A little disclaimer before I begin; in no shape, way or form do I have high expectations on the feedback I’m gonna (hopefully) receive regarding my blogs. Meaning no-one is compelled to comment on these blogs; whether in negative critique or otherwise. Number two, Tshepiso Thissa Leseyane is the only party to be held accountable for anything written in the blog; whether good, bad, spiteful, or just plain fucked up. This brings me to our next point in this (unnecessarily long) disclaimer: strong language. My blogs might (and most probably will) contain profanity of any form, depending on how I might be feeling at the time of typing it. My blogs will normally be long, so if you hate reading, like more than half the people I know, remember that you’re not forced to read all of it (if any at all). I write these blogs because a) I like writing, whether it’s rhymes, notes, etc.; b) Facebook gives me (and anyone else) the opportunity to do almost anything these days, including this, which is writing notes/blogs; and c) because, well…I feel like it. That’s more than enough a reason right? Cool, let’s get it poppin’ like weak condoms. Was that too graphic? If you said ‘yes’, then you probably shouldn’t be reading my blogs. But I digress. You can stay and read if you want, lol.
At this point, I imagine you might be eager to read an actual blog instead of this useless disclaimer; if not asking yourself “What the fuck is a blog?”. To tell the truth, it doesn’t matter what you call the notes I’ll be writing weekly and uploading to www.whoisthekid.blogspot.com, and also Facebook . Wait a second, you can call them just that! “Facebook Weekly Notes by T.S”? Nah…sounds corny. “Blogs” is much shorter and easier on the tongue, plus you know how (us) black people like discovering a new word. We start using it right away, with a little “I-know-a-word-you-don’t-know” twang to it, i.e. ‘swag’. It’s astonishing (and sometimes annoying) how people, not just black, are abusing the word ‘swagger’ like its air.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with the word, I have a problem with people who don’t use it by its true meaning. Yeah, yeah I know it sounds cool and I should look at it as another “hip-hop trend” that’ll soon pass by with time. But fuck it. I’ve tried banning myself from using the actual word, and I’ve kind of succeeded for the most part. Trust me I’d love to use it everyday, it’s just that a part of me fears being categorized as “one of the dumb-asses that just jumped on the swag bandwagon without knowing what the word actually means”. I personally know (and have long known) of alternative words that more or less share the same meaning as ‘swagger’, but at times using them gets me those looks from people. You know what looks I’m talking about. Those “dude-why-the-hell-did you-use-a-dictionary-word” looks. Or that “look-at-this-english-knowing-motherfucker-that-thinks-he-knows-everything” look. The words that are similar to swagger are cadence, finesse, flare, and others that I might’ve forgot right now, but you get the point. I know I shouldn’t necessarily care what people think and should just choose whichever words I like, but that comes with a price too. I guess I have a problem with being judged, period. But anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the ‘swagger’ craze. I partly blame it on how dope the “Swagger Like Us” track is. Don’t get me wrong, I love that joint. I think its hip-hop song of 2008 in every rap fan’s book. Do you think the word would’ve been this big if the song was wack? I don’t think so either.
The disturbing part of the whole ‘swag’ hype is how people use the word based on fashion appearance. For example, if I rocked up at a club in an Audi R8 looking fresh as a new born, draped in matching jewellery, wearing ‘Omo-white’ Nike Air Force 1s with a pair of Gucci shades, covered in a gold jacket; some dumb ass is gonna be like “ooh he got swag”. What you wear plays a very small part in the type of swag you may have. Swagger is how a person carries his/herself. It ain’t about the way you look, period! I also believe that females have every right to judge a man’s swagger. It cracks me up whenever a dude is arguing with another dude about another dude’s swagger. You know what that word is, it starts with a ‘G’, and Riley Freeman uses it every time. Although I do believe that there’s nothing wrong with a dude praising his OWN swag.
I admit, the word ‘swag’ has done a lot for hip-hop in bringing a breath of fresh air, but I also kind of think that the phenomenon is killing hip-hop’s true lyrical mentality. I don’t wanna seem as if I’m preaching or some bullshit like that. Like I’m one of those underground MCs who cry about how hip-hop has died or some redundant shit like that. I’m just saying. Here’s an example: Two weeks ago my friends and I auditioned for Channel O’s MC Africa. It seemed as if each judge was getting paid squarely to mention the word in their verdicts. According to the judges, it was either the rappers didn’t have any, or they only had some and nothing else, if you get what I mean. In my case, they told me I had swagger but didn’t bring enough of whatever the fuck they were looking for. Now first of all, I knew I wasn’t gonna qualify from the moment I was done, but shit, why couldn’t they tell me I wasn’t prepared enough or some other shit like that? Maybe I’m just mad cause they used the word ‘swag’ in my verdict, together with the rest of the 200 people that were there. For some strange reason I think I would’ve felt better if they said I couldn’t rap at all, lol. Okay I’m just kidding there but you get my drift. I appreciate it more if my girl compliments my swagger, not a rap competition judge. What’s next? Are rappers of the future gonna release albums with nothing but swag on them and no actual music? Like that scene in Pootie Tang where Pootie releases a platinum-selling album that actually has no sounds coming out of the disc? Just ‘swag’? Hmmm. Let me stop right there with the complaining. I wouldn’t wanna throw too much of a bitch-fit in my first blog ever.
So I’m not saying don’t use the word. Frankly I don’t care if you do or not. Just know what it means when you do. Matter-of-fact, fuck it, turn your swag on. Whatever the hell you think it is.
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