The Immersion: Preparing to Fight The System With REKS Posted by Dharmic X on 01/24/13 | Filed under Opinion, The Immersion

Junior year of high school was an educational renaissance. From September to March, I applied myself as a student in ways that I had never done before. For the first two semesters of that year, my grades were almost perfect (and I was taking three Advanced Placement classes and three honors classes). I had gotten more involved in the high school newspaper, becoming the deputy sports editor while writing additional columns for the opinion section. I was participating in this speech competition that had long been a tradition in our school.

Gone were the distractions. The content of the music I was listening to had changed dramatically in one year, and it reflected an enlightenment.

What it wasn’t a sign of, however, was a sign of conformity. On the contrary, underground hip-hop and its ideals radicalized me further. Despite having pretty impressive grades, I was rejected from the school’s National Honor Society, and after the initial rejection I didn’t care to apply again, choosing instead to toss the application sheet around as a paper ball. I was religiously reading at home, trying to stay aware of foreign events and applying my knowledge in order to interpret past the biases of Reuters and the Associated Press.

The speeches I was performing at the “competition” were from men such as Malcolm X and Eugene Debs, as opposed to the others who were reciting Shakespeare or John F. Kennedy. And of course, it was all accentuated by the fact that I was listening to music that nobody else was listening to, I was staying up-to-date in that genre of music, and I maintained that my taste in hip-hop was superior than my peers who felt that Lil Wayne was still the best rapper alive.



For me, the spirit of “System” by Reks was perfect. I discovered Reks through Statik Selektah, as part of the Showoff camp that was starting to put Boston hip-hop on the underground map. I instantly fell in love with his music, but it wasn’t until I heard “System” in 2009 that I fully sank my teeth into his artistry. This track, produced by DJ G.I. Joe (who often serves as Immortal Technique’s tour DJ), was a banger. The drums on the track bounced and rumbled in militaristic fashion. The sample wailed in the backdrop as a rallying cry.

“System” was all about Reks reflecting on the hip-hop that he grew up on, speaking on its ability to both educate and entertain. “Chris (KRS-One) had the heaters on the covers: he was Criminal Minded; lyrical violence, the mind’s been blinded.” His point was that the music he was making was in the vein of his forebearers, and that he was cut from the same cloth, railing against the system in the same way. “Mr. Shakur ain’t happy with the imitations. MLK ain’t happy with the reparations.” I was convinced.

I played “System” on repeat for months. I would vibe to the track at home on my computer, on the road on my iPod, and even on my cell phone, which had a music player. During the break in those pathetic SAT prep classes that I had to take (forced into by my parents who saw their contemporaries making similar strides) in Newton, a suburb known for it’s bougie residents and white, middle-class privilege, I would go outside in the parking lot and play “System” on my cell phone’s speakers, letting Reks “say ‘fuck Po’’ in Eazy-E’s memory” on full blast. It provided me some type of internal satisfaction, that I could bend the rules to my whim and express myself even while excelling in an American educational system that simply bored me.

It would be the last time I ever excelled in this educational system.

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