If much of celebritydom seems fraudulent to you, you’re not alone. From Donald Jeffries at donaldjeffries.substack.com:
“Installing” our ground level leaders
The other night, I was watching Jason Whitlock’s excellent “Fearless” podcast, as I regularly do. He was covering the history of rap, or hip-hop (as a mere White male, I cannot determined the difference between them), with a focus on the most popular players in the industry, people like P-Diddy (formerly Puff Daddy) and Tupac Shakur.
I knew about Diddy’s dubious background. His father was a street criminal who was murdered when Puffy/Diddy was little. Little Diddy, like a song. At any rate, from these unfortunate set of circumstances, Puffy/Diddy somehow was handed Bad Boy Records, a division of corporate giant Arista, despite having no background in business. He was now no longer Sean Combs, his birth name, and initially was known as Puff Daddy. To be honest, that’s kind of a weak sounding name for someone in charge of a gangster rap label. Not that P Diddy strikes fear in the hearts of anyone, either. Snoop Dog? Lil’ Romeo? What’s with all these lame nicknames for supposed tough guys? And to think Johnny Cash was embarrassed about being named Sue.
But what really struck me is the research Whitlock did on Tupac Shakur. The guy with the “Thug Life” tattoo. The “baddest” man in a “bad” industry. Whitlock, who is an actual investigative journalist, unearthed a remarkable video interview with a teenage Shakur, who was then known as “Zesty.” Well, to be fair, it’s no less imposing of a nickname than Snoop Doggy Dog or Lil’ Romeo. At any rate, the interview reveals a very dainty, feminine Shakur, who seems much more like the theater major he was planning to be than any future gangster. Whitlock talked about how, in 1994, Shakur was supposedly shot five times, including twice in the head. Remarkably, he was released from the hospital the next day, complete with a Hollywoodish bandage wrapped around his head. He was now the face of gangster rap. Central casting 101.
This was a few years before Tupac was actually shot and killed, seemingly at the behest of his rival, Biggie Smalls, aka The Notorious B.I.G. There was a whole east coast-west coast rivalry going on. It’s a hip hop thing, you wouldn’t understand. On the old Bozo cartoons, his chief antagonists were a criminal duo known as Short Biggie and Big Shorty. Maybe the Notorious B.I.G. was a Bozo fan. At any rate, some fans refused to believe Zesty/Tupac was really gone. Did he fake his death, like Elvis? Or JFK, Jr.? Biggie Smalls went on to be murdered himself shortly thereafter. That’s organized crime for you. And those concocting this stupid and dangerous rap music industry wanted nothing more than for young people to make that comparison. They glamorized rappers the way Warner Brothers glamorized 1930s gangsters in films.
Uncanny! Just read that one.
I agree the kabuki banana theater will be off the charts if DJT is (s)elected to oversee the demise.
Free clown horns for all as the Communist News Network and PMSNBC become almost watchable with moronic kindergarten TDS scripts for gut busting laughs.
This Circus Circus is going to be one for the ages and the IQ points will be in the single digits.
It is a gift to be accepted to the Clowncil but Honkler status has to be earned.
The anomaly brain is the greatest gift as it is impervious to hypnosis, gaslight, yellow rain on the leg and see right through bravo sierra from fakes and phonies.
Just read an El Gato Substack on fire productions barn burner How Did We Get To Here. (H/T-EG)
Highly recommended.
People warned us about moral relativism and the professional victim totem pole.
I remember El Rushbo on the air afer 911 saying don’t attack us terrorists just enter into the country peacefully and whine and moan about some past grievance of people that are long gone and everything will be given to you.