Ya Feel Me?

In the course of my conversations, I tend to use the phrases “you understand?”, “you get it?”, “you feel me?” or any variation of the previous (depending on the audience, of course). To me, if I’m trying to communicate a point, if I’m trying to argue you down or whatever, I feel that you’ve got to be able to understand what the hell I’m talking about.

There was a recent “The Nanny” episode I watched (thank you Nick at Nite”), where the titular character said something to her boss/husband that made sense to the folks watching in TVLand but made no sense to him. His response was “Darling, I know that made sense in there [he points to her head], but I’m out here!” And I think that’s what a lot of bloggers do. They make a post about something and write it as though their readers have reserved seating in the control room of the blogger’s mind and can see the thought processes involved in the statement. When I read a blog post, I’ll be honest, I tend to skim unless there is a reason why I need to carefully scruntinize each paragraph, sentence and punctuation mark. And often, I can misunderstand the point because I don’t have a similar mindset or share a common background or experience. I would give you an example to illustrate what I’m talking about, but alas, I’m on my BlackBerry and don’t have any readily accessible.

I know many of my readers are bloggers themselves, so I have a question for you. If you are blogging for an audience, meaning that you want people to read and care what they think about your posts, are you making sure that your audience can understand what you’re saying? Do you re-read over your posts and edit accordingly? Or do you commit verbal diarrhea on the keyboard, hit “Submit” and never look back?

And I know this was a real quickie post (like I said-posted from the BB), but it was just something that ran across my mind.

Motivation…

A little over a week ago, I embarked on a 27 Blogs in 27 Days mission. The point of it was simple: blog once a day for 27 days… so we’re at day 8 and I am officially 3 blog posts behind. The reason? I’m going to say lack of motivation.

I was told: “Just put something out there!” which would satisfy the blog-a-day requirement. But me? I like to hold myself up to a higher standard. When you see a post from me, it’s not so easy and quick. Let me not lie, there are some that are easy and quick, especially the ones from my Tumblr. But in general, I pride myself on putting effort into my posts and doing research to ensure that what I’m saying isn’t unfounded.

I read other people’s blogs and think to myself that it seems so easy for them to bare their soul or tell an interesting story about something that’s happened in their life. How easy it is for them to liken a pop culture topic to something personal or how easy it is for them to glean a relevant convo about a current event.

Sometimes, I don’t feel like sharing so much of my life in a public arena. I admire those who can, candidly and touchingly. Sometimes, I don’t have an opinion that I feel is worth sharing. Example: the BP oil spill. Yeah, it’s a crappy situation, yeah, BP should be doing more, damn, look at the poor birds. Thing is, so many other bloggers have said the same exact thing. So I feel that a post from me would be somewhat pointless if I don’t provide a more…unique viewpoint. Sometimes, I’d rather just watch Fresh Prince re-runs and chill instead of pulling 500-some-odd words out of my head about God knows what…

I asked others for topics. And got a ton of great suggestions. And I have 3 posts waiting in my drafts because I could find the words to make it past the first paragraph.

All of this complaining (and yes, I’m admitting that it is complaining) is all to say that I am right back where I started at the beginning of this post: trying to get over an acute lack of motivation. I will be back and break through this writer’s block as writers usually do. And I plan to make up for the lapse in posts ASAP!

So tell me, what do you do to get motivation or get over writer’s block?

Lil Kim: Publicity or Revenge?

Now I usually don’t do this, but erm…

Over AIM last night, a question was posited to me about why Lil Kim was attacking Nicki Minaj. My one word answer: “publicity”.

[Insert disclaimers here!!]

I do not claim to be a gossip blogger, if for no other reason than because I have a full-time job and I do not have time to keep up with celebrities’ lives and scandals myself… I’d rather let NecoleBitchie or Michael K tell me what happened over the last few days.

Nor do I claim to know everything about the music industry.

Nor can I claim, with a straight face, that I am a true hip-hop head that can weave you through the annals of hip hop and rap starting from the first person who dared to speak words in cadence over a sampled beat to the latest “genius” rapper that was signed to Def Jam… or wherever.

But I digress.

Back to Lil Kim and her reckless tweets. Here’s the background of the story as I understand it. Nicki Minaj, a female rapper who often employs multicolored looks and is inspired by being the “black Barbie”,  is poised to “take over the music industry” as the latest, greatest female rapper (notice the qualifier? But that’s for another day). However, Nicki draws many comparisons to Lil Kim. And why not? Lil Kim was a trailblazer and has firmly cemented her place in hip hop history. And as such, any rapper who imitates her style, in my opinion should be looked on as an honor.

I don’t think Lil Kim agrees. She wanted Nicki Minaj to “pay her homage”. How? I’m not really sure. There’s talks of how Lil Kim says she reached out to Nicki as a mentor and was shot down. Nicki, on the other hand, claims she’s been nothing less than civil and respectful. And I have no idea what actually happened, so that’s where we’ll leave it.

So why is Lil Kim attacking Nicki Minaj? Publicity, of course… And then I read her tweets. And I was hit upside the head by the acrid tone in many of them. Nicki Minaj wasn’t her true target… Drake wasn’t her true target. Her true target is Diddy. In fact, she throws about many claims including some that Diddy is gay and listing artists whose careers that he has supposedly ruined.

My mouth dropped as I read her tweets. My thoughts? “OMG WHERE IS YOUR PUBLICIST?!?!!!” My responses on AIM were either she doesn’t have a publicist or her publicist sucks because she been allowed to put out uncontrolled messages. Or, maybe the publicist subscribes to the age old adage of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”.  Because, of course, Kim has an album coming out soon, right?

And of course there will be the Lil Kim stans who will jump on the bandwagon and diss Nicki Minaj as a no talent hack and wannabe. And there will be the people who enjoy witnessing conflict and will gladly sign up to watch this drama unfold with a bucket of popcorn by their side. And there will be the people who shake their head and walk away from the entire mess.

I wonder about her emotional state. Diddy is not a saint by any stretch of the imagination, I’d assume, but what in Kim’s history caused such animosity towards him? What in her history makes her feel the logical decision is to attack a potential protege (because of said potential protege’s apparent alliance with Diddy)? And I wonder about her publicist who can’t possibly be all that concerned about her career and image if aware of her tweets and encouraging the tone of her tweets.

So why is Lil Kim attacking Nicki Minaj? Who cares knows…

But whatever the reason… guess who’s talking about Lil Kim vs Nicki Minaj?