In a few weeks, some friends and I are going to BUKU Music + Arts Project and there are several headliners who are rappers. Since I want to be able to fully enjoy and sing along to all the sets, I recently immersed myself in the music of Tyler the Creator, Schoolboy Q, and Childish Gambino. Since then, I have started thinking I am really really badass.
But here’s the thing… I’m not. I have not had the kind of struggles in life that make a person scarily badass, apart from a mild eating disorder in high school. I am white and middle class and have been educated at only private institutions. I drive an ’05 Honda.
Since then, I have started picking fights, a few with my own boyfriend. (sorry Nick) Having wine on weeknights (fuckin’ crazy I know) and driving excessive speeds (in my ’05 Honda named Dixie). Now I know what happened to Miley Cyrus. She told her songwriters that she wanted her record Bangerz to have a more “black sound” And since then she’s usually some version of naked, trying to lick everything around her, and singing about doing blow in the bathroom.
I have listened to a couple of old Jason Mraz albums since then and it seems to have evened me out. But there’s really no telling how long the effects of my foray into rap will last. I’m not saying that African Americans are more badass or that all of them have struggled, I have many… okay that’s a lie, I have a few black friends and they are more responsible and well adjusted than me. My friend Krystal is prettier than me, and pays for all her own shit, she even has her own apartment, which is more than I can say. She is even starting her own business.
We all need to go batshit every now and then, but I believe that rap music can be like alcohol, some people can handle it and some people can’t. All I can say is… I know what happened to Miley, and I know how she reached the dark side.
I don’t even know how to twerk
A Meal Without Wine Is Called Breakfast 