FLY.culture

The more time I spend on this crazy blue planet of ours the more I have begun to realize that there are two types of people in the world. People who spend their time and money on things they don't need and live a life dedicated to and dictated by materialism and people who focus all their time and efforts on achieving. But which of these should we aspire towards?

They are both conflicting lifestyles that's for sure and are both likely to have their own sets of rules and social circles. Have you ever been involved in or seen the old age argument between the two? "Why waste your money on Chanel, it's just a bag, it serves you no purpose.." If you have then you will know that these are the go-getters, the dreamers, the chasers, the success driven highly motivated individuals that will pursue, pursue and pursue until dear success. These are the creators of our world, the ones with little fear who envision a perfect life of supreme greatness and leadership. Then, we have the fashion savvy, live life in the moment, got the latest louboutins but have no money to eat, but who needs food when you have swag. These people are likely to be your everyday 9-5 working class, who live in a secure world and play the safe card. Party hard on the weekend and happy in their jobs weekday with a strong possibility of marrying someone called Bob (that was a joke!)

So again, which do we aspire towards? or which holds most the value in terms of providing us with an extraordinary life. Well, they both do. We need both kinds of people in the world. Me, myself I am a chaser and it has always baffled me as to why aren't people like me. Why don't people have dreams, why do they settle for mediocrity, we have one life why not go for gold or platinum or diamonds, I am by no means in a position to say I have achieved success or even close, but I am constantly striving and aware of the consequences of my actions and the direct effect it has on my life. The way I see it, if it is possible then why should we not push ourselves. I believe to achieve is important as it is one of life's biggest driving forces, but the perception of achievement or what is achievable is the variable. The sky is the limit could be the mind-frame of one individual and being grateful for what you have could be of anothers. For example, having a family and a few children, settling down, could be a huge achievement for someone who had problems with relationships or loneliness. In their eyes this is the meaning of success. Success is any meaning you personally decide to attach to it. A job that allows someone the freedom and flexibility to spend time working on their fitness or gym work could present an abundance of joy to someone who loves to train but still needs to work to support their family. This is success. I think sometimes we create a very generic understanding or definition to what success actually is. Success is anything that provides us with happiness, because ultimately is this not what we are constantly in pursuit of. It is the biggest catalyst in our lives. An emotion if we pay enough attention to can provide our lives with fulfilment and bliss.

I read a statistic recently which got me thinking. Apparently, the most successful people in the world either grew up without a mother, father or both. Is their a link here? I think so. There is no coincidence that these people had pain (opposite to happiness) in their lives from a young age and later achieved success. So what changed? I believe in order to avoid this pain in the future they created a mindset where they will never experience or limit the risk of any further pain to their lives. They sought to chase happiness, which dictated their actions, consequently taking control of their lives, rather than allowing life to control them and their destiny. As a direct result they achieved it all, they achieved success.

Moral of this article, chase happiness and success will follow. We are all different and unique in our own rightful ways. Define what happiness means to you and you have defined what is the key to success, even if it is a Chanel bag.

Peace&Love, always.

