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freshdotdaily · 5 years

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I wrote this blog post in 2012 but tumblr deleted it. It was called sumn like, “My main critique w/ Talib Kweli” I wasn't allowed to listen to rap or any secular music growing up. My mom did me a grave disservice in that regard. So appropriately when I came into age I began sneaking all the music I could. I liked hip-hop and wanted as much of it as possible. The first record that I got that informally changed everything for me was Arrested Development's "Arrested Development 3 years 5 months 2 days". Probably because A) It was non-violent hip-hop I could RELATE to & B) After being raised by a Puerto Rican mother I had little to no real Knowledge of Cultural self.The next albums that followed after I devoured that album were Fugees "The Score" and Busta Rhymes "When Disaster Strikes" it'd be a little while before I was able to get my hands on any new cd after those two, so I had those 3 albums for a good year or two in heavy rotation along w/ Future Flavors on Hot 97 to keep me current. I was writing my raps pretty regularly around this time and I'd graduated from performing gospel raps at my churches Youth Night to nervously performing at little local open mic spoken word poetry nights w/ my friend Jason.The next album I got my hands on was "Mos Def & Talib Kweli are BlackStar".

That album changed EVERYTHING for me. As far as I was concerned I never needed another rap album. This was the penultimate affirmation of all the things I'd come to feel were true about myself and hip-hop and my culture. Mos was the Charismatic emcee who was forever on beat and in pocket w/ his flow and Talib was the well-read, technical lyricist. I immediate began trying to become an amalgam of them both in one emcee since I felt they so aptly represented what I felt. Reflection Eternal's "Train of Thought" album dropped and blew my head clean off my shoulders. The beats, man. Kweli was at his apex w/ that album. Raps + beats + Brooklyn being well represented. Oh, and let us not forget the Ecko advertisements. I wore Ecko exclusively for about a year and change. I mean footwear to underwear at one point. Talk about artists being brands and marketing alignment & etc. I bought Triple 5 Soul because that's apparently what Mos Def wore, right? I bought & read Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" because Kweli made a reference to it. I read Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" because Kweli made a reference to it. I mean, this is what hip-hop, good hip-hop anyway is supposed to do, right? Spark discussion, open minds, create thought and growth, etc. I felt like I was a part of that MOVEMENT. Rawkus. The Okayplayer board. The Spitkicker site. SoulQuarians. I had all the albums from everybody. Probably TMI, but I lost my virginity in 1999, while Pharoahe Monche's "The Light" was playing in the background for some reason. smh. For crying out loud, Black Star's "Respiration" is the top song in my top five favorite songs of all time.

It gets deep, nigga. (c) Kendrick Lamar

As my writing progressed and evolved and I found my own voice eventually through trial and error, Mos Def's "Black on Both Sides" dropped. While "Train of Thought" was still my favorite of the two albums, Mos's charisma eclipsed Kweli and he became my favorite of the two emcees. I judge rappers work against their own previous work instead of their peers, because that's fair to do artistically. So I'd never pit Mos & Kwelis work against each other because that's like arguing about which is more delicious of a fruit, apples or oranges? Two different fruits altogether, bruh. Also, at this point, I'd moved out my moms house, put out my 1st album, discovered early Eminem and Canibus and had a blossoming cd collection. Not to mention my attention was being held by a burgeoning Kanye.When Kweli's solo project "Quality" dropped, it hit me kinda like "meh". Gone was the signature Hi-Tek sound. I mean, Tek had joints on there but it wasn't the same. Dj Quick? Dj Quick is a mothafuckin' legend, sure. But his relevance at the time? Nah. Especially to a n00b EAST COAST hip-hopper as myself, it was baffling. The general consensus was Kweli used his first truly solo debut to attempt a move toward a more mainstream sound. It received some mainstream attention thanks to the West-produced single "Get By" which peaked at #77 on the Billboard Hot 100. That was Kweli's lifesaver. That album would've drowned otherwise. I did like the Kweli/Kanye connection that seemed mutually beneficial for both of them. It seemed to be going well even got him a Hov shout out on "The Black Album", in which Jay-Z rapped: "If skills sold, truth be told/I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli". Then the Strugglesome "The Beautiful Struggle" album dropped and I wanted to like it, but it too, hit me like "meh". The Neptunes, Just Blaze and Kanye couldn't save that album. The album failed to cross over into the mainstream and suffered a critical backlash. For example, Britt Robson of The Washington Post said: "Struggle" was a "frequently awkward, too-obvious bid to exploit the commercial buzz Jay-Z created." Mos was trying his hand at rock music w/ Black Jack Johnson and dropped "The New Danger" to my disappointment. By this point I'd bought Common's "Like Water For Chocolate" and it made him instantly my new favorite emcee. I went and bought "Resurrection" and "One day it'll all make sense" in the same day and consumed those albums daily.In listening, I noticed Kweli's aging. His attempts to remain relevant by looking around him and seeing what was popular and trying to compete. I was willing to overlook his stuffing a thousand syllables into a bar and over usage of the word "like" in every rap song w/ semi-obscure literary references (that I dug, actually). I was willing to overlook the preachy tone his raps somewhat took. I was still BUYING Kweli's music. Brooklyn. over. everything, my nigga. I downloaded '"Liberation" and wasn't mad at that at all. Kweli and Madlib? Dope. I stopped there. There was too much disappointment for me to continue. I wished he'd maintained his aesthetic. Emcees like Kweli and Fat Joe will always look around and try to emulate to maintain relevance. I'm sure there's more money and more opportunity in it, but you lose that core fanbase for the possibility of a bigger, newer fanbase who's not familiar with your older work and doesn't love you the same as a fan. Whereas an artist like Ghostface or DOOM will continue to do what they do in their lane and gain cult followings. Mos learned this the hard way. It wasn't until "The Ecstatic" (and stepping the live show up by giving people what they came to see) that heads began fucking w/ him again.Eardrum? Nope. Finally, a new Reflection Eternal album? With post G-Unit Hi-Tek? It was a little too late. I bought it & reluctantly handed my money over. I'd lost my will to be be a Kweli fan. Gutter Rainbows? Nope. Idle Warship? Hell no.

