"Black man kill a black man, it's cool, they lovin' that/Black man kill a white man and they sentencing him to death/White man kill a black man then scream about self defense..." —Soulja Slim (RIP)

"What that loss gave us/'Fucking with the people, it's always gon' come back around'/It's 'bout to be big movements from below/The golden age lies ahead/Struggles, proceed/You can't lie to yourself/You can't lie how it felt/No surprise how the cards getting' dealt/That's why—I won't be back for a long time." —Shabazz Palaces

Were you surprised? Me neither. Did that help? No, of fucking course not. Are you the person who insists race had no bearing in the case of Trayvon Martin and the coward George Zimmerman? Do you think the body of a white teenager—mouth slack, eyes staring—gunned down by a black civilian, would be plastered on TV or blogs? That this kid, slain by a stranger, would be slandered by adults who never knew him? You don't, I know you don't, because you're not crazy. If it wasn't enlightening in the least, or at least sickeningly consistent with your unfortunate expectations—about how little worth is given to black lives in this country—if it seemed perfectly reasonable, maybe a little extreme, but understandable, I mean... Shut the fuck up, sit on a campfire, you stupid-ass shitsack of a waste of a human being. May you be the last of your family, you no-empathy-having sociopath. I hope your mama steps on a Lego every time she hears your name. I hope the fear you carry for black bodies reaches out and chokes your lie-swallowing throat raw and bloody from the inside.

I just feel like it's been so many times now that I've sat down to write my next column—or program my next radio show—with a heart full of hurt and outrage, trying to process it all and spin it into something useful, constructive. Right now, though? I just feel tired, so beyond tired. Tired of getting my intelligence insulted, tired of getting my humanity denied, and worse yet, tired of getting my hopes up—for justice being served, for the right thing being done.

Fuck hope, though, when there are shows. One-half of alleged supergroup Slaughterhouse—Joe Budden and Crooked I—will be at El Corazón on Wednesday, July 24, with Feez the Germ, Aquino, Jkey, Cool Nutz & Krazy, DJ Gerze & DJ Swervewon, and your host Neema. Spac3man, Louis V, and ILLCHRIS (aka AyeLogics aka Logics) all pack into the Crocodile the following evening—apparently Spac3 will be cutting his dreads off that night. Not bad, but it kinda lacks the cultural high-water mark set with 2009's Beard-Off, the OG of hiphop hair-loss.

Capitol Hill Block Party is this weekend, as you no doubt already know, so feel free to lose your shoes to the robust sounds of hiphop ranging from Latyrx to Danny Brown. Just remember that you live in a country that "has no functioning democracy," according to one of its best-regarded former presidents. Is it just me, or does it feel like in some respects, in some states, America is determined to take some very big steps backward?