I am not even going to try hide the fact that I am kind of liking the “new “sound of hip hop and without me knowing  I am seeing my classic albums shrink a little more of recent times, but how can you blame me with GKMC, Forest Hill Drive and the new Drizzy tape (yeah it’s got some bangers). It’s pretty hard to escape especially when there was a few pioneers still making music, but even they are slowly moving in the direction of trap music, debuting that new Kanye West All Day was a far different sound to All Falls Down. But, I believe fate works in very mysterious ways and I was on my usual day to day antics when I had come to pass a pair of speakers. It was like an instant flush of nostalgia including drums, flows, sega genesis, phone bills, crews and of course it was Juicy. That Notorious BIG, Biggie Smalls, the “it’s all good baby babay” immediately got me shuffling down my IPhone looking for the album Ready to Die. Ever since this happened I’ve been playing the entire discography on repeat, shuffle, testing it on today’s headphones and systems. It left me thinking how different it has come from borrowing cassettes and CD’s, waiting on The Box to play the video and to having it instantly now through YouTube, Spotify and the rest of them. It occurred to me as I evolved so did the technology for me to hear this great piece of music, and I thought just as the technology has so grown, so has my understanding of the world and the lyrics it speaks of, what can I gain in 5.03 minutes now 21 years on. As the flow went so did my head thinking about how dope this sample was to begin with, and then I began understanding the song as a concept, a theme, an illustration, before and afters, journeys and a few pieces of advice. Thinking how well structured the song was, the way Biggie’s story just carried on putting a smile on your face for the dude, yourself and the people just like me, just like you, who have dreams thinking it just maybe possible. What I want to highlight is something I never picked up when I was a kid listening to this (I knew that Super Nintendo line every time though) was the chorus and its opening. To begin with “YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHO YOU ARE”, funny cos as a child we know who we are, but as we get older we start loosing our individuality. This simple line is the reminder and very confidence we all have within us that we need to embrace more often, then just time to time. Have we become so worried about being a “type” of person that’s accepted through the immense pressure of social judgments that we begin to hide our personal unique looks, opinions and insights to just “fit” in. Are we losing our intuition with this because we are constantly judging ourselves against this mirror called “the world”, rather than our own ideas of happiness? We shouldn’t be afraid to be ourselves and explore the qualities within us that give us a sense of who we are and our dreams. Spend some time believing you are more than what you might assume, what you’re capable of and when people look at you believe in yourself. This way you can grow and never learn to hate yourself and “regrets” turn into lessons learned. Only let people change you for the better and if it is in your gut to do so, you know when it’s right. Biggie was as real as you can get on the Ready to Die album, he spoke of how he hustled, sold crack, fought with his mother, but still he had utter confidence in who he was and he knew he wanted better, so don’t conform to the insecurities people place because since the internet has grown, the world has shrunk and it is so easy to take a value or an opinion and apply it to yourself negatively. So as the chorus goes “DON’T LET EM HOLD YOU DOWN, REACH FOR THE STARS”, so should we all, but before we decide to do that, we must know who we are. Keep it real and embrace the honesty to yourself, and forget what others think if you can count on yourself to be there. But it’s a two way street, along with accepting the yourself also be sure to accept somebody else. It begins with compassion so think twice before we pass judgement, because it may just shut their uniqueness down. Let people be who they are and encourage them to reach for their stars with sincerity and good intention. It would be a small start to a big change in somebody’s life and we can probably be a lot closer, not by the time we spend, but by the quality of it too. You owe this to you, and as cliché it sounds you have to love yourself first in order for someone else to love you. Just as the chorus did begin to change the rags to riches Juicy told of, so will we all if we just, KNOW WHO WE ARE, and be confident in expressing it. It’s a starting point to a thought and is something that has left me thinking a lot more since I heard it. Because once you start being honest with yourself and don’t hold back, the limits pop off and no the finite becomes infinite, don’t be the reason to suppress yourself. So whatever life throws in your direction and things don’t work out, at least you were true to you and it’s still all good baby babay.

Had a little thought the other day after listening to the classic song 'Promise' by the legendary Jagged Edge, which I thought I would share with you guys.

Growing up listening to 90's RnB music compared to (if you can call it that) RnB music today, the difference is immense. The likes of 112, Jagged Edge, R.Kelly, Jodeci, etc. I believe infused the right way to treat and talk to a lady and I stress the word lady. This right here taught me GAME, no REAL GAME, the likes of being a real man. Treating women with dignity and respect. Being the protector and doing your upmost to care for and caress her like no other man.

Music is now more based around sexual fascination and less of the hearts desires. Rather to hurt than to be hurt. Real love is delicate and takes time and needs to be nurtured. It is an incredible shame that the new generation have a more sexual based influence from the likes of Miley Cyrus, Beyonce and Rihanna where it teaches women to ride a "surfboard". Ladies, yes sex is important, of course it is, but believe me your mind is more powerful than your skills in riding a surfboard. Let a man fall in love with your soul, your character, your likes, your dislikes, let a man become infatuated by your intelligence and find your clumsiness cute. Let a man feel like there is only one of you in the whole entire world and remember to give yourselves value, but in the right departments. This is true love, not how well you can ride a surfboard.

