I Just Wanna Be Successful: An Exegises on Happiness and Success in Contemporary Society Inspired by Trey Songz and Drake

I heard this song in the car this morning and I really liked it and not just because the DJ on Power 99 had a lisp and pronounced it Thuccessful by Drake and Trey Thongthz. The first thing that hit me was the minimal beat, a simple snare drum repeating, punctuated by a very audible bass drum (or whatever since they're not really drums at all but electronic pulses) that is, because of the sparseness of the beat, noticeable, not just an invisible force making your rearview mirror buzz. On top of the beat is a spectral hum of synthesized keyboard playing only a few notes over and over. Added to that are just some sung notes and then the lyrics.

The song (if it gains real popularity and even somewhat if it doesn't) represents a change in recent hip hop music. Sure as the air coming through my window is changed from what it was just a couple days ago, colder, darker, preparing me for the cold bite of winter nights, a season away from the balmy august summer weather we were experiencing just a couple days ago Successful is miles away from the indistinguishable music I hear on the radio. Don't get me wrong, the song is a commercial one, comprising many of the same themes we hear in hip hop all the time, but looked at in a different way. Successful is not the banger track of the summer, it is the reflective song of the colder months when we have time to sit alone in our rooms and think, not exhibit ourselves in the heat of a summer.

The chorus, sung in a truly emotional, plaintive voice, is as follows: I want the money/money and the cars/cars and the clothes/the hos/I suppose/ I just wanna be/I just wanna be successful.

A minor "sport" is Greyhound dog racing. Unlike horses, Greyhounds do not have a jockey to guide them around a circle, instead there is a mechanical rabbit attached to a pole that is meant to lure the dogs around a circular track. The dogs try to catch the rabbit, which is always in front of the them and goes just a little bit faster than they can. The first dog wins the race. Here's a video if you can't picture it. Skip to like 25 or 30 seconds.

Dog Racing from MattFM on Vimeo.

If a greyhound ever catches the rabbit or is able to experience it otherwise, it learns that the lure isn't real and it doesn't want to race anymore. Once it learns that that which it chases is false it loses the desire to chase.

Drake says, "I want it all that's why I strive for it," and then goes on to define what success is: money, cars, clothes, hos. But he isn't sure that that is success, he "supposes" it is. Or is he just "supposing" that he wants to be successful? Once he attained those things would he feel fulfilled? Are those things actually what success is? I think Drake mighta found the rabbit. Or maybe he is close, kind of questioning the rabbit. Drake has by now, I'm sure, attained that which he supposes success is. But the "suppose" in the lyrics indicates that Drake isn't sure that he will be happy or fulfilled if he attains "success." Otherwise the song would go "I am certain I want to be successful." Maybe money, clothes, cars, hos, etc. doesn't actually make you happy. It could be that they make you less happy. Consumption is the goal of so many people in this country (and I assume others too but I haven't been to em) and why are so many people unhappy? Does stuff really make you happy? Is owning things the way to fulfillment?

I go with no. Kinda sounds like Drake might agree with me. Why is there a term called midlife crisis? When people who have always been chasing the rabbit in front of them catch it in middle age after decades of working, building up a resume, accrue evrey thing they have thought would give them fulfillment, and then, what? Nothing? When we are in high school you work hard so that we can go to a good college because, of course, a good college degree will put us ahead of the rest of the population, give us an advantage. And when we are in college we work hard so that we can get into a good graduate school or medical school or law school or business school, because that will differentiate us from the rest of the population. We will get a good job and make money and be able to afford cars and clothes, or whatever you are into. And that's gonna work? We are constantly upgrading our objects but we are not constantly getting happier. I thought it was interesting to hear a rap song with this message, if that is at all the message that Drake was trying to make, which honestly I doubt. But that's what art is, the viewer finds their own meaning. Wait is that what art is? What is art?

