Main Street Magazine Spring '23

66
When I was twelve I went from Chuck-E-Cheese
to selling work to fiends
Now I’m grown as hell, the trap the only thing that work for me
The opening lines of the incredible closing verse reference the popular
childhood experience of going to Chuck-E-Cheese as a way to give the
audience a sense of just how young Maxo was when he was thrust into
these dangerous and illegal activities. While this line may seem like a
humorous and creative line that glorifies his drug dealing as a child, I
consider it to be a tragic example of oppression that far from glorifies
this lifestyle. Lines like these show the listener the sad reality of how
Maxo and many others in his situation find the carefree aspects of their
childhoods being abruptly cut short, as their need to feed themselves
and their families requires them to grow up much faster than they should
ever have had to.
Maxo saying that the trap is the only thing that works for him even as
he has gotten older is one of the most telling lines of them all, as it
highlights a central issue within this conversation. The word “trap” itself
even indicates that the people growing up in these tough areas have no
easy way to leave, and this is because the rest of society is not set up
for them to succeed. Once somebody becomes comfortable with street
life, it becomes unlikely that they can make an easy transition from
something like drug dealing, to a desk job where their coworkers would
likely not talk, dress, or act similarly to the people they have been around
for most of their life. Not only that, but economically we see things such
as the welfare trap restricting low-income earners, making it impossible
for many to find higher-paying work as they would see their government
assistance disappear, leaving them worse off than before.
Where I’m from, if you a star, you handle rocks or shootin’ hoops
My dad was locked up, doing time for crackin’ cars for revenue
Twice a week he call my line, to preach and tell me what to do
Told me follow mama rules, read my book, go to school
But instead I bought a tool, hit the trap with Janky Ju
The first line of this section, “handle rocks”, can mean both dealing
drugs as well as dribbling a basketball. This double entendre is Maxo
Kream’s creative way of articulating the commonly believed notion that
selling drugs or playing basketball are the only ways for people like him
to escape the streets and find great success to financially support their
families. This can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy when entire
communities see these as their only options for making it big, striving
to become drug dealers, athletes, or even rappers, while neglecting the
paths less traveled.
Throughout the song, Maxo Kream highlights examples of his
grandmother, mother, and father preaching to him to stay in school and
follow the rules, but this advice, as positive as it seems, falls on deaf
ears when the resources required to escape poverty are inadequate,
and therefore he must resort to illegal and undesirable means in
order to survive the next day. You would think that this advice would
be convincing coming from his father, who is in jail for making the
same decisions that Maxo was making, but this did not change Maxo’s
behavior — neither did the knowledge that his brother was shot in the
face living the same kind of lifestyle, a topic that he covers in this song
and others. This isn’t because Maxo is making these decisions and living
this life because he thinks that he is invincible and will surely avoid the
fate of his father and brother, but instead because he is not convinced
that he has a choice and that these are risks he must take in order to
have any chance of success.
Many people from privileged backgrounds do not understand why Maxo
could not apply himself in school and use education as a way to get
himself out of poverty. This fails to take into account just how inferior
many schools in impoverished and racially oppressed communities
are in terms of resources, quality instruction, and recognition from
universities. It is less likely for somebody to excel in high school and
especially college without the guidance of a parental figure who has had
that level of education. While people from high schools like the one I
attended can focus on their studies and ensure that future opportunities
will come from their academic commitment, it is not the same for people
at lower quality institutions where education is not prioritized in the
same way. This is one of the main challenges for people trying to escape
generational poverty.
Even if education or professional resources were improved, there still
remains the hurdle being financially comfortable enough to focus their
time, money, and attention toward long-term goals and away from the
day-to-day struggles illustrated by Maxo Kream. Educating people on
what is right and wrong is an ineffective strategy for creating real change,
and the goal should instead be to reform society so that we do not see
entire communities in a situation where their most logical courses of
action for short-term survival include acts of crime.
In this same vein, this idea of “glorifying” crime, or telling people the
“wrong” thing to do, is not nearly as dangerous as many make it out to
be. This is because many of the people committing the types of crimes
that we hear about in this track are doing it for the same reason Maxo
seems to be doing it, because they have no other options, not because
a song made it sound like a good idea. It is true that many children
may hear songs like “Work” and miss the message, truly believing that
these acts are being glorified, especially if grown men like Rivera are
misinterpreting songs like “Alright”. I would argue that this concern is not
nearly enough for one to claim that hip-hop needs to stop being played
by young people, not just because the consequences would presumably
be limited, but because any resulting negative effects would pale in
comparison to the positive effects coming from people who can properly
interpret such valuable insights from lives much different than their own.
People do not commit crimes because it is a desirable thing to do, and
people like me should not receive any moral credit for not being drug
dealers or committing other dangerous crimes, because they would be
entirely irrational. Crime often happens because society leaves regular
people without options to provide for themselves. This idea is difficult for
many people to come to terms with because it challenges a worldview
that many of us have held since we were young: that criminals are
inherently bad people, and that the best way to deal with crime is to take
those bad actors out of society in order to save everyone else.
Correcting our worldviews is an important goal for all of us to have. Since
we need to hear other perspectives in order to make those changes,
what better way for people from difficult backgrounds to share their story
than to tell it through the most popular form of music, which is known for
reaching the ears of the youth. People like Rivera who attack rap music
claim that the content of these songs is damaging the black community,
but he is mistakenly addressing the symptom of the problem as opposed
to the root of the problem, a problem that he would likely have a better
understanding of if he listened to more perspectives such as Maxo
Kream’s with an open mind. Believing that the way to fix the issues
discussed in rap music is to silence the voices of these marginalized
people is misguided thinking and shows that critics of the genre are not
honestly with the struggles of others, but instead are upset with the idea
that they have to hear about them. When the stories of marginalized
groups fail to reach the ears of the privileged, we have people dismissing
powerful songs such as Kendrick’s “Alright” because they do not
recognize the struggles of others as being real issues. This is dangerous
and unjust.
The biggest takeaway I received from countless listens to the
shockingly raw and honest personal testimonies presented in “Work”
by Maxo Kream is the way in which they challenge common American
assumptions regarding ostensibly immoral things such as criminality.
The persisting narrative in America is that criminals find themselves in
these situations due to this conception of their inherent immorality that
separates them from moral, successful, law-abiding citizens. This paints
the picture that these people are failing society, while in reality, society
has failed these people and no progress can be made to address this
great injustice until this perspective is collectively realized.
Creating a society where impoverished people’s only rational options are
to do seemingly immoral things and then claiming that those immoral
acts are a result of their inferior character is an absurdly evil practice
that should never have been allowed to gain traction and ought not
continue. One of the best ways to combat this is by analyzing songs
like “Work” by Maxo Kream himself, or by listening to stories from other
people in similar situations so that they can become more humanized.
This way we can see the world as not a battle between good and bad
people, but instead strive collectively to create equitable systems in
society that ensure that normal people are not incentivized to do “bad”
things.