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Why Does #NaptownSlim Tell It? I’ll tell you here…
Hey, It’s Russ.
I dealt with a lotta ‘overthinking and overanalyzing’ some really basic truths. Now, I can cut to the chase, very well.
I’ve always been able to speak my mind, but there were years of misery that made it so I was unable to do so…to anyone…ever.
You know how hard that is to deal with when you’ve been an artist and person that strives for ‘reality’ in your art and life and you also wanna keep putting out a ‘positive’ message and vibe, but your life is HELL? It was horrible. It was the absolute worst time of my life.
I was living in virtual HELL and couldn’t talk about it. Not only that, I had to keep up a brave front as I was wandering my way out of it. Then, when I figured out I was in Hell and shamed the Devil with truth…I was hated even more. I knew I was in Hell but was so determined to make it better somehow, I couldn’t just leave it behind. I had to make it make sense. It was in my soul now.
News flash: Hell don’t get no better and the longer you stay there, the worse it gets.
I think that has led to what you see and hear from me now. I’m back to myself…and I’m happy. I can access these awful memories of awful people and the awful feelings that came with them to make someone else see a light.
When you constantly have ideas put in your head that go against them, you start to over think things and allow those false ideas to warp your understanding of things you grew up knowing and you KNOW are true.
I go through things. You go through things. We all go through things. I have every right to be a hostile bastard to some people should I want to. I’d rather keep it simple by not talking to them and warning the good people around me that there are people in this world who will do anything to get over in so many ways, emotionally, vocationally, mentally, socially, financially…. if you are one of those people, you very well might not like what I have to say, but if you are one of those people, I really don’t care about your opinion because you are ‘anti’ everything that I am and wanna be.
So there’s that. …and that leads us to today. A good day.
So sayeth Naptown Slim…and I’m gon keep saying what needs to be heard. Whether the people who need to hear it or not is not my problem; I just got reeeeeal tired of shutting up.
I’d advise all y’all to use your voice too.
Y’all go tell it. Tell your truth, shine a light.
#ATFU, also.
#NaptownSlim in your area. Here’s a word for today.
If your soul is corrupt from years of using people, chasing material things, and faking sincerity about anything in life because you have no identity of your own, this stare I’m giving you might be piercing.
Feel it…cuz if you are this type of person, you know damn well that I want nothing to do with you ever and you have no business peepin me out. Stay your fake self all the way over there.
This is where truth lives.
Slim gon tell it. No sell out and no sell outs welcome.
#ATFU
#NaptownSlim on ‘CHANGE’.
You might wanna sit down for this one. Naptown Slim is really gonna build. I gotta talk about this, cuz too many people fake the funk when it comes to ‘change’ and ‘growth’.
In order for you to change, you first hafta acknowledge that something needs to be changed. If you are too good for that, you’re arrogant and ignorant. Everybody has stuff about themselves that they wanna change. People change everything from their names to their hair-color…but if the mind underneath that newly dyed hair isn’t wise enough to recognize things, qualities, and company that needs to change, you’re just another dumbass with a new hairstyle.
There are gonna be people in your life you wish you didn’t hafta excommunicate, but you’d better if you’re trying to move forward. Some folks will tell you everything you wanna hear because they’re simply used to doing so; that don’t mean they’re giving you solid advice or don’t have ulterior motives.
It’s so much easier to know where a situation is going with someone who is so terribly predictable and unable to adapt. Folks swear they wanna start anew but stay rappin to the people that got you in trouble in the first place and WILL do it again. They fall into the same old patterns of bullshit that got you to be friends with them in the first place.
Some fool will tell you not to change, you’re perfect, you couldn’t be better. I’m not gonna lie to you; you’re a bigger fool than they are if you believe that.
You better change, child. You can’t go halfway with some thangs. You gotta go full steam ahead and sometimes that means leaving some things and people behind. Everyone claiming to be your friend ain’t your friend. Someone claiming to be a ‘soulmate’ to a ‘lost soul’ is just as lost as that ‘lost soul’.
