4:44

You know I had to.
Well, first of all, I would like to apologize to Shawn Carter for not supporting his hustle legally. I copped the album off the internet. I didn't want to. But Tidal won't even let me sign in so what was a girl to do?
I didn't look for it.
Someone sent it to me.
As soon as Tidal becomes available in Kenya I promise to pay my $9.99 okay?
Happy?
Okay so let's get on with this synopsis already.

The Story of OJ

Obvs, this is the place to start. I am not a ni**a. I don't even feel qualified to say the word. But this song I feel still applies to me. 

Why you say?

Because at its heart this is a story about the powerFUL versus the powerLESS. And all of us have been one or the other at some point in our lives. We like to separate ourselves from people who we feel are 'lesser than' we are. We are better than them because...reasons.

- I'm more educated/intelligent/pretty/light-skinned/dark-skinned/rich/*insert own superiority a.k.a inferiority complex here*

And if you replace 'ni**a' with 'human', the message remains the same. At the end of the day, you're still a human, and people are still people and you're absolutely no better than anyone else.

So check your privilege.

Or more bluntly, get over yourself.

Highlights

I'm not going to go song by song but the story of OJ just needed its own fucking paragraph. The things that struck me about this album were manifold. I got the album after seeing lyrics on Twitter and I was intrigued by the use of language to make double and triple entendres.

In the future other niggas playing football with your son

Pregnant Pause...
Yeah, Hov also said 'pregnant pause' but this particular one is mine;

• See that sentence can be taken at face value.
• It can be taken as being about Future and Ciara's particular situation.
• And it can be taken as an example of what happens if you behave like Future did.
• Also, it could just be Shawn Carter's nightmare about losing his family to another man.

Levels.

In one. simple. sentence.

My Inner Creative is envious, inspired and applauding.

My Inner Sapiosexual is aroused.

Moving swiftly on...

"You almost went Eric Benet

Let the baddest girl in the world get away

I don't even know what else to say

Nigga, never go Eric Benet" 

 

I saw some comments on Instagram about how he should have referenced Carmelo Anthony because Lala is looking fine...

My eyes rolled so hard they almost fell out my head.

EVERYONE WHO IS UNDER 25 NEEDS TO SIT. THE FUCK. DOWN. AND REFRAIN FROM MAKING STUPID COMMENTS!

And then Eric Benet's responded with how he is with the baddest right now....

Oh honey...

Really? Who made you say that?
Whoever she is isn't even a consolation prize. Just take the L and sit quietly right there in the corner with the other men who failed to grow up in time.

Speaking of men growing up...

Guys? If you want a grown man, you need to find one in his late forties. That's what I'm getting from Kill Jay Z, Family Feud and Caught Their Eyes.
Late 40s people...
Is it sad to know or is it a relief?

Speaking of Caught Their Eyes

"I sat down with Prince; eye to eye,

He told me his wishes before he died,

Now, Londell McMillan, he must be color blind,

They only see green from them purple eyes,

They eyes wide shut to all the lies,

These industry niggas, they always been fishy,

But ain't no Biggie, no lazy eye, huh,

 This guy a slave on his face

 

You think he wanted a master with his Masters?

You greedy bastards sold tickets to walk through his house,

I'm surprised you ain't auction off the casket, 

First of all, R.I.P to Prince.
Secondly, shout out to my family for not being money grubbing leeches.
Thirdly...ouch. 

And then there was Moonlight...

Y'all niggas still signin' deals? Still?

After all they done stole, for real?

After what they done to our Lauryn Hill?

And y'all niggas is 'posed to be trill? 

This song appealed to me on three levels;

• The whole "Ni**a is you stupid?" aspect of it is my aesthetic. My inner intellectual superiority complex was alive. 
• As an artistepreneur and victim of being fucked by the so-called system, it made me want to find out of the box solutions to getting my product to the market. 
• As someone who is still kind of mad as hell that Moonlight was cheated out of their moment, I am cheerleading. 

And finally although nowhere near finally;

And old niggas, y'all stop actin' brand new
Like 2Pac ain't have a nose ring too, huh

I love that 2Pac is still the SI unit of gangsta-ness. The one true beacon in a sea of fakes.

Also, I'm going to need Young Thug to stop saying he's the new Tupac.

Seriously.

Because he isn't even close.

Can he shut up and sit down.

Now can we move on to the beat?

That jazzy, lazy, grown folk flavor to the album had me wanting to drink some cognac and smoke a cigar in a blue-lit jazz bar while the band plays and Hov speaks to me from the stage. As I listened, I was feeling like, "this is an instant classic" and then I read that No I.D had used a lot of beats from classic songs to produce it and I was like, "Oh, that explains it."

It's very easy on the ears.

And then there's Bam.

It reminds me of 99 problems. It has that same feel of being inside the baddest version of yourself and letting everyone know it. Also apparently I really like reggae these days. Is it Rihanna? Is it Bob Marley? Or is it my dreadlocks?

Whatever it is, I'm rocking out!

We gotta finish this off with some Hov shade. You know what time it is...

Creativity Defined

Have you seen +Beyoncé's new video for Formation? I think it had been up about thirty minutes before all those who 'stay woke' were writing think pieces about the fact that she likes her man's nose 'Jackson 5'. The whole thing to me is severely ironic because +Michael Jackson destroyed his whole face trying to make his nose look sharper than a toothpick. I mean...

And then the very girl no sorry, woman, who's singing is perpetually in a blonde wig, nobody's ever seen so much as a follicle of her natural hair or even her natural personality but this is the embodiment of black power. Like...someone explain.

I'm not hatin'. I love the song. It is a great song. And the video is definitely interesting with a lot of socio-political messages...Just. If you're so proud to be black, why not live it? Michael Jackson dyed his skin white, but 'he would never want a white person to play him in a movie'. He has white kids...What's that they say about actions and words?People are free to do whatever; be whatever, say whatever. It just makes me sad how everyone else latches on to these epitomes of insecurity and self unrespect and say, 'wow. yeah. our heroes.'

Well they're not my heroes so its no skin off my nose. It's just really makes me sad.
And I'm not just saying this because  I saw on twitter that these same 'stay woke' twitivists were coming for the goddess +Rihanna in comparison to show just how ah-may-zing Beyonce is. Rihanna who is 100% herself all the time, short hair, long hair, wigs, bald head, plaited hair; she goes there. And looks fabulous while doing it. She's the epitome of 'I am not my hair' by just about having the most fabulous hair at all times, in all styles, regardless of what you think. But this is not a Rihanna vs. Beyonce thing. It's more of a stop looking for outside validation and love yourself without Beyonce having to sing a song about it thing.

Speaking of being your best self, my son was just home for an exeat which simply means he was let out of school for the day. We were discussing his education and the possibility of attending summer school in the States for two weeks next year. The program requires that the child have done some sort of internship where they helped the world in their chosen field. So I asked him for suggestions on what ways he could help the world in his (current) chosen profession. The answers that he gave me further emphasised to me WHY THE FUCK he needs to do this internship. It was all about getting it 'right'. Finding the right answer so you can get those two marks at the end of the question.

The problem with creativity and ideas is that there is no right answer. There is passion and belief and opportunity and a lot of ever loving work. There is not giving up and believing in your product and giving it 110%. 8-4-4 doesn't teach that. 8-4-4 teaches students to be drones that churn out the correct answers when asked. I don't know how to rescrew my son's mind so that he can think beyond the right answer. So that he can 'have the answers!' unlike +SwaysUniverse. I hope he gets this internship. And I hope it opens his mind to greater possibilities. I hope it doesn't take him thirty five years to find his ideas like it did his mommy.