But if Haile Selassie breaks a treaty and attacks the warlords who outnumber him, he’s clever. If a king breaks a treaty and attacks a peaceful nation, he’s not hustling: he’s dishonorable. Note that hustling lives strictly in the province of the underdog: the poor, the common, the disadvantaged. A hustler has to talk fast, move fast (to avoid trouble) and think fast (to come up with a clever story). It comes from the same etymology as fast-talking someone: the smooth flow of street patter meant to overcome someone’s objections and trick them into something they wouldn’t agree to in quiet reflection. What is a hustler? To “hustle” is to hurry, to put forth the muscular effort to rush along. But they all share the similar Jungian archetype of the hustler: the underdog surviving on his wit. Anansi was a storyteller Coyote, the creator of man and the Earth Loki, a thorn in the side of Asgard. These mythological gods and heroes play a variety of roles. From the Monkey King of the Ming Dynasty to Anansi, spider-god of the Ashanti, every human society reveres cleverness and wit. You can find more classical fables, from Aesop to Jean de la Fontaine, that honor the cunning prey overcoming the mighty predator than vice versa. The Native Americans of the Midwest venerated the mythical Coyote, trickster extraordinaire, while the Norse had Loki, who could even change his gender. Greek mythology devotes as much praise to Odysseus – builder of the Trojan Horse blinder of Polyphemus the man who outwitted Circe and Proteus – as it does to the legendary warrior Achilles. I just threw away a lifetime of guilt-free sex and floor seats for every sporting event in Madison Square Garden.
This album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I’d never amount to nothin’, to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin’ in front of that called the police on me when I was just tryin’ to make some money to feed my daughters, and all the ni-rs in the struggle, you know what I’m sayin’?
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