Look at these clowns, thinking their so-called ‘friends’ have answers for them when the answers were within themselves the whole time and they were too scared to investigate
…what a desperate way to live, man. Some folks will never change…
…because some folks don’t know who they are to begin with.
Pray for em.
Another funky, cold-blooded Naptown Slim production. #ATFU, also.
#NaptownSlim - ‘Thinkin, Wishin, Prayin.’
Yuh boy Slim again, man. I just be thinking. I think so much, man…and I gotta lotta ideas about a lotta things. I’mma talk about some more real life stuff, y’all.
Some of y’all call it ‘praying’, some just say ‘wishing’, but we all want things outta life and focus on getting them some kinda way. We all want better as we get older. We all have wishes. You put these ideas in your mind and that’s cool. You’re supposed to want more outta life.
I have wished for things and prayed on them as hard as anyone has prayed. I’ve been patient. I’ve prayed for stuff that I honestly thought would make my life better as a whole. Why wouldn’t I pray for something like that?
I have gotten what I prayed for on many occasions. I have gotten just what I asked for, only to realize that it may not have been all it was cracked up to be. That WILL happen. I think it’s a real test to see what kinda person you really are.
Let’s say God gives you what you ask for…and when you get it, it’s nothing like what you expected. Who you gonna blame…? God? He/She gave you what you wanted. Can’t be mad about that.
You gotta start over at Square One with, “Maybe I asked for something I shouldn’t have…?” The God I believe in provides like a mug, so maybe your request was kinda wack…and somehow, you gotta learn from that. Sometimes, you might ask God for something only to find out that you didn’t really need it.
I always try to figure out why I am where I am, in everything in life, and how I can go forward. I think that’s what you should really wish for in life.
I think that is what you should pester God with: prayers for a better understanding of yourself and how to go forward as that person, as opposed to your petty wants and material ‘needs’.
I just be thinkin, y’all, and I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with y’all.
Be cool.
“People that don’t know the difference between “lonely” and “alone” often end up as both. You gotta figure that out before you end up lonely in crowds and alone with someone you thought was gonna be great company.”
So sayeth Naptown Slim.
#ATFU, as well.
#NaptownSlim on ‘Love’
YoyoyoyoYO…once again, Naptown Slim gotta word for you today and this word is ALWAYS supposed to be good, but it can be abused.
Love, y’all.
Love is the most powerful force in my life, man. I would hope it would be the most powerful force in yours too. You gotta know what it is though. It’s hard to explain sometimes, man, but when it’s real, there’s no way to deny it.
People say “Slim, you put a lotta love into the world, bruh.” I say, “I do what I can.” While it is the most motivating factor in my life, it’s also the easiest thing about me to exploit…cuz I put it all out there. There’s no question about what I love, who I love, what I love to do, and why I love these things. Now, I guess, I’m a little more guarded…in my estimation, evaluating me, but people seem to still feel that love come through in what I do.
If you were to ask me, that’s cuz I know what it is like to feel unloved. I don’t want anyone close to me to ever feel like that from me, y’all. I have to let it go. Let Slim tell it; the love you see from me is natural…and I love being able to let it be shown. I hope it affects people in a positive way.
I love freely and openly to counteract the unnatural ways, wants, and desires of the material world we live in. I am a spirit. Everything you see me do is controlled by love.
I really really try.
All I can ask of y’all, my people, is that you really really try to keep the love in your life real and pure. Don’t waste it on people that don’t understand it or acknowledge it. It’s precious, a renewable resource when properly used; wasted when not reciprocated.
I got it for you, man. Just cuz. Somewhere in me, I got it for you, no matter who you are. I hope it’s always easy to access.
Another funky, cold blooded Naptown Slim production.
#NaptownSlim on ‘Bridges’
Peace, y’all. Hope everyone is blessed and doing okay. Naptown Slim here with another real life word. Let me just flow for a minute.
You can’t burn bridges in life because you never know when you will need to go back across them.
This is real.
