When the artist is a painter and a poet from Southeast San Diego everything blends to create a palette of culture at its finest. Hip-Hop used to mean something and you could still vibe, b-boy to it and elevate to it. Bennie delivers a hook that feels like evidence of why, “We can’t get up, that’s why we get hard/try to understand the world through 16 bars.” That line is clarification describing a generation riding shotgun to sideshows where people risk life and limb hanging on to cars doing donuts at intersections. The dangerous aspects of being seen when no one sees them forces riskier behaviors. A people who feel that incarceration is a right of passage will honor gang culture and poor decisions as a calling card. It’s not understanding through 16 bars of music, but the jail cell. For old heads still attempting to climb, but being knocked down who take their frustrations out on their ladies producing children who follow the same path. Getting hard means more than just placing on the mask to feel important. Throughout the track gems are dropped and as Lawrence Alexander on Facebook stated, “At a time when people are waiting for words from K.Dot and Lupe, Bennie Herron should be talked about as well.” Word to MOTU (if you know, you know).