Did Kweli become wack? nah, he's still nice. I feel like it's the same problem Nas had with putting out 2 great albums out the gate and then trying to maintain relevance in a changing musical environment where the consumers are getting younger and the music is warping to accommodate. It took Nas about 10 albums to figure out how to get BACK to his original formula.I ask myself often if my critiques on Kweli came about because I rap and hold him in my influences. You know how you get older and realize your parents weren't the geniuses you thought them to be as a child? Once I figured out my stride and perfected how I wanted to rap and write, I think I began flaw finding. Flaw finding is both my nature as a virgo and my right as a consumer & fan. The power to critique constructively is also my right as a fellow artist. The biggest iniquities were the syllable cramming at the expense of flowing on-beat to get a point out as well as beat choices. But overall, I wanted that vibe back. I wanted that hi-Tek, Geology and Shawn J. Period vibe back from when I found myself as a young man and emcee. In 2013 Kweli is dropping "Prisoner of Conscious" a title derived from Talib's constant labeling as a "conscious rapper" and based on Nigerian reggae artist Majek Fashek's album "Prisoner of Conscience." I plan on purchasing it via an experiment. I'm gonna download all the albums of his I missed and see if there's been any hints or glimmers of what I've been missing that could lead up to this being his "Life is Good" album. Based on that, hopefully I can "experience dedication" and "move something", before it's "too late" for him to "get by".-F.Daily

It’s 2019 and I think Kweli is super important to raps annals and history. Albeit his hubris and righteous stances especially on social media mixed w/ distasteful personal stories I’ve heard + how he handled ReS’s music issues have rubbed me all the wrong way. I still think there’s really some slivers of relevancy for Kweli in the current hip-hop climate. I think he’s in tune with the culture and good for hip-hop and an important voice in socio-political justice for the advancement of people of color. Ionno how good the music is for me personally anymore, but I’ll always have Reflection Eternal.

content sourced from Talib Kweli's wiki page

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freshaslime · 7 years

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What I like/don’t like about FE games that I’ve played (contain spoilers)

I just want an excuse to talk about my favorite series so I decided to make this post. Some of you maybe could relate to this or not, either it’s fine. I’m also open for conversation if you want to elaborate further.

Disclaimer: This is super subjective there’s no way everyone will agree with me and it’s okay. And yes I really need to play Tellius games but my laptop is not strong enough to emulate it.

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of The Holy War (FE4)

What I like: Great politics and world building. The way the map and story are connected are amazing as well. It has also has great cast (Lewyn quickly became my favorite anima mage). For some reason, it feels like I’m controlling an army while playing this game and makes the game feel big. I also have embraced the broken Holy Weapons. Oh and the auto save feature is great, I wish they would implement it to the other games.

What I don’t like: They don’t tell the player about how the game works, like arena, inheritance, pairings, and money. If a player has to check a guide to understand basic things about the game, then it has a problem. Going across the map for 10 minutes after 5 minutes battling can be boring as well.

