My wife is low-key a genius or a psychic, I’m still trying to figure out which one. Ever since we’ve been together she’s been very outspoken and adamant about two things. One, “how trash this country is and how it’s headed towards disaster” and two, “how we all need to stock up and prepare for the inevitable doomsday”. The second thing is mainly because of the first thing, but both very valid points. She has definitely changed the way I look at this country and them being able to have our backs and set us all up for success and every time we hit a Target we try to buy a gallon of drinking water to stock pile in the garage for when the “big one” hits. As weird and unpredictable as this world is, I didn’t think that in a million years that my wife’s ideas about where things were headed would be on our front steps, especially this soon.
Shit was all good just a week ago and then suddenly things all paused. It seemed like there was a constant flow of new ideas being put out into the world. It’s like we were at this peak of citizens, especially citizens of color, understanding the importance of self-employment and entrepreneurship and actually going for it and then boom. It all stops. Everything shut down. I had just moved into my new production offices at Warner Bros and before I could even settle in, we get shut down until further notice. Been meeting with some folks about starting a creative agency and we’re targeting our first project date and boom, shut down til further notice. I don’t even want to talk about the Lakers. I seen someone tweet “I went from hoping that they finish this season to hoping that they play next season”. Yikes. Everyone is being effected by this and somehow someway thats the best part about this, there’s something bittersweet about it. The fact that almost everyone is on pause. The fact that everyone is realizing the realities of the government. The fact that everyone has something to look forward to. The fact that almost everyone is scared.
Can’t lie I’m scared as hell. Not sure if it’s the news or twitter feeds or the fact that we don’t have smart enough leadership to protect us. Scared of the uncertainty but at the same time scared of loosing the way we lived as we knew it. Being at home with my fam we try to normalize the situation by going for walks and getting exercise, but niggas don’t know how to social distance. It’s crazy, the other day a dude try to hand me his business card and another dude completely crossed the street to try and pet my dig, both boomers I might add, super weird, thats a whole other blog posts. I guess I’m scared of people and how they’re acting in these crucial times. Some overreacting and some not reacting at all. Who’s wrong and who’s right? With all the misinformation we have no idea.
Photo: Me in March 2019 in Japan. Fashion.
Besides going for walks or quick grocery runs. I’m blessed to be in a position where I don’t have to go out and work everyday but until further notice, I’m at the crib. A position that sounds lovely during this time but it’s a whole different energy when you don’t have a choice. Damn near feel like punishment. If someone would of asked me what I would do if I had to stay at home for a month I would probably come up with some perfect daily routine that involves personal growth, exercise routines, working on passion projects etc. But it’s hard. With all this free time I’m forced to face the reality of what I’m actually into. Since the top of the quarantine, my to do list is looking something like this: start making beats again, finish scripts, finalize designs for my clothing line, make a quarantine playlists, make art, write a children’s book, read more, write poetry, watch a movie a day. So far I’ve made zero beats, read zero pages (excluding scary corona articles) and wrote one line of poetry (I”m lyin). I ain’t did shit but play video games and sit on slew of virtual Skype meetings.
It’s tough though I’m realizing that the best things in life aren’t forced at all. And definitely starting to reach the point where I’m no longer placing these strict deadlines and “quarantine expectations” on my self. I’ve experienced time after time that the best things usually come after living in what I like to call “the unknown zone”. The unknown zone is that stretch of time when you don’t know whats next. When you’ve done it all and have nothing major to look forward to. During those times I’ve come to find that the reason that zone is uncomfortable is because usually you're sitting on your thumbs waiting for the next thing to magically appear and it usually never does. I’ve learned thats that the time where you have to make things happens yourself. Continuing to follow your curiosities regardless of the circumstances will light the path out of the unknown. (That was fake deep.)
Photo: Me in March 2020 in L.A. Necessity?
The silver lining to this whole ordeal are all the reminders of what’s essential in life. The world needed a time out. The world needed to sit down and analyze the more simple more meaningful things. Sitchoassdown and reconnect with things we were distracted away from. Spending valuable time with family, listening to music, checking in on elders, connecting with friends and just talking even if it is via FaceTime and just flat out being still. Being able to be in my living room and dance to D-Nice’s live DJ stream with my wife and infant son is a priceless experience. With all that being said I just hope that once this is all said and done these golden moments and character building experiences can continue within so that we don’t have to rely on superficial external things that can vanish in the blink of an eye.
Luckily quarantine life is great so far, mainly because we were prepared for this thanks to my wife’s genius. But I cant finish without mentioning a quick story. When we were in Japan for our honey moon I thought it was so cool that the locals were wearing masks (weird I know). I was like I’m going to take some of these masks back to L.A. and rock them whenever I’m sick (super weird, I know) they had some cool masks in dope colors including black. Since it wasn’t the flu season there I couldn’t find any in the stores. I happened to randomly find one pack on the way to the airport back home so as soon as I landed I went on Amazon and bought another 10 pack of black masks. When the pack came I realized instead of buying a pack of ten, it was 10 packs of 20. So now I got like 200 masks (don’t ask). I guess I’m the psychic one after all or the one that doesn't pay attention to details. Stay safe.