So I am rolling down the streets in a far away land, I got my hoodie on and my camera in my pants cuz im FRESH!!!!
My little shout out to Cassidy holla when you get out son. Anyways I been doing a little bit o' globe trotting since my last entree... Ahh where to start?
I'm sure all of you been on the up an up with whats been going down so excuse me if I stray, from what I am sure we all been privy to in the last few weeks. I 'm just gonna share some cultural insights, experiences, and a few photos...
Its really interesting to see the effects of our culture from an outside perspetive, and I dont mean from the outside looking in, I mean from the outside looking out. So much shit to say, but I wanna let you cats know I came up on some $20 Throw backs fo real son (but thats another story)!!! Just the thought of the relationship to material status being used as means to feed a family, is a whole nother line of thought. Mad crazy son, these cats hustling for real and in the end we see Jay Z videos and run out and drop $300 on some ol state of mind shit. Niggas need to read this joint: The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Bunde Veblen (1857-1929). Cuz we definately got some "Pecuniary Emulation" going on, and there are plenty of people out there ready to get paid off some good ol' NMC.
Effects of culture: Part one
What we see usually in our land of the free, is the end put, the culmination of some systematic ghetto pimpin which in the end we adapt to (or at least try to), modifying and incoporating everything that is into everything we do. Which always leads me to the question, how come we dont come up? I mean its one thing to see how we getting the NMC at the crib, but when you go half way round the world and see cats flippin (ya'll know what I'm talkin bout) it dont matter what the product is, there is always gonna be a customer and you know we be fiendin fo that new hot shit, just like Pookie in New jack City, "It be callin me"... You gotta look past what it is you think you are, and realize what it is you project, hence "the outside looking looking out" I saw a little glimpse of this as I was roaming the streets of Seoul... You know I stay with my "Nigga Detection System" on, when all of the sudden I glance to the right and look up the alley and BLAM who do you see? Everybodies No.1 Icon Air Jordan, and I dont mean the shoes. I pass the image by (yup kept on walking) and then after about 10ft something inside said we got to do some QC (Quality Control) in this BEEEOOTCH so I
went back to see what was really going on with my man MJ. So I make a quick u-turn and head back into what musta been the smallest art gallery I have ever been in, but the shit was tight. MJ turns Pop Art Icon, and I had to go all the way to Seoul to get some soul.
Now I wish I knew the name of this gallery,
but my Korean is on short for real, I did pick up
a progam and got the name of the artist: Yoon Gi Won. So I am in this place checkin out the interpretations of one individual on one of "our" greatest sports Icons. The whole outside looking out thing really kicks in... I am caught with several thoughts in my head, like does this cat even know the significance of Jordan within our culture. The shoes, the moves, the tongue? Is this just novelty? I mean in the way you run out and get your lady the Hello Kitty diamond laced key chain, cuz its cute, cuz its cool, cuz its from some far away land without really recognizing the impact of said Icon. So is Yoon frontin or is he really down with MJ? Now I am not about to turn this into an art critique but I'm sure you will notice some interesting details (cultural) in Gi Won's work. Never the less I was here in this gallery peeping the man thousands of lil kids emulate every time they hit the hoop court asking my self is this
fool really down... The gallery host's were very kind offering me some minty ass tea that hit the spot, when a nigga went Ghetto Plato and asks are we just novelty?The summation of all of our cultural capital as novelty, in the form of Pop Art? You know the whole anti-establishment beat nik 60's line that Mr. Wharhola brought about. So now I'm like is this cat tryin to tell me something? Like in america even the greats (black) are novelty, and I had to say yes... Yes to the fact that we are seen as novelty, home and abroad. Not in the sense to Gi Won was hatin cuz i know one of them jontz would have looked damn good in the house, but on a fundamental level. A level we cant seem to see when we look at shit from our perspective. The same reason why I knew Tookie was gonna die, the same reason I was saddened by the news of Richard's passing, the same reason why when I'm in the hotel lounge and I hear about white folks chasing niggas who look the part down the street in Austrailia and I'm ready to slap the shit out the next white cat i see, the same reason you need to be able to look from the outside looking out, and realize thats why shits the way it is. So in the middle of Seoul in some tiny ass art gallery, I was gettin heavy in my own mind, and you better believe there aint shit novel about that son...
"Freakin Niggas Every Which Way Like MJ"
Naro%