Support comes from unlikely sources, y’all. People come BACK into your life when they do because they are placed there to help you get through things. This is why I make sure to try to connect to what is REAL about every person I meet.
I try. I swear I try. Some things just can’t be fixed nor explained. It could be that some bridges were never meant to be built in the first place. It could be that some people think that once you cross a bridge, there’s no need to go back…but some people pack too light. Then, you over there…looking across the chasm at people who have supplies and food. They pack light to beat everyone across the bridge and burnt it behind them. Not a good way to travel.
Anyway though, I don’t burn bridges. If anything, I TRY to carry an extinguisher, but you got these firebugs, see? Arsonists.
I’m proactive about solving problems with arsonists, but you know how Slim rolls. Did I tell y’all I’m a Libra…? Maybe that’s why I like things to be balanced. Sometimes, that extinguisher ain’t gonna get it…and then you gotta dig a trench and build a fire wall or sumn…gotta protect what’s left.
Wrapping it up, man; please don’t burn bridges in this life. You’re gonna be shocked at who you need and who supports you in earnest, someone to airlift your ass outta the fire you started.
I gotta believe that most people are good at heart, give em a chance. We all got demons and fires we wish we could put out easily. Them bridges gonna bring make it so you can go back AND forth…
Stay up, people. I’m tryna do good thangs. I try.
Another funky, cold blooded Naptown Slim production in the name of #ATFU and peace everywhere for all of us.
‘#NaptownSlim on ‘The Saddest Thing I Have Ever Heard’
Ay y’all, yuh boy Naptown Slim here. Just cooling with Muhbabay and appreciating real love at my man’s soiree. Glad we could ride out for this. This is my dude and I really wouldn’t wanna miss this day for him and his beloved. I care, man. I wanna be here. Got the whole fam here and his fam has always treated me like fam; I wouldn’t be anywhere else.
Seeing all this genuine love in front of me has brought to mind something that will always stick with me. I talked about it before, but I gotta add on.
Told y’all the dumbest thing ever said to me was:
“The way you show me you love me is by buying me expensive things. The more you spend on it, the more I know you love me.”
Most ignorant shit ever. Actual quote…from an actual breathing thing that some would describe as a ‘human being’. You know how I feel about these kinda ‘people’ tho… “subhuman”
I’m looking at these beautiful people celebrating this beautiful new union and that quote jumped into my head…I wanna be able to do great things for my people. I wanna be able to give them what they want, but sometimes, just being there for someone is how you can show them you love them. I mean, we brought the homey and his new homette a sweet gift and everything, but if I had to show this cat how much I love him by what I spent on their gift, I’d be broke. I love my brutha like that.
He knows that we had to put a lotta things on hold to be here for him. He knew that we would do that because I love him. He knew that it would be a ‘we’ showing up because of how much I love Muhbabay…and he don’t know jack about what I buy her.
That quote has taken on a new light today, man. That quote is the statement of a person who obviously needs things to validate their worth. That’s absolutely tragic, y’all.
This is the statement of someone that needs things more than people, which actually DEVALUES you.
This is a quote from a person that doesn’t have any idea as to how much richer life is with someone you genuinely love that loves you back…like me and this chick I’m with right here and the people we just watched tie their lives together in front of God and their family and friends, than it is with some fool that has enough spending change to cater to their ignorant passing fancies.
It’s a statement that indicates you ain’t even TRYING to understand love, don’t wanna go out and get things for yourself, and WILL rock with ANYONE just to have ‘things’…that’s why they can’t keep ‘people’.
Everyone that loves you ain’t tryna break the bank to prove it, dummy. Realizing you have no idea how to assess your own worth other than what someone else gives you makes me wanna bust thug tears all over this clean-ass suit.
That statement is not only the dumbest thing I have ever heard, but now it is also the saddest thing I have ever heard. We gonna just keep praying for you folks that think like this though.
Peep Slim’s WHOLE steeze; this album is full of good words about what life is really about, y’all. I may mess around and make a book outta this stuff.
I’m gon tell it and I WILL be heard, for better or worse.
