#MNR: Lagos Visons

#MNR: Lagos Visions

“Don’t make me go, no. I just want to hold you. I need no control, no. Would you let me love you, me love you? It’s all over. I lost my composure. I got love to show you. Would you let me love you, me love you baby?”
Tems, “Fountains”

For the greater portion of the calendar year, my baby girl Rhino’s been asking me a particular question on a consistent basis. The question is “When is Drake’s album coming out?” For a while my response was, “It’s supposed to [have] been out.” Then I heard Drizzy tore his knee up and was recovering from surgery. It made sense. You can’t perform on tour with a bum knee, and I’m almost certain Drake will have a domestic AND world tour. Cool. Then I saw him at the SMACK/URL event NOME (battle rap), where he personally added 50K to the 100K purse for the Ultimate Madness 3 tournament winner (finalists Geechi Gotti and Rum Nitty split the prize). He looked to be back to normal, so I knew it was close. Welp, September 3 was the day (finally), and Drake didn’t disappoint. Certified Lover Boy broke all types of streaming records upon release. I know, I know. Every Drake release since Take Care has been HIGHLY anticipated. CLB was no different. But we all know the knock on Drake: he drops great material but barring his “mixtape” debut So Far Gone, [arguably] none of Drizzy’s releases have been worthy of the classic label. I think Nothing Was the Same came closest. That’s my opinion. Now, I’m not jumping off the roof after a couple listens, but Aubrey may in fact have his c-word. Time will tell. But off the jump ball, Drizzy comes out firing. “Champagne Poetry” goes crazy. Soon after, the features start. Hov goes melo ape nuts on “Love All.” “Fair Trade” with Travis Scott is very nice. Both Future features get busy. Of all his “rappity rap” tracks, my favorite is “Knife Talk” featuring 21 Savage and my nigga Project Pat, 36 Mafia and Memphis legend. We all know that Drizzy gon have his slow songs and panty droppers. “Yebba’s Heartbreak” is a nostalgic tearjerker. Drake and the People’s Champ Ty Dolla $ign combine for the soulful “Get Along Better.” My favorite track on the album is the aforementioned “Fountains,” an Afrobeat MONSTER featuring my baby Tems. She goes type crazy. My, my, my… At the end of the day, we’ll have to let time tell the story. But this may be Drake’s best effort since NWTS. It may be his…c-word. And word to CEO, “Papi’s Home” was sooooooo disrespectful.

Last week, I spoke on Hurricane Ida and the devastation she brought to the Gulf Coast. I failed to mention that that bitch was headed this way. Even though her classification was downgraded to Tropical Storm, Ida slammed the northeast (NY metro) in a way unseen since that dirty whore of a Hurricane, Ms. Sandy. Sure, we lost power for a good minute in Englewood. There was serious MTA and commuter tunnel flooding. 43 people lost their lives. But we sorta expected the sheezy to hit the feezy. I can’t quite say the same for Ida. The last update I was able to find (ABC News) from three days ago had the death toll at 51. I watched a news report with a reporter live from Passaic. She stood beside a parked car, ravaged by Ida’s treacherous flooding. The water line was slightly above the windshield wipers. After mentioning this, the reporter noted that some of the residents she interviewed stated that Ida’s flooding was worse than Sandy’s. Wow. Some basement apartments became watery tombs for residents, trapped inside with no viable exit option. That’s because many basement apartments from NYC to Jerz were illegal and not in accordance with local law. Englewood saw a lot of devastation. West St., Westmore, and plenty of the westside were slammed. The bridge in Westmore is gone. The football field turf is done. I was on both Rt. 80 and Rt. 46 the day after; quite a few cars were abandoned. Teterboro Airport looked like a big ass pond. Qué lástima. As I’m typing, Sleepy Joe is in the area assessing the damages. I pray all will be well in time for those affected. My prayers are also for the families who have lost loved ones.

