Cole is a better rapper than Vince Staples but Vince makes more moving art. I might argue that Future’s deeper commitment to his own persona makes his music connect with my spirit more, toxic as it is.

The most consistent thing about Cole is his lack of conviction about anything other than is own technical rapping ability. He’s a wanderer, which is actually super relatable. But art without conviction can’t move ME as much as art with it.

Sometimes he presents as a lyrical killer and multiple times he’s backing down from shit he started with noname, SoundCloud rappers, or dot.
Sometimes he wants to be on top and sometimes he’s matured beyond playing the game.

Sometimes it seems like he wants to make us grow our minds (Lights Please, etc.) and sometimes he’s admitting he doesn’t read much. Sometimes he presents as a conscious rapper but I actually can’t think of anything in particular he stands for.

It was like being on an acid trip or a fever dream - it was a borderline mystical experience 😂

And I didn’t see it coming at all!

but it certainly isn’t local activism alone. Every offering toward the betterment of black peoples is an act of bravery worthy of celebration, even as we acknowledge the work is not, and may never be, done.

metrics that follow from it. The zeitgeist is made up of everything — EVERYTHING matters. Interpersonal kindness, activism, art, business. Saying that Kendrick’s performance matters doesn’t negate all the other things that matter. Nobody knows how the zeitgeist shifts,

“true” standard that authentic black artists are falling short of.

All authentic black expression is true African art, true to the context that birthed it. And it’s not individual spectacle OR individual action, it’s both. The impact of art isn’t measured in the increases in community engagement

Culture, at a mass level, DOES have a responsibility. We SHOULD be more worried about our own actions than those of celebrities or their art.

But it also suggests that our failings as a culture are keeping “true African art from what its supposed look like”. There is no “supposed” and no

which glosses over the fact that he had to be losing and playing ineffectively for stretches of a LOT of playoff games. And sometimes those ineffective stretches snowball instead of turning into glory. Cincy. Tampa. Now Philly, the worst of them