Buddy Ruski

Durham-based multimedia storytelling company curious about how communities are built. 🦎🧭🎙️

[buddyruski]

Black On Neither Side

Yesterday, as Gabe and I contemplated the implications of our most recent social post for RUNAWAY, I shared with him an idea that I’ve been wrestling with for most of my life.

Here’s a not-so-brief timeline:

HIGH SCHOOL

Even though I grew up in a mixed-race household, many of my closest friends are White. This wasn’t by choice, but simply by proximity. That comes with a certain culture, way of life, etc. While I didn’t really think about my race that often, as I got older, it became a thing I had to deal with, both internally and externally.

All the things I associated with Black culture like hip-hop and basketball, I first picked up with my White friends, but I never felt like those things made me more Black.

WINSTON SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY

It wasn’t until I got to Winston Salem State, a historically black college/university, that I started to understand how I was perceived in the larger community.

My best friend at WSSU, after only a few weeks hangin’ together, gave me the nickname “Kevin Federline” because of my “White” behaviors i.e. jump shooting, listening to conscious hip-hop, and using few ebonic phrases in my speech.

You know, white people stuff. Stuff Kevin Federline would do.

Having no real interaction with the Black community outside of my family, it didn’t dawn on me that I was seen as a stereotypically White person by my Black peers. Not that I was trying to shy away from being Black, or didn’t want to be White, but for some reason, ironically, it made me feel like a black sheep in the Black community being the White guy.

So...

I wasn’t White to my White friends, but I wasn’t really Black either.

I wasn’t Black to my Black friends.

This put me somewhere in the ballpark of Will Smith-level Black, which explains why Big Willie Style was the first CD I ever bought. 

Shout out Millennium Music.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

At Durham Tech, there is a strong contingent of international students. I met people from all across the world whose families now live in the Triangle. It was incredibly enlightening to be around people who have very different world views than mine, and learn from their experience. It also made me the least Black person in the crew. Again. This time, I was beaten out by friends who were actually from the Motherland. That said, I felt much more at home with my international crew than I did in my one semester at WSSU.

NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY

Enrolling at NCCU afforded me the opportunity to learn about Black culture on a deeper level than I ever had before. I took a couple classes, one specifically on Tyler Perry movies (regardless of the fact that I hate his work), to try a wrap my head around some ideas I had about Black culture and my own existence in it. Analyzing media, perception and culture through an academic lens was the way I needed to digest it at this point in my life.

RUNAWAY

When we first debuted the Black Wall Street capsule collection, the idea was to highlight Durham’s progressive, diverse entrepreneurial history. It brought a lot of attention to the brand since it’s run by two guys in the racial minority.

All of a sudden, I was Black now.

The problem was, I was Black at the time it was most convenient. Whether it be to promote the company, promote an American Underground initiative, or our community, I found myself accepting my Black heritage for gains, not empowerment.

Now, when I have conversations about Black Lives Matter, and people look to me, or look to RUNAWAY to take a stance, or be a leading voice in the conversation, I feel jaded. The same types of people who in the past made me feel like I wasn’t Black enough now want me to march in solidarity as an equal.

I’m not one to hold a grudge, but it’s difficult to shake the feeling. For my whole life, I’ve blown in the wind, not sure where are the spectrum I fall in my racial characterization. Now, it’s being defined for me.

Part of me doesn’t want it defined. I never thought about it as a kid, and I prefer it that way. To say “I don’t see color” is cliche, sure, but it’s the way I accept everyone. Yeah, your race and color might create assumptions, but if I’ve never met you, who am I to say how you should and shouldn’t act?

When I spent time with my Muslim friends at Durham Tech, their perspective on US foreign policy, problems in their home countries, and life in the US helped me sympathize with their struggles, even if our lives weren’t the same.

I am sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter cause. I don’t believe in the looting, or the protesting, but over the last year at NCCU, I’ve learned to be sympathetic as I struggle through my identity crisis. I want people to see me for who I am, and not what I’m supposed to be.

