Personal Responsibility and Accountability

[DISCLAIMER]

*Highest 2 Lowest (2025) spoilers contained herein.

Photo credit, property of A24 and Apple Original Films, fair use

I grew up watching Spike Lee joints (movies created by this filmmaker and actor). Among my favorites were School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Malcolm X (1992)—which featured the talent of Denzel Washington and piqued my interest in el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.

However, in my later years, I didn’t enjoy most of Lee’s subsequent work. In specific, I found joints like Chi-Raq (2015), BlacKkKlansman (2018), and Da 5 Bloods (2020) to be predictable, uninteresting, and a bit preachy for my taste. Of course, my interpretation is subjective.

In any case, I recently chose to give another Lee joint a chance as I watched Highest 2 Lowest (2025), mainly because I’m a fan of Washington’s acting abilities. Noteworthy, in a video, Washington once encouraged a young boy not to be like the character he represented in a film.

Regarding this matter, I stated in a post entitled Big Gangsta, “Washington, who played the role of a gangster and who used a recommendatory should advisement as an actor, attempted to dissuade a child from emulating the life of a gangster.” I appreciate the actor’s candor.

One imagines that as Washington ages, he’s thought more about the type of onscreen representation to which younger viewers are paying attention. If correct, this may explain why he took the role of David King in Highest 2 Lowest. Summarizing the plot, one source states:

When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the “best ears in the business”, is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.

Brothers Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller High and Low [1963], now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City.

Admittedly, I’d never heard of Kurosawa’s film before drafting this blogpost. Therefore, I went into watching Highest 2 Lowest with fresh eyes and with few expectations. While watching, I was pleased to find that rapper A$AP Rocky was featured in the film as the leading antagonist.

His character’s name in Highest 2 Lowest is Yung Felony. Those familiar with the content of my blog may be aware that I was a fan of A$AP Mob when the supergroup was still together, which included A$AP Rocky. As such, I said in a post entitled Acronym Symbolizing Any Purpose:

I look forward to future projects from FERG and A$AP Rocky, given that as of February 18, 2025, the latter reportedly received a “not guilty verdict at his trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.” Congratulations for prevailing in that case.

To my pleasant surprise, Highest 2 Lowest contained an A$AP Rocky track that I’d never heard before. Featured on the 2025 Highest 2 Lowest (Original Soundtrack), entitled “Trunks”, the outro states:

Pack out the trunk from the front to the back

(I got niggas in they cell, goin’ crazy in the jail, well)

Pack out the trunk from the front to the back

(Tell the judge, “Don’t be holdin’ grudge, suck-suck my nuts”)

(I’d rather be a thug) I’d rather be a thug [x2]

(Send bullets than a hug) I don’t give no fuck

(Yeah, hate and no love) Pack out the trunk from the front to the back

(Niggas in they cell, goin’ crazy in the jail, well)

(Shoutouts to the real ones, the ones who never tellin’)

(Shoutouts to my fellas, shoutouts to my fellas)

[x3]

While comprehending that one’s perception of art isn’t objective, I’ll offer my view regarding an aspect of Highest 2 Lowest nonetheless. David King, the protagonist, appears to represent tension between the old school and new school elements which comprise hip hop subculture.

Specifically, old school soul music singers such as James Brown are featured in Highest 2 Lowest as a reprieve to new school artists such as Yung Felony’s violent lyrics which translate to nonadaptive behavior (e.g., a kidnap for ransom scheme). This isn’t an original argument.

For instance, when living with my dad and late stepmom many years ago, I recall members of Earth, Wind & Fire stating something to the effect of rap being phased out. At the time, I remember my stepmom cheering and pointing at me while saying, “They talkin’ to you!”

That was in the 90s. Again, no matter how fervently people like Lee, Washington, or members of Earth, Wind & Fire may express their desires, rap music has survived. Still, I can understand the valid critique regarding music such as Yung Felony’s being correlated with cultural degradation.

