Are You Illuminati?

Lately, I have had quite a few conversations with friends regarding the Illuminati. A little known fact about me is that I love ... LOVE conspiracy theories. I still don't think Neil Armstrong walked on the moon (well that the televised version was real) and I do believe the US government shot Kennedy and knew a lot more about 9-11 than we as citizens will ever know. So naturally I'm interested in conversations about the Illuminati, and as I said, lately I've been having quite a few conversations about the said organization whose mission is to rule the world (insert evil laugh).

Over the last couple of weeks I've been constantly meeting people that truly believe in the Illuminati's role in music, especially hip-hop. They say that artists are really working for Satan and that they are out to destroy mankind, especially African-Americans, with messages from Lucifer. These messages are supposedly embedded subliminally into the music. Pretty much every major rap artist has been affiliated with this group (actually, major artists period - some say that's the true cause of Michael Jackson's death). Jay-Z has been the major focus of the celebrity exposes but lately the word is that Kanye West has been captured into this lifestyle and that his mother's death was his final sacrifice into world domination (I swear whenever I type "world domination" I hear evil laughs)...Now if you've known me for more than five minutes, you'd know I'm quite the fan (understatement) of Mr. West. Through all his azzhole-ness and over-the-top-ness, I remain a fan because I feel he is one of the most authentic guys around. I mean, I may not always love his actions, but I do feel he does what he feels in the moment, and I'm a fan of folk who go with their gut. It is fascinating to me that anyone who listens to Kanye would hear the Devil in his lyrics when I hear him speaking his truth. And I would have much preferred a conspiracy theory that after almost losing his career of the Taylor Swift thing, his team told him he better become a beacon of good or he'll lose it all and now we are seeing the media-friendly Kanye but I digress.

First off, it is hard for me to understand why folk are so up in arms about what may be subliminally placed into music when there is so much that is blatantly said that we don't take issue to. (I won't even go into the degradation of women, promotion of violence and materialism - that would be a whole 'nother post.) And second-off, all these folk that keep telling me about this evil plot still listen to the artists they say are straight Illuminati! It just concerns me when people start to place labels on others they do not know especially something as serious as "Devil Worshipper". What if one day someone sees you do or say something they feel is of the occult and label you? In a world where our identity is determined first by our internet image, it would seem to me that we would be slow to "expose" anyone as the day may soon come where we may be exposed. It has happened all through history but the name was different - Christ wasn't part of the Illuminati, but a whole bunch of folk wanted him murdered because they could not believe he was a man of God! And Hitler made a whole bunch of folk think it was okay to kill people of Jewish descent because they were impure. I'm in no way comparing today's hip-hop artists accused of being Illuminati to Christ or their issues of defending themselves to those who died in the Holocaust, but I am making the point that we should be careful of judging who a man that we do not know really is. I guess I'll stop here before someone thinks I am Illuminati!