[buddyruski]

See you on the open road, chumps 🚲🤘😠🔥 thanks to Rob and the folks at @bullseyebicycle, as well as the guidance of @eliza.marie_, I went in for new tires and came out with a brand new bike, and clearly an increased level of road rage. For anyone that saw my feature on the @gotrianglenc site, I've committed more to biking, walking, and busing around town. It's been great for my health and my connection to my surroundings. This new two wheeler is a much better fit for the biking experience I plan on having going forward. Getting a subwoofer and neons next week #BikeIsLife (at Bullseye Bicycle)

[buddyruski]

Election years can be a great time for reflection and interpersonal analysis. I have tried to ask myself, “How much of a hypocrite am I being?” People want to see change, but we are reluctant to change ourselves before we spew off on the Internet.

While there are many things I could improve in my life, using alternative transit was an easier behavior for me compared to other goals I’d set for myself.

As I mentioned in the above video, I started taking the bus quite a lot after graduating high school. I didn’t get my license until 19. Between classes at Durham Tech, and visiting my friends at UNC Chapel Hill, I found the bus to be a low barrier-to-entry way for me to have more freedom.

In the time since I’ve moved out of my grandparents’ house, my commute from home has not been too far from most places I traveled, whether for work, school, or leisure. Riding the bus and biking became a routine way for me to journey across Durham.

Eventually, I started driving more. Convenience, weather conditions, and a small bit of social pressure convinced me that it was the right move. Most functioning adults have cars, and if I wanted to be taken seriously, I needed to get behind the wheel.

The car I bought was a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I got it from a neighbor of my Dad’s in Atlanta for $1000. When I bought the car, it was in decent shape but had been sitting dormant for a while. Because I was so used to either taking the bus, biking, walking, or getting rides with friends, the slightest hiccup in the car’s functionality caused me to neglect fixing it when I should have. It sat in my driveway for awhile before we moved it to my Opa’s for what turned out to be a lengthy repair process.

I do really enjoy the car, but it’s not exactly a “green” form of transportation. The smell of gas and oil is an unfortunate reminder of my hypocrisy as a self-described progressive contributing to the continuation of the fossil fuel industry by driving this machine.

Ironically, the week after I shot this video about alternative transportation, I finally got the Jeep back on the road after over a year. I haven’t driven it since I took it from my grandparents’ house. The mechanical tinkering was a great bonding experience for Opa and I, but in the end, I wonder how much it will be worth it for the vehicle itself if I don’t use it.

Filming this interview allowed me to really think deeply about how I want to impact the world. Riding the bus wasn’t just a means of transportation, but a way to stay connected with a community I wouldn’t otherwise be a part of. It kept me grounded. Most days, I still bike, walk, or bus into downtown where we have both our store and office. While I recognize there is a convenience with most of my life being centered around this one location, I hope that I can inspire even just one person to consider changing their travel behavior for personal health, mental stimulation, and the greater good.

Check out the full post on the #GoTogether campaign here.

[buddyruski]

My first official post on #teamiphone. I felt like a real superstar this morning biking to the polling place. As a progressive individual, I was able to represent my cause well by traveling green and participating in the democratic process. #ivoted be the change you want to see in the world. (at CC Spalding Elementary)

[stephenvanasco]

[buddyruski]

Twitter Beef with Austin Lawerence Partners

A few weeks back, CBRE Raleigh tweeted enthusiastically about their involvement regarding the currently under development One City Center in Downtown Durham.

https://twitter.com/BuddyRuski/status/728016900349931522

I have since been blocked by CBRE Raleigh and thus barred from revealing their actual tweet.

The tweets that followed from me were less than friendly, but I stand by them. Austin Lawerence Partners, the “group in Colorado” in question, was not pleased with the encounter, and came to visit me at the RUNAWAY store a few days later. Paul, the older of the two, did most of the talking. His demeanor was not threatening, but his condescending tone felt unwelcoming. That, and the fact that he called me Buddy.

What I thought was going to be an enlightening, bridge building conversation turned into a rant from my new friend Paul.

Short version: Austin Lawerence Partners are the saints of the world because they bought buildings in Durham and turned them into Revolution.

Look, I’m not asking for perfection. But it’s hard to believe Austin Lawerence Partners is having the right conversations given the history of what they’ve already built here in Durham, and the messaging coming from their hit squad that came to visit me.

Since the encounter, I’ve had to remind myself that it would not be farfetched for people to think of American Underground, the place I spend every waking moment, in a similar way. It’s really easy to judge from afar without attempting to have meaningful conversations with those you feel you have differences.

