Jewel 3 of 12 Overstand

Do you understand me? Do you understand what I'm saying to you? Said most mothers to us as children, or a typical couple in an argument.

We all come from many different backgrounds, situations, and upbringings which means from time to time, some shit that people do just won’t make any sense to us. We were having a chat just the other day with a newlywed couple about men and women and the lack of understanding we have for each other, and how it can result in anger or worst case scenario HATE!

We don’t wish that upon anyone no matter what the situation is, but let’s start the attempt to break this down even slightly. Men and women, for the most part, have very different brain functions and deal with emotions differently to the point where they had to write a book about it. ( Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus) Annnd it went on to sell like 15 million copies or something like that, so you know you are not alone, we all got a problem when it comes to understanding both men and women, the fix is learning how to Understand a situation and another person’s opinion on things regardless if you see eye to eye on it.

So why are we talking about this, well it is the 3rd Jewel of this journey one we need to move past to find complete happiness which is the 12th and final Jewel.
How this is related to Hip Hop?

Could it be that through understanding we could have found common ground to break down some the Hip Hops biggest beefs! Probably not, but trying to understand it, and make sense of this for yourself and how to use it in your own life is where we all need to start.

There are a few opinions on the difference between Understanding and Overstanding and I guess they are all up for interpretation pending on how deep you want to go in on it all. Without claiming that we have all the answers or definitions I’ll attempt to break it down for those that may have never heard of these terms before.

To understand someone or something is to acknowledge and recognize an energy or situation, but when you overstand the same situation or energy you are in fact choosing to recognize, acknowledge and recreate that energy allowing yourself to move forward or past the misunderstanding that has occurred and get the hell on with your life! I think that just about sums it up, although there is another version being that to overstand someone is more positive then to understand them as if you were to be admitting to being lower or less important then someone else. The Rastafari movement also has chosen to use the word overstand and “I and I” instead of we, as a symbol of separation from the Western ideology and also in remembrance of the struggle for emancipation.

Let’s apply this to the lyrics that we have used as the inspiration to this design and break it on down a little further:

“If I’m stuck up much like a bandit, I crank shit

Niggas get reprimanded, remanded and the branded.

I delve into myself to draw the strength to overstand it.”

The use of the word OVERSTAND here is quite clear, the lyricist Dres from Black Sheep was clearly feeding off the energy to understand what his bothers go through and get labeled as when they’re getting arrested. But in order for him to move past that energy, he needs to “Delve into myself to draw the strength to OVERSTAND it”

Such simple words used with a different understanding/overstanding of them and somehow things can make more sense unless, for some, it already made sense and using the word under or over is completely irrelevant unless you are doing some kind of sex position, and we are all just over complicating things in the hope of sounding much more intelligent and conscious about one's self???

You be the judge…I'm gonna leave this one here now.

In the conclusion of this enlightening post, I hope that you have got some sort of message that is broken down here for this Jewel as we journey on through to the next one,  stay tuned and keep an eye out for more drops we are KC Wonder Conscious Clothing and Apparel.

Peace