Monday, June 23, 2014

What's my age again?

After 21 birthday's start to become sad. You always feel awesome that it's your birthday, but it's never really as good as you hope it will be. You have all these expectations that don't ever REALLY get met within those 24 hours. For me birthday's are just a reminder that another year has gone by I'm still not where I want to be. [Of course I feel "blessed" to be alive to see another birthday blah blah blah]

I was told that your odd years are always the best ones. Which, thinking back, could be true. (with the exception of 19 which I feel like just sucks all around for everyone) I predict 23 being a good year. I mean 23 worked for Jordan right?

The mantra for my birthday has been "nobody likes you when you're 23" (*Mark Hoppus voice*). You're  young enough to make mistakes but old enough to know better. It's kind of the best of both worlds in a messed up way. Still, nobody takes you seriously yet so you might as well do whatever the hell  makes you happy.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Misogyny at it's finest.

A couple days ago Floyd Mayweather posted this tweet:

I didn't expect to get as angry as I did because I don't really consider myself as someone who dresses exceptionally revealing or sexy (unless the occasion calls for it) but for some reason this really pissed me off. Men like Floyd Mayweather see women as objects that they can comment on and control for their own entertainment.

Saying that a women is asking to be disrespected because of what she is wearing is absolutely ridiculous. Especially coming from a man who beats the shit out of people for a living. Sure, what someone wears is definitely a reflection of how they are viewed as a person but it is not what defines them as a person. As a woman I am free to show any part of my body that I please and I still deserve the same amount of respect as anyone else.

Are men so afraid or threatened by the female anatomy that they have to publicly disrespect women who are confident enough to wear whatever they please? I don't think it's so much that are afraid or threatened but that they are so insecure in their own self control and abilities to control themselves around women who dress "sexy". It's easy for a man to see a woman dressed scandalously, pick her up, sleep with her and then call her a slut. It seems that it would be a lot more difficult for a man to control himself around a woman wearing a certain outfit..and as punishment for their lack of self control men expect women to dress conservatively as to not put them in compromising positions where they're unable to think with the brain inside their heads.

AND HONESTLY. It doesn't even matter how women dress. Women get harassed and objectified every day, walking down the street, wearing basic shit like jeans and t-shirts. It's just so much easier for men to blame women for their actions saying that their outfit is what caused them to act the way that they did.

Things like this are what makes women think that things like rape and assault are their own fault and not the fault of their attacker. Like they should be blamed for being assaulted because of what they are wearing rather than the fucked up thoughts that men have when they see a women in a particular outfit.

Misogyny at it's finest.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Summer Jam 2014: In review

June 1, 2014 marked the 2014 Summer Jam music festival hosted by Hot 97 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. This was my first year attending Summer Jam and the first time I had really been to a music festival of this caliber. I had no idea what to expect other than the advertised set of artists. Certain aspects of the show exceeded my expectations. I hate the word epic but it was pretty epic.

First of all: I was really only expecting (and excited) to see a select few among all of these that were advertised to be there such as Wayne, Nicki, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, The Roots, Childish Gambino, Jhene Aiko, Nas and Iggy Azalea.

What I was not expecting is that basically every artist relevant in music today (and 10 years ago..*cough* G-UNIT *cough*) would show up and make an appearance.

First there was the festival stage. Notable performers included Iggy Azalea, Jhene Aiko, Childish Gambino and others that people basically used as alcohol breaks. Iggy was Iggy, she had a lot of energy and no one really paid attention until 'Fancy' which she ended with. She did have dancers which is always fun to see on stage. I was most looking forward to see Jhene and Childish perform 'Bed Peace' together, which they did and it was fantastic. Jhene looked flawless and I immediately want to copy her entire wardrobe. I was skeptical about how Jhene would sound live but she surprised me and I was really impressed by her performance. Childish killed it as well. My only wish is that he would have done some of this older stuff like 'Heartbeat' or 'Freaks and Geeks' but each artist really only had time to do 3 or 4 songs for their set.

After some tailgating, parking lot loitering, and almost getting punched in the face by a drunk bitch who was unaware of how to act at concerts...we finally made our way up about 6 stories to our seats in MetLife Stadium. For how much we spent on tickets they should've thrown in a pair of binoculurs because damn...we were FAR. Although! After being in the pit for the majority of concerts it was nice to have a seat and not live in fear of being suffocated or elbowed in the face.

Action Bronson had a good set. The cameras mostly focused on his choice to perform barefoot. Then there was Wiz Khalifa. I've seen Wiz in concert before and he's actually a really good performer. Then came the first surprise of the evening when he brought out Snoop Dogg.(!!!) Which was awesome.

I'm not going to mull on the rest of the performers. Nas was there and brought out French Montana and Meek Mill. Meek KILLED IT. Anytime he does 'Dreams and Nightmares' the crowd is guaranteed to go off.  Trey Songz came out and killed it per usual. He even threw in a little "Free Breezy" chant (UPDATE: Chris Brown was released from jail the very next day so obviously it was because of our chant). Somewhere in there as a G-Unit reunion which, ok, was pretty cool. There were about 85 people on stage at this point and I really had no idea what 50 Cent was saying but G-Unit was there. He didn't do 'In Da Club' which upset me, but I couldn't be upset for long because pretty soon Nicki Minaj came out.

Nicki did her amazing rendition of 'Boss Ass Bitch' followed by her verses from 'Monster', and 'Up All Night'. She also performed 'Did it on 'em' which is one of my forgotten favorites. At one point even Soulja Boy came out to assist in performing their new song 'Yass Bitch' (yes the actual name of the song).

THEN!!!!!!! Nicki says she has an announcement..she proceeds to talk about a certain member of YMCMB that she is very angry at...how they used to be cool but not anymore because...MF'ers never loved her......................

YES. OMG. DRAKE!!!!! Drake came out guns blazing and performed 'Worst Behavior'. He did some other songs too but by that point everything had become a euphoric blur of screaming and crying and a little bit of hyperventilating. (I love Drake. if you couldn't tell)

Eventually Wayne came out, did 'Believe Me' with Drake, and his part of 'Loyal'.

At that point...nothing else mattered and nothing was the same, so we left.

Here is a list of basically everyone that was there:

Jhene Aiko, Iggy Azalea, Childish Gambino, Trey Songz, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Drake, Soulja Boy, Kid Ink, Mack Wilds, Chinx, August Alsina, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Meek Mill, French Montana, The Roots, 50 Cent, G-unit, Fabolous, Nipsey Hussle, The Lox, Yo Gotti, Ty Dolla $ign, DJ Mustard, A$AP Ferg, ad more that I can't remember.

I also really enjoyed Jersey so Summer Jam may become an annual thing.