God take, God give: R.A. The Rugged Man
January 11th, 2010
R.A. is certainly one of my favorite New York emcees. Incredibly talented and an equally incredible story teller.
Upon readling some blogs tonight I found out that R.A.’s father passed away, who is one of the subjects of his song with Jedi Mind Tricks; “Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story”…
I really felt the need to share the following two posts. Please read them, and value whatever you’ve got. Some incredible stuff in there.
Popular Opinions with Chad Kangas – RIP Staff Sergeant John A. Thorburn
Psychotic R.A. the Rugged Man Concert @ The Comfort Zone in Toronto (Exclusive Video Footage)
The song:
This song makes me sick. This song makes it seem like thousands of honorable American draftees were only in Vietnam committing atrocities, when anybody who has have a fucking ounce of knowledge of the conflict understands that is not true.
Yes, atrocities happened. It was war, it was terrible and whether or not we should have been there is not my business. I cannot change what JFK started and LBJ escalated.
First of all, obviously they didn’t see Chinese. The Chinese committed many SAM sites and weapons. They wouldn’t send Chinese troops to the front lines for obvious reasons. However, the Viet Cong were not stealing the MiGS, somebody was supplying them. AKA Russia and China. Whether that changes anything is irrelevant, this MC should just get the fucking facts straight.
Second of all, the average soldier was not there to rape and murder civilians. Sure, it happened. But to generalize is incredibly ignorant. And its not like the Viet Cong were an amazing group of guys that were trying to fight off the evil American invaders. If I remember correctly, the VC were vicious torturers (much more vicious and inhumane than water boarding).
This is not to be political, but it makes me fucking sick to see such blatant lies be perpetrated like that. They should stick to rapping about something they actually know, not what Oliver Stone tells them.
All RA was doing was telling a story told in his medium of choice. The story was passed down to him from his father. I’m not about to pretend to know much about the policies and operations of Vietnam, but a story in and of itself to me is better than lots of bullshit music being sold today. There’s an emotional connection between the song, RA, and his father, and now the passing of his father. That’s all that matters to me in this case and concering this post. I don’t feel like RA was speaking on behalf of EVERY serviceman/woman in an American uniform, only the things he was told by his father. For real though, thanks for the comment and views. Appreciated.