The R-rated “Notorious” and its effects on society

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

His father abandoned ship when Christopher was two years old, and his mother had to work two jobs to survive. She wanted the very best for him so she put him in a private Roman Catholic school. But he wanted to attend another school and his mother acceded to his request.

His new school was George Westinghouse Information Technology High School, a state-funded institution where he met boys who later became famous hip-hop performers and are known as Jay-Z (of Guyanese parentage), Busta Rhymes (of Jamaican parentage), and DMX.

Chris was a bright child, excelling in English, and he was physically big. So even before he was 10 years old he earned the nickname ‘Big’. And in his teens he grew up to 6’ 3” and 300 plus pounds.

It seems that his shift to this new school also saw him develop a ‘smart-ass’ attitude.

By his 12th birthday he began selling drugs, something which his mother, who had to spend most of her time away from him because of her work, apparently didn’t find out until ‘Big’ was an adult.

At 17 he dropped out of school and deepened his criminal activities, being arrested in that same year on a weapons charge and sentenced to five years’ probation. Then the next year he was arrested for violating his probation, and in 1991 he spent nine months in jail in North Carolina on a charge relating to dealing crack cocaine.

Like Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes and DMX, Christopher George Latore ‘Big’ Wallace also became a famous rapper, known as ‘Biggie Smalls’ and ‘The Notorioius B.I.G’.

He had started rapping as a teenager and shown a talent for it. And with his skills in English, his sharp wit, his ‘smart-ass’ attitude, his ‘gangsta’ aura,  and his imposing size, he was clearly destined for the top of the mountain in rap music.

And that is exactly where he reached.

But his life was full of chaos and conflict, much of it self-inflicted as he led a rap war from the East Coast against rappers from the West Coast. And this was not just a war of words. It was a war with guns, and lives were lost.

And not just lost to the bullet, but lost spiritually, socially, educationally, morally and otherwise. Indeed, millions of young people the world over were caught up in this foolish, destructive phenomenon, the effects of which are still being felt  here in St. Kitts & Nevis and elsewhere, as the ‘gangsta’ rap continues to lure and entrap young people, and as record and entertainment industry folks continue to exploit humanity in their sick rush for blood dollars.

That is how utterly ridiculous it got, and how ridiculous it continues to be.

So now there is a movie about the man. I think it is called ‘Notorious’, and it is presently showing at our Cineplex here in St. Kitts.

It is an R-rated movie, which means that only persons over a specified age are to be allowed to see it in the cinemas.

I have not seen it, but a number of people who have told me that it is filled with violence, fairly graphic sex scenes (with breasts showing, bodies thrashing, and so on) and ‘bad wud can’t done’.

But guess what! The people who told me about it also said that adults were taking their children to see the movie.

One person told me that he had complained to an official at the cinema and that he had been told that if children were being allowed in to see the movie, that was the responsibility of the parents, not of the cinema.

He also told me that he had heard a little girl who he thought could be no older than four ask her mother after the movie had ended if she (the mother) and her father did what the man and woman had done in the movie (the sex).

I have a problem with this, you know!

In fact, two problems.

First, how can parents not see that movies are rated for a reason and that they, as parents, have an obligation to ensure that their children are not seeing movies that they ought not see?

Can one become cynical and say that it is the parents and the adults of this nation more than anyone else who are causing the corruption and contamination of our children, and who, in the process, are the main culprits in the degradation and criminalisation of society?

My second problem relates to what the cinema official allegedly told my friend. Of course it cannot be the responsibility of the parents only with regard to children being allowed to see R-rated films in the cinemas. The cinema owner has that responsibility too.

You see, it is a situation like this which wants me to press us as a society to become more forceful in applying standards and discipline in our society.

The place is too loose and laissez faire. Too much of a ‘free-for-all’.

If people are not going to regulate themselves and set proper standards for themselves and their children, then these standards have to be set for them.

This is a disgrace!

And the worst part of it is that many people will walk away from the movie seeing Biggy Smalls as a hero, a victim, an icon, not as a bright young man who wasted his life away with drugs, crime and decadence, and eventually paid the ultimate price for his own foolishness!

So a number of those same little children who are being allowed to see the movie will want Biggy Small T-shirts and other paraphernalia, his music, ‘bad wud’ and all, and they will want to adopt his lifestyle.

And when their children end up in jail or in the cemetery, they are going to blame Government, church, school, ‘the system’ and everybody else but themselves.

This thing needs some tight control and discipline, you hear. I have been calling for Junior Cadets, Boot Camp and a number of other things for years. My pleas have been largely ignored.

Who won’t hear will feel.

Until next time, plenty peace.

Notorious BIG