Are you Hustling or Unemployed?

Recently I have observed a very worrying trend amongst Black youth. They go to school, drop out or pass, come back and register a Close Corporation, fill supplier database forms and then buy newspapers everyday searching for small-time jobs that they can do for government departments. Then a year goes by and they ain’t getting no jobs. The following year it’s the same routine. When SARS sends them Tax Return forms they just cancel and send back because they are not making money. They always complain about corruption in the issuing of tenders as if incase they were in the shoes of those Supply Chain bureaucrats they would be giving tenders for free.

Tupac Shakur once asked, ‘what’s the sense of working hard if I ain’t never getting paid/ i'm hustling?’ There was a time that this line used to speak to me in a personal sense and I felt Tupac was playing the man and not the ball.

Then the youth under review when asked what are they busy with always respond, ‘I’m a hustler’ or better to use a verb, ‘I’m hustling’. They then reckon you won’t ask questions further because it’s sometimes embarrassing to probe the size of another man’s penis, especially when it’s too minute. I have decided that from now on I’m going to ask, ‘what is the nature of your hustle? How long have you been hustling?’

This is because many young people lie to themselves and their parents that they are hustling while they are not doing shit but wake up in the morning and behave busy when they are busy waiting for a repeat of Generations and Isidingo on SABC1 and for mommy dearest to go to work so they can sneak in their high school girlfriend for a quick bonk during the break. Occasionally they put their CK1s in a brown envelope, extort taxi fare from their moms and go to town to hang and come back later to justify why they should be given dinner.

Young people need to ask themselves if their situation dictates that they are unemployed or hustling because as everybody knows unemployment is a big factor today if one is unemployed they should stand up and be counted. They need to help government when it audits unemployed youth. The figure of unemployed youth currently stands at 73% but everyday I see unemployed youth masquerading behind hustling while they spend hours gulping the poison at 606 Tavern and Valencia Pub.

Hustling actually means your hustle has a name and it has a potential to make you. I have seen young men with demo tapes and books full of lyrics running the streets under the pretence of pushing the hustle. For the life of me I’m tempted to say, ‘get a JOB mchana and stop effing around’. That smile that you bring to your Mama’s face at hearing you swear at the world will disappear once you turn 30 and start betting horses. She tolerates your Lotto betting tendencies because she thinks it’s a game.

I think it’s crucial that youth should understand that not all of them will be gifted with the hustler spirit, which is like a demon (idlozi), either you have it or you don’t and you won’t get it because you want it. Either you are a hustler or you are not - period.

Before you start accusing me of behaving like some authority, which I am ask yourself these questions;
1. Are you over 25 while you have never held a paycheque in my hands?
2. Do you actually have a businessplan with the financials done on Excel?
3. What would you do if someone gave you a million today?
4. At what age do you plan to retire?
5. Do you have skills and References? Are you employable? If you wanted to work for someone now would they take you like a bullet?

If your answer to question one was YES, please go and train to be a security guard.
If your answer to question two was NO, then join the ANC and get a municipal job.
If your response has got something to do with buying a German sedan do yourself a favour and play the Lotto religiously.
If your answer was somewhere under 40 then you are on the right track – hustle on.
If you answer is dodgy, then get a check the Classifieds.

I know people will shout that soprano Sibongile Khumalo started singing seriously when she was 32, but remember she was working all along. Some will say the Manhattans cracked it when they were already aging. True, they were holding down JOBS between rehearsals. The Dogg Pound’s Dat Nigga Daz once rapped, ‘I’m trying to get PAID and get a JOB/ mom wants a nigga out the house/ and I ain’t getting no younger/ I’m only getting older/ I’m only thinking about what my mother told me/ now I’m a Dogg Pound gangsta for life/ matter of fact is I can get paid twice/ down the strip I pull a heist/ jack, i'm robbing muthafuckas that's real”

So, young man ask yourself this question and be frank with yourself because it’s only with yourself that you need to be frank, are you unemployed or hustling? Otherwise go out and work, since you’ll be thirty with your CC still as broke as your black ass.