It was important for Austin Lawerence to try and make a connection with me, and I with them. The gesture gives me hope that they are open to hearing from us tiny people.

What will it take to connect the mega-developers, small business owners, city council, and citizens of Durham in a way that creates meaningful change?

We won’t all get everything that we want. That goes without saying. Durham’s past in development and commerce is rooted in collaboration between people of all backgrounds.

Will that be our future?

[superemptyblog]

My Weekend With Local Rappers And Hip-Hop Photographers, And How The Moogfest Gentrificaton Narrative Is A Lazy Cliché

It is not an exaggeration to say this was one of my favorite weekends ever.

On Thursday night, after seeing Blood Orange play an 80-foot-wide outdoor stage that didn’t exist three days earlier, I saw Ryan Hemsworth finish his groovy, head-nodding set at the Armory with Chance The Rapper’s “No Problem,” to which everyone predictably lost their mind. On Friday night, just two blocks away from my house, I stood behind the ebullient afro of Reggie Watts as we both took in a mesmerizing GZA set inside MotorCo. Hours earlier, I had watched Professor Toon and Well$ play probably two of the best shows I’ve seen from them, to a crowd that was more energized and engaged from start to finish than anything I’m used to seeing at local shows. Saturday night, I took pictures from press row as GZA played his second consecutive night, this time on the outdoor stage. Once again, I had to pinch myself that this 2,000-person gathering was all happening in a parking lot through which I often walk my dog.

As I sipped on the lone remaining PBR tall boy from my fridge this morning (read: 3 p.m.) recounting these and other events of the weekend, it occurred to me that as amazing as many of the events were, I was equally grateful to the festival for simply giving me an opportunity to hang out with a lot of people I don’t get to see enough of, in this case rappers, producers, clothiers, bloggers and photographers, many of whom I’d met while running my clothing brand and store, Thrill City, in Chapel Hill between 2011 and 2015. It’s something that I immediately agreed with when I saw DJ Forge sum it up in a single tweet:

Honestly, the best part about Moogfest has been hanging out with my friends that I don’t get to see as often as I should

— FORGE (@djforge)

May 20, 2016

I think I know Forge well enough to safely assume that a good number of the friends he was referring to are not white. Most of the friends who made my weekend awesome are not white. And yet that didn’t stop members of local media and a parade of snarky tweeters (like a termite or cockroach infestation, Durham surely has legions more below the surface that we haven’t seen yet) from dishing out tired “outside investment/gentrification/NIMBY” tropes in the run up to the festival last week, with the idea that Moogfest is part of a downtown expansion that pushes common people out of the way to make room for a plutocratic playground enjoyed by white, male, venture capitalists.

It’s not a narrative in Durham that I completely disagree with, or one that we shouldn’t talk about. But as it relates to Moogfest in particular, my experience this weekend tells a very different story. You may not think of Moogfest as particularly hip-hop, and it is obviously a far cry from a black festival, but I can say this without equivocation: of the artists, creatives, managers, photographers and more in the NC hip-hop community that I’ve connected with over the past few years, I’ve never seen so many of them in such a small radius, over one weekend.

So who is destroying our local culture, again?

Most of the friends I spent the past weekend with are very young (less than 24 years old, some as young as 18), they are largely non-white, and they are very, very far from the average attendee annual income of $100,000+ that Moogfest boasts about to its potential sponsors and partners. They are not invading Durham from all corners of the world to transform our local culture against our will — they’re from around our area and around our state, more likely from the Triad than Tribeca.

And I’m not talking about just one or two examples. It got to a point this weekend when I stopped even having to wonder if various friends from the hip-hop scene would be wandering the streets of Durham — by part-way through Friday night, I could safely assume they were.

King Phill, founder of style and culture blog Cool&WellDressed, and someone I rarely get to see, was in town from Greensboro shooting for Infinite Magazine, as was Charlotte’s Dave Has Wingz, another writer, clothing designer and photographer who I hadn’t hung out with in more than a year. Tommy Coyote, a 19-year-old well-known in the hip-hop circles for his popular Instagram account (10k followers and counting, bolstered by his recent months as a tour photographer for Derek Luh) was visiting from Apex, working as one of Moogfest’s lead photographers. He and 18-year-old photographer Basile Shingu both spent multiple nights in Moogfest’s American Tobacco basement doc studio, grinding out work for the festival, and it was awesome to see how much fun they were having. Of course my longtime friends and collaborators Justin Laidlaw and Gabe Get$ of RUNAWAY were out and about, their brand new shop getting Official Moogfest Merch Store treatment just a couple months removed from opening day. I ran into or spent time with Father MIKE, Crystal Taylor, and Chelsey Bentley — all of them active and engaged members of the local hip-hop community.

