6 THINGS I HATE ABOUT NOSTALGIA

It’s gone and it’s never coming back. Understand? 

Okay? 

This is me talking to myself and you. 

I wish for 90’s cartoons and 90's R&B to come back everyday. I wish Saints and The Palace was still open. I wish Big Patty’s would come back (U.City Shit). I listen to Roy Ayers, Stevie Wonder, and Donny Hathaway and think “Why isn’t music like this anymore?” 

I’m guilty when it comes to living in the past and wishing it could join us today. 

There’s some shit I love about Nostalgia like certain fashion trends and a new Hey Arnold movie this fall for example but there are some things I hate about it. We gotta stop being Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite. It's not 1982 and they didn't put us in the 4th Quarter of the 1982 State Championship. 

WE CHASING A FEELING THAT'S A GHOST

It’s the past. No matter how many times you attempt to recreate it or relive it, it won’t be the first experience. It’s like a addict chasing that first high. They will never feel that sensation ever again. Everything else after is an imitation of that feeling. Just like the addict we’re destroying ourselves by trying to bring back a feeling that can’t be duplicated. 

WE HAVE NO FAITH IN THE FUTURE OR NEW IDEAS

We’re selling ourselves short. All this technology at our reach. All the information we have access to and we STILL trying to bring back shit from the 90’s, 80’s, whatever. Fuck bringing back TRL lets make something new! Do you know how much has changed in how we obtain information since TRL? It’s fucking pointless to bring it back. No artist will send off their new video to MTV to be premiered when they can do it on their own channel. MTV is not a gatekeeper anymore. The Internet is free reign. No we don’t need Rap City back. It was great, I loved it, but now it’s gone. Call up Big Tigger or whoever you’d like and lets create something new and let it stand on it’s own. I don’t want a new “Living Single” I want something else. It happened and it’s over. Move the fuck on. Fuck a reboot. There are amazing stories out there that haven’t been told. Let’s give those stories a chance. How many movies are gonna be rebooted? Are we that shitty at creativity?  We need to have more faith in the now and what we're capable of doing. 

WE'RE JUST BORED AS FUCK 

Nobody wants none of that shit back. We’re just bored. You’ll get it, be amazed for all of a day or 2 and put that shit back in the closet, attic, vault, box, or whatever the fuck it belongs. I do the same shit with video games. Remember Goldeneye N64? I went all out re bought a N64 got 4 controllers played like 3 rounds of it with the homies and said fuck this shit. It’s not like when we were 11 and we played that shit from 9pm to 5am and got back up at 11am to start it up again. It's not the same. It's outdated and boring. The feeling is not the same because we've advanced mentally since then. 

We claim we want artists who were at the top decades ago to come back and make new albums but we never buy they new shit. Niggas BEGGED for Arsenio Hall to come back to late night television and that nigga was cancelled after one full year. I watched his show just cause he was from my culture and I wanted to see a black man do great on a late night show again but nobody showed him love. We're just bored and too lazy to create something new. 

IT'S COMPARISON 

We’re comparing now to then. Comparison is dangerous and dumb in certain ways. It can help in terms of wanting to get better but usually it’s used to put something down these days. 

WE'RE NOT GROWING 

We refuse to grow. Nostalgia is like thinking about good times with an ex while you’re with a better person now. We're ruining potential greatness because we wanna be Marty McFly. Remember, Marty McFly almost fucked up his entire existence by going back to the past. It's the past for a reason.  

IT RUINS THE MEMORIES

I have no interest in seeing Janet Jackson live in 2017. In 1997 yes. Today? Fuck no. Nostalgia has made me put her on a pedestal that she can't reach anymore. I’ll watch The Velvet Rope Tour on Youtube because if I see her now and she’s not good live it will change my whole perception of her and ruin my memories of watching her as a child. This happened with me seeing Jodeci at an awards show a couple years ago. I wished I never watched it. They were washed and lip syncing on stage. I’ll just smoke my weed and listen to the “Forever My Lady” album in peace. Even New Edition. I love those niggas. My favorite and best group of all time but I’ll pass on seeing them live unless I was invited to. I’m not lining up for tickets my pal. 

Vinyl is kinda like this for me too. I heard Erykah Badu “Mama’s Gun” on vinyl a few weeks ago and I seriously couldn’t fuck with how it sounded. That sounding old and worn out shit is NOT the wave. Gimme a CD or a MP3 where the live instruments are crisp when I hear it. Same with a Rage Against The Machine vinyl. Shit just not worth listening to. I’m sorry but certain shit just need not to be played on vinyl. Let the past go. New and better technology exist for a reason. What's next? Walkmans making a comeback and everyone is gonna be listening to cassettes again? I don't miss listening to tapes at all. When they'd get worn out they'd sound awful. 

The past existed for us to move forward.  Something to think about. 

*Plays "Back In The Day" by Ahmad*