By Andrew J. Moore

Iowa State Daily

I remember hearing Rush Limbaugh on the radio a few years ago talking about someone named Sister Souljah. Now I can’t recall exactly what Limbaugh said about this person, except that he was making fun of her as he does with any non-Republican.

Just recently, I was at the public library looking at the CDs when Souljah’s name caught my memory. The album was titled 360 Degrees of Power. Maybe I subconsiously remembered some of what Limbaugh said a few years ago, and I decided to check it out.

I played the first five songs while cleaning my room. As I listened, my first reactions were anger and disgust. After five songs I had had enough. The beats were good, but as I perceived Souljah’s belligerently militant rantings against the “white” race, I found myself singing along to those beats and changing the words so I could get down and dirty with her – against her. My words too, were full of her deadly molten fire, but instead of relating to her, venting at her. Much of what I sung was unprintable here, and I’d also hate for you to even imagine my singing voice. These were my immediate reactions.

On the third cut of her album, titled “The Hate That Hate Produced” Souljah sings:

Souljah was not born to make white people feel comfortable

I am African first, I am Black first

I want what’s good for me and my people first

And if my survival means your total destruction, then so be it

You built this wicked system

They say two wrongs don’t make a right

But it damn sure makes things even

On the fifth cut, titled “Nigga’s Gotta,” she laments the state of the African-American singing:

Nigga’s still sittin’, eating, and shittin’

Roots cut off, forgotten and forgetting

The powerfully stated prologue of Souljah’s album, for some reason isn’t printed in the lyric book. Neither is the following message before the song “The Final Solution: Slavery’s Back in Effect.” It goes like this:

If your white great great grandfather killed my great great grandfather,

and your white great grandfather sold my great grandfather,

and your grandfather raped my grandmother,

and your father stole, cheated, lied, and robbed my father,

what kind of fool would I have to be to say “Come my friend to the white daughter and son.”

Well, as I said, you must be dead if these words aren’t a little bit shocking. Souljah believes that we are in a state of war. It appears that this war of hers is between blacks and whites. Iowa is a lot different than Brooklyn. Maybe if I grew up as a black man in Brooklyn I would agree with Souljah. I sure hope not for the world’s sake.

Andrew Moore is an ISU alum in English and political science from Davenport. He he currently enrolled in summer session.