This whole “stand on business” movement is goofy as hell! I was browsing YouTube the other day, a few days before T.I. and King’s boisterous brouhaha, and I saw a Short of this cute, young black woman—who didn’t look like the fighting-type at all—asserting that people should “make” others “stand on” the contentious and disagreeable things that they say. The clip had over 60k likes. I can tell when people are stupid or when they don’t have much real-life experience because they generally play down weighty situations like confrontations, as if “making” someone “stand on” what they said can’t lead to loss of life! First of all, for people who proclaim to be tired of senseless violence, niggas sure do spend way too much time and energy on incubating conflict. Anticipating and preparing for bullshit is different from initiating and exacerbating nonsense. A lot of beefs are premeditated and totally on purpose. And people are so quick to quarrel because they misconstrue fearlessness and courageousness. When you think about it, the distinctions between being fearless and having courage are stark. If you lack fear, you’re likely the type of person who would have unprotected sex with multiple random people. If you have courage, you might be the type of person who would rescue a cat from a burning building. Fearlessness is irrationality mixed with incaution, whereas courageousness is heroism intertwined with responsibility. As far as T.I. is concerned, I think he’s full of shit. Everyone is thoroughly informed about black men’s overall warped perception of masculinity. King’s desire to be respected by his peers, who are also inclined to exaggerate their toughness, is derivative of the fantasized ideal of manliness that T.I. and other rappers perpetuate in their music. Like I keep telling y’all, secure people never feel the need to prove themselves. And if there is one thing that you can always rely on a nigga to do, it’s try to prove something! Another thing that I keep telling y’all is that black men are obsessive about other black men’s perceptions of them. Being perceived as hard and real is more important to niggas than seeming intelligent and respectable. Hence, worthy women like me because I’m smart and virtuous, and stupid niggas dislike worthy women because they have standards. In my opinion, people think T.I. is smart because he speaks fluently with a heavy southern accent that they subconsciously associate with uneducated hoodlums. But if you pay attention, T.I. has all the credentials of the person that he’d be prejudged as. He’s a self-proclaimed ex-drug dealer with a criminal history and he prides himself on it! And being expressive doesn’t automatically constitute intelligence. I’m not hating on T.I., I just think he’s a hypocrite who gets too much credit. But I feel the same way about Tupac. The difference is, Tupac was actually intelligent. When I think about hip hop and its influence on black men, I can’t help but to wonder how many niggas have gotten themselves killed or incarcerated while emulating the characters that their favorite rappers portray. Honestly, I never thought T.I. was hard or someone who evoked fear in other men, yet I am a career-long fan of his music. If you grow up in the inner city, you’re inherently adjacent to street life. Being a street dude is a choice that all urban men have, and choosing the streets doesn’t make you special. Even when I was roaming the streets, in my old school cars, by myself, with a pistol on my hip, I never wanted to be anything like T.I. or any other felonious fool. I was just a strong-minded, rebellious guy who wanted to be left the fuck alone whenever I decided to be “outside”. And unfortunately, because so many bitch-ass niggas have so much to prove, being outside usually means that you’re going to have to prove your disregard for niggas with shit to prove. And on the outside looking in, sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which.
Going into adulthood, it didn’t take long for me to realize that staying in the house and away from bitch-ass niggas was greatly beneficial. When I was younger, I was a nocturnal animal. And I had strong desires to go out at night, when most people were home resting, and while nothing but trouble was awaiting. Luckily, I’ve almost always been disciplined enough to fight temptation. I don’t think people realize how easy doing the right thing is, especially when you don’t have anything to prove. If you want the best for yourself, you oftentimes don’t have to think too hard when making decisions. The decisions that keep you safe, happy, and flourishing are enough. How much of what happens to you do you think you can control? Admittedly, that’s a tricky question with no true right or wrong answer. The fact is, there is very little that we can control outside the decisions we make. The more people and external variables that are involved, the less predictable and controllable the circumstances will be. But if you understand that, you can avoid situations where you won’t have enough influence on the outcome to benefit from your involvement. Niggas think sustaining themselves in the streets is an accomplishment because of the unpredictability of survival. However, niggas also intentionally place themselves in unstable environments with unforeseeable consequences to prove to their peers that they’re not afraid of said consequences, and many of them don’t survive or only just. So, when you’re stupid, outlasting other stupid people who make dumb decisions has more to do with luck and chance than competence and dominance. T.I. survived the streets because he never had any long-term beefs, and that’s true for most of your favorite rappers who claim to be tough guys. With the exception of 50 Cent, the