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade (FE6)

What I like: Igrene’s supports. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and read it now. Hard mode is full of suffering but those hard mode bonuses are so great and beautiful. It also has great pre-promotes, this is the game that makes me appreciate them. Zephiel’s nihilism view on the world is really interesting and it makes him one of my favorite villains. He also has a badass animation, honestly the animations in the GBA games are cool as heck.

What I don’t like: A R C A D I A. A fog of war desert chapter that has wyvern knights coming at the army and with a horse unit and a useless dark mage are forced to be deployed along with reinforcements at your tail is bad enough. But no, they had to include a sandstorm effect. I get it that it relates to the story but omg it always makes my eyes watery and uncomfortable. No other map gives more physical pain as this one. It also has ambush reinforcements but I don’t have too much of an issue on this game. RNG is… weird in this game. Roy is a dead weight until he promotes #NotMyBoy. Sophia can go to join Nino, Amelia, and Ewan.

Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword (FE7)

What I like: Battle Before Dawn is super fun. Hector and Lyn are cool lords. I’m not a huge shipper but this game has most of my FE otps (Lyn/Rath, Pent/Louise, and Matthew/Leila). Also Black Fang is a cool name for an organization.

What I don’t like: Rain. Overall, this game is like Eliwood, mediocre. Both story and gameplay-wise, which is both good and bad at the same time. Rain. Considering that this is the prequel of FE7, Lyn’s addition feels weird since she’s nowhere to be found in FE6. Rain. Also Nino, I know you’ve been through a lot but thanks for making FE6 happen I guess, smh go join Sophia, Amelia, and Ewan. Rain.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (FE8)

What I like: Overall, this game has the strongest cast in the series and good villains as well and I couldn’t praise it enough. It’s super fun to see Ephraim being a gary stu and everyone embraces it. The Rausten defense map is pretty fun as well. The split campaign encourages replayability which is nice to have. Also I gotta mention Seth somewhere so they you go.

What I don’t like: The short campaign hurts, especially with an enjoyable cast. It also wouldn’t hurt to have more difficulty level, for people who wants more challenge. Amelia and Ewan can join Sophia and Nino.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (FE11)

What I like: Save spots, it’s only second to FE4’s auto saves feature imo. Caeda and Wing Spear are a blessing. I also quite like the portrait art. Good gameplay experience overall, since this is my first FE game and I got HOOKED after finishing it. Last but not least, Anna/Jake is otp. It also have a lot of difficulty levels, which I feel every FE games need.

What I don’t like: The 2.5D battle model looks weird on the DS. No supports hurts this game too. It has a huge cast and without any development for them, a lot of them are easily forgotten. The gaiden chapters requirement only makes it worse. Also hey ambush reinforcements that’s slightly more annoying that FE6’s

Fire Emblem: New Mystery of The Emblem ~Heroes of Light and Shadow~

What I like: They removed FE11’s dumb gaiden requirement, thankfully. Battling Legion, while the map is nothing special, it leaves me with a strong impression, probably because of his “Uweeheehee”. It’s quite similar to FE11 so I don’t have much to say here.

What I don’t like: The way Kris is handled as the avatar doesn’t feel right, I don’t oppose of Marth having an advisor other than Jagen but idk it’s like they both try to stroke each other’s ego. At least Kris got a monocle I guess. Oh and CAN WRYS STOP ASKING ME IF I WANT TO BE BALD??? Go hang out with Bantu or something smh. Honestly it’s been a while since I’ve played this game and I forget a lot about it. You can say it’s not too memorable.

Fire Emblem: Awakening (FE13)

What I like: Fun characters, except for a select few. There are some interesting and enjoyable supports in the game too (Gaius/Libra’s doughnut rain support always makes me laugh). It’s awesome if you’re playing to make great children with high stats and all the skills and see them break the game. Cutscenes and some maps look amazing. Great voice acting too.

What I don’t like: The story falls off a bit in the end for me. Some characters stretching out their gimmicks too much. Open wide maps with ambush reinforcements are not a great match whatsoever, much more annoying than FE11’s since Awakening has relatively smaller maps (someone please correct me if I’m wrong, I’m talking out of memory here). Lunatic is difficult in a bad way with those enemy-only skills. Some of the class skills are completely inferior compared to the others.

Fire Emblem: Fates (FE14)

What I like: Overall, I like the balancing they did with pair up, reclassing, and Lunatic mode. The added personal skill is great and gives more personality to each character while some new classes skills added aren’t completely useless. The new classes are fun to use too. The cast is pretty good as well and there are great supports as well (shoutout for Charlotte/Kaden). Birthright wins in the story department, while Conquest deserves the praise for gameplay (Chapter 10 is frustrating when played blind but afterward it’s a complete fun), and Revelations leads in having everyone on the team and doing themed run on. I did a maid/butler run and it was amazing to see a huge ass dragon was killed by a team full of well dressed maids and butlers.

