You Can’t Stand With Your Feet In Two Different Oceans, When The Tide Goes Out, It’ll Split You….

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the scene, rapper Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed this week outside of a store he owned in the same hood where he grew up at. Nipsey was doing it right, he came from the ghetto of South Central, LA, became a gangbanger, but eventually found his way out through music and returned to the same people, and places where he grew up to try to help. He had all the right ideas, he did what we’re supposed to do out of humility and gratitude for our own success. He went on to carry the hope and message back to the people and town where he grew up, establishing store fronts and non profits there for the betterment of the community.

This is the ultimate fulfillment of destiny of a man/woman who made it out of whatever struggle we faced. We are to embrace our success, be grateful and humbled by it enough to go give back and show others the way. However, there’s no room for half stepping. You cannot have your foot in two different oceans. You realize when you’ve attained successes in life and reached new heights, that you have more to lose and there’s always someone waiting to take those things from you, or knock you down and relish in your fall.

When Nipsey was shot and killed, the usual internet peanut gallery went crazy with conspiracy theories about him being killed by “them”. There is always a “Them” or a “They” at play in a victim mentality. In this case, it could’ve been the government, the “white man”, or big Pharma. As usual, rumors went wild, but then the truth came out: Nipsey was killed by a peer from his own hood.

When I say you can’t have your feet in two oceans, I mean this: you cannot be in your new life and your old life at the same time. You can’t be in the charity life, the successful music life and the gang banging life at the same time. You can’t be in the drug life and the sobriety life at the same time, or the church life and the street life, etc. It will eventually tear you apart.

Nipsey was a good man, with good intentions. He was humble enough to come back and help his community but not completely humble enough to let go completely of his street character. He made the guy who killed him leave the area earlier that day, called him a “rat” and humiliated him, and the man came back and killed him for it. Nipsey got cocky and let his guard down.

When we’ve reached success and stopped living our old lifestyles we live a new life where it’s ok to let our guard down occasionally. It becomes comfortable and second nature after awhile to break down our character and relax and not be of the streets all the time. The problem comes when we go back around the streets (which we should only ever do for positive reasons). When we go back around the streets as changed people and we’re not entirely humble, and we walk around not having our guard up, there are snakes and vultures everywhere eager to devour us or at least bring us back to their level.

Nipsey had the right heart and the right idea, but didn’t fully commit to the humility of letting completely go of the street life. I see myself in him, and have to check myself when I see old attitudes come out. The streets will pull us under way quicker than we will ever pull them up. It doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything in our power to help them, it just means we must do so cautiously. We must commit fully to our new mission, to our gratitude and humility or we risk our mission and our lives everytime we do something that goes against it.

There’s a lesson in everything. Rest In Peace To Nipsey, 2pac, and all those others who had big hearts and the right idea but couldn’t completely let go of their old ways of life and fell because of it. The creator knew your hearts. 🙏🏼❤️