I love Lupe. Check this verse out from his song The Show Goes On on his upcoming album Lasers…
“One in the air for the people ain’t here
Two in the air for the father that’s there
Three in the air for the kids in the ghetto
Four for the kids that don’t wanna be there
None for the niggas tryna hold them back
Five in the air for the teachers not scared
To tell those kids that’s livin’ in the ghetto
That the niggas holdin’ back that the world is theirs
Yeah, yeah, the world is yours, I was once that little boy
Terrified of the world, now I’m on a world tour
I will give up everything, even start a world war
For these ghetto girls and boys I’m rappin’ ’round the world for
Africa to New York, Haiti, then I detour
Oakland out to Auckland, Gaza Strip to Detroit
Say hip-hop only destroy, tell ‘em look at me, boy
I hope your son don’t have a gun and never be a D-boy”
I’m pretty sure we’ve all said it at one time or another, in response to someone’s negative experience. I saw it this morning on someone’s Facebook status. The person (after the terrible storms Tennessee saw last night) said, “What a morning. Shingles off roof, fence bowed, and mirror ripped off the car. Thanks, 7 minute storm! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” The first comment someone wrote was, “Could be much, much worse!” Wow, person. Thanks for stating the obvious.
I mean, I know it could have been worse, and much, much worse at that. It always could be worse! I know there were people in Tennessee who probably lost their homes, or maybe even loved ones in the storm last night. That’s bad! And much, much worse. Heck, a tornado could have picked up her house and dropped it on top of the only good witch in a mysterious place created by an architect tripped out in shrooms, murdering the only decent witch of the land. That’s worse…much, much worse! It could always be worse!
I believe that’s an important thing for us all to remember, personally. Like, no matter what we are going through, no matter how bad it is, there is always and forever someone, somewhere in a much, much worse situation. I get that, and believe it with all my heart. Knowing that keeps us grounded, thankful for what we do have, and all that other important stuff. But often, to express that to someone else in their time of just needing support and validation, it really just comes off as a lack of care in that particular situation, and pretty insensitive.
I will never forget my Psychology class back in University the day we spoke about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, because the idea of trauma hit me in an all new way that day. The lecturer said trauma is not to be judged by the event or experience, but rather the person’s response to the event or experience. Simply put, one person could chip a nail and be completely traumatized, whilst another person could see someone’s head chopped off and be totally unfazed. Ok, that was a bit of an extreme example, but you get the point. We can’t judge others’ trauma because we have no idea what’s going on in their heads, and therefore it is not fair to compare different people’s situations in a simple, black-and-white kind of way.
People just need to be validated when they are going through rough times. And yes, at some point, it is very important for them to gain perspective, and see the “bigger picture”. But maybe we should be a little more sensitive before we just come crashing in, invalidating their experience and negative feelings, by stating the obvious that “it could be worse”. Because yes, if someone loses a leg, well, they could have lost both, but they are still going to miss that leg. Prematurely telling them it could have been worse is just rude. Maybe just validate their feelings, and wait a bit before you try and help offer perspective. I mean, I guess your response could have been worse; you could have shot them in the face or something.
A year ago today, there was a beautiful little baby boy, born into a world of strife, at the most appointed and destined time.
I, selfishly, cherish the fact that he is in my life, and that I have gotten to be a part of his.
He came into my life when I needed to be reminded that there is a more simple, perfect, loving, innocent, untainted, and beautiful side of life; and he showed me that, each and every day, time and time again.
He didn’t need much reason to smile. He needed less reason to laugh. He didn’t have reason to be choosy about sharing love, or even who he shared it with.
And today we celebrate one whole year of the wonderful little life of LJ! Happy Birthday dude! I love you!
I’ve been thinking a great deal about dreams lately; dreams and dreaming. I think it’s crucially important to dream, to dream dreams bigger than our current reality. If our dreams can fit into the box of our current reality are they really dreams anyways? Our dreams can most definitely make others feel uncomfortable for that very reason. They are dreams, they don’t always make sense, they are “out there”, they are subconscious desires for the things that make us the absolute happiest, but might not mesh with our present reality.
Dreams are also often attached to a subconscious fear that we will never be that thing we want to be, that person we’re meant to be, choking us like a nightmare, keeping us “in our place”, unable to move. The discouraging words of disbelievers around us helps hold us in that place. I say if we’re around people who don’t allow us to dream, well, we should sleep walk away, or run. Dreaming is important.
What if all those before us never chased their dreams? Too many people to name one. well, the world would be a lot less inspiring. I choose to dream. I want to dream until I wake up and that dream has become my reality. I want to base my dreams on a high bar I set for myself, rather than based on what I see around me. I want to imagine the seeming “impossible”, even though it may seem abstract at present. I’m willing to put in a little sweat, blood and tears to live my dreams.
And for me, I don’t say, “Any dream will do.” I have very specific dreams, some known only to me. My dreams have individual qualities and purposes. I don’t want to live your dream, and I would not want you to try and live mine. That’s why I understand why my dream, to you, may seem like cryptic nonsense. But my dreams are not your dreams. My dreams are my dreams. I choose to dream. Dream.
