When Keeping It Real Gets Real
by Daniel J. Flynn
What does it say about the state of popular music that aspiring acts turn to petty crime rather than singing lessons to establish their musical bonafides? Stephen Gilmore allegedly robbed the Super Stop Food Store last Friday night in Gainesville, Florida, shooting the clerk in the head with a BB gun in the process. An earlier heist at Hungry Howie’s restuarant allegedly netted Gilmore and his confederates $900. But he didn’t rob for the money. His motive was streed cred. You see, Gilmore is an aspiring rapper. And like Vanilla Ice, Akon, and Rick Ross before him, Gilmore gets it that to get over with the crowd that “keeps it real” it’s best to keep things fake.
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58 Comments
Oh dear. Please don't resuscitate the "Rap is/isn't Crap" argument on here. We just finished Janeane Garafolo.
Well this should get him a Grammy for sure. Who is his PR firm? I need a good one for a launch I have coming up. Keep it reel dude.
For an article about rappers keepin' it real, you could probably find a more appropriate illustration than a photo of Vanilla Ice.
I think "irony" was the goal. At least, I hope so.
NO rap again! Didn't we already beat that topic (and each other) half to death over this? I gotta say, though, that Gilmore isn't going to get a lot of street cred with a BB gun.
what is "keeping it real"? what does that even mean? That is like one of those phrases that has lasted way too long because middleage white people started using it. But it has no meaning. at least none that most of the people who now use it could ascribe to the phrase.
yeah good point. that is one lame gangster there.
I agree – everyone should stop! collaborate and listen! to Lawhawk.
Michael Steele wears his cap backwards and said that's the way he rolls. Haha Steele is saying he is a gangsta. Maybe the RNC should pick a better role model.
Hey, now that we have already beatin' diss haff ta' death, does that mean we now have "street cred"?
A BB gun is going to give an aspiring rapper street cred? If it wasn't for the victims of these crimes, this would be hilarious.
Yo! Am I still banned, Lawhawk?
it would have been even funnier if he had been shot with a true firearm while trying to rob people with his air pistol.
I'm rhymin' right now! We're gonna be famous!
I'll un-ban you. I have that power. . . just like I can promise anything (delivery is extra).
Naw, that was just one day in the penalty box. Back on the ice, kid.
Yo, don't knock the street cred homes or I'll bust a cap in yo'r avatar.
I have a feeling we aren't going to stop this landslide, but it was worth a try.
Thank you very much. Go Blackhawks!
NOOOO ! Not in the beak!
Why am I thinking about Hudsucker Proxy: "You know. . . for kids."
Keeping it real is the opposite of giving it away fake, and it's always the right thing to do.
Well my last comment was censored;
There's so much more to music than what you're talking about, drawing a correlation with such a narrow scope is a mistake. Listen to some of the freshmen 10 and comment on the direction if you want to talk about something positive. Don't hype up what you are trying to fight. Be for something.
"what you resist, persists" – Carl Jung
If anyone read the Smoking Gun, you will see he and his get-away drive 'sped' away on a MOPED!!! Guessing that was worse than using a BB gun, unless of course it was equipped with spinners and a tinted windshield.
Blackhawks? I am so sorry for you.
Go Avalanche!
I smell the latest Hollywood blockbuster!
Hey! Feel sorry for me because I'm also a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. I know all about torture.
So I guess this is what happens when Ralphie Parker goes gangsta?
I always thought it was "Holmes" ese.
That said, is it just me or with Garofalo (sorry but i just got me thinking) isn't "Straight-up" a bit played out? I mean Paula Abdul was using that in a song like 20 years ago.
She should have said "For reals" or even better "I'm totally cereal"
So un-giving it un-fake?
plus good that one.
Avalanche? Sorry for both of you.
Go Bruins!
Wow. You should work at Gitmo!
P.S. I'm a lifelong Tampa Bay Buc's fan — so I too know the pain of which you speak.
As in Sherlock Holmes? Somehow I doubt that. . . but it's an interesting thought.
Do they still play in the NHL?
exactly, a sarcastic reference to someone's intelect.
Am i giving too much credit?
shooting the clerk in the head with a BB gun
So, when he gets his cred, will the victims of this insanity get his bread?
At least you got to see your team win it all in your lifetime. The last time my beloved Cubbies won the Series, my grandmother was starting school!
Did his mom force him to wear the pink bunny suit? That might have sent him over the edge.
I like that idea–poetic justice. Getting street cred with the use of a BB gun isn't going to go very far, but the harm to the victim was real. So if he does have some minor success with his back-alley cred, I hope the money goes to the victim.
Here's the difference, genius, the people you mentioned, Vanilla Ice, Rick Ross, and Akon (who isn't a rapper), do NOT have criminal records.
In fact it was revealed that Ross had been a corrections officer.
How about checking your facts and using pertinent examples before you write about such things.
any adult over 40 using teenage slang is officially pathetic. Only caveat is if you grew up with the same phrases and still use them. But even that can be sad.
You're right, but in his defense, Vanilla Ice really wished he had a criminal record, and Akon probably should have one.
Ice Ice BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! LOL!!!
This isn't new. It was the plot line for the 2003 Trailer Park Boys episode, following Who's the Microphone Assassin, where J-Rok gets arrested to have street cred. It was also part of a Sopranos episode where Bobby "Baccala" Baccalieri earns extra money by convincing a second tier rapper to let him shoot him in the rump so he can say was shot.
Well math guy beat me to it but for those of you who haven't heard of the "Trailer Park Boys" here is a link for clips and other sundry things. Be advised though, it's really for adults as the language does tend to get , well pretty bad. http://www.trailerparkboys.com.
The republican's should blanket themselves as the ANTI-RAP party. That will help!
LOL. Somehow I can't see him rapping about robbing a place with a bb gun and a moped. how completely idiotic.
yep.
this is excellent advice.
This rap guy is hungry attention. I bet he grew up without a daddy.
Rap is already the subject of ridicule. Even SNL made fun of it "Chronic of Narnia." Two middle aged White guys shoot a video about going to see the Chronicles of Narnia and stopping at the Coffee Bean, the style of a hard, angry Gangsta Rap video.
Hilarious. Rap is dead.
those milli vanilli desperadoes held up any banks as part of a comeback tour?
Go Bears! (Berkeley and Chicago–OK, I have divided loyalties, but at least one's college and one's pro). The heart of my 49ers left with Joe Montana.
I'm sure he'll have a long and happy career. In prison.
http://the100mostannoyingthings.blogspot.com/
Amen about Akon.
The guy has a VERY notorious rep whether it's misogyny against teen girls:
http://whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com/2007/04...
Or throwing people off a stage:
http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/2007/06/akon...
http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/2008/09/so-e...
And this guys walks free because?
It's a sad commentary on America when one's celebrity shields him from the full negative consequences of his actions.
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