Oh right, and the artists themselves.

Greensboro-based JK The Reaper was in town to perform as part of Denzel Curry’s Friday Night MotorCo set, which followed near-flawless performances from Durham’s Professor Toon and Chapel Hill’s Well$. Toon and Well$ would perform again on Saturday night with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn (aka MADE OF OAK) on the festival main stage, something that should have made any North Carolina music fan happy. Durham’s Kid Infamous and Danny Blaze were in the crowd for GZA’s indoor show, Charlotte’s Will Wildfire played an unofficial backyard party, Defacto Thezpian spent time dishing out albums and politicking with Well$ backstage, producer Cocique popped up throughout the weekend with his perfectly groomed manbun, Trandle showed off his hoverboard skills behind The Pinhook, Toon’s DJ Shahzad went nuts next to me during the aforementioned Ryan Hemsworth set, Bull City emcee The Real Laww was everywhere, Raleigh rapper and producer Brassious Monk caught Lunice from a couple rows in front of me, and rapper Austin Royale (formerly A-10) rolled around with JK and Denzel Curry.

Every time I turned around I was bumping into someone I hadn’t seen in weeks, if not months, or was meeting through a mutual friend for the first time. And rarely did the person I was bumping into match the archetypal Moogfest attendee I’ve been programmed to dread: white, wealthy, uninvested in Durham or Triangle culture. As I stood on the back side of Ninth Street Bakery on Saturday watching a group of young people all hanging out because of Moogfest — Tommy taking pictures of Shahzad and Gabe as they stood against a brick wall, Well$ crouching between them with skateboard in hand, all of them mean-mugging for the lens — it hit me how bizarre and out-of-touch our local cultural commentary has become. If railing against the socio-cultural implications of Moogfest is now the standard position of Durham’s counter-culture, it’s truly surreal to consider what is, by definition, now the Establishment: Moogfest-affiliated skaters, rappers, and clothing lines that feature designs like a skeleton lying in a coffin with two women.

These opinions do not come without some important disclaimers, chief among them that Moogfest provided my ticket, as well as many of my meals, over the weekend, as well as full access that made it easy to jump between green rooms, rooftop viewing areas and press pits, as part of a documentary I’m working on with Moogfest and RUNAWAY. This undoubtedly colors the way I look back at the weekend as a whole.

Due to my proximity to all the venues, I saw more of the festival than I have of any other festival in my life, so when I say “I saw more members of the hip-hop community at Moogfest than I’ve ever seen anywhere,” although it is a true statement from me, it should not be taken to mean there isn’t a similar camaraderie at, say, Hopscotch. I’ve just never been able to spend a full weekend there.

Lastly, I realize that the couple dozen people I described here are but one small window into the thousands of attendees who descended upon Durham this weekend, and likely do not speak to a larger trend. Therefore, this essay is not meant to present an omniscient, all-encompassing rejection of the Moogfest/gentrification storyline, but rather provide a glimpse into how, at least within one small community, that premise fell spectacularly flat.

I’ve grown incredibly tired of the cliché — often propagated by progressive white people with largely white social circles who enjoy the social benefits of a semi-gentrified city (LGBTQ-friendly businesses, responsibly sourced food, microbreweries galore) — that Moogfest, and any other fun and exciting thing for that matter, is a harbinger of a corporate takeover tearing at the fabric of our little multi-cultural utopia. To hear some of these people opine about Moogfest, it’s as if NewsCorp has just broken ground on a new headquarters in the old Durham Bulls outfield.

We should question, we should challenge, we should critique. But before spouting opinions from 25,000 feet up, we must also engage on the ground level. Ask some of the people I spent the weekend with, and you’ll likely find that, like me, they had an amazing time. To hear their answer, though, you’d have to take a break from speaking on their behalf.

