December 4th

“They say they never really miss you till you dead or you gone so on that note I’m leaving after this song.”

- Jay Z “December 4th”

Who are we before or after we die? Perhaps through the present? Why am I blogging? Why do I exist? Why does anyone? No I’m not trying to sound like some existentialist motherfucker of a professor or an analyst – but seriously consider this question – Why do I do what I do? I want to be a filmmaker, as if you couldn’t tell from this blog. I want to be the next this, the next that, I could have name-dropped instead of saying this and that, but I didn’t so that’s progress in some sense. You know, a problem is that people often don’t watch what they put out there. And writing this – that is, this text I’m composing at this very second, this very moment, when I’m under the influence of alcohol may not be the most intelligent move of my writing career, but the passion flows from my head to my heart to my fingers and I’m not going to stop that, and anyone who wants to tell me to – here’s my message: FUCK YOU!. I’m laughing at that, because that was kind of funny.

I want to relate my entry here to the quote I posted at the beginning. Jay-Z’s song “December 4th” means something important to me. No, I did not endure a life 1 millionth as hard as any rapper that I or my peers/companions listen to. But, the emotions in December 4th by Jay-Z show a similar set of humanism that is present in a Shakespeare, Williams, or any kind of dramatic work for that matter – and that is precisely what I relate to in the matter.

Rappers in a way are the modern poets of our generation. When I say rappers I don’t mean the BS and the popular songs – I mean take a look, a literal examination of the words that these men convey. Sometimes, these rappers are just artists, poor men with talent. They are the Michelangeloes or the Leonardo Da Vinci’s of our time – when I lay on that analysis what I precisely mean is this: you do not have to be an art snob (this means a guy walking down the upper east side sporting a corduroy jacket eating a scone drinking a venti latte from Starbucks)….

So here’s my take: “Party and Bullshit” by Biggie Smalls, “December 4th” by Jay-Z is as culturally aesthetic and artistically significant a work of art as a sonnet by William Shakespeare, “#16” by John Donne, or a painting by the greatest fucking artist around. All are analogous, all = one another. That’s how I feel, and I know there are people on the same wavelength, and I know there are people who ride on others.