Hoe's I ain't sh*tting on your game, do what you gotta do, but ladies who want a real man, A REAL MAN; next time your "swervin" on em, ask him who his favourite RnB singer is and you will have everything you need to know about him.

As I said just a thought I had!

Peace&Love, always.

As you may or may not know but Big Sean is dropping a new album soon, if you have been hiding from social media you probably have missed IDFWU!. Anyway he dropped this new jam a few days ago, I checked it out and it’s pretty dope, it’s as you can imagine what you’d expect from GOOD Music. Variations of inspiring piano riffs, Kanye on the autotune, Grandmas phone call (bless her) and a few real dreams and of course the material dreams, (who doesn’t dream of a $100million and a bad bitch?!). But the whole point of it is “One Man can change the World”, and of course this goes for the women too. Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the late Malcolm X, the black civil rights activist who envisioned a better status in the world for his Black Brothers and Sisters. Even though he had been to jail, born into a hustler and pimp lifestyle, seen his family abused as a young child, he still had the belief that there needed to be change. But the greatest change was the one within him first. I mean think about it for a minute, without a change in yourself there is no change in the world around you. Ghandi once said “be the change you want to see in the world”, Michael Jackson said “I’m starting with the man in the mirror”, there has been great effort to make the world a “better” place but it would be a lot more influential if we all just focused on ourselves first. What we don’t realise is that OUR world can only consists of a few characteristics, it’s your friends, your family, your loved ones, your place of work, your place of study, any changes in these characteristics and “your” whole world can change. If a loved one passes, or a new born arrives it immediately changes your world. If it can be that close then what about the world inside of you, but whenever we think of the world we think of a big blue planet with billions of people and species share. Thinking how can we change the economic and political statuses is a change TOO big for the most of us, we would all like to stop  war but what about the battle closer to us. Learn how to love your loved ones with true intent, learn to be there for your friends, support your community and so on, make an effort in these areas and you will see how much of “your” world has changed.

However still, (and I hope you have gotten this far to read this point), is that the BIGGEST change we can make to the world is the one within us. Pause. WE are the “ONE” man that can change the world. We are the only ones who can change ourselves, people may influence but ultimately the real changes is within the decisions we take upon ourselves to be better, better attitudes by being loving, encouraging and optimistic. We have to count on ourselves to be there for US, for our world within us. If we fall we love ourselves to pick us up first, be your own best friend, and you will see how much you can give to the world, and it just dominos from there. I’m not saying it’s going to start being some universal love fest, but it’s a step in the right direction. Give yourself the meanings you want and deserve from your outcomes, we may not be able to control the weather but we can damn sure carry an umbrella, just as we can’t control the circumstances around us we have the responsibility to choose what it means to us, and let it be one that brings about happy thoughts of content and understanding. Maybe just then we wouldn’t be sooo frustrated with our lives as a society and actually take the time to help and think of somebody else. To create a sense of personal growth and further push unity, just as Malcolm X and Mahatma Ghandi had envisioned of. Our World starts within us, it is at the very centre of our mind and deep within our soul, lets change that first and with constant effort we will begin to change the one around us, the one where we would want our future generations to be a part of. And contribution is always positive change.

So define your world, define it to the smallest part inside of you that could do with some change, be honest and strong with yourself, place effort on where you need it the most and see the world change that exists in the mirror. Everything is based on a reaction so choose your actions and more importantly your reactions, don’t be blind to your freedom of choice, let it be one that empowers you, a winner plays until he wins.

It was my action to take the time to write this out today, I hope it’s yours to give a read and you just may make my world a little better and I hope I have done the same to yours

As BIG SEAN says today “One Man can change the world”, the other great NOTORIOUS BIG also once told “You can’t change the world until you change yourself”.

Peace!