I’m out y’all…I’mma go over there and grab some pics of my friends cutting that cake cuz this is a special moment. I’mma holler at the DJ too. I wanna see what his set up is all about, cuz he’s kinda wack, but I do what he does and we can find some common ground. Slim can reason with anybody, baby.
I’m real people talking with real people about real thangs. Holler.
Another funky, cold-blooded Naptown Slim production. It is ALWAYS REAL.
CLICK THE PIC TO HEAR ME PLAY MY FUNKY, SAD VIOLIN WITH MY MAN, TYLER KNAPP.
#NaptownSlim on ‘standards’
Peace y’all, your man here again; the one and only, ‘The Natural’, kicking the real and factual, you know me…it’s Naptown Slim. Gotta word for you today and this word is about ‘standards’
You have an idea as to what to expect from me, based on my standards. I hold true to my standards, what my family taught me coming up. I set rules for myself. I have a code.
You should have standards, but you might ditch those standards because you have certain expectations. Maybe you think you deserve everything in the world and expect it…thus, you will abandon your standards when given an opportunity to get those things.
Slim gon tell it.
You’re a fool. You may have everything you think you want, but you abandoned your standards, a code that has been handed down to you through generations of good people, to gain material things. You are truly a fool.
Y’all saw what I said earlier; “If you don’t raise your standards, lower your expectations.” I had to learn that myself, man. My standards are based on my soul and spirit, not keeping up with the Joneses. I don’t need things to validate who I am. I don’t need money and possessions to validate who I am; those that do obviously have no standards, because if you need those things to validate your person, that likely means you WILL do anything to get them. I seent it. I see it all the time, man.
If your standards are all based on what you own as opposed to what you are, soon enough all the stuff you own will be all you have to keep you company. No one wants to kick it with an empty person, except for other empty people. I hate those kinda parties; parties full of people you don’t have any connection to, but everyone looks cute and ain’t got nothing to talk about other than what they just bought.
A person that has no standards is hollow, shallow, and they should come up with another word other than ‘person’ to describe them. They’re sub-human.
If you have standards, base them on real things as opposed to things you can take to the pawn shop in a coupla years when you want more ‘new things’. Stop worrying about things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, look at where you are in life and be real with yourself. Look at the people you’re around and ask yourself, “How did I get here and why am I here?” then think about the standards your family instilled in you, if you can remember them..then stop being a little greedy pig run by money, hoarding your things, as opposed to the shining spirit that God intended you to be.
Raise your standards to truly be a person of spirit.
Another cold blooded funky Naptown Slim production. We tryna help.
CLICK THE PIC TO SEE A PLACE WHERE THE STANDARDS ARE ALWAYS HIGH.
“The idea of you trying to ride with me after you flattened my tires humors me. If you stagnated my progress or tried to stop it before, don’t get on the bandwagon now. No room in the whip. Stay in that backseat you’re in now and keep riding with the fools that tolerate your wishy-washy, disloyal ass. Slim ain’t hurtin for anybody to talk to, playa. I checked you out, know your situtation, and know that you can’t say the same. All you had to do was NOT hate me. That was too hard for you. Now, you tryna reconnect with this real soul over here, which is what got you this side-eye.”
So sayeth Naptown Slim.
CLICK THE PIC TO HEAR WHAT ME SPEAK OF THOSE WHO WISH TO STOP THIS TRAIN.
#NaptownSlim on ‘Fake People’ and ‘suckas claimin’
What’s happenin, y’all? It’s your boy, The Tinkerer, Lazarus, The Thin Beige Duke, Russ, and all that…Naptown Slim. It’s Friday and we’re all about to eat big barbecue with family and friends and have great times, but I gotta speak on some real sucka shit that has irked me for a while.
I don’t like suckas claiming me in any way, shape, form, or fashion. If you ain’t ridin with Slim, ride out. Don’t try to claim me if you ain’t really down. I’ve been through that.
I can’t stand for a sucka to try to stay connected to me once they let me know they don’t feel me AT ALL. Man, I let go of identifiers and things that have been connected to me my whole life just to get away from some of these people. I be reinventing, but I’m still me…and I know who I am at my core.
