Music Video Review of Busta Rhyme’s “Czar” or Why does Czar Disregard the Instructions of the African Holy Man?
Written by Angela E. Chamblee. Cartoon by Angela Chamblee.
“There were stories on how alive Leaders of the New School were, and I wanted to see for myself. I loved Dinko, but you were immediately drawn to one man’s energy. I was blown away by Busta Rhymes. He is now an irreplaceable figure in music, one of the best live performances ever—not for any Hip Hop performance—any performance, ever. Busta Rhymes is one of one.”
“This man (Busta Rhymes) is my family. He is my younger brother. He has become a master teacher, mentor to many, driving them to their best. He is the epitome of an artist. He has never let somebody get an edge on him. He would rather challenge someone and best them, than take the easy way. He is the epitome of Hip Hop.”
The music video opens with an introduction of Busta Rhymes by Chris Rock. Rock gives a superb introduction that makes people really want to pay attention to Rhyme’s video. Rock says “ Nobody comes at you as hard as (this M.F.): NOBODY! NOBODY!! . . .NOBODY!!! . . . .NOBODY!!!! And NOBODY EVER WILL!
The only question is how does Chris Rock know what the future holds? Records were meant to be broken. Parents want their children to do better than they did. That’s the way of the world, and that’s the way it should be because that’s the way people grow. A record may last for 20, 30, or 100 years, but it will eventually be broken. Still, Chris Rock’s introduction is superb.
The first scene we see is Czar standing on a stone in the ocean . Then we see Black women dancing. Then we see Czar hitching a ride with a shark swimming to Africa.
This is where Black African people live. They speak an African language—Wolof, and they wear African clothing. Czar speaks to an African Holy man who calls forth historical African Gods: Yemaye and Oye. He says,“I have talked to my Ancestors, and they all say you are the Chosen one.“ He tells Czar to go forth and “ kill them all!” But what does the Holy man mean by “kill them all”. Kill who?
Does the Holy man mean kill all White people? No. This is an all Black music video. To kill all White people, we would have to see a lot of White people getting killed. We don’t see any White people getting killed.
One does not have to kill every one to win a war or a battle. We see Czar kill one man: a nameless African Black man played by comedian, actor Michael Blackson. Blackson wears golden necklaces and a prisoner’s chains,but Czar zaps off the gold necklaces immediately. Then we see Czar in all white, like an Islamic warrior. A white bird flys above. Is it a dove? Next, Czar says “kill them all,” and he zaps the Michael Blackson character. The Michael Blackson character instantly becomes a skeleton.
Why did Czar kill the Michael Blackson character? Blackson does not appear to be a kill-or-be-killed, die-hard warrior, prepared to die. He does not seem a warrior worth killing. Blackson seems scared out of his mind. Maybe Blackson is a symbolic Uncle Tom African, who has sold out his people for all his Golden necklaces. By killing one man Czar symbolically kills them all. An “Uncle Tom” is a traitor to his people. He tells the slave master when a slave is trying to escape or cause an uprising. He is a spy for the slave master.
Moreover, early in his famous speech “A Message to the Grassroots,” Malcolm X talks about how Mao Tse Tung not only came to power,but maintained his power as a great 20th century Chinese leader: he killed off all of the Uncle Tom Chinese. So the African Holy man does make sense, but do people kill Uncle Toms, or kill innocent people simply thought to be Uncle Toms?
In the movie, “Harriet” Harriet Tubman thought the Plantation Preacher was an Uncle Tom. Actually, he risked his life on many occasions to help slaves escape to freedom. The Uncle Tom, persona, was a cover to hide, what he was actually doing. (Lemmons, “Harriet” )—Killing Uncle Toms can be easier said than done.
But why kill all of the Uncle Toms? Coronavirus has killed more people than died in World War I, Korea, and Vietnam altogether. The Centers for Disease Control says that roughly twice as many people of color die of Coronavirus as compared to White-Americans. Asian-Americans used to die twice as much as White-Americans. Today after taking the coronavirus vaccine, Asian-Americans die of Coronavirus at about equal to the rate of White-Americans (CDC, Racial Disparities). Times used to be that people were very afraid of fighting a World War III. They thought a nuclear bomb would destroy the human race. Today, people are afraid of a deadly plague like Coronavirus, or climate change destroying the human race. Perhaps Mother Nature is angry at human beings and wants to kill us all off, before we wipe out everybody and the entire planet. Some people say we need to fight war differently. We need to learn to fight war in a non-violent way, and from with-in.
We don’t need to kill Uncle Tom African-Americans. We need to practice non-violence on ourselves. Whatever the reason, Czar did not “kill them all.” He made the right decision.
