Just Not Taking It Seriously

Disappointment sucks. It almost feels like bumping your elbow on a table or something. Man, those moments hurt. I think the best way to shield yourself from the sad music, tantrums and the tears is to forget about being too expectant in the first place. Call it being blessed if the universe somehow shifts in your favour, but for the rest of us, the key is not to be overly positive. Keep it neutral.

I remembered how I wanted a new phone so bad in high school because I didn’t really ask for much stuff and that day, I decided to take the plunge. The phone I wanted wasn’t that expensive and it definitely wasn’t the ‘in’ thing either but you know, sometimes upgrades are necessary. I figured flip phones were becoming outdated so yeah, I needed a change. My leverage was apparently the report results. “Look, Mommy, I’m doing so well in school! Don’t I deserve that phone?” I don’t know who said a couple of A’s, B’s, C’s on the report card equaled gifts galore, but I guessed that’s just how it worked.

I was quite the dreamer back then - keeping MTC booklets and flipping through the different choices of phones, going on too much about it to my friends, daydreaming in class… Days and days would pass: “Mommy, Daddy, the phone?” “Wait until the money comes.” and I would wait and wait and wait and wait some more to the point that I thought ‘the money’ was walking from America all the way to Namibia. Seconds felt like days, days felt like months… and with each tick I heard from the clock, I fell deeper into my own reserved world. The animated Mickey disappeared, her laughs were rare and she never said a word about the phone again. All you would hear were one word or one sentence replies.

Everyone noticed the deep dark change and they actually got scared. ‘Is she depressed?’ they would ask, but no. The fact was that it was my first time truly dealing with disappointment and understanding why. As a kid, I mean, not getting a Barbie doll dress meant crying and forgetting about it the next day. But as a more matured human being, the emotions stuck like glue. Oh, how they stuck like glue. *Sigh*

Eventually the universe came around for me but the period in-between was horrible. Point is, waiting sucks. So we should all just chill, act cool if you get what you want, act cool and play it off if you don’t but forget about bragging to any of your friends coz that will just make things worse.

And that’s how we it do it.

Mickey B*

Money Vs. Flowers

Being the not-so-serious girl that I am (don’t ask what money vs. flowers means, it just sounds cool), it’s hard for me to talk about serious issues such as education, diseases or even poverty. So I’m going to stick with what I know and wing it like Whitney Cummings and no, this has nothing to do with rappers, just didn’t feel like making a new blog.

Most of us know, are aspiring to be or have been involved with a gold-digger. Yeah well, I know one. Sweet girl. But the things she would have done for that dollar bill… Shame. I don’t blame her though. Her motivation is to ‘get out of the hood’ or ‘ghetto’ or whatever and if that’s the only way she knows, then off to find that cash, she will go. Not much anybody can do. I mean, with all the mansions, expensive cars, branded clothes and everything else we cannot afford flashing right in front of us on TV and magazines, it’s hard to resist the temptation of luxury. It’s no crime to want that kind of life but getting there is the tricky part. Everybody needs a superhero.

Speaking of superheroes… there’s this issue that has really been bothering me for a very long time and I am not talking about the latest copy of People Magazine. Okay, so we see all these superheroes like the Avengers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spiderman and all their friends aspiring to save the world from danger. Yeah, good intentions, hooray for them. But frankly what I see on TV is New York City, Paris or Beijing getting destroyed by evil monsters. Why should a ‘tragic’ event like that automatically mean Africa is in danger too? I never saw a single clip of sea creatures rising up from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean roaring at the citizens of Walvis Bay. I never saw a single clip where aliens were invading Windhoek. Never! So let’s just make it clear here and leave the rest of the Second World and Third World countries out of the ‘save the world’ idea because as far as we’re concerned, we’re fine and we don’t need cloth-wearing turtles or three bug-eyed girls with no hands or neck to save us (à la Powerpuff Girls)!

What is it with people stereotyping Africa anyway? Yes, we are a continent but we’re divided into COUNTRIES, people! Countries! For people who are supposed to be so technologically advanced, the First World occupants are quite ignorant. Let’s cut to the chase here: There are no lions in my backyard, we do experience winter and not everybody lives in a mud house. And since when is khaki the official ‘tourist’ colour? I mean, hasn’t anybody ever heard of jeans? You might as well have a sign on your forehead saying ‘rob me right now’. It’s about time people stopped wearing brown combat boots and keeping daggers in their belts in fear of cutting off tall grass and walking through snake infested rivers. Not all of us live in jungles. We live in normal brick buildings with iPhones plugged in the speakers, dancing Alingo or Azonto like the world’s about to end.

And that’s how we do it.

Mickey B*

Passionate Music Lovers and Overgrown Egos

It looks like I’m a blogger now. What does that achieve in my life exactly? Nothing. But I’m going to take this blank document and make it my second diary because I can. I have no idea how to write a blog and nobody showed me the guidelines so I’ll randomize (yes, randomize is a word).

I really don’t understand why people don’t talk about Namibian hip hop as much as other genres. Why does it have to be so underground? Come on, it can’t be THAT boring! So what if they talk about how rich they are, how many groupies they have following them like Twitter or the booties they love to see shaking? Uhm… okay, okay, I see your point, ever so moral music listeners. What message is that sending out, blah blah blah, fine. So you care. Kind of. And you want the music industry to better itself, obviously. I get it.

As a passionate lover of music, it is my duty to untangle the knots in our complex hip hop community, and untangle the knots, I shall.

First of all, we need to set a couple of ground rules here and I’ll introduce three. Allow me to start off with the overgrown egos of our celebrity rappers. Uh huh I’m talking to you, V-Dot or whatever you’re calling yourself. There is no such thing as ‘the best’ so get it out of your head already because I know five people better than you (and two are girls, so there!) Maybe, just MAYBE, you might be better than some other lame rapper but don’t ever claim that you ‘own’ the rap industry in the whole country, city or whatever hood you’re living in. Case closed.

Secondly, rappers, please and this is serious, do not attempt to sing unless there are at least twenty people who have approved of the decision (Facebook friends and groupies do not count!) My word, the suffering my ears had to endure… Even birds sing better than some of them do! Sometimes I feel like scratching at a chalkboard to make me feel better or skipping the song altogether. And that hurts, you know? So don’t hurt me that way, please. I’m just an innocent bystander.

Lastly, I’d like to address the issue of rappers talking about things they do not have. It’s irritating watching a music video consisting of Googled Photoshopped pictures of Lamborghini’s which are not even available in Namibia yet. Where is the logic in that? If you’re going to do something, do it right! I should even write a blog about music videos too! It’s seriously needed!

There are probably a hundred more issues to deal with in the Battle of the Namibian Hip Hop Industry but I’ll stop here because I think I’m talking a lot. My conclusion: if you are still reading this, you’re pretty awesome.

And that’s how we do it.

Mickey B*