If you told me, “I do NOT ride with you. I do NOT like what you do. I do NOT appreciate the work you put in.” then I see you trying to get in touch with me about all these things, that makes you FAKE. You FAKE as hell. Slim cannot mess with you, AT ALL. Don’t bother.
Why are you checking for me after you go outta your way to tell me how much you HATE what I do? Don’t be checking my music, acting like you looking for sample sources, like you produce or sumn. Like you want some pointers….nah. That ain’t what you want.
Listen, you wanna talk to Slim because I’m dynamic…you know it and I do too. You want conversation because ain’t nobody checking for you…AT ALL. Check your stats. A cursory glance at your stats should tell you the difference between you and me.
We ain’t even gonna get into what I know about y’all…cuz then…it might get REALLY REAL. People know now that I got my mind right I have no reason to hold my tongue.
You can stop reading whenever you want to if your face is getting hot, makes no difference to me. Slim is the blade and it cuts straight through, if you feel it in your gut, then I’m talking to you.
Oh, you didn’t forget that I make this stuff rhyme…very easily, did you? You couldn’t have, cuz you been checking for the very music you hated so very much. You hear me…and you can’t even show your face to your own people because you know how fake you are.
I can’t stand fake people claiming any kinda connection to me. I need that to stop. Again, check the stats, not even the ones online; check the stats that you KNOW are real in your heart….
I’m a good person.
I’m real, I have no reason to fake anything.
My people know it…and so do yours.
I refuse to bear any shame for a sucka that wanna claim me. Their true sucka ways will always show through. I don’t hafta tell anyone how fake they are because it’s obvious to anyone who encounters them…but when you out here claiming to be down with Slim, by proxy, know this; you ain’t. If you ain’t been here for the bad times or were the cause of the bad times, please stay all the way from me and everything I’m about. You find a way to keep my name in your mouth and the consciousness of others (and yourself) and STILL ain’t nobody checking for you.
Wow. You are so dull, you can’t even get this peripheral shine. You know Slim is out here shining, man. You still tryna hold on to some piece of Slim? Why?
All you ever wanted to do was talk about how Slim wasn’t doing NOTHING, Slim was out here LOSING, Slim music ain’t JACK. All I’ve ever done is disprove you and your ilk.
I ain’t Drake, but I also ain’t fake. I have never purported to be down with something I wasn’t or put on fronts to be in the mix. These busters wanna be the life of the party, but have no real lives. You can’t be the center of attention, if you ain’t got nothing to say, fool.
Slim has ALWAYS had something to say, was shutting up for the longest, and STILL managed to be the life of the party. Know why? Cuz I live a real life and it’s real interesting and you ain’t wanted to do nothing for the longest but sit on your ass and wait for someone like Slim to shine so you could bask in the afterglow. You a coat-tailing chump. A passenger. A back-seat passenger, at that. You don’t have the power to steer or push the gas and have no control over when the ride stops. You just there…
…hawking me.
In summation, I do NOT ride with ANYONE fake that changes up their steeze according to the crowd they’re around and those people that are claiming I do, in any kinda way, need to stop.
That’s just real.
Another funky, cold-blooded Naptown Slim Production. Stay real, cuz once you show you’re fake, that’s all you’ll ever be.
RR
CLICK THE PIC AND SEE HOW REAL NAPTOWN SLIM KEEPS IT.
#NaptownSlim - just real talk.
Peacepeace everybody. It’s Naptown Slim again.
I really love that cat in the picture behind me. That’s my gee, Matt. He’s gone now, man. Shit still hurts. I ain’t even tryna sugar-coat it, man. The shit hurts.
I might get all up in my emotions right now, but I ain’t trippin, because I’m supposed to get all up in my emotions. I’m standing in a spot where this brother gave me work, advice, love, care, food, a SPOT, man…when I really didn’t feel like I had anywhere to be. This is my old friend from school, man. We went back so many years already at this point…and my dawg said, “Slim, we got you. Come on in.”
