December 10, 2005
Richard.
"Cuz we're all family.
That's it, jack.
And fuck all that other shit."
There's never been an artist I loved like Richard. So much of how I think, how I strive to represent myself to whatever extent I have a public voice... so much of who I am comes from Richard.
Richard's every word as a performer was informed by honesty and compassion. A commitment to the principle that every human being deserves to be treated with kindness and respect, and to calling you out if you did not live by this principle. And a commitment to telling the truth. A fearless honesty about the world that was surpassed only by his fearless honesty about himself.
Honesty and compassion. Maybe the two hardest things to maintain in life, but they are the ones that count the most.
That's what Richard taught us. That when we can look honestly at ourselves and at each other, and react with compassion to whatever we see, we can always laugh together. Even, or maybe especially, in the hardest of the hard times.
Peace be with you, Richard. You were my hero.
Posted by jsmooth995 at December 10, 2005 08:58 PM
Posted by: Belve at December 11, 2005 01:36 AM
Excellence in comedy is often expressed in terms of self-effacement or sharing a laugh with an audience about one's self. And, yet, this hardly begins to describe the death-defying tight-rope act captured in each Richard Pryor performance.
I agree, Pryor articulated the essence of compassion in his humor. Certainly, there are bits that I still take issue with (like the Vietnamese comments on Is It Something I Said?), but that was all apart of his fabric: a confused beauty, human like you and I.
Cheers to you and hiphopmusic.com for embracing Pryor's message. Hardly a small gesture in acknowledgment of another's bold moves...
Posted by: dan at December 12, 2005 02:29 PM
Yeah there were definitely bits that made me cringe once in a while, some of the stuff about asians, a few "faggots" let loose here and there, some of his issues with women peeking through.. but like you said, that was part of the package, a part of him putting his humanity, deeply flawed and still evolving as we watched, out there for the world..
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