It’s true what they say; controversy does sell but not everyone who attempts to be controversial sells, especially when looking at the music industry.

Jason Phillips, better known as The Lox member Jadakiss, has one of the summer’s biggest hits and a controversial one at that, titled “Why.”

In this song, Jadakiss asks several great questions that have yet to be answered.

While I don’t believe everything in the song is true, I respect his opinions.

In this article, I will answer some of my personal favorite questions he asked.

Within the first part of the song, Jadakiss asks “why is the industry designed to keep the artist in debt”?

I’m by no means a music artist but I do know that artists get very little profit from the records they sell.

Many artists make most of their money by going on tour and getting endorsements from various companies.

A lot of artists are against music downloading and I understand their frustrations. It hurts their record sales and all that means is less money for them in the end.

However, as a consumer, there is nothing worse than buying a new cd and listening to it and only liking 2-3 songs out of 14-16, and usually those songs are the singles.

Artists should focus on quality over quantity. The late Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace made quality albums. Jadakiss is aware of that fact too.

He goes on to ask “why they kill Tupac and Chris”? They were involved in a rap war that was escalated by the media and the result was two of rap’s best murdered.

They better question would be why haven’t their murders been solved?

As far as rap music is concerned, if you want to be the greatest of all time, you have to be deceased. But many rappers still breathing claim to be the best. The best rappers get shot so it’s fair to say no one is trying to shoot Nelly or Ja Rule. Still they must be careful because when you’re on top, there is envy.

Speaking of being on top, let’s talk about Kobe Bryant. Jadakiss asks “why did Kobe have to hit that raw, why he kiss that whore?”

Kobe is guilty of adultery. In the heat of the moment, Kobe could have easily been thinking about what R. Kelly once said in one of his songs. Remember “Bump n’ Grind”? Here’s a sample of the lyrics I am referring to: “my minds’ telling me no, but my body, my body is telling me yes.”

If that’s the case in this situation, then Kobe was thinking with a body part I can’t mention in this article, rather than his head.

Not even the mentioning of Kobe’s situation could take the crown for the most controversial lyrics in the song.

Jadakiss takes things to a new level when he asks “why did Bush knock down the towers”?

This part of the song is actually censored on some radio stations in the nation. Some have called this accusation ridiculous while others have said Bush knew beforehand what was going to happen.

If it’s the truth we all desire then I know we will all know what the truth is one day.

Towards the end of the song, Jadakiss asks two very important questions that caught my attention. He asks, “why Halle have to let a white man pop her to get Oscar and why they ain’t give us a cure for AIDS”?

I congratulate Halle Berry for receiving an Oscar in 2002 for her performance in Monster’s Ball.

It was quite an achievement. As a matter of fact, it was the first time a black woman had ever won the award. To answer Jada’s question, all that I can say is I guess that’s what it took for a black woman to win the award.

As far as AIDS is concerned, there is probably a cure out there that someone knows about but hospitals and insurance companies are making a lot of money off the treatments people with AIDS buy. If a cure is released, that would mean less money for them. We live in a world filled with greed.

Why?