Saturday 12th December 2020, 02:38

The game is effed.

I tried to wade upstream against the current as pride and price didn’t allow me to enter draws and raffles to catch Ls.

I’m deffo an old head that still lives in the glory days of obscure online independent retailers and lesser known stores dotted through the city.

Nostalgia is a strong force of nature, so much so that I cast my net in the perpetual abyss of limited supply at a stupidly high price in hope that I reel in a prized catch of some of the finest silhouettes and OG colourways that tell a thousand tales, passed down from pair to pair over the years.

I went through my functional phase, I tried the present day models but theres nothing like the allure of a retro pair of Nike.

These iconic kicks aren’t just shoes they’re aspiration, ambition, accomplishment, heritage, statements, accents, moods, memories… it’s a feeling.

The fresh out the box smell never gets old, nor does the returning them back to the box after their once every trimester wear.

I may be salty sometimes at never managing to cop a lot of pairs but deep down I must admit the price has me running scared but if it’s a particular type of retro OG I will cop with no expense spared.

Nike Verse (September 2010)

Since this is about ‘sneakers’ I thought I’d share this rare gem…

This verse was laid on a beat that I named ‘Churchill’ (after the nodding pooch) way back in the early days of my music production journey. The wider song is a track called Foxy which, as cringe as the title sounds, was made whilst I was at University. I took it to the studio as part of a recording project and created a polished, chart worthy pop-song that never saw the light of day because I always preferred the original which was created in Logic 8 and recorded in my bedroom studio on a Samson USB condenser mic (regret selling that when replaced with the Rode NT1-A in 2012 and giving away my Oxygen 8 keyboard because I’m a sucker for artefacts).

Connecting Dots

I’d go so far as to say that the year this picture was taken (excuse the FHM calendar, I was young), I made a lot of the songs featured on Autobiography of a Nobody and Rhythm & Prose: 1012BC as I had just come out of the Up In The Ear era (may be the next legacy drop in the trend of archive revivals). This was a fun time and I’m glad I’m in a place where I can connect the dots. Even seeing this picture and digging through my Logic Pro archives to fish out this Nike verse has given me inspiration to share stories because this is what a blogs are for.

What does ‘allure’ mean to you, what’s your thing, what’s your feeling?

Hey y’all! I’ve really been getting stuck into streaming lately since installing my newest and most ergonomic workspace setup. I can honestly say that it’s made going live a dream. I pretty much slip my phone into place, move my keyboard and trackpad apart, place the 3d printed drum machine stand in the middle and open the OBS app to get started. Due to using Restream I can broadcast to all services at once, aside from Facebook pages as I have to upgrade to premium, which is really good because I don’t have to heard people to different places.

Friday morning started out well. I stepped on the scales and recorded a low weight due to actually eating at a decent time and having more than enough sleep. Besides due to taking a break from the intensity of the gym for a few days I wanted to give my body some time to readjust. My bro sent me a message to give me the heads up about the Patta x Nike drop which I didn’t even look into a few weeks back as I figured why do I need two ticks on a crep but decided to try a ting. Surely this would be more democratic than an END. or SNKRS raffle right?

Click to view slideshow.

After losing out on the Patta drop, I sat at my desk staring at my monitor and loosly scrolling through Twitter feeling kinda salty for a good 40mins completely forgetting that Apple Watch Series 7 pre-orders opened at 1pm. By the time I got there it was 1336 and the shipping was saying some dumb shit like the 19-21st Oct and I was mad as hell. Thing is when I cop something I really want it on launch day ie. when its avails to the public or not at all but I still copped and for about 40mins I was set to own a Series 7 but in the time I was washing the dishes and boiling the pan full of eggs for a brunch, I said “fuck this” and cancelled my order.

Click to view slideshow.

I deffo made a vow to myself that I wouldn’t upgrade my Apple Watch Series 3 until the mythical feature of the blood glucose monitor arrives and have recently had it repaired due to bricking it with WatchOS 8 Beta and not being able to downgrade I figured I’ll run with it a lil while longer. Yes I’ve been going hard on fitness and taking it serious but I feel like as my guy Kayeman put it “smart watches are all fun and games, they shouldn’t dictate the work you put in.” In all honesty 400GBP is a lot of money to spend on something with no yield and I have a lot of pressing priorities so let me stick to my vow after my iPad Air 4th gen purchase of not buying anymore Apple products.

If anything, it goes to show that if you can’t identify the reason why you’re making a purchase or even what’s driving the urge then you really need to chill. In that moment of madness what drove me to get involved with the Series 7 is that I lost out the Patta’s but also what drove me to purchase them was the hype and influence from my brother which previously I didn’t give them a second glance when they featured in all the feeds anyway. I’m tapped. Sometimes we’ve got to gain a hold on ourselves because this consumption ting is very real and has a lot of folks who aren’t aware or in control of their emotions to spend themselves into oblivion thinking it’ll make them happy.

I started this Khalism Live with a roulette of what poetry to record but that quickly got dashed aside once I made the bouncy riddim and freestyled my consumption calamity. Hope you enjoy and give me a sub and a follow on the services such as Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and FaceBook.

Air Max Day in recent years has been a bittersweet celebration for me. On one hand I feel nostalgic when I think about all the great times I’ve had in both wearing and going to the ends of the earth to purchase them in the glory days, on the other side of it I’m traumatised by the sheer amount of raffles and draws I’ve lost. That email from the SNKRS app used to be a badge of honour but I quickly realised that I was doing marketing for free so I stopped sharing my Ls.

This episode isn’t marketing but a bittersweet trip where nostalgia and respect prevails any of the saltiness I felt at the start. For all those lucky enough to cop pairs of kicks at retail without the clownery of doing free marketing, hats off and raised glasses to you all who refused to jump through hoops and were successful unlike myself.

Happy Air Max Day.