Crack Rap Game

Pill - Trap Goin Ham from Motion Family on Vimeo.

This video has been blogged the fuck out of within the last week since it came out, and rightfully so. It's one of the rawest Rap videos I've ever seen, all shot on location in an Atlanta hood probably schedualed to be bulldozed. The statement from the creators:

"We hope that this video shocks your conscience. If it does, we have succeeded in our goal. The fact that this video is nearly terrifying in its graphic nature means that it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do – terrify. These conditions that our people live in are terrifying, and we seek to expose what so many have forgotten.

We are essentially reporting live from neighborhoods and communities long forgotten, and, in Atlanta, recently torn down. It seems as though our city and our people place no importance on our community any longer. These are the places you never visit. These are the places that hip-hop claims to care about. These are the people that most of gangsta rap music fraudulently portrays. This video is one hundred percent real and unstaged.

You can try to chock this up as exploitation – it will not work. Nobody was put up to any scene in this video. As a matter of fact, everybody in the video volunteered themselves, for the sake of our mission.

The song has an upbeat and happy tone. When you’re in these situations, you do not feel as though what you are doing is wrong. When you are making money in the underground economy, it does not feel wrong. Our goal is to reflect the psychology of someone who turned to drug dealing as a means of survival, and got caught up with the addiction of making money in the underworld.

Pill still lives in this situation, and we will continue to kick, scream, and make music until we can provide a better way. Until then, we will continue to expose our truths.

Our mission is to bring REALITY back to street music. I hope this a first step towards accomplishing our goal".

Sincerely,
The Educated Villains

This is definitely a much needed manifesto for Hip-Hop in 2009. The track gives me goosebumps not unlike that of the "Never Made 20" kind.

Maurice Garland has provided a photo essay to compliment your thoughts as well.