"Work" is an unlikely forum for geopolitical observations. It's the new Rick Ross/Meek Mill collaboration, less spat than drooled -- MILL IS GOING TO WORK! HE'S GOING TO WORK! HE'S GOING TO WORK! -- over the type of Lex Lugarish beat that sounds like a promotional theme for the circus. Yet, unexpectedly, here's Rozay:
I might go buy a boat tomorrow/ just to take a trip/ ... or head straight to Colombia/ I'm talking Bogota/ship 'em up to Philly/ Milly living like he Gorbachev/ not the Reagan era, but a n****a makin' cheddar/ Rayful Edmond in the mirror and I'm never telling
Meek Mill has reason to consider this a backhanded compliment. To live like Gorbachev is not a pleasant existance: scorned by your countrymen as a failure and rejected in the 1996 election with a bare 0.5 percent of the vote. Not only did Gorbachev not make cheddar, his legacy is one of managing decline wrought by insolvency. From the outside world's perspective, he was a success, but that's only because he failed to preserve the Soviet Union, his overriding objective. The only salve the end of the Reagan era brings to Gorbachev is benign obscurity.
Let us ignore the Rayful Edmond self-comparison. (I recommend the episode of "American Gangster" that deals with Rayful.)
Still, Gorbachev is a world-historical figure. His humbleness, resolve and ability to avoid the limelight might be an inspiration to Rick Ross.
Gorbachev was also instrumental in ratifying the INF and START I treaties that helped to eliminate a significant number of American and Soviet nuclear weapons. Before Gorbachev took power in 1985, there was no other Soviet leader that wanted to talk with Western leaders about eliminating a whole class of nuclear armed missiles with the INF treaty or cutting the existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons with the START I treaty.
Posted by: John Henninger | 07/24/2011 at 07:58 AM