An Open Letter to the Hip-Hop Generation

I am a 73-year-old serious southern Black plantation flat-footed Hustler, who has spent a lifetime on the streets playing the game for fun and profit; now turned Researcher and Historian of The Game. But more important than that, I am a Grandpa, and I want to have a word with you as grandparent

Hip-Hop Grandpa

generation to grandchildren generation kind of thing.

I am not trying to get your attention to tell you what you should or should not do; you are doing great on your own. You have successfully created and are taking your game-within-a-game further into Street life, Entertainment, Literature, Business, Education, Religion, Sports, and Politics than any Black generation before you. You are a shining star illuminating the path to our destiny. There is no shame in your game; don't let anyone play you cheap. Your Ancestors are proud of you. But that is not what I want to talk with you about.

I want to talk to you about your Ancestors who created and played a game that successfully turned the Black world right-side-up, after slavery had turned it up-side-down. And how the Game you are playing, Hip-hop's Game, is the great grand child of their game. Your Ancestor's ability to turn worlds around is saying a lot in a cosmic universe where everybody in the world is playing games with everybody else in the World, from the man-woman relationship to relationships between nations; the winners are always the ones playing the most creative Game. And your game is as creative as any generation of Blacks before you. How our Ancestors put together and played these games to the max, under slavery and later under social/economic racist circumstances, brings up to the points I want to talk to you about, the history of the Game Black people play.

To get an idea of how old Black's Game is, it was created in 1676, the year the last of the laws were put in place to create the slavery institution. Its purpose was to attack slavery and protect ourselves at the same time. White's reaction to Black's game, by the 1720s, was to establish a police force, a court system, and a comprehensive body of laws especially for controlling Blacks. In the 1740, Blacks begin to convert to Christianity, and Black's Game was divided between Outlaw master players and Preacher master players. The history of the Game is the history of these Master Players from 1676 to the twenty first century.

Your Ancestors played their Games so strong, there was a thin line between Whites controlling Blacks and Blacks controlling Whites; this line is what motivated all of the Black-White-drama throughout slavery. Blacks with their creative mind Games on one side and Whites with their power law games on the other; creativity vs. power. Seesawing back and forth across this thin line, Blacks were as strong at their game as Whites was in their game.

You are born with these Games in your soul, inherited from your Ancestors. All you have to do to energize and harmonize your game is to connect the game you are in (the game you created and play), to the game in you (the game you inherited). This is what checking out the history of the Game will allow you to see and do. It's a spiritualization of the Game to transport its inspirational energy from generation to generation kind of thing. In this respect, the Game is like a Spiritual Being who serve and protect our manhood and womanhood. This gives meaning to the phrase, "Be true to The Game, and the Game will be true to you."

This means that a true history of The Game is one that allows you to walk around in your Ancestor's historical time and observe some the thousands of Games they created and played, check them out and take the parts you want, use what you keep to strengthen your game, and keep on doing your thing. This will also help you in another way, checking your Ancestor's games sharpen your ability to recognize and utilize game when you see it. Think of this idea of history as a pathway to receiving your inheritance from your Ancestors.

When you see the beautiful work of art in the Games Black generations created and played from the beginning of slavery all the way to the Game we created and played in the 1960s (the civil rights movement game), you will feel good about Black history and proud of the game your generation is creating and playing.

In that regard, I am inviting you on an adventure with me as my grandchildren as we journey through The Games your Ancestors played, side by side with an autobiography of the games Hip-hop Grandpa created and played in street life, to demonstrate how a young boy puts his game together; something all young people can identify with. This adventure puts the history of Black people's Game on display in great detail for your inspection; contained in a trilogy of books entitled "Grandpa! Tell us a story; Drinking from Ancient Wells": book one the Game's mind, book two the Game's Soul, and book three the Game's heart.

Hip-hop Grandpa

For more information and, or, to order book one in the trilogy visit: www.SoulViewWorld.com

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