While last night�s episode of The Boondocks may have only been �ehh� (theme of the season!), Thugnificent�s struggle both subtly and blatantly spoke to the code of Hip Hop performance, er, the streets. After being slammed by Sgt Gutta (a side eye to the Souljah Boy Tellems of the world) on Youtube, Thugnificent frantically (desperately?) rants about how he�s followed all the �rules:� �I used autotune, I started up a beef, and I STILL ain�t sellin!?!?!�
 Of course, the majority of our interpretation of Thugnificent and his antics are hinged on capitalistic construction of not only black folks but the pursuit of the casestudy, should-be-on-the-back-of-the-dollar American Dream. Because of his woes with the IRS and the voluntary lack of employment (�man, that�s the reason we went into this rap shit my nigga so we don�t have to get a job!�) Thugnificent is forced back into a bleak reality of no money, mo� problems, and no hoes. And with that, folks, I came up with a list of Hip Hop Commandments a la Thugnificent:



Thou Shalt Not Covet a Job
This should be pretty self explanatory, yes? Numerous young men and women of color often fetishize the achievement of �making it� (whatever the hell that means). All starry and glassy eyed, their instant cashflow (not to be confused with wealth) often dwindles and confusion sets in about where the money went. A job? Where they do that at?

Thou Shalt Hide Your Degrees (They Do NOT keep you Satisfied)
Thugnificent hid his intellect and BS degree (well, the accredited one) from the world because he had to be THUG-nificent. This brings us back to the need to collapse the traditional discourse surrounding extremities and identity in the black community. There is no such thing as a college thug, but of course we know somebody, who got a friend, whose roommate�s cousin is a college student with thuggish tendencies. There is a dire need to be able to blend these boundaries of gender and cultural expression so that a more inclusive, well rounded, and ACCEPTABLE representation of the African American experience can exist. While circumstance may force our image into a box, that doesn�t mean reality should follow suit.


Thou Shalt Praise God for thy single �Booty Butt Cheek Hood Bitch Fetish (The Remix)�
I�m not even going to go there on this one.


Thou Shalt only use thy Government Name in Case of Emergency.
Codeswitching, while everyone can and may have circumstances to do it, is a mandatory rule in the black folk�s toolbox. Thugnificent�s constant switch from Thugnificent to Otis was used in an attempt to resuscitate his career but NOT when meeting with a recruiter/interviewer for a possible corporate job. He committed interview suicide: referring to the interviewer as �nigga�, telling the interviewer to call him Thugnificent, and, the cardinal sin, snitching on his boy Derrick (who GAVE him the interview hookup in the first place) and his past as a rapper which results in him getting fired. Google is the devil.

What is dangerous about instances like this is that a performed identity, a constructed and often static cutout, often overshadow, overpower, and brainwash its �host.� In Otis� case, Thugnificent is a parasite with a need to survive. He is a suffocating image conceived within a suffocating space. It�s nothing new to see the need to perform various (masculine) identities; going back to good ol� Invisible Man who played over ten (10) roles before slipping into insanity (which, ironically, helped him gain consciousness of himself).


Thou Shalt Mean Mug at Church, Breakfast, and PTA Meetings
Katt Williams jokes �damn, nigga, you muggin� over BREAKFAST nigga?!?! The day ain't even started yet!� I�d like to take it a step further. The inability for African American men to express their emotions in fear of losing manhood (i.e the notorious Man Laws) cripples and undermines black masculinity.

There is a VERY critical need to collapse the code of silent suffering that is embedded within black manhood. I�m not saying have weekly cry sessions, but there is a need for a discourse that allows for a venting of frustration, anger, pain, and sorrow. This is especially prevalent in the numerous rappers (and non-celebrity men of color) dealing with internalized demons that manifest themselves in illicit activities and even death. Many look to slave discourse as a probable cause for this code of suffering that black men willingly and fervently obey. Toni Morrison�s Beloved, for example, attempts to grapple such questions in the tormented character of Paul D. Paul D�s inability to express himself because of not only the traumatic experiences of slavery, but the traumatic inability to be a man reduce him to a hardened shell, a tobacco tin with �its lid rusted shut.� And besides, isn�t it exhausting to be hard all day, every damn day? Even Shaft took some time off. And he was a bad mutha�.

While I was being satirical for a number of these �commandments� there is a code of unspoken understanding that seeps out of Hip Hop Culture into lived experience and vice versa. It is necessary to acknowledge these understandings and tease them out to the point that they can not only be illuminated but also utilized as a tool of progression instead of stagnation.