Ignorance is Bliss...

Contributed by Short Fuze.

First, I want to thank all the people that showed up to The Solidarity show at El Gran Teocalli in Milwaukee on Friday night. I would also like to apologize to the Guerrilla Republic. I am truly sorry that an event you all worked hard to put together got shut down by ignorance. I will admit, I was skeptical at first because there was no one there. I thought it was going to be one those shows where no one shows up and we would rock in front of an empty room. Then to my amazement, the place started to pack in nicely. Everyone was having a good time even supporting acts they have never heard of showing lots of love to people that traveled a good ways for no pay just to rock for the love and for the sake of bringing positivity to the community. This was supposed to be a show of unity and positive vibes, a gathering of like minded MC's performing to show that Hip Hop is more than violence and stereotypes. Then, the unfortunate happened...someone got shot outside the club. I don't know any details of the shooting, (I tried to find some info, but couldn't locate any) but the police said that the suspect came from our event, which is really sad. I won't front I initially was upset that we drove all that way to perform and didn't even get the chance to rock. Plus, coupled with the fact that we had to wait for 2 hours for our car to get home because the cops blocked the street that it was on.

We made light of the situation by going to get food, cracking jokes about the night and rehashing stories about shows past and how this night just would be a notch under the belt as far as crazy stuff that's happened at shows during our career. Then the following days I would explain to friends about what happened and then I started to feel upset and saddened. I started to think about how generations continue to pass down the elements of violence and ignorance. Then I thought about the people that worked real hard to put this event together to give people an escape for a few hours and have a good time supporting positivity and a show of unity only to have it shut down by the very thing that they were standing up against. I am by no means naive, trust me, but in 2009 is there still a place in the world for this kind ignorance to take form? I guess the obvious answer is yes, but it doesn't make it right. The neighborhood we were in wasn't the best of environments but, that is no excuse. I don't understand how people can can shit where they live over and over again. I guess the only thing you can to do is learn and move forward and continue to save people one by one. Until the world is at peace, I guess ignorance is bliss...