Nooks🎱 retweeted
A person who drops their values, language and traditions to fit in becomes owned by whoever sets the new standard. Culture is more than dress and festivals. It carries the rules that tell you who you are and how to treat people.
When you cut that root, you spend your life chasing approval from strangers. Learn the world, borrow what is useful, but never trade your identity for acceptance.
Nooks🎱 retweeted
During rehearsals for the 2016 BET Awards, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar were given code names to keep their surprise performance from leaking.
Beyoncé: Percy Mavis
Kendrick Lamar: Dave Free
Percy Mavis was reportedly the name of an aunt of someone working in BET’s talent department, while Dave Free is Kendrick’s manager and childhood friend
Nooks🎱 retweeted
Kendrick Lamar sat on the “Alright” beat for 6 months before writing a single word.
Pharrell and Sam Taylor kept texting him: “When you going to do it?” He already knew the record was strong. The chords felt like they could carry a statement, not just a song. But he refused to force it. For six months the right angle wasn’t there - the content, the timing, the approach he wanted (uplifting but aggressive, no victim posture).
The pressure from people who saw the potential before he did finally pushed him. Once he sat down, the words landed exactly as he’d pictured. Pharrell already had the hook. Kendrick just decided what “Alright” needed to mean in that moment.
Six months wasn’t delay. It was the cost of waiting for the entry that would make the song stick instead of just exist. Forced early, it becomes average. Waited for and then executed under the right pressure, it becomes the one people still quote years later.
The people who see the value before you do aren’t creating stress. They’re telling you the asset is ready.
Nooks🎱 retweeted
“Be a child. Pay attention to small things. Don't be led by prejudice. Take nobody's word for anything. Observe and think. Ask simple questions. Seek simple answers.”
— Brian Cox
Nooks🎱 retweeted
7 Years...Nov. 1, 2019
@gangstarr
ONE OF THE BEST YET
R.I.P. GURU 🙏🏾 👑 ❤️🕊️


