What I don’t like: There are cases of missed opportunity on some of the characters here. Some outfit designs aren’t the best. It’s sad because the armored knights looks great, especially with the black and pink armor for Benni and Effie and then there’s the cavalry with thong. The excuse for children is bs. My biggest gripe with Birthright is that there are maps who would do just fine with “defeat the boss” goal but nope, it has to be “route the enemy”. It sucks to have finished killing the boss but can’t end the map because there’s still enemies at the other side of the map (Camilla’s underground chapter I’m looking at you). With Conquest, it has a weak story, even in FE standard which not high at all. Roy needs to thank Conquest!Corrin for taking the worst lord position from him. Revelation plays too much on gimmicks on the maps. The elevator map makes me want to cry out of sadness honestly. It also has balancing problems with the recruitable units. You don’t put a level 9 Dark Mage and a level 5 promoted bow user on the same map or make a unit useless on the map they join in.

#tika rambles #fire emblem genealogy of the holy war #fire emblem binding blade #fire emblem blazing sword #fire emblem sacred stones #fire emblem shadow dragon #fire emblem new mystery of the emblem #fire emblem awakening #fire emblem fates #fe4 #fe6 #fe7 #fe8 #fe11 #fe12 #fe13 #fe14 #long post

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diefakekalvingarrah · 4 years

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Addressing all my Factives

Okay first and most importantly Garrett Watts. Garrett Watts was actually one of my very first alter to introduce themselves to me. He was like hey I exist! He went to a period when I first met him where he was like No! I’m not a factive I’m a fucktive! And I was like huh? Basically it’s when you’re not a factive nor a fictive but something inbetween. He’s not a fucktive, he’s definitely a factive we were just in denial because we didn’t like the idea of factives. But water you gonna do. Garrett is amazing. He’s such a blessing to my system. He makes us so happy in really intense times, usually when we get overwhelmingly angry, he comes in and diffuses things with his funny ways.

Kurtis Conner next. This isn’t in order of when they split, but rather the least to the most problematic how about that. Anyway, Kurtis Conner is wonderful. He split pretty recently around the same time as PEIII. He’s lovely. Not much more to say he’s pretty surprisingly dead on for the real Kurtis Conner. He’s pretty chill about factive stuff. He’s understanding and he’s just like whatever y’know.

ASIA! I hate Asia. Asia is definitely a persecutor although I’m not a big fan of those kind of labels but I still think they’re necessary. Her full name is Asia Herrera. Asia is modeled after an ex friend of mine of the same name. Asia was a really really crazy toxic and emotionally abusive and manipulative person. She was a major shit bag. We knew each other and were friends for five years before I finally blew up at her and told her everything I felt and then we cut off. But I was really attached to her at that point so when we “broke up” it really hit different and to cope, Asia split off as an alter. She’s meant to bring me comfort and like,, what’s the word for when you come to terms with something? Whatever that is. That’s her whole point. She definitely didn’t for awhile and only made me feel worse and caused a lot of problems, but she did eventually. I still don’t like her though. I have a few prosecutors and persecutors, and the only ones I would ever confidently say I hate and wish had never formed are her and JJ and that’s it.

Moriah Elizabeth is a pretty recent split. Don’t look her up or you’ll make fun of me, let me just tell you her deal and you take my word for it okay? okay. It’s dumb. You’ve probably never heard of her because as far as I’m aware none of my followers are seven years old nor mothers of little babies. Moriah Elizabeth is a YouTube well known for making art and crafting related content aimed towards stereotypical little girls. Just a lot of unicorns and rainbows and sprinkles and glitter. Her main gig is a series called “Squishy Makeover” where her child fans send her their old fucked up squishy toys and she fixes them and makes them new and interesting. And she has the maturity level of a little elementary school girl. Uh. Anyway. Yeah. She’s amazing. So Teter, resident little, went though a pretty rough patch of nonstop stuck fronts and tantrums when her favorite caretaker alter (Denis, RIP) integrated. And during that time her favorite thing to do to distract herself was watch Moriah Elizabeth and SimplyNailogical (with Zim because he loves that channel for some reason?) and videos of independent music producers because it reminded her of Denis. Anyway. Moriah developed and took on a very motherly role in taking care of Teter and making her feel better, kind of replacing Denis. She’s a blessing. And my god she paints on fucking everything.