I spent the weekend in Nashville, and a good portion of the weekend with my cousin Kevin. We’ve kind of always been this team of “anything can happen” when we get together. And last night, that “anything” was going down, what I like to call, the downward spiral of destruction, falling into the deep, dark, rabbit hole of Youtube video despair. Simply put, we stayed up until almost 3:00 AM watching Youtube videos, while his wife slept on the couch.
For a while our buddy Blake was over, but when his wife fell asleep on the couch he actually had the decency to give in, and get her home and in bed…an hour after she fell asleep. He’s the gentleman of the bunch. So, we watched a bunch of videos. Starting by watching ones that we had seen like, “Oh, did you see blah blah blah? NO?!?! Oh my gosh, wait let me find it!” And after we watched said video we would click on a related video. And then watch it and click on a video related to it. And so on and so forth, forever and ever until 3:00 AM. Yep, the rabbit hole.
You can imagine there were some we came across that I should not share with you. So I won’t. But here are my Top 5 Favorite Youtube Videos (that I am willing to post on my blog) of the Weekend (Number 1 being my most favorite). You may or may not have seen them, but here they are…
NUMBER 5: “Boom Goes the Dynamite”
This is just a painful ball of awkwardness if I’ve ever seen one, though I have never really seen a literal ball of awkwardness, come to think of it. Anyways. In the longest three minutes and fifty-five seconds of his life, this young Sports Caster, Brian Collins, put Michael Cera to shame with the amount of awkward he brought to the table, by bumbling, messing up lines, and then finally resorting to trying to just do play-by-play commentary. And boom goes the dynamite.
NUMBER 4: “Stressed office guy destroys computer”
All this poor guy wanted to do was print something out from his computer in his little office cubicle. He probably hates his job and feel indifferent about life in general. Can’t a guy just print something in peace? Nope. The printer was not playing along so this guy decided to print what was on his screen, one way or another.
NUMBER 3: “Cop Tasers Himself”
This one is short, sweet, and to the point. Just some good clean fun, cop tasering himself style!
NUMBER 2: “Cop accidentally shoots himself”
Now, this gem is ridiculous, scary and funny on many levels. It starts off simple enough, with a cop giving some life skills to a group of school kids. His advice on drugs? No, not the usually “just say no”, but he rather tells them to just run away. But that’s really nothing. He picks up a Glock. He mentions the rappers 50 Cent and Too Short…um, not sure when last I heard someone mention Too Short. And then, while explaining how you should be careful with a gun, he shoots himself. Yep. In the foot. Does he stop his lecture? Nope. He keeps going (limping) and even tries to use him shooting himself as an example to the kids. And then he tries to show them another gun. That’s when the kids couldn’t take anymore and just started heckling him. But when all is said and done, I think he got his message across.
NUMBER 1: “Monkey Pee!”
Ok, this video is truly amazing. Come on guys! Stop being so childish with your monkeys having sex videos! Or monkeys scratching their butts, sniffing their fingers and falling out of trees! Immature! This video is way superior. I didn’t even realize this was possible, really, and, as good of an imagination as I have, I have never even thought of this as a possibility in the first place. But this monkey is no amateur at this honed skill. He’s done this before.
Astronomical Kid, a big name to live up to, with skills capable of that challenge, “And uuuh, I came from the bottom to the top. I’m representing real hiphop!” And at only fourteen-years-old his words couldn’t be more true. I stumbled upon him on Youtube, like many people probably did, my attention immediately grabbed by his track “Stop Lookin’ at My Mom”, which saw millions of hits worldwide.
I thought the track was catchy, and a nice mixture between tough and innocent. I was impressed that there was no profanity in his lyrics, he didn’t promote gangsterism and drug use, and he wasn’t degrading towards women (the opposite really in that particular track, as he warns guys not to gawk at his Mom). But I wondered if this Astronomical Kid was another “one hit wonder”, or just another kid who got lucky with one viral video, possessing nothing much to follow-up with. So I went to his Youtube page and listened to some more of his tracks, from various different mixtapes.
I was blown away by what I heard. Honed skills, originality, diverse flows, and some serious lyrical content, with a large vocabulary…actually used properly. I know grown adults in the Cape Town hiphop scene who improperly throw around big words, just for the sake of using them, trying to look intelligent but achieving the opposite, really. No ABC rhymes from the Astronomical Kid. This kid spits next level stuff.
What really excites me is to see his passion, motivation and love for music, but also his seeming desire to express it in a positive way. Sure, he rhymes about wanting to make money, but there are more gems to find under that gold, and no negativity to speak of. That became very clear to me when I saw a video he just posted today on Twitter of a cypher he went to. These older dudes went first and they were rapping like, “Blah blah blah mother f@&%ing late, blah blah take you on a mother f@&%ing date.” I wasn’t impressed. But then the Astronomical Kid stepped up to the plate, the DJ kicked the beat, and Astronomical Kid started bobbing his head.
He opened his mouth and started rapping a bold, fluid stream of verse, with solid punchlines, using no profanity at all, and switching flows at least seven times. If you ask me, he EMBARRASSED a bunch of grown men. I hope if the mic got passed back around to them, they passed it up. It excites me to see such young talent in a kid who is a role model and inspiration to kids, and even adults. I don’t think it will be long before the kid gets signed, but I’m sure he can use all the support he can get. You can follow him on Twitter, check out his Facebook page, his website, or his Youtube page.
And here’s the video of him putting grown men to shame:
Posted by capetownbrown 