Chiddy Bang Is Not Dead Long Live Chiddy Bang

So Chiddy Bang is not over, and we are so not over them. Somewhat contrary to prior coverage here, Chiddy Bang is now basically Chidera "Proto" Anamege backed by producer Noah "Xaphoon Jones" Beresin. And whaddayaknow, they got a new track out. And it's bangin'. Like dirty. It officially premiered on PrettyMuchAmazing.com today. I hope to get an interview with the bros of Chiddy Bang soon. Xaphoon also has a mixtape which is almost done and will be debuted on Sep. 1 on PMA. I've heard some of it, and it sounds outstanding. Outstanding I say!



CHECK DA SONG YO
http://prettymuchamazing.com/mp3/chiddy-bang-pros-freestyle-1-0-xaphoon-jones-remix-pma-premiere

Xaphoon at work


[all photos via jenny f. holt]

File Under Historical Accuracy

Not sure, but I think this video might have some deep cultural/economic significance. I people might look back on this video as we do those of the 70s and 80s and be like, "Wow, that's what it was like back then."

We run this town. Or do we? Who really runs this town?

I am Just A Bro Sitting on a Bench. I am. I am not. I am. I am. Not.

I am just sitting on a bench. I know that I am here. I know that I exist. I am just a guy on a bench. Watching people go by. I am just a student that can't afford his $260,000 education. I've got limited FinancialAde. I am a bro in need of money. Anything helps. I drove my mother's Camry downtown to beg for money. I've got nothing to worry about.

I am sitting on a bench

Fully self-aware of my situation and the irony

I am post-ironic

I am post-postmodern

I am a homeless man

With a cat on my head

What could be more postmodern

I do not care if people give me money

Clearly I can afford to support not just myself

But also this feline on my head

And who cares?

It is such a fucked up world

Who cares if I have a cat on my head and I am homeless

Who cares if I am bro-ing out hardcore

With my pinkie and thumb out.

I can code HTLM but I can't find a dependable source of income.

I am post-structural

I am performance

I am art

10 Sentences I Wish, On Second Thought, I Hadn't Said on the First Date

1. You smell ravenous, like a raven.
2. I look forward to sharing sexually explicit text messages with you when we are away from each other.
3. No, there's no way you could weigh more than I do!
4. Oh, well how about that.
5. I'll be ordering for the lady.
6. I would love to whisper sweet nothings into your ears.
7. That's what she said!*
8. This is definitely one of the top 5 dates I've had at a McDonald's.
9. I'm into pain. (She didn't get I was talking about being a Phillies fan)
10. Do you think you could hurry up with the fries just a little? Not trying to be rude but a new Antiques Roadshow comes on at 8.

*(This might not have been so bad except that I said it after she said, "You want ketchup with that?

I'm Joining the Vegetable Rights Militant Movement

Man, animal rights? Like seriously what is that? There's no animal Constitution. And why should they have rights but not plants. Plants are just as alive as animals are, right chief? Really plants deserve more credit than animals. I mean, a plant will just stand there. You try to kill a plant? You try to uproot it from its home? A plant just fuckin eats that shit boss. Plant don't give a fuck. Just looks at you. Says YOU WON'T. Fuck is up, a animal will be all running away and shit. Fuck is that? Sack up brah we gon find you. We live everywhere, fuck we invented helicopters and some of us chase you around the woods from out a helicopter (it always comes back to Say-Say Pay-Pay). Shit. And if we don't get you, we just gon get your wife or something. Your cousin. Fuck, maybe your kids. Whereas a plant, at least this bro's a little more realistic, like, "Yeah, you got me, I'm not going nowhere." And you know what's really fucked up, and which is why people are totally wrong about this animal rights, veganism, shit is that we are way worse to plants. Like we will actually peel the skin off a live plant and then devour it. We will take unborn plants, "fruits" or I prefer "plant fetuses" and rip them off the plant and then eat em in front of the parents. Now there's some messed up shit we do in the animal world, but nothing so fucked up as eating their fetuses. Nothing. That's why I'm saying, like we need to get away from this feeling bad for animals. If you are a vegetarian think of what you are doing to the plant kingdom. That's why I'm strictly carnivore, I don't ever eat my vegetables, cause they're not mine. I have compassion. I am going to join the Vegetable Rights Militant Movement. (<3>

AND WHAT THE FUCK IS FREEGAN? I heard that I'm like damn white people really got too bored. Had to create something new. What they only eat and wear post-consumer recycled cardboard? Someone tell me what a freegan is.

