Late Night With Lil B[eauvoir]

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Thesis

If you're feeling down, explore the waters! Well, I wasn't exactly feeling down, but I was feeling a little out. This is a month ago now, but I was sorta just floating on - generally happy, but lowkey not really enthused about anything that wasn't my girlfriend, Ros, or Destroyer. Since then, I've been feeling hella wonderful, thanks mostly to some self-reflection and family and friends. But it's also due to the acquisition of a few new identities. These identities are totally worth blogging about:

BASED

Let's start off with a totally fresh mentality - Doing What You Wanna Do. This was originally the mission statement of #METASWAG (and of everyone ever), but I've found it most fanatically, and often adorably, posited by one Lil B, "The Based God."

Now, being Based covers a lot more territory than just doing what you wanna do (though this is a prerequisite), but I cannot at all begin to comprehend it. Basedness is flatout complicated, folks. Maybe the best way to understand Based life is by examining The Based God Himself, Lil B.

I'm going to preemptively ask you, fam, to forgive the following burlesque description. Lil B is an emblem of our times, thus making him the perfect candidate for The Future Of Rap. Simply put, he's a uniquely populist, absurdist (Post-Lil Wayne) West Coast rapper. But he also defines himself in terms of his fanbase - he exists on and through the internet, for the internet. Of the so-called mixtape rappers, he rose to fame and fortune not only through prolificness (3,000 songs in 3 years), but also through his pretty bizarre personality.

He presents a non-normative portrayal of the typical misogynist rapper identity, sometimes referring to himself as a "pretty bitch" and "faggot." I mean, yeah - this is still awful, but at least it's something different. Also, he often compares himself to and temporarily adopts the personalities of wholly dissimilar celebrities, like Miley Cyrus, Mel Gibson, Ellen Degeneres, and most recently, Justin Bieber. His music is largely based on New Age synths, and he released an ambient/rap album that was downright Wrong.

Lil B is Perfect for the future of rap, because he's strange, fascinated with himself and the culture that allows this fascination, and he's Real. Now, authenticity in rap is a pretty dumb discussion, but it's the way that Lil B reveals himself that's worth talking about. In a single mixtape, he declares both "I'm God" and "I'm the Devil," and occupies all sorts of identities in between. He can spend 12 songs pondering the essence of his livelihood in an emo-Drake manner, before pulling a 180 and repeating the "Fuck bitches / Smoke weed" aphorism for a dozen more songs. That he doesn't seem to fully embody any mentality is exciting.

It's this weird dichotomy of self that Lil B has established in his work (in an always playful way) that makes him so fascinating and so personable and so Right for Now. It's also what makes Based Life so appealing - a playground for the exploration of the self's plasticity. Do what you wanna do, whoever you are.

Swag.

FEMINIST

Well, I'll tell ya, it's been some time before I've felt so jazzed about something like this. Or over which I've been so willing to subject myself to hours of reading. But it's paying off... I'm figuring stuff out about Me! Now, what I'm about to say is not intended to be a misappropriation of feminism as religion, but rather an example of how substantial feminism can be as a practiced ideology.

Feminism contains some of the core precepts of some Western religions (without the terrible misogyny), or happily offers better alternatives. It encourages - through its assertion of personal, political, and sexual equality - a lifestyle of deliberate consideration for oneself and (O)thers. In its supposition that one's gender is mutable, as is one's identity, it is the basis of helpful and affirmative existential evaluation. So, it gives us the Golden Rule, with an added element of metaphysicality. Its practice means self-improvement, in that one seeks further understanding of oneself and (O)thers, and hopes to inspire a positive change in (or deconstruction of) society.

This is a description of a watered-down, depoliticized, and desexualized feminism. Of course, it's about a lot more than all this writing would suggest, but again, I'm just trying to get at how a feminist identity has proved fruitful for me as a perspective, not giving you a view of the fundamental concepts of feminism. It's enlightening and humanist. And the more radical you get, the more interesting it all becomes.

Really the reason for all this hellabaloo is my History Of Feminist Theory course, which has inspired more thought than I've known what to do with. Hella exciting!

This also explains my recent infatuation with sexuality and power dynamics, and why I started that hour long discussion at 3 AM in Noodles about the dissolution of gender. Sorry, y'all - I couldn't help myself! Anyway, I think it was okay, because we were having some trill arguments! Illuminating! Besides, being a Based Feminist means doing what you wanna do. Swag.

So...

Less heady stuff

Drew and I watched the first Wayne's World movie on Saturday night (unawares that it served as the cold open for "SNL" later that night - what a crazy coincidence). It was excellent! Earlier that night, with the equipment, guidance, and expertise of Bron, we set out to shoot a short film in the freezing cold. We slipped and fell more often than we captured adequate footage, but I must say that the experience was happy and memorable. Since then, it's been mostly reading and writing, with all sorts of stresses and crazies going on. Despite this, I'm wearing a big smile.

Anyway, it's really late, and I just celebrated a full day of hard work and hard-earned fun. The reason for both?

Happy 20th Birthday, Rachel

My girlfriend of more than a year has finally shed the title of teenager, and thus has escaped being the subject of "Teenage Dream." Luckily, the song still rocks. And so does she! I managed to procure some groovy gifts:

> An over-the-top cute "coupon" book

> A romantic mix CD, assembled from the perspective of myself as a middle-schooler

> One pair of turquoise-looking earrings from Thailand
> The best birthday card ever made for anybody ever

To celebrate, we (with the gang, of course) went to Ami for some 30%-off sushi. Yummy! I ate some 007 rolls and spicy California rolls (the pun in Ros' blog just reoccurred to me for probably the fifth time). They tasted great! We followed our dinner with a movie - Steel Magnolias. This is a favorite of Rachel's, and nearly everyone in the room was moved to tears (or moved to another room, as was Bron's case). It seemed a bit melodramatic to me, but I was for the most part nose-deep in some class readings. Nevertheless, Dolly Parton charmed my socks off.

Conclusions

A good day.

Bonus List Of People To Whom I Owe Stuff

~~~~~~

HAYLEY - A LETTER

JAY - $5

RZA - A FONECALL

LANIE - A SKYPE SESH

CAMPUSWALK - SECURITY DEPOSIT