And I came on in….and it was like I was already there and had been there the whole time.
I’m tryna keep this short and sweet, cuz a gee really gotta wash his face and get back to work. Let this be known.
I’m really really really glad that that cat behind me sipping the beer was my friend…and there’s a whoooooole buncha people that would say the same thing….and I’m grateful that I know a whooooole buncha those people.
If you can’t say that about your life when it’s all said and done, you lived wrong. Ain’t nobody gonna be talking about what designer you wearing in your coffin, fool. You better get some appreciation for life while you got it. You better learn to share what you got to offer with these world, cuz that’s how you really leave your mark. My gee, Matt, got a legacy of love and greatness that lives on in all of us and in the very room where I am standing, taking this picture, forcing a smile when I wanna cry…
…but I’m here with my gees. LIfe ain’t so bad, man.
I miss you, Matt. Slim really love you, bruh. Thank you for everything, man. You were truly a friend to everybody who met you and that is the greatest thing you can say about a man’s life.
Peace, y’all. Naptown Slim gotta get back to this work like Matt told me to do. I ain’t stopping, man.
CLICK THE PIC TO SEE WHAT MY GEE, MATT TOLD ME I NEEDED TO DO. MY DUDE.
#NaptownSlim on ‘Hatin’
Gather ‘round, children. Naptown Slim got somethin to say. We talk about love so much, but we gotta stay real and flip the coin. I’m gonna talk about them ‘haters’.
Let’s define it; you havin an opinion that ain’t the same as mine ain’t ‘hatin’. If you go outta your way to inject negativity into one’s life, that’s hatin.
I may hafta tell the truth about someone and it may sting, but the tone in which I do it will determine the difference between ‘hatin’ and just some shit you didn’t wanna hear about yourself. You’ll be aight. Slim don’t hate you, but Slim gon tell it. Slim gon tell that truth.
Too many people negate the power of the idea of ‘hatin’ by using the word to describe situations where they have found conflict. LIFE is about conflicts and resolutions. People gon be against you, man. Cold blooded.
Dig. I got too much shit of my own going on to be bothered with ‘hatin’ on you. Anyone with something going on in their life should be able to say that.
Haters out here with your aura all in their mind, wanting you to stop doing you so they can shine. Don’t give em the pleasure. You now know a sucka when you meet one. Apply the terms correctly and keep it moving.
People say “Let your haters be your motivators.”. Nah, B. Slim was motivated before you got here. THAT’S why people be hatin, they want your creativity, motovation, and enthusiasm. Envy is real as hell in the heart of a hater.
You can rearrange the letters in the word ‘hater’ to spell ‘heart’ which leads to my point: a hater has a mixed-up heart, not knowing where to place the love that is naturally in it. Sad. Cold blooded, ain’t it.
Motivate yourself. Get your heart right and get that hate outta it, by any means necessary.
That’s another funky, cold blooded Naptown Slim production and it’s been REAL. Love, y’all.
CLICK THE PIC TO HEAR ME TALK ABOUT WHAT’S REAL AND CHASE THE HATERS BACK UNDER THEIR ROCKS.
#NaptownSlim gotta LOGO, hoe.
Y’all…the love for Naptown Slim is so real out here. A brutha really touched right now, man. I could cry thug tears of joy.
My man on Twitter, his name is @DigitalPharaoh, made this for Slim and sent it to me today.
I mean, does that NOT look RIGHT? People can FEEL me, bruh. I’m out here saying real funky REAL thangs. I treasure these kinds of gifts from the people I have met or touched with my words, even in a digital forum.
Love is real, man. It never dies…and when you got it in you, you give it and you show it. I shouldn’t say it never dies, cuz that is sho nuff a way to kill it, keeping it inside of you and not showing it…word…cold blooded, man.
Love can’t live alone, man. I put the word into the streets because it’s real.
Thanks to my man, Stephen. It just got realer. Naptown Slim got a logo.
Another funky, cold blooded Naptown Slim production. Always real.