I will say one more thing. Yo a venus flytrap. Ain't that some shit. That's a carnivorous plant. Respeck dat.

Who's a Spectocrat?

Congressman Joe Sestak announced his candidacy for The United States Senate yesterday, challenging Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination in the spring. Could be an interesting race. Sestak is a young(er) candidate (I know, younger than Specter? But he's 57 so whatever) who is a progressive Democrat, as opposed to Specter who is not actually a Demorcrat at all. Could be interesting. Specter has every endorsement in the known expanse of the universe, Ed Rendell said, "I would tie my infant grandchild to the railroad tracks during peak hours if it meant the U.S.A. Senate would have six more years of Arlen Specter!" Barack Obama's endorsement was a little less excited, "Arlen is... I'll say he's one of the best Jews I know."

The Times of New York reports that Specter has more money than Sestak at $7.5 mil to $4.3 mil.

The only thing is, if this were an open election the Specter would win easy. But it's not. It's a Democrats-are-allowed-to-vote-only election (the best kind) and truth be told, Democrats aren't Republicans, jus tryna spit it raw here, so they may not vote for Specter, who became a Democrat like 2 seconds ago cause he was going to lose the Repub Primary. So like who likes Arlen Spectorino? Independents. Middle of the road (MOTR) D-Crats and Repubs. But among the D-Cratico partay, I don't know it could be more difficult for Specter than originally thought to win, considering Specter was like on Bush's dick (!) for the last 8 years. Do you remember Bush?! That's not doing him any favors with the Mt. Airy crowd. (Although truth be told they're probably going to have the Eugene Debs write-in campaign again, so that's a pretty tough demographic for anyone.)

Here's an in-depth poll.

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Even though it is 113 days till our collective annual day of thanks, Thanksgiving, I am feeling thankful today. After a couple days of not speaking and spending a lot of time on the couch I am up again and this makes me happy and thankful to be an AMERICAN. I know that if I lived in a bad country like Romania or Africa or Canada I would probably be dead right now, my throat having closed up days ago rendering me unable to breathe. Breathing = Life, transitive property, you get the idea. If I lived in a place like Rumania, where their medicine is still from the Dark Ages they probably would have given me like an original tracheotomy and would've just sliced my gullet open so I could get air in my throat, but like I woulda died from bloodloss. If I lived in Africa I don't even know what they would have done. Probably like torn up some long-ass grass next to their hut and then boiled it with water and have me drink their "potion". They might've chanted over me, which tbh, might be worth it. In Canada the health care system is so bad that you can't see a doctor for 12-18 months, and that's only if it's super serious, it's a 3+ year wait normally. You get what you pay for Healthcare duh.

So I'm glad I live in a place where I can go to the doctor and get antibiotics in the same afternoon.

Me in Rumania

Because I am Bedridden and Can't Talk

MISS DIS BROAD

Sometime in the middle of the night as I was dozing in and out of consciousness Meet the Press was on and they were talking about ma gurl Sarah Palin. I realize that I miss her and want her back in my life. Read a article in Salon that said Palinskaya is our Ahmadinejad: BLAH BLAH more drivel from the liberal media elite. Reminds me of what the woman Herself said about the MSM when she finally decided to GTFO of Alaska:

"Democracy depends on you, and that is why, that's why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how 'bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quit makin' things up."

No one else can speak like that. Also she's NOT getting a divorce and she'll buss you upside da head if you say she is.

* * * *

Saw dis vid from the new band Major Lazer (Diplo and Switch). I like this song very much but the video wasn't my cuppa chai. However, if you are into dry humping 'big gurls' then by all means enjoy the next three minutes.