random: " "

"If you’re interested, you’ll do what’s convenient; if you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes."

-John Assaraf

music: Speaks To My Soul

random: " "

“My conscience make comments but my demons make decisions.”
-O.Z

life: Jungle Fever

“Black men walking, with white girls on they arms
I be mad at em, as if I know they moms
Told to go beyond the surface, a person’s a person
When we lessen our women our condition seems to worsen”
— I was listening to BE (one of my favorite albums) and in the song “Real People” Common posts his views on interracial relationships. Basically he’s saying that a black women’s value is being lessened when black men decide to go outside of their race to pursue relationships and that we should try to uplift black women instead of running from them. I do not totally agree with the lyrics but he does bring up a very interesting point and it caused me to think. What do you guy’s think about these lyrics and/or interracial relationships in general? Do these lyrics offend you?

music: The Morning by The Weeknd

The Weeknd - The Morning (music video) from High5Collective on Vimeo.

This has been one of my favorite songs since this mixtape dropped. Not sure if this is the official video since The Weeknd has many of fan made videos but I love it. So I'm sharing it with yall.

me: Change

“We can’t change the world unless we change ourselves.”
—Sean Combs
(This was the corniest line ever to me until today. I was having a conversation with one of my good friends and i end up sing it about a tough situation I’m in. I didn’t realize how true it was until i used it myself which is ironic nonetheless. The thing about it is, I’m not sure how to go about changing myself in this situation. I hope I figure it out soon. Until then… I’ll keep this quote in mind.)

life: Chiraq

6-15-21. 6 Killed. 15 wounded. 21 victims in all. This was the scene on Chicago’s south and east sides on Memorial Day this year. One of the individuals shot was a 22-year old who apparently was a former classmate of mine. Chicago has emerged as a city notorious for violent behavior and it has been this way for years now.

I find it to be a damn shame that you can’t even enjoy a nice day at the beach anymore without having to fear for you’re well being because some nimrod who doesn’t know how to shoot decides to bring his gun to the beach and pop off on anyone who stares at him in a way he does not like. I’m tired of having to fear my own people, let alone having to be scared to do things I enjoy doing. I shouldn’t have to be scared to go to the beach, see fireworks on the fourth of July, walk home from school, or even ride the bus. It’s time we start taking back our communities.

But who is to blame? Essentially we are fully responsible. We sit back and let gangs and drug dealers take over our communities. It all goes back to our community. It can’t just be one person. A whole community has to stand up against this violence.A community has to pressure it’s city legislature into getting guns off of the street. A community has to put up a neighborhood watch to push gangs and drug dealers out of their neighborhoods. A community has to raise its children. You would think that we would be tired of this kind of stuff by now considering this violence has been going on for as long as i can remember but no. This bugs and perplexes me. How do we sit here and allow our children, family members, and friends die in vain? We need to start standing up for ourselves sooner or later or we’re just going to be burying the next Blair Holt or Derrion Albert sooner than we think. I for one am not trying to bury any of my friends any time soon. Are you?

Lord Bless the Dead. RIP to all the victims of that day and forever.

Let’s start taking back our communities, folks.