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| BLOG BY: ECKS (NEW REGIME RECORDS ARTIST/CEO) |
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| Written by Alexis | |
| Friday, 02 May 2008 | |
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I am posting this for the homey DUBMD. Till he learns how lol JK. My Jeremiah Wright Experience by Shomari "Ecks" Wills I recall a time early in my career when KRS-One told me, "Look I can't big up you too much because I'll kill your career". He went on to tell me that I was a different artist than he was, and that associating too much with him would hurt me because people would associate his rhetoric with me. It was clear he was convinced of his opinion, and he stuck to it. I touted our association every chance I could, however he never budged, only giving me advice from the background, while refusing time and time again to do anything that would clearly draw an association between us. That frustrated the hell out of me, that is until 2004 when Kris made some comments about 9-11 that were actually quite similar to Jeremiah Wright's, in a nutshell he said: "when the planes hit the building, we were like, 'Mmmm -- justice.' [9/11] doesn't affect us. 9/11 happened to them, not us. The rich . . . those who are oppressing us. RCA or BMG, Universal, the radio stations." These comments became extremely controversial and deemed by many to be offensive. Fox News had a field day. Truthfully, while he had said the same thing to me in private(which I chalked it up Kris just being dramatic), when he said it in public I was a little surprised. What surprised me more is when I started taking heat for it. Most people who knew me knew I was associated with him, now suddenly I was getting negative interview questions, hate comments on message boards and allot of heat in general. As the negative backlash built I became more and more angry. I didn't agree with his opinion on 9-11, in fact I told Kris so when he said it to me in private, but now me, a poor upcoming artist, was getting shows cancelled in New York because "I'm from KRS' camp". I was mad, at the time, I felt like, "damn just because somebody was my friend I'm responsible for everything they say". I have a close friend who is a Republican and while I vehemently disagree with about half of what he says, he's still my friend because he's a good person. Nobody's perfect and I've always tried to accept people and even when they say things I don't agree with, but it was clear then that, that concept was not so elementary. I don't pretend that as musician I am on the same plane or face the same pressures as Barack Obama, but when the Jeremiah Wright incident happened I really understood, more than most people could, what it's like to be in a position where people want to hold you accountable for what your friends say. I don't agree with allot of what KRS says, but he helped me out and gave me my start in music, and because of that I'm a friend in spite of the fact that I don't agree with everything he says. I fancied that a virtue and still do, but recently that concept seems to have been convoluted by the press into a fault of Greek proportions. I think we should ask ourselves how many of us would pass the litmus test if we were judged by the things our friends say at their most controversial moments, I know I wouldn't. For the record I think 911 was a terrible event, regardless of any atrocities in the US' history. But of course my opinion doesn't really speak to anything about my character unless my friends share it with me right? Shomari "Ecks" Wills is Hiphop Artist and Writer from Washington DC. You can find more information about Ecks at myspace.come/EcksNewRegime. Comments (0)
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