Is Waka Flocka Flame “Black?” I Dunno. You Tell Me.

Waka Flocka Flame is a 31 year-old rapper from Atlanta who is famous for club bangers like “Hard in Da Paint” and “No Hands.”

Not Bach…but GREAT gym music.

Over the weekend, he made some relatively “controversial” comments and I’ve been enjoying/cringing at the reaction I got from posting his video and my thoughts on Instagram (watch the video here).

Years ago when Waka was making it big for the first time, I remember writing him off as just another rapper. I mean, it’s pretty easy to do that if you listen to his lyrics.

But since then, I’ve seen him grow a lot — mostly through reality TV shows, which Sara — ahem — “forced” me to watch.

What I’ve seen since then is a dude who is reserved, slow to lash out/fight (despite his lyrics being pretty ratchet) and it’s messages like these, which most people won’t really understand, that make me see him in an even better light.

I know it’s odd because we don’t consider him a “thought leader,” but he’s 100% right. The way we see ourselves, in almost all cases, is directly influenced by the way society wants us to view ourselves. Arbitrary categories box people in and create mental oppression, even if there is no physical barrier.

It’s as if we are in jail, but there are no guards and the door is wide open. We can leave at any time, but we are scared because we like it where we are — and all our friends, family and loved ones are there with us.

In my opinion, you can “leave” earth and still be here physically. It’s about breaking out of the conditioning, false constraints, negative thoughts, disempowering patterns, and rising above that.

That means not being deeply emotionally affected by the public sentiment. Not caring what’s happening all around you, all the time. Staying inside, moving forward while standing still. Doing “non-doing.”

(The Tao Te Ching actually talks about this — it’s called wu wei.)

Not that you don’t have empathy or care about what’s happening to others (or in Waka’s case, care about “black” people) — it’s just that once you realize all the designations and cultural conventions are constructs meant to manipulate and control us, it becomes impossible to play the game from the same vantage point as before.

You just move beyond it all.

Message received, Mr. Flame.

Someone roll this man a J.

Daniel DiPiazza is the bestselling author of Rich20Something: Ditch Your Average Job, Start an Epic Business and Score the Life You Want