Where is the Love?

Hip Hop became the topic of recent comments on Conciliar Press’s new blog when someone mentioned the Black Eyed Peas recent hit, “Where is the Love?” as a positive example of the genre. Like much of contemporary pop music, the song is based on an older hit. Here follows the lyrics from the original version of “Where is the Love” followed by the Black Eyed Peas version.

Where Is The Love
Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway

Where is the love (7 times)

Where is the love
You said you’d give to me
soon as you were free
will it ever be
Where is the love?

You told me that you didn’t love him,
and you were gonna say goodbye
but if you really didn’t mean it,
why did you have to lie?

Where is the love,
you said was mine all mine, till the end of time
was it just a lie
where is the love

If you had had a sudden change of heart
I wish that you would tell me so
don’t leave me hangin on the promises
you’ve got to let me know

Oh how I wish I never met you
I guess it must have been my fate
to fall in love with someone else’s love
all I can do is wait
(that’s all I can do)
yeah yeah yeah

Where is the love (vamp until end)

Where Is The Love?
Black Eyed Peas Lyrics

What’s wrong with the world, mama
People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that’ll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin’
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you’re bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that’s exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y’all, y’all

People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurt and you hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

It just ain’t the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don’t belong
Nations droppin’ bombs
Chemical gasses fillin’ lungs of little ones
With ongoin’ sufferin’ as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin’ really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin’ wrong
In this world that we livin’ in people keep on givin’
in
Makin’ wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin’ each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin’ on but the reason’s undercover
The truth is kept secret, it’s swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where’s the love, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the truth, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the love, y’all

People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurt and you hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I’m gettin’ older, y’all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin’
Selfishness got us followin’ our wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo’, whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead in spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
That’s the reason why sometimes I’m feelin’ under
That’s the reason why sometimes I’m feelin’ down
There’s no wonder why sometimes I’m feelin’ under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found

Now ask yourself
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?

People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurt and you hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)

——————–

Where is the love, indeed. The first song is an obvious soap-opera about a couple’s shattered dreams. The second rendition, though with catchy hooks, is all over the map. While it pretends toward love, it is actually a divisive song pitting groups against each other. The CIA is our own terrorist group — on home territory? Having read through the BEP’s version several times, I still can’t understand how it is not indicative of the very vice it seems to reveal — namely, name-calling and segregation. Bloods & Crips ain’t got no love. KKK, CIA ain’t got no love. A war’s going on, but the reason’s undercover? Military, ain’t got no love. Bush ain’t got no love. I don’t care for the song, obviously I ain’t got no love. Perhaps if I had a hit record I’d have more love. It seems to me that the BEP’s version is critical of most everyone without offering any solutions other than:

Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y’all, y’all

What love? Toward what love are we to “gravitate”? Though the Father is mentioned throughout the song, He is being asked to do something, something new I guess — send some guidance — from above.

The truth is kept secret, it’s swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where’s the love, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the truth, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the love, y’all

I find this rather depressing. It seems, at best, existentialist. Not that I expect the Black Eyed Peas, or HipHop for that matter, to espouse Orthodox doctrine. But to state: “Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria” … without offering any better advice than to meditate and gravitate to a love that (they don’t know) … is, well, about the same as the ill-fated saga of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. Just a way to make a buck off an old record if you ask me.

Patience, forgiveness and joy are the three greatest characteristics of divine love. They are characteristics of all real love – if there is such a thing as real love outside divine love. Without these three characteristics, love is not love. If you give the name ‘love’ to anything else, it is as though you were giving the name ‘sheep’ to a goat or a pig.

— St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Homilies, Vol. I (On the Prodigal Son)

The debate continues …