Here are two videos. Two forms of expression. Two very different ways (amounts) of adding value to the world.

It’s easy to argue that this is just a style choice. Or even the world through different eyes. I don’t buy it.

This is not a statement about the genre. Tupac never made a song that didn’t have a message. This is a statement about the two very different directions I see people taking their lives.

We build our lives on a code. That which we respect and resent. We attract to professions, relationships and ideas that help us question, reaffirm, and evolve our codes to be more representative of ourselves and how we see the world. I see two codes at play here…

A code built on premises of material; ego; exploits; smoke & mirrors.

And a code built on premises of art; freedom; transparency; & respecting the craft.

And don’t tell me that the gap is exaggerated because one is a video and one is a live performance. I could compare apples to apples, but that would only help me make my point.

(skip ahead to 4:45 in the next one if you’re in a rush… wish I had been there).