devil as, was really the name of the Devil when he was an angel in heaven, before he was banished to hell. "Lucifer" is only mentioned once and only in the King James version in Isaiah 14:12.. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer .. God is believed to have created three arch angels; Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer that were to carry out his law amongst the holy realm. All of these angels were armed with unimaginable beauty and capacity. God made Lucifer of the greatest light and brilliance and armed him with the ability to travel through all plains of the Infinities to discover all of the jewels of reality that He had created; one being music. Lucifer was renowned for his musical inclination. Upon discovering these realities, Lucifer began to believe that he was God's equal and decided to try and overthrow Him. When God found out Lucifer's plan, he had banished him and his following of corrupt angels to Hell. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.(Isaiah 14:13-15) I mean, I dunno. I could be wrong but that sounds to me like Lucifer took a cup of Courage that morning and God told him what was really up.

….The king of Tyrus (Lucifer), and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty… Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God…. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created… merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee… Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground… therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee… thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. (Ezekiel 28: 12-19)

In layman's terms: "You know you f*&!#d up, right? I'm the best. I made you. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. You gotta go bro."

So with all of that said, consider this. Lucifer, now Satan cause he's in Hell and all, decides to infiltrate the human race, God's greatest creation, with his great gift of music.

Physics lesson! Consider music, in all of its elements. Vibration is the source of all sound, and sound is the medium of all music. Vibrating objects push against the air around them creating zones of compressed air. That zone of compressed air presses against the air around it and so on and so forth. These compression waves are also known as sound waves. Think of a slinky. If you stretch it out and thump a coil, the vibrations bounce off the air surrounding it, in turn making the other coils ring. Same as another instrument like…..the harp! Lucifer's favored instrument. ..Your pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your harp: the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you..(Isaiah 14:11).

Music makes you act involuntarily. You hear a beat, your head bounces, your foot taps. It takes you to another place without you even realizing. It pumps a thinking, breathing, and completely competent human with a natural stimulant that we are consciously unaware of, aiding in us feeling a certain emotion; happy, sad, sensual, reminiscent, etc. That's pretty impressive for something we can't even see.

Now, consider rap music. Tupac said "… I sold my soul for a chance to kick it and bang. Now tell me if I'm wrong, but sayin "fuck the world" got you deeper in my songs… why I should change, into a softie, after living so loftily. It cost me my soul out of control in a devil's world.."
At the height of his career, killed. Eerily being very aware of his approaching death.

DMX said "I sold my soul to the devil, and the price was cheap. A yo it's cold on this level cause it's twice as deep. But you don't hear me, ignorance is blissining…

He's currently in jail for a sleuth of criminal charges but is pursuing a career in pastoral preaching (is that a double negative?).

In Snoop Dogg's autobiography, The Doggfather, he admits to selling his soul to the devil and that marking the day that Calvin Broadus died.

I mean, this could all be just a conspiracy theory.