[superemptyblog]

Thoughts of Raleigh: Talking to the duo behind Sincerely, Tab (Pt. I)

After a years-long hiatus, North Carolina rap collective Kooley High emerged from the shadows in 2015 to hit us with Heights, a diverse EP of tracks that showed the group’s range to be wider than ever, from the cocksure antics of “Suave,” to possibly Kooley’s most heartfelt work yet, “Carry On.”

Less than a year later, we now have Sincerely, Tab, the long-awaited collaboration album from Kooley rapper Tab-One and producer Sinopsis. I talked to the album’s creators separately about what went into the album, why now, and what comes next. (Part II with Sinopsis coming soon.)

SE: This is a project that has been in the works for a long time, like at least a couple years, right? When did it actually begin to take shape, and what were the main things that drew it out?

Tab: I was in BK around 2011. I don’t know if I ended up with beats from Sinopsis that maybe he had given us for David Thompson, or if I had just asked him to send me some. I just remember, like, “M.O.B.” for example. I remember having that in my headphones and writing to it in the subway, had to be around 2011. And then when me and Sinop started talking about a project, I knew I wanted to call it Sincerely, Tab. I just liked how it played off both of our names.

If you go back even further when we were in H2O at NC State, me and Sinop had always talked about doing a project together. For whatever reason it just never happened. So we finally started, and he was sending me some beats and stuff while I was in BK. We had planned on putting it out around like 2013. There’s an image back then from Kooley High on Twitter that actually says “Sincerely, Tab coming 2013” (laughs). I think it got put on hold because Kooley stuff took precedent. Anything that came with the group we wanted to push more, just because it’s more mutually beneficial for everyone, and for the most part still is. I think in the long run it was better that we waited. If we put out in 2013 I don’t think it would be nearly as good as it turned out to be.

How long were you in Brooklyn?

I think I moved there in June of 2010, and then I think I moved back to Raleigh in like, September of 2011.

Did you go there to pursue a music career?

Yeah, Kooley had moved up there to pursue music. That’s how we got our connection with Fat Beats, did some shows, met some people, but I was doing a long-distance thing with my (now) wife, and that was hard. And just being up there in general was kinda hard. More power to the people who wanna stay up there, but I came to the point where I was like I don’t really see the point in being up here, barely paying bills and buying food, when I could go home to North Carolina and be with my friends and family.

What were you doing by day? On “Thoughts of BK,” you talk about a “PA gig” and “cleaning up weed from a shoot with Khalifa.”

I was a production assistant for part of the time, that was probably the best job I had up there. I had a little walkie talkie, and mostly what I’d do was pick up a van at like 4 in the morning in Manhattan, then pick up the stylist from whatever hotel they’re staying at and drive them out to wherever we’re doing the shoot. We did shoots for Hilfiger, some actresses, but yeah one of the shoots was for Wiz Khalifa. I had to go get this ridiculous rider of sour cream and cheddar Ruffles and crazy shit he wanted, a bunch of white t-shirts. But at the end of the day they left weed crumbs all over the table and I had to clean it up, so I scooped it up and took it home. And later that night Kooley High enjoyed the fruits of my labor.

So much of the album feels even more reminiscent of 90’s albums like Like Water For Chocolate than much of the Kooley catalog, which skews more towards a party vibe. To what degree did you and Sinop have a conscious conversation about making something more subdued and introspective?

I think it’s just the nature of me when I’m left to my own devices — I tend to be more introspective. It’s been my style, always has been. With Kooley, Charlie is so talented with coming up with ideas and hooks for songs, I mean honestly a lot of times his mind kinda steers the direction of certain projects, and I hop on board and help out, and occasionally, I might come up with a hook. I feel like hooks personally were never my strong suit, I just like writing. I’ve always tried to work on it, and as long as I’ve been doing this, I feel like I’m just now getting comfortable with that. Charlie’s just fucking amazing how good he is with that shit. I think the next Kooley album you’ll probably see a difference. We’re all maturing and getting older as we write. I think even if you listen to The Tabloids, my old shit, that’s where I come from, introspective. It wasn’t anything thought-through.

I love the changeup on “Back On Up,” particularly the second half. How did that come together?

He (Sinopsis) played it for me, and when it just changed halfway through I was like “Hell yeah — that’s the type of shit I want this to do.” Sinop is a funny guy. He’ll add something on his own and I’ll ask, “Where did that come from? Who the hell played that?” On that bassline I find out it was this dude (George) Pettus that he met at Brightlady (9th Wonder’s studio). Or on “M.O.B.,” I guess (King) Mez was over at Sinop’s one day, and he played it for him and Mez just put a verse on it.

