mg

i’m vain

a short list of shit i wrote in 2013 that i’m not embarrassed of yet *flexes*

WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA? (Huffington Post)

AN INTRO TO CHICAGO BOP (Pitchfork)

WHY ARE YOU SO INTIMIDATED BY GIRLS LIKING RAP MUSIC? (Noisey)

bound 2 is my favorite song of 2013

“bound 2” isn’t the best song of 2013. it’s not even the best song on yeezus. 

i moved to brooklyn in june under the pretense of networking or some other bullshit i don’t actually care about. mostly, everything about chicago made me tired and sad. i spent the first half of the year staying up til sunrise, sleeping through the afternoon, living on the internet, and getting wasted alone. i would blink, repelled and disturbed, at the daylight like an alien. i lived in the same apartment building as my ex-boyfriend. i hated everyone.

yeezus leaked within the first few weeks of me moving. i lived with three strangers, at least one of whom loathed me, in crown heights; i hid in my room a lot. moving to new york is weird. the crushing realization that you ain’t shit hits meteorically. i lost focus. the morning it leaked i sat on my fire escape chain-smoking, drinking evan williams and sobbing. just sobbing. when “bound 2” hit i knew i was supposed to feel better—a nice comforting hug from the kanye of yore after the freakout—and that made it worse. i hadn’t felt so much like myself the whole time i’d been there, was the fucked up thing. i spent a lot of time this summer walking through crown heights and bed stuy at 3am, gasping for breath when the charlie wilson parts hit. 

i almost moved back to chicago. i was homeless for a few weeks, i was broker than i’d been in years, men sucked, someone stole my phone and i couldn’t afford a new one. i went back for a week, staying at my dad’s house. i wanted to curl into the fetal position on his couch and never leave. 

the night i flew back to new york i went straight to my favorite bar in bushwick. i got fucked up by myself and blatantly hit on a stranger, which i don’t think i’d ever done in my life. we molested the shit out of each other in a cab back to his place. i don’t remember any of it and i didn’t remember his name when we woke up and fucked again. later that week we fucked to “bound 2” playing on repeat. in that moment i knew i was going to marry him. we made it to thanksgiving. new york’s alright.

THE 15 BEST CHICAGO RAP SONGS OF 2013

i’ll probably do a non-regionally specific list too, but really, who gives a shit? chicago wins everything. 

01. King Louie f. Lil Durk, “Thotty Things”

02. The Guys, “Taxes”

03. Kanye West, “Bound 2”

04. Sicko Mobb f. Lil Durk, “Maserati”

05. Lil Chris f. Breezy Montana, “Bop Like Me”

06. Lil Durk, “Dis Ain’t What You Want”

07. Bo Deal, “Ima Opp”

08. Katie Got Bandz f. King Louie, “Pop Out”

09. Sicko Mobb, “Young Heavy”

10. Guap Girls, “Ciroc & Thots”

11. P Rico, “No Love”

12. Chief Keef, “Macaroni Time”

13. Stunt Taylor, “FeFe On The Block”

14. Lil Bibby, “Water”

15. Matti Baybee f. Lil Durk, “Shopping Spree”

some notes on bound 2

hey listen up you dumb fucks, this is why the bound 2 video is next level. i know i’m a little late but i’ve read like one thing that *almost* nails it and everything else is inane. i don’t feel like writing a full thing so these are just some quick notes.

“bound 2” as a song alone, in the context of “yeezus” is a beautiful dark twisted track in addition to being a total troll move. it’s “they say they miss the old ‘ye, girl don’t tempt me” but, because he is kanye and not drake, he sees it through: “oh you like humble soul-sample kanye? lol, here.” “bound 2” is many things: it’s hugging it out after the crazy when the drugs are wearing off; it’s a winking, back-handed gift to those who turned away after “graduation”; it’s a pure expression of love; it’s a fucked up expression of how love isn’t pure.

so OBBBBBBVIOUSLY this video was gonna be sly as fuck, that much was a given. and especially given kanye’s recent confederate flag merch stunt, this seems stunningly obvious: “bound 2” appropriates american romanticism in the same way that yeezus tour shirts appropriate (which, here, is too gentle of a word i think—pillage, really) the confederate flag. (i find the flag thing genius, for what it’s worth, if a bit clumsier in actuality than it is in concept.) there’s this awful trend that’s become really prevalent in recent years—of which i’ve totally been guilty, many times, i’m embarrassed to admit—of white people distancing themselves from the “really white” white people by identifying so-called “white shit”: you know, pumpkin spice lattes, uggs, whole foods. not only this abhorrent by assuming that god knows a black person would never have an interest in bourgie organic food (thus further “other”-ing the “other” from afar), but the “white shit” is always so fucking benign; it’s a lot harder to self-identify, even deprecatingly so, with idiotic redneck kitsch (to which the “bound 2” video is clearly nodding) than with a fucking seasonal starbucks muffin. the video is a representation of yeezus’ most powerful ideals—he’s already fucked your hampton’s spouse, and now he’s cumming on your suburban ass spouse’s precious moments figures and thomas kinkade lighthouse collection coasters and apple pie scented yankee candle. it’s jeff koons if jeff koons had anything socio-politically relevant to say beyond pointing at kitsch (which is cool too). and what’s most hilarious is that by and large, viewers are immediately revolted by the crass imagery they’re seeing, not recognizing it as their own. in a way, the video is more  anarchist than “yeezus” altogether because it presents itself as harmless.

BUT C'MON. THERE’S LEVELS TO THIS SHIT. ALL THE ABOVE IS NOTEWORTHY BUT WHAT’S REALLY FUCKING HAPPENING HERE IS—JUST AS HE USURPS AMERICAN ROMANTICISM AS HIS OWN, JUST AS HE CLAIMS ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST RACIST SYMBOLS AS HIS OWN—HE IS RE-MAKING KIM’S INFAMOUS SEX TAPE AS HIS OWN, THEREBY (1) DEFINITIVELY OWNING RAY-J AND HIS FEEBLE ATTEMPTS AT CONTROLLING KIM FROM HIS SAD HOLE, FOREVER (2) RESTORING KIM’S AGENCY IN HER OWN SEXUALITY (BECAUSE C'MON YOU LAMES WHO THINK HE’S PARADING AROUND HIS HOT BIG TITTY FIANCE, KIM IS A GROWN ASS WOMAN WHO CHOSE TO BE IN THIS VIDEO).

peace yall