A few weeks ago, after finishing my LAST. COLLEGE. CLASS. EVER. I met up with a new friend (DJ Bonics) who was in town doing a show at Melkweg (Wiz Khalifa). Summertime means more (good) shows coming through Amsterdam and this was definitely one of those accounts – even if there were a dozen fights and I got beer poured all over me when Wiz did “Taylor Gang.”
Bonics is a far more sophisticated blogger than I and posted a good recap of his super short stop in Amsterdam that you can check out here.
it took me about a month of living here in Amsterdam to realize how much i missed that nostalgic old thing, the radio. or rather, how much i missed finding new music. since i spent a lot of time in my car back home, commuting through urban sprawl, i would always listen to XM to and from the jay oh bee. one of the things i loved most about XM was the uncensored hip hop channels (i’m looking at you, shade45). it kind of goes without saying that since moving to what feels like the techno capital of the earth, i’ve been a bit deprived of my rap fill.
luckily for me, a friend of mine turned me onto Brenmar a couple of weeks ago. his latest mixtape fuzes the oonce-oonce with some kels, to ease me back into the genre of music that i know and love.
additionally said friend’s fiance, turned me on to The Weeknd (power couple FTW). shit y’all. house of balloons has been the soundtrack for pretty much everything i’ve done for the past month. grocery shopping? slow jams. writing my thesis? slow jams.
some friends and i have also discovered a cocktail bar here in amsterdam (this is rare, trust me) that serves cheap delicious drinks with such unabashed names as “harry canary.” but the best part, and really what keeps me going back, is the music. umm how long has it been since you’ve sipped a mojito and listened to shorty swing my way? probably a hot minute.
The main reason I love Lil Wayne’s music so much is because he’s just straight up smart. I’m not talking about intelligence…I’m talking about his lyrical abilities. I pay very close attention to his rhymes because there’s always a nugget in there that makes me giggle. This article from the NY Times provides a typical review of the rapper post jail time but my favorite anecdote calls attention to the fact that he…gets creative, to say the least, with his lyrics.
Even Lil Wayne’s thinnest recent songs have featured some of the tossed-off one-liners that, in his tinny croak, sound more clever than they already are: “swagger just dumb/call it Kelly Bundy,” “shoot you nine times just in case you got cat lives,” “so misunderstood, but what’s a world without enigma?” And of course, from “6 Foot 7 Foot,” “real Gs move in silence like lasagna.”
As with before, when Wayne finds a theme he likes, he sticks with it: “pockets on obese,” “pockets on bodybuilder,” “pockets on Mo’Nique.” Or alternately, “They tipping on a budget/Man, they pockets getting skinny/ What is that, Jennifer Hudson?”
Disclaimer: I’m not on board with this “Lil Tunechi” persona. If he goes on a name change bender like Diddy, Puffy, Puff Daddy, whatever, I’m going to be really sad.
Police officers in Holland are starting to take police reports via Skype. File this under: why didn’t anyone else think of this? And because I put this on the interwebs for the world to see, the next article I read will probably be about police stations who have been doing this for hundreds of years.
phyllis is a spry 90 year old living in hospice care who is as obsessed with combing the internet as i am. with all of her mac gear and cute little room she’s the resident hospice hipster. she reminds me of my own grandmother and i find her story incredibly sweet. cheers to you phyllis.
guess it's time to do this 