“M.O.B.” both sonically and lyrically is one of the strongest total songs on the project, I think. That beat is crazy. And Mez recorded his verse without you knowing?

Sinop had played me that beat obviously a long time ago. I liked it at the time, and even now, even in an album, that beat stands out. Sinop is always getting better and better in my opinion, and is always making new beats. I love when I hear him play something unexpected from him, and I think that was one of those beats that was like, “Oh shit! Didn’t know you had that in the stash”! So yeah I gravitated towards it, I feel like he had played it for Act Proof or someone in JAMLA and no one had picked it up, and when I heard it I was like, “I want that.”

Even Mez jumping on it, all I know is he was there at some point when I wasn’t there and laid it down.

Did you talk to Mez about it before you dropped the album?

I was kinda worried with where he is right now, so I didn’t say anything, because I would rather ask for forgiveness than for permission. He hasn’t said anything so I assume he’s cool with it.

Mez is the type of artist inclined to usually not like his old stuff, for sure.

A lot of people are like that. A lot of artists are perfectionists. I don’t see myself as that type of artist. I feel like I know in my head if something is wack, and I won’t put it out if it’s wack. I’m not a perfectionist by any means — I’m down to put shit out and see if people like it.

Through the success of Kooley, you and Sinopsis are in a minority of hip-hop artists in the Triangle with any sort of connection to a physical distributor like Fat Beats in New York, which you mention on “Thoughts of BK.” Is there more to that story? You said: “Hit up Fat Beats, see if they want to run our tracks like some athletes/They were down, but them bed bugs creepin’, call my lady, tell her that I’ll be home by the weekend.”

So it’s kinda like summing up my whole experience in Brooklyn in three short verses, you know? So it’s not all linear, maybe, but it’s talking about how we made David Thompson when we were up there, so we met with Fat Beats. They loved it, they had already re-distributed Eastern Standard Time on CD, and they agreed to put out David Thompson, just digitally. They were down, they did EST, David Thompson, and now Heights, so we still have relationship.

The bed bugs was a true story too. The 2-bedroom we had four dudes in ended up having bed bugs so we were packing all our clothes into garbage bags, taking them down to the laundromat, waiting for them to try, put them back in the garbage bag, duct tape them. Last couple weeks I was there I was sleeping on an air mattress with no blankets and a towel for a pillow.

So that situation was the catalyst for leaving?

It was the final straw definitely. I wanted to be home with my girlfriend, back in North Carolina and with my family. New York was cool and I think I could have stayed up there but I didn’t see the point for me personally. I love it down here. I don’t see why we can’t do what we do from NC and travel elsewhere.

Speaking of family, “Sugar” sounds so much to me like the classic MURS style of love song that I feel like he has a million of, Common too, and they all sound great. Are those at all an inspiration for the song, by chance?

It’s funny you mention Common because yeah, Mos Def, even Black Thought on like “You Got Me,” from Things Fall Apart, stuff like that I always loved. I like hip-hop love songs that aren’t like, I don’t know… don’t come off cheesy, just feel honest. And pure. So I wanted to do something like that. And I wanted to do a love song that was more uptempo, and not like a cliché downtempo kinda vibe. Something different.

Is the 9th Wonder-executive produced Kooley High album ever going to come out? There’s definitely an interesting dynamic going on when you’re partially relying on him, and ostensibly his most time-consuming project right now is the solo career of someone who used to be in your group, and now isn’t, in Rapsody.

I don’t think there’s anything weird. I think if there’s anything that has put delays on it, it’s us. The relationship is cool, everything with us and Rap is very cool and I’m not saying that just to say that. We all still talk to Rap regularly. I think it just got to the point where it was like… we saw that coming. It’s almost like a sigh of relief, because everyone was thinking it: “You should be doing your own thing with 9th. You deserve to do it, you worked your ass off.”

I mean we all started off as friends and we all want to stay that way. If you can’t be happy for your friends’ success what does that say about you? That’s fucking awesome. We’re all super supportive of Rap, and actually the album was her idea. She hit us up and was like would you want 9th to executive produce the album?

I imagine the executive production by 9th is helpful both from the standpoint of the music and the marketing — is that something you discussed as a group?

