#50: Take It or Leave It

A weekly drop of things I love

Take It or Leave It is a weekly highlight series for paid subscribers, but this installment is free for everyone. Pretty much every Friday, I share a quick hit of things I’m loving.

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If not, all good. Take it or leave it ✌️

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Nuggets are going to Game 7. Pray for me. Some updates:

1. ICYMI: For my latest newsletter essay, I wrote about an unlikely connection between Nikola Jokić and Dua Lipa—and the joy of proving people wrong. I’m so grateful for everyone who has read it so far and generously shared their thoughts like this shoutout from

   Shivani Kumar
   :

   “The way Alex has walked us through this thoughtful re-telling of histories is so special. To see how despite circumstance, we have the ability to make intentional, clear space for ourselves? Absolutely priceless. 👏🏽”

2. To celebrate my 30th birthday, I’m offering Paid annual subscriptions to my newsletter for just $35 (originally $50) through the end of May. With an annual subscription, you get full access to these posts every week. Also, it’s a great way to support me and my writing. But don’t just take it from me.

   Here’s a beautiful recommendation from

   Zefan
   of
   VERY LOST
   :

3. I’ve teamed up with some wonderful people to host a writing group called

   Locked In
   — a weekly virtual writing session for Black, Indigenous, & Writers of Color and the global majority. We write together every Friday at 9:00AM ET. If you’re looking for some community around writing, please join us.

If you’re new to my newsletter and would like to get my essays and weekly content recommendations sent directly to your email inbox, tap below to sign up for a Free or Paid subscription:

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Something from YouTube

Earlier this week, I got to interview Dr. Jason Rawls (also known as J. Rawls) for an upcoming profile. Rawls is a hip-hop legend. He is a well-known producer and DJ and currently works as an Assistant Professor of Hip Hop at The Ohio State University.

I geeked out when interviewing Dr. Rawls because, on the wall in his office, he had a copy of Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star—one of my all-time favorite rap albums and a project where Rawls helped produce “Brown Skin Lady” and “Yo Yeah.”

More details on the profile coming soon, but I’m excited to be included among the writers who have shared Dr. Rawls’ story. We got into a lot of fun topics, and I can’t wait for you to read it.

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Songs I played

With the WNBA regular season starting earlier this week and NBA Playoffs getting more and more interesting, it’s been hard for me to think about anything other than basketball. But I made some time to listen to a few new projects, including Chief Keef’s latest album Almighty So 2, Treanne’s EP 20/20, and Yaya Bey’s album Ten Fold.

As for singles, I couldn’t escape “The Light” by Rachel Robinson and Rich (previous member of Thirdstory) in collaboration with Peter CottonTale, who was Chance the Rapper’s music director and also had one of my favorite albums in 2020, CATCH. The song interpolates Common’s “The Light” and has such a pleasant bounce.

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A podcast I listened to

Folks across social media are blocking and boycotting different celebrities for their silence on the genocide in Gaza. The goal is to reduce the earnings these celebrities gain from social media ads. There’s more context on the Blockout in this podcast episode if you want to learn more.

While it can be argued the social media movement has already burned out, I will always be an advocate for (1) all of us, especially young people, doing whatever we can to dismantle state violence, and (2) being hyper-critical about what we expect from celebrities and what we should demand of them.

At a base level, the Blockout forces us to examine why we advocate for certain celebrities when they can’t do the most humane thing and use their platform to say genocide is wrong. It’s easy for actions like this to devolve into us policing one another, and I don’t think that helps much of anything. But at a minimum, I hope this can help draw us closer to different forms of collective action.

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Something I read

the joy of the NBA tunnel fit

The most fun thing I read this week is

Eleanor

on NBA tunnel fits. The intertwining of basketball and fashion has always fascinated me. My all-time favorite player is Allen Iverson, who Eleanor references in the piece as “a style icon in his own right.” AI was the first player I saw who I wanted to be. He dressed like the rappers, and so many rappers wanted to be like him. It was this cultural hand-holding of sports, music, and fashion that has only grown in its influence.

Eleanor mentions this, but now there are entire social media accounts dedicated to athletes’ outfits. With the first games of the WNBA season this week, we got a slew of noteworthy fits from seasoned vets like DeWanna Bonner, Teaira McCowan, Sydney Colson, and Kelsey Plum. The rookies showed out too with Angel Reese, Nika Mühl, and Cameron Brink all making their presence known.

Let me leave you with this tweet from

Frankie de la Cretaz

because Kelsey Plum actually put on a clinic this week:

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A TikTok video I watched

@omo.orojeSummer Has Arrived

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This is how carefree I want to be this summer. Nothing can stop me. Not even that bus.

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Something I keep thinking about

For my birthday this past weekend, Elizabeth reserved a party bus and we went on a shitty food tour of Columbus with our friends. We’ve done party buses before where you hop around to different bars, but the beauty of the bus is you can just drink on there if you want. Plus, you get to play your own music—and it’s just you and your friends, so you don’t have to worry about navigating your way through a bunch of strangers.

For our tour stops, we visited Bojangles, Taco Bell, and ended the night as all good nights end—at Waffle House. The Taco Bell visit was funny because the dining room was closed, but we were able to barter with the manager to let us order through the app and then pick up our orders inside. Waffle House is also funny because it seems we’ve reached the point where chocolate chips are no longer in the waffle; they’re just haphazardly thrown on top and maybe they’ll melt. Either way, it still hit.

A few songs that absolutely hit on the bus: “Not Like Us” (which of course we had to start with), “Anything Could Happen” by Ellie Goulding, “Espresso,” and surprisingly but I guess not that surprising, T-Pain really brought the bus together. “Bartender” and “Cyclone” were both euphoric. Also, the rails on the ceiling of the bus to brace yourself when standing made for great pull-up bars. Good to see some of my friends are hitting the gym. Really impressive stuff.

All in all, I wouldn’t have wanted to celebrate my 30th birthday any other way. It’s a gift to have people in my life who love me and want to be there to celebrate me, who are willing to do the dumbest things just so we can be together. What is love if not hurtling through Ohio putting down a heinous amount of food you haven’t experienced since college and still living to tell the tale?

Kendrick was right. They not like us.