As an example, in Highest 2 Lowest, David King’s wife, Pam King, is featured as an intelligent, charming, poised, and confident woman. Contrastingly, Yung Felony’s baby mama is presented as naïve. The former female character represents stability, though the latter signifies instability.

In one scene, David King’s wife supports him by stating that she’d no longer remain a “silent partner” in their relationship. Specifically, she states, “I will always be loving and supportive, but I will no longer be silent,” signifying a fortified marital union. Based!!

Alternatively, Yung Felony isn’t featured with his baby mama throughout the entire film. As well, in one scene, he’s depicted with four thicc ass (literally) strippers as “Trunks” plays. These women serve as little more than objects of desire – nothing like the supportive role of Pam King.

In the latter scene, David King is observed enjoying the song. That is until Yung Felony states, “Nigga try to front, we gon’ leave ‘em where he at!” It’s in that very instant that the audience is led to recognize that David King realizes the potential harm of music that he supports.

This pivotal moment is when David King apparently discovers personal responsibility and accountability (collectively “ownership”). For improved understanding, responsibility is defined as the quality or state of being responsible, such as a moral, legal, or mental accountability.

Here, “responsible” is defined as liable to be called to account as the primary cause, motive, or agent, and being able to answer for one’s conduct and obligations—something, such as the demands of conscience or custom, that obligates one to a course of action.

Accountability is defined as the quality or state of being accountable, especially regarding an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions. Here, “accountable” is defined as subject to giving an account—a statement explaining one’s conduct.

When providing psychoeducational lessons on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), a psychotherapeutic modality which arguably requires that one preferably should take personal ownership in order to reduce self-disturbance, I lean heavily on responsibility and accountability.

This is because I maintain that people have personal agency (a person’s ability to control one’s own reactions to activating events which are beyond one’s own control, even when one’s response is limited by someone or something else). This is a matter of empowerment.

For instance, David King ostensibly comes to the realization that he can’t control other people. All he can do is try to influence them. As he has the “best ears in the business,” the music executive then takes personal ownership of the only thing he can actually change: himself.

To my surprise, this message is antithetical to the victimhood narratives of Lee’s later work (e.g., Chi-Raq). After all, it would be too simplistic to depict rap music as a menacing force within the world from which no one is powerful enough to escape its supposedly evil clutch.

That narrative would be as convincing to me as one of the thicc ass strippers featured in Highest 2 Lowest persuading me that she had zero interest in monetary gain. Ain’t no way, fam! Expressing matters in a less crude fashion, I stated in a blogpost entitled Rap Made Me Do It:

I think the idea of an individual not being responsible for personal actions, and it’s instead claimed that a music artist should, must, or ought to remain accountable for such behavior, is a false premise, because the suggestion denies people personal agency.

This is probably why David King suddenly awakes from a daydream in which he bobbed his head to Yung Felony’s music, just before the music executive turns down an opportunity to sign the street savvy artist. Personal responsibility and accountability occurred in that precise scene.

For this reason, I appreciate that Lee was able to break his streak of personally disappointing films though release of Highest 2 Lowest. He may or may not be able to turn a tide of the hip hop subculture, as he once did, though that’s not the point I’m making herein.

Rather, Lee appears to properly utilize personal ownership for his role concerning the state of hip hop. Truly, the only thing in life over which he has control is his own reaction to ass-shakin’, gun-shootin’, violent buffoonery which is correlated with rap music. The same is true for me.

This is indeed why I choose to continue engaging with the grimy aspects of rap while also offering REBT perspectives in my Hip Hop and REBT blog category.  Well, that and the fact that I actually enjoy tracks like “Trunks”. “Pack out the trunk from the front to the back!”

How about you? Do you irrationally believe that music causes, rather than correlates with, displeasing elements of society? Are you so disempowered by unhelpful philosophies of life, as to deny your own personal agency and ownership over your own reactions to such matters?

If so, you don’t have to be! Like David King, you can take personal responsibility and accountability for how you respond to displeasing situations. If you’re prepared to do so and would like more information about REBT, then I look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

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