Okay let’s get the obvious one out of the way. Kalvin Garrah. Oh Kalvin. Kalvin Kalvin Kalvin. Fuck you. So I developed Kalvin maybe two years ago?? I was having a mad hard time with my dysphoria and I would watch his videos religiously smh. I was a giant fan and took his advice for trans men as gospel. I was such an asshole haha. Anyway, when he inevitably formed, he kind of soaked up a lot of my dysphoria and gender related trauma. I thought he was a good alter! I was like oh cool! This absolute chad is gonna held guide me on being a Real Boy™️ like my own little SQUIP or sum. Yippee. And y’know he kind fo did for awhile. Ad everything was peachy. But then, I grew up! And I developed a personality of my own and became my own person and realize I’m not just some stereotypical manly man nor and I 1000% male either. And now he despises me. He always kind of did. But whatever. He hates me. And he made me feel like shit for exploring my identity for a long time. But, as a system, we figured out how to deal with him and make him a little better, and now I’m fine with him. We get along like brothers, which is to say sometimes we get along.

Okay so before I talk about the next two, I want to mention the fact that I have this issue, and I don’t know if there’s a name for it, but I tend to get very obsessed with certain people I will hyper fixate on these people and try to worm my way into their lives one way or another. I’m pretty good at being a people pleaser and being about to understand exactly what people want and then become that without separating myself too much from myself. The people I become obsessed with I will go to crazy lengths to get into every facet of their lives. I’ll follow them, I’ll follow their friends, I’ll follow their families, I’ll save everything and log it all in one place, I’ll pretend to be people they know and figure out their pasts, I’ll learn whatever I can and just obsess over it. I don’t know. It’s only really extremely happened with four people, but minority with some others. SORRY I KNOW ITS WEIRD BUT YOU ALREADY KNOW SHIT IS WRONF WITH ME OKAY YOU FOLLOWED YOU READ THE CARRD MOVING ON

Mars! Yahoo! So I won’t linger on this for long because Mars is very easily triggered to front, and doesn’t like being talked about. Mars (aka NyadChild now @nyadcircus ) formed during the height of the whole dysphoria debate back when he was the poster child of tucutes and trenderism . Lovely. I looked up to him ( not really at the time but when he formed I was a fan ) and I was kind of obsessed with him. Oops.

Ash! Okay! So ash, lovely ol ash I’ve been getting into a bit of a heartbreaking dram with you my lovely ash. Idk if someone’s gonna rat me out to you but whatever I’m gonna continue regardless. I won’t leave an @ so no one CAN rat me out. So ash is an influencer I guess? A nonbinary sworker who I FOUND through instagram way back and have been following for the longest time. And like a product of being obsessed with someone is checking their account obsessively. I’ve made so much fan art and little snippets of what could eventually become fanfic. That I’d never show anyone. I’ve had like six dreams about them? Maybe I’ll talk about them someday. It really ties into religious stuff too so it would be worth discussing. ANYWAY. I’m super enamorado con Ash, but not really a romantic or sexual attraction. It never is. Just a hyper fixation I dunno. I downloaded that ONE youtube video they made that one time a million years ago back when they were in the hospital and I’ve watched it so many times I practically have it memorized. Shut up get back to the point. Ash developed as a factive! Inevitable! But my ash factive is lovely. They’re really nice and pretty accurate and close to reality, aside from the weird one off fact that they use she/her tambien and I’m pretty sure Ash doesn’t considering I once used she/her for them and they called me out for it my bad. Whatever I’ll leave it at that I’lll leave a note for our ash to post sometime we’ll see moving on

Here’s an honorable mention before I get into the worst one of them all. Twiggy Ramirez! He went dormant some time ago. Out of all my factive and fictive, he was the most crazy unlike the real Twiggy Ramirez. And I’m pretty positive it was because he was modeled less after the actual Twiggy, but more after this guy that kinned Twiggy Ramirez that I was deadass obsessed with way back in 2014. I knew literally everything about that kid, I knew what school he went to I knew who his friends were, I knew every single social media he ever had even the super secret ones I managed to follow by pretending to be his friends, and at one point I even found his exact location on google maps and through that found his home address and his separated father’s home address, not to mention I learned everything about his abuser. I never ever spoke to him, nor attempted to get close to him at all. I never did anything with this info mind you and I never planned to. I was just obsessed with him and that ended eventually.

Alright!!! The best one! Rachael! Rachael Stair! AKA Randy Stair! AKA ANDREW FUKCING BLAZE. Sound familiar? Yeah look it up I won’t go into detail because I literally hate having this alter and I’m so ashamed of her but like she’s done so much for me and I appreciate her very much as a protector but not so much as the IRL equivalent. Shut the fuck up. Just don’t talk about it.

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