"I'm a venereal disease like a menstrual bleed through the pencil and leak on the sheet of the tablet in my mind, cuz I don't write ish cuz I don't got time."Really Weezy? If you thought that was a dumb line, you sleep.
"Watch me stand on the world as I sit in the throne, and if I jump, I'ma fly and look into the eagle's eye and say 'I am looking like you, why?'"That line goes hard. Oh yeah, then there's that song when Old Carter lyrically christens Young Carter which was kind of a big deal as far as hip-hop goes. (Sidenote: why does Hov's verse go so hard? Weezy didn't even touch Hov on that track.)
Song and video have been out for a while, but listening to "The Skit" off Wale's latest, it reminded me of this jawn.
Yes, he did. I was sitting down, taking a break from cleaning the apt to watch Animal Planet, and this commercial came on. I am pretty much in disbelief and still not quite sure if this is a practical joke or not.
Shoot or be shot—the reality on some Washington streets—has played out in Anwan Glover’s life.
“I was fascinated by guns at a young age,” says Glover. “I took my brother’s gun from him when I was 13. I just liked to fiddle around with it after school.”
One day Glover was hanging out on a street corner in DC’s Columbia Heights when he heard shots. “I found myself on the ground,” he says. It was the first of some nine occasions, by his count, on which he took a bullet. At 35, he’s been arrested multiple times for gun possession.
“If you are brought up in that atmosphere with guns and gunfire, guns get under your skin,” he says. “Some feel they need a gun for protection, some because it makes them feel like a bigger person.”
Tall and lanky, Glover is known on the streets as Big G. Fans of the HBO series The Wire know him as Slim Charles, an enforcer with a gravelly voice. He’s also played roles on NBC’s Law & Order.
Offscreen, Big G has joined Peaceaholics, a DC nonprofit dedicated to making peace on the streets. He goes into schools and housing projects to preach against gun violence. A few months ago, his younger brother was killed by gunfire.
“There are more guns on the streets than ever before,” he says. “If they lift that ban, it will be even more horrible.”
That’s Big G’s forecast if residents can get licenses to carry guns. But the current challenge to DC’s law asks that guns be legal only in the home.
“I would love to have one at home to protect my wife,” says Big G. “Then again, there might be a kid in the home who’s fascinated by guns like I was. You would have to find a way to keep them safe.
“This is a tough debate.”
