keeping it real

Not being fake or influenced. Being true to yourself and your values, but more importantly, being true to innate values that all people acknowledge as respectable. Not frontin, or inhibiting yourself or pretending to be something your not; but also not following dominant values that should not be acceptable. Honesty, doing the right thing, genuineness, fairness and reasonability are generally aspects of keeping it real. Gandhi kept it real because even though his acts were controversial or illegal, they were never harmful and society now knows he was doing the right thing. Also used in a more jocular way to explain an individual's behavior that they may have thought was the right thing to do out of stubbornness or disregard for others, but it wasn't really keeping it real because the social concensus is that it is not.