keeping up with jones

midnight strikes and it's @labellerochelle 's birthday!


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those of you who know me - even a little - know that friendship means a lot to me.
if i call you a friend - you're a friend.
you're not one of those average mufuxxas that i kick it with from time to time to waste time.

and like my bother 'yayo' said: i didn't get where i am walking with losers.

i've conditioned myself to walk with nothing but success stories and pretty people.
sometime simultaneously.

when i was in high school i hung out with some 'real loser type motherfxckers' (like nas said about shorty on belly).
dudes who thought it looked cool to smoke black and milds for the hell of it.
dudes who made trips to new york with grams in their pockets just to get a few dollars for lunch.

they're all locked up now.
all of them.

i hung with chicks who now drive cabs for other loser type motherfxckers.
chicks who date dudes who knock them up prior to knocking them down.

we all grew up in the same neighborhood.
so what the fxck happened?
'it must be the shoes!'
i've never owned a pair of jordans that i paid full price for. maybe the jordans that came in those fancy boxes on saturday mornings led them down some strange path.

the last time i saw my boy 'Q' was when i was teaching sex education at the local jail in my hometown - after finishing the masters program at bethune-cookman.

i once kicked it on project benches in playgrounds with niggas who called drug dealing a 'hustle.'
niggas who respected the shooter.

now i hang with real hustlers.
folks i run into in the hallways at howard university on their way to class because graduation is coming soon and they know shit is crazy in the real world.

we are never any better than the company we keep.
so i keep company who study hard & work hard & party hard.

i keep people around me like my MCMS folks who are about to graduate and progress because failure is not an option. BECAUSE I SAID SO.
on the planet we kick it on, loiterers get arrested. we must move one.

and i never ride the nuts of anyone - but sometimes people come along that need to be written about.
people like @labellerochelle & @amandasophia & @jefro5 & big dave & kendra p (my platonic wife) & chemia & cierra & don chukie
& everybody else in my mcms family. (if i didn't mention you in my blog - you are still in my heart folks)




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side note: this note is starting to sound like a suicide note or some shit.

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the point though: you don't find success walking with losers.
so i don't.

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and tomorrow i will party with my success stories for old times sake - laugh - pop bottles and make toasts in honor of one of my FRIENDS:



and you are more than welcome to come through.

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and i leave you with this:

'let's dance in style - let's dance for a while
heaven can wait - we're only watching the skies
hoping for the best - but expecting the worst
are you going to drop the bomb or not?

let us die young or live forever
we don't have the power but we never say never

sitting in a sandpit - life is a short trip
the music's for the sad men

forever young - i want to be forever young'

-alphaville.

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'may the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows.
but we ain't even thinking that far'

-jay z