His involvement has definitely helped us piece together a really good album, and getting input from somebody who’s been doing this for so long and worked on so many classic albums. Obviously since his name is attached to it, it’ll get us in some lanes that we’ve never been in, which would be a huge plus, but you can’t expect anything. I guess if I’m being honest I would hope so, but I’m not going to expect it by any means.

[buddyruski]

New Patriotism

American patriotism is not a new subject for me. I wrote about it on more than one occasion for Clarion Content a couple years ago, and multiple times for American Literature courses at Durham Tech.

This election cycle reminds me of two things this country should do away with immediately if we’re to truly be a United States; political parties and race characterizations.

RACE

I am not African-American. I have never been to Africa. I am not Black-American. My Dad is White, Mother is Black. I have never lived anywhere else but the United States of America. My parents have never lived anywhere else but the United States of America. My dad’s father lived in Scotland for a couple years to teach, and my mom’s father traveled abroad while in the military. Pretty sure neither of them have citizenship outside of the States.

So that makes me an American citizen at least three generations back. Why can it not end there? Yes, I appreciate my family's lineage back to “the old country.” Yes, I understand that my skin color, and the color of my parents, has social and financial implications throughout this country’s history.

At what point do we start treating everyone as American citizens and not this butchered hyphenation? Am I Multi-racial-American? How is that different from American? Do I need a separate set of identification credentials to be Multi-racial?

POLITICAL PARTIES

How many people do you know that agree with every checklist item presented by either party? My guess is not many. If I’m a Democrat that doesn’t believe in gay marriage, am I still a Democrat? If I’m a Republican that is deep in the legalization movement, am I a traitor? Politics is too nuanced an idea to have such black and white representation.

The power is in the establishment. Neither party is different from the other, sans a few talking points. They are established powers who fight for candidates that will hold the status quo. So why even have political parties? Why not let every candidate run independently of the system, raise their own money, and come up with their own nuanced checklist of talking points. This would allow the people to think of each candidate independently of their competitors and not lump them into these incredibly general ideas of Left and Right.

Characterizations aren’t bad. Often, they help our brains wrap around an idea by association to something we’re familiar with. The same is true for music, and just like music, the lines are becoming blurred. Musicians are experimenting with ways to include an array of disciplines into their product, making genres more difficult to define. Our political parties, and our racial classification system, should consider embracing the same idea.

Let’s continue the conversation. Hit me up on Twitter @buddyruski.

[eeievui]

On February 27, 1996, Pokémon Red and Green were first released in Japan.

Thank you for a great twenty years! Train on.

[buddyruski]

Where’s that MMORPG though, Nintendo?

[buddyruski]

Dreaming and scheming. 🐇🏃 The amount of energy I get from working with people like these fine gentlemen allows me to keep striving for more. Can't wait to own a store where @runaway4ever and I are able to experience this connection with our community everyday. #DURM 🐂

[buddyruski]

Traveler. 😎🐇🏃🚜 📷: @elizazome #DURM #durhamnc #northcarolina #photography #durham #bullcity #instagram #streetwear #lifestyle #runaway #modeling #canon #carolina (at Brussels, Belgium)

[buddyruski]

View this post on Instagram

I'm always impressed by how much @hifilorau continues to try and learn new things all the time. He never stops. The last 3 years living together have been pretty fucking awesome. I feel like I've benefited much more from the arrangement, and I'm not sorry about it at all. Shout out to G Money 🐺 on the supervision tip.

[buddyruski]

This is the last photo in my final project for what has become my favorite class at @nccueagle. Over the last 4 months, my passion for photography has been reinforced tremendously. While I am disappointed that my writing has taken a backseat this semester, in many ways, my ability to narrate have grown through a different medium. I feel stronger than ever as a storyteller and hope to continue down this path.

[buddyruski]

Blue Bella. @elizazome

[buddyruski]

Pursuit | Observation | Reflection. 📷🗽🐇🏃

[buddyruski]

"Make beautiful music, I will" The Jedi master, synthesizing mad scientist, and 1/2 of @sylvanesso, Nick Sanborn, aka Made of Oak, put on a sensational display of artistry and showmanship last night on his final tour stop for his debut solo EP Penumbra. | His contribution to the local music community here in Durham and the Triangle continues to grow substantially.