(FinalCall.com) -- Massa Thomas and the good ole boys laid their bets down as Big Buck and Black Sam threw down in the cotton field. All it took was for Massa Thomas to tell Big Buck that Black Sam was bragging that he was the baddest slave on the plantation and then tell Black Sam that he caught Sallie Mae ’round the cabin with Big Buck for it to be on.

After the fight Massa Thomas walked away counting the money that he had won, while Buck and Sam lay on the ground in a puddle of blood. Although they fought each other with everything they had, the bottom line was they were still slaves and Thomas was still the master.

The White exploitation of Black-on-Black violence has long been a stumbling block for the advancement of Afrikan people. From the manipulation of tribal wars during the African Holocaust (Transatlantic Slave Trade) to the "tribal wars" taking place in ’hoods across America, today, the damage that this has done cannot be overstated.

With the history of violence, bloodshed and disunity that this has caused, it is a cryin’ shame in 2002, we see our people falling into the same trap, especially among those in hip hop.

Battlin’ is nothing new in the rap world as it was a sure fire way to prove your superiority on the mic. Many of us old school brothas can remember battles between the Cold Crush Brothers and the Fantastic 5. Or, those impromptu MC battles that were waged in high school halls between classes, with two brothas rappin’ and one kicking the beat by beating on a locker with one of those big wooden brushes, the ones that came with the Murray’s and doo rag that we used to keep our waves tight.

The rap wars of the ’80s were between struggling teenagers fighting to carve a living out of a cold world that cared nothing about them. However, in 2002, we have 30-year-old millionaires still trying to prove to each other who is the hardest.

The Black community in America is one big project. Not in the sense of a bunch of buildings surrounded by a black iron fence and miles of poverty but a project meaning an experiment to see if people are thrown together in cramped conditions and denied economic opportunity, so much so that they have to fight each other for the crumbs that fall from the White power structure’s table, will they be so indoctrinated with that mentality that even when they break the physical and economic barriers of "tha hood" they will still keep the same psychological programming that was produced as a survival technique in the projects.

This year has seen the resurgence of the hip hop wars with the much-heralded Jay Z vs. Nas, KRS vs. Nelly, Dre vs JD, etc. While some of the rhetoric coming from artists such as Nas and KRS may seem revolutionary to 16-year-old kids, if the dialogue is not put in the context of the struggle for the survival of Afrikan people, it quickly becomes counterrevolutionary. The fight that the more conscious rappers must rage is to put Black consciousness back into hip hop and not allow these so called hip hop wars to divert attention away from the real issues facing, not only the hip hop generation but Afrikan people in general.

In post-9/11 America, where the issues that are exclusive to the Black community have all but been forgotten by the so-called mainstream, hip hop must play a major role in shoving these issues in America’s face.

We must also hold our brothers and sisters in the rap game accountable for their actions. Yeshua (misnamed Jesus) once said, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone." This can be applied to hip hop, as all have come up short when their ways and actions are weighed against that historical struggle for Black liberation. So, it seems somewhat hypocritical for a rapper who has never owned up to the contradictions in his own music to point fingers at another rapper whom he considers less conscious than himself.

The message that this is sending to the young brothas and sistas is also problematic as they will see the insanity of disunity among Afrikan people as not only normal but as a cause for celebration and admiration.

This will later manifest itself into them developing the same intense hatred and mistrust of other Black folks from which many of us are suffering. Malcolm X once pointed out that the media is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make your enemy seem like your friend and your friend seem like your enemy; so it is in hip hop.

What we are fighting for is the survival of Afrikan people; not lyrics; not respect for Hip Hop; not even which Hip Hop radio station is the best. If we are not clear on this, we will be forever running around in a circle, like a dog chasing its tail and wondering why with all the talking, Black folks are still living in such hellish conditions.

Despite the strategic placement of Black faces in high places within the entertainment industry, it is the White-owned corporate giants that control the media images that our children see and ultimately it is White businessmen who reap the profits from the Hip Hop Wars (whether the artists themselves survive them or not). So history repeats itself; the slaves fight each other while the slave master laughs all the way to the bank.