#NaptownSlim on ‘Language’
Peace in the streets and the entire world as I begin another soliloquy of chaos (RIP: GURU)…it’s that dude, the move maker, the hip shaker, never deal with a clown or a faker, your buddy, Naptown Slim back with a word about, well…’words’
I’ve been banging these words around for a long time, y’all. Some of you know my history; I been getting down for a minute. It’s really all I can remember, banging these words around and making language fonkay.
During most of my career as an artist, I went outta my way to not cuss on records. I figured it was just easier; why jack up a chance for radio play with four syllables that I could replace very easily? I don’t think it has lessened the impact of what’s there…nor do I think harsh language woulda made the song(s) any better…
That was then. This ‘NOW’.
Well, Slim done changed. A lot has changed and Slim has learned a lot. Your kids have grown up and heard worse on television…during the day. Man, I bet they’ve SAID worse..at school…during the day…and anyway, they calling me ‘Slim Barkley’ in these streets,
“I am NOT a role model.”
Your pal, Slim, had to reassess things as shit got realer for him and you KNOW I GOTTA say what’s real. Sometimes, the only way to describe a person, place, thing, or situation is with well-placed ‘colorful’ language.
It ain’t my fault that society has gotten so wild…and I’m grown. Dig, man…I told y’all, I spent YEARS shutting up and faking happy. I sat my ass in counseling to get my mind right. Part of what we concluded was the ‘Kid was holding too much stuff inside. I was basically emotionally constipated and all the shit was bad. I broke down so many things about myself in that office. I had a head full bad ideas given to me by rotten people I had to flush out. I’m thankful I had the space to do so because I believe honestly, if I didn’t I’d have offed myself.
Fuck that.
See? Sometimes those words just work. I’m all about being economical with them joints.
And that leads to the point; Slim gon tell it. You KNOW Slim gon tell it and Slim ain’t NEVER told you otherwise. I call it like I see it. I tell it like it is, was, and WILL be, as I see it. I have no reason to hold my tongue. All that shutting up is what got me into trouble in the first place…so dig, when you hear me use words you think I wouldn’t use…know that I warned you. It’s a new day. I got something to say and sometimes, it won’t be for Junior. Put the kids to bed cuz I might hafta talk about some real shit sometimes.
In summation, I reserve the right to call bitchassness and scandalous shit out. When I refer to a dude as a ‘bitch’, there is a reason for it. If you hear me talking about a ‘hoe’, know that that word was considered and used because it is the right one for the situation. We’re all adults here. Shit. I don’t throw ANY of my words around willy-nilly…
(‘willy-nilly’ is a term we use in these Naptown streets to describe something done recklessly. Word)
See the pic? That’s symbolism. Naptown Slim got two sides, like everybody else, but I do my best to keep my head in the light. To do that, sometimes, I gotta say some ‘dark’ shit.
Peace, mufuckas. (I mean that in a good way.)
Another funky cold-blooded Naptown Slim production. It’s #ATFU.
CLICK THE PIC SO I CAN LET YOU HEAR WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SAY “FUCK THIS SHIT.”
I’ve never been one to ‘flip the bird’. It’s just an off-putting gesture. The older I get though…the more I wanna adopt it into my arsenal of snark.
The following story is true as fidduck, I really can’t make this kinda stuff up. If I could, I’d write scripts instead of raps and blogs…
I can recall with I first learned the power of ‘the bird’. Second grade, my partner-in-crime and play-cousin to this day, Kris Cerola or one of his older brothers that first taught me how to throw it. It was so powerful, that when they explained what it meant to me, they had to whisper it into my young ear. These guys were like brothers to me, so they knew that it wouldn’t be a good look to let me run into the streets all willy-nilly with my newfound form of expression…
…but I couldn’t wait to try it out…
I’m walking home from school later that week, right. I decided to take an alternate route, the way home the cool kids take, didn’t feel like walking where the cats hold teh sign and tell people to stop at the crosswalk. Naw. I’m a rebel, bruh. A tough kid with cool, tough friends. So, me and about three other kids who lived on the same block walked over to Corneilus Ave, so I could show them how to give people the ‘finger’.
I showed and explained it to them and proceeded to flip off some random cars, so they could see that I wasn’t making this up. We laughed and ran to the side street, cuz while it wasn’t as bad as throwing rocks, we knew we were being creeps.
I turned around to flip one more mighty bird to the cars as we made our getaway. With all of the mischief an 8-year-old can muster, I extended my arm, upturned my hand, and extended my middle finger to the cars passing the intersection.
At this point, I felt something hit my inner wrist, didn’t hurt, but I felt somethin’. Then I heard my dudes bust out laughing….like on some Fat Albert gang style…(those dudes knew how to laugh together, yo. They would all get together and laugh at once…crazy) Yeah, it was funny but, I didn’t know why THIS flipping of the bird was so hysterical…
There’s no cool way to say this; a bird shit on my arm, yo. Nailed me, perfect placement…and I have always been thin, so the odds of some bird poop hitting me in a perfect spot are kinda slim. I mean …. “PLOP” … dead center. “AWWWWWWWW, MAN, WHAT!! NAWWW!! NAWWW!! *cries*” Those dudes gave me the BLUES the rest of the way home.
Moral: When you extend your hand to say ‘Fuck you’ to someone, don’t trip when someone shits on you.
That’s some ‘instant karma’ for your ass. I have never forgotten that since 2nd Grade and there’s a reason for it.
Ever since that day, I’ve never just thrown the finger around randomly. But it’s so common-place now, I think I will start. And it saves me a lotta long ass posts like these…I was made aware of it’s power immediately. It would just save me time and no one takes it as personally as they used to.
People throw it in their FIRST promotional pictures anymore (“Hey, world. This is me. Fuck you!”). Shit, ‘Fuck You’ isn’t even that offensive anymore. Cee-Lo made a catchy little ditty outta it, even. Now, it doesn’t represent ‘Fuck you’ or ‘Fuck off’ as was whispered in my ear all those years ago. It represents an attitude…and I gotta gang of attitude. I might as well save my breath when I can.
And look at how badass I can throw it! I first learned with the ‘full fist, finger up’ and graduated to what you see in the pic, which is advanced. When you keep the knuckles up like that, it adds a certain flair, like ‘the bird’ is there with three little dudes who got his back. The Four Horsemen of the Fuckoffalypse.
oh…and this…
*throws up the ‘I’ for ‘Indianapolis*
out.
RR