virtually invincible Lil Reese, JT the Bigga Figga, and a few others, most rappers have never been in the thick of any real life-and-death conflicts! And even if they have, fuck they want a cookie or something? Stupid motherfuckers don’t deserve credit for pissing people off enough for those people to want them dead! Do you know how I know niggas are stupid? Because petite cutie, Coi Leray, would stomp a mud hole in King Harris’ little yellow-ass, but he’s out here acting like he wants legitimate drama. And I wouldn’t call the condition Napoleon complex because incapable, infirm, insecure-ass niggas of all shapes and sizes walk around on bullshit all day long, just waiting to die or almost die. As a human, how many people do you genuinely fear? I’m not saying that King’s small stature should give rise to him ceaselessly dreading defeat, but as a man, there’s not much he can do to fend off those who wish him ill. So, if he was smart, King would be doing everything he could to fight shy of feuds and friction. Satisfaction is one of my favorite words. And I believe that being satisfied, by and large, is the most important thing in life. Satisfaction is defined as fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this. That’s everything a person needs to be happy, right? The thing is, some people derive pleasure from inflicting pain and gain fulfillment by preventing others from being satisfied. In the streets, both surviving scrimmages and being a source of sorrow are badges of honor. And if taking someone else’s life is enough for a weak-ass nigga to fulfill his necessity to prove himself to other weak-ass niggas, then he will be satisfied sacrificing his own life for that fulfillment! In other words, a lot of people are fucked-up! And hip hop lyrics have glamorized and glorified the infliction of pain and suffering, and promoted self-destruction, for decades. So, clearly, many niggas secure satisfaction from self-harm. Who are we to try to stop them?!
I’m not going to lie, from time to time, I enjoy witnessing niggas play themselves. I was just watching one of my favorite podcasts, and I relished seeing a group of grown-ass men be manipulated by a loud and over-talking but unassertive person, that they actually consider a friend. It proved how persistence can persuade passive people to believe anything. For instance, if someone refuses to stop lying, eventually, if no one has the courage or concern to call bullshit, the people receiving the lie effectively become manipulated. Manipulation is simply using clever and effective tactics to control people and situations. And manipulative people normally don’t have strong-minded people around them. Being honest with yourself, how many of your friends are on your level? Even though y’all don’t know me personally, I am certain that you all are able to discern that I’m not weak-minded. I ordinarily don’t get along with most people because I’m very mature and mostly uncompromising. However, I am still respectful and humane. Yet, just with me having strong character traits, I find that people often believe that I’m condescending, when I’m not. The truth is, people interact with me and recognize that they’re not as smart or mature as they thought they were. I’m not going to say that most people’s associates are like-minded, but I believe that most people habitually associate with people that they can relate to. Again, just reading my blog, I’m sure many of you have observed that, intellectually, I just wouldn’t fit in with the average crowd. Not to mention that I simply don’t give a fuck about many of the things that contemporary people find interesting. Like I’ve said many times, most people live for being commanded. But I march to the beat of my own drum! I bet that annoys the fuck out of some of you weak-ass motherfuckers, don’t it? I bet y’all wonder why I must be so strong, instead of being more like you, huh? Do you know that you don’t have to be who you are? You can be better, stronger, smarter, etc. Evolving or not is your decision. Manipulative people often express contempt and disgust at everything that goes against them or threatens their ability to control you. So, when someone who wants to manipulate you sees signs of strength in you, they start working to convince you that your strengths are weaknesses! A manipulative motherfucker’s arch nemesis is individuality. Individuality is defined as the quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked. If you insist on not being influenced, you serve a manipulator no purpose. So, what do you think a manipulator is going to do when they see they can’t exploit you? They are going to try to make you believe that you’re worthless to everybody! Then, they are going to turn you against everyone who they believe will give you the strength to stop dealing with them. Do you want to know the worst part of this? The majority of manipulators don’t even realize how evil they are—they just know that they like how it feels to be in control. And because people love being told what to do, people who love telling people what to do run the world! When I think about leaders, I sometimes find myself imagining how the apocalypse would be. In a true survival of the fittest, every man for himself scenario, the whole world would look like Gaza—but much worse! Needless to say, again, humans are some fucked-up creatures. If you were part of the alien civilization that brought humans to Earth, would you come back to rescue us? I wouldn’t—ain’t no way in the fuck I would! I would beam myself down, steal some popcorn, some Skittles, and a few beers, then slide back up to the ship and watch you stupid motherfuckers destroy each other for no reason at all! Get the fuck out of here! This is making me melancholy. Peace.