For those of you who live in a hole in the ground, you may be largely unaware of the fuckery that Governor Abbott is setting in place in the Lonestar state of Texas. He was able to get the state senate to pass restrictive voting laws despite the exodus of state Dems to Washington in effort to thwart the process and to lobby on Capitol Hill for federal help on voting rights (RIP Rep. Lewis). That was signed into law as of today. The madness continues in historic fashion. He signed a new abortion ban into law, and it is the most restrictive law passed yet. It bans abortions in almost all cases after six weeks, including rape and incest. Many if not most women are unaware of pregnancy after six weeks. It also incentivizes private citizens to snitch on anyone they SUSPECT may be either getting an abortion after the six-week mark AS WELL AS ANYONE who aids that woman in receiving an abortion in the state. What’s even more insane is the fact that the US Supreme Court turned the appeal away on what’s largely considered a minor technicality. Look, I’m pro-life, but I’m also pro women’s reproductive rights. That’s between them, their physician, and the Lord. I don’t feel that I (as a man) have a right to tell a woman what to do with her body. But apparently, old white men feel that they have the carte blanche. It’s sad. I hope that the case is reintroduced to SCOTUS, minus the bullshit technicalities. We shall see. It was brought to my attention yesterday via my VUU brother Todd (Umansky) that Abbott signed a law on 9.1 that allows most Texans to carry handguns in public without going through training or having to get a permit. This has the propensity for disaster for several reasons, but I’ll look at how it will disproportionately affect Black Texans. Do you honestly think that a (young) Black man walking through South Dallas or the Fifth Ward in Houston can [legally] have a Roscoe on his hip without a PIG trying to split his cabbage? I don’t. I think the new law will make it even easier to harass innocent Black folk in Black neighborhoods. I don’t live in Texas so I can’t speak as if I know the vibes there. But I know how PIGS get down from Frisco to Maine; it’s all the same. Todd said that he thinks that it “could make it way easier to target minorities and easily say I shot her/him in self-defense.” As usual, my brother is on point. I concur. He also broached the idea that it could enable the average “knucklehead” to treat Texas like an open GTA simulation. Again, I agree. As with everything, time will tell how it works out for Texas. I love to add insult to injury, so I’ll add the tidbit that their COVID rates are still way above average. 4,711 confirmed cases and 47 deaths – YESTERDAY -- to be exact. My God…

As much as I’d love to have thousands, no millions of loyal readers who visit our site every week to read #MNR (and the almost certain uptick in merch sales), it’s most important that I just stress research and knowledge to all who read this. Look, you don’t have to treat my blog as if it’s your breath of life. I just want you to do your own research and use your own intuition. Black folk love ignorance. We can’t help it, so it seems. It’s been indoctrinated into us via Uncle Sam. But knowledge reigns supreme over nearly everyone. Do your own reading and use your own discernment. Develop your own brand of sagacity. Stop doing or not doing something because some idiot “told you” something in a reefa cloud or at the water cooler at work. All y’all have Google. Take the time to do your own research. And please don’t look at what’s going on in your region, country, and world and think that just because it doesn’t personally affect you at the current moment that things can’t change in time. The gods call it knowledge of self. But you don’t have to follow 5% teachings to have knowledge of self. You just need to be literate and awoke. That’s all I have for y’all. Be more than just another living for the moment and lost dickhead. I’m out. RIP Nicole. Jukebox and I miss you.

All jokes aside, RIP Michael K. Williams, best known as Omar Little from the acclaimed HBO series The Wire. I have rated it as the best show in television history and Omar as the greatest villain in television history. I’ve BEEN saying that fentanyl is going to be the cause of an entire generation of drug-related deaths. I hate that it (allegedly) had to be your demise, MKW. Rest easy.

For y’all youngn’s out there who can’t comprehend how a man with so much fame could go out like that, understand that he was in his mid-50s. He’s from a different era of NYC. A lot of those cats play[ed] with their nose and veins. And you don’t know that man’s troubles. Last, if you still can’t comprehend, think about it the next time you pour that 2 or 8 of lean in your double cup or ingest that yellow bar or that Perc 30. #ijs

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