What Loaded Lux meant when he said “You gon’ get this work!”

Mann. Nothing like a good rap battle. I remember the countless hours I used to watch freestyle battles on YouTube instead of actually doing working my college library. 106&Park had their Freestyle Fridays. My high school even did freestyle Friday for a spell. Rap is a sport. I follow it like a sport. Pure entertainment.

Two seasoned battle rappers, Calico vs. Loaded Lux. Not sure of what their records are, where they are from, how many records they sold or anything. I seen the hype of the battle consistently on my twitter stream so I checked out the battle. I opened up the YouTube video and it was 40+ minutes long. Sheesh that's a long video and a great way to throw away a good hour of my time on something that I can’t see getting a return from.

The battle was good. Calico had some good bars. Lux was in his usual format it seems. Could have been the third round and Loaded Lux was about half way through his verse and he started to stumble over his lines. He actually forgot his verse and was mentally digging to finish off his verse. One of those sights where you start to feel bad and want to look away. The crowd got into it taunting him. His opponent, Calico, taunting him as well. He regained composure and started to get back into his verse.

The battle rap scene is crazy. It’s like 40 guys on stage surrounding the rappers and 50 people in the crowd. If the crowd makes noise, nobody can hear the rappers and everyone on stage is using their hands, gesturing to quiet the crowd. There has to be a better way to format the battles. A clever line might be said and the crowd cheers, rapper waits for a quiet crowd, says hot rhyme and it repeats.

But here is where it got real to me. Lux said some fly stuff and the crowd got loud, as his crew is trying to quiet the crowd while he pauses his lyrics, he looks a Calico and says, “You gonna get this work.” Not really too much emphasis on it, just a simple line while he waits to finish his raps. While pointing to Calico, he says to the crowd, “He gonna get this work!” Now Lux is gesturing to the crowd to be quiet while saying, “Let me work!” All of this is repeated during the breaks in most of the rest of the battle. I can tell he liked the way it sounded and the reaction he got from saying these lines.

But lets go deeper on what was meant by his reference to “Work.” He was saying that they should allow him to display the fruit of all of his hard work leading up to this battle. I love to use the line when talking to colleagues about doing something for the first time. “You had your whole life to make your first album/website/app/investment etc.” We have time to prepare for that thing we are going to do whether we use the time to prepare or just wing-it when the time comes. Lux was saying; Hey I worked hard to write these lines for this battle, so let me display the work I put into it. Have you ever cooked something for someone and they say that they aren't hungry? It hurts. You put time effort and energy into that meal and they won’t allow you to display your work by eating it. It makes me feel empty when I am not allowed to finish a thought while pitching a product or explaining something that I’m passionate about. I want to display the work I put into it and I am not able to.

Let people work. You never know how hard someone might have worked on a speech or a instrument. We never know someones journey and how far they had to get to where they are at today. Someone might be walking really slow in front of you in the mall but don’t get agitated, they might have been paralyzed since an infant and they have been doing rehab for 15 years and might have taken their first unaided step a month ago. Let people showcase their talents.

We put time, energy and effort into things we are passionate about. Let others display their passions. Let’s win. Let’s learn together.

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