#FairWarning

for every rhyme i write, is 25 to life...

i haven't shared a piece in a minute.. but i woke up with the desire to let loose.. to write something off the top (96% of my articles are freestyles - no thoughts, just write), like i typically do.. my mind is obviously consumed with #AhmaudArbery, because those that really know me - know that these types of situations have always felt like someone threw up the Batman signal, and i gotta come to help right some wrongs.. i don't run from race relations - i run to it..

i grew up fighting - it was nothing in the neighborhood i grew up in.. i didn't lose fights growing up, as i was nice with my hands.. plus, we rolled like we knew anything could pop off at a moment's notice.. we all were fast in my crew.. we all had instincts to "jet" on a dime.. heard a sound? peace out and ask questions once you're in a safe space..

i also grew up with the "ammo and options" mentality.. in order to survive you needed one.. if you were out of both, it was curtains.. that's a deeper story, but i'll gloss over that for now.. get the picture?? get the picture..

right now, it's feeling like many of us are out of both.. no ammunition or energy to keep fighting like we typically do.. no options, period.. that's a dangerous place to be in.. that means someone is about to make a decision that is built on negatives.. those two negatives don't make a positive.. not where i'm from.. not where we're from..

Ahmaud had no ammo and no more options.. the path he took? he tried to avoid what was destined to take him down.. being Black.. and the reality was, that's not something he or any of us can run from.. i mean, others can run from us, yet, we can't run from ourselves.. his last option was death, right? no ammo, no option to avoid that truth.. they wanted him dead.. "they" can be whatever/whomever you want it to be.. so his choice wasn't a choice at all.. the path of least resistance was straight and narrow.. he knew he had no ammo and no more options.. so he went out like a G.. he took it straight on.. like so many of us on the frontlines always do.. "Glory" ain't a movie, dog.. we take it straight on.. we ain't scared.. never were.. even avoidance isn't being scared, it's transforming conflict.. #LetItMarinate

we've seen this movie before.. over and over and over again.. choose a decade.. any one.. same movie, different characters, same outcome.. we've won Oscars for playing in those movies (it's almost like this is how we're desired to be seen, as winners of this role).. we've won Grammys for songs that voice our most tragic moments.. we win NBA championships on Father's Day, many years after our fathers were murdered, and the world tried to convince us that we essentially pulled the trigger and committed suicide..

it's deep people.. and some of us, study all of this.. read all of it.. absorb all of it.. and still put in work to find a way out.. through and in a system with so many traps that we might as well go out with the latest pandemic..

it's not like our existence isn't one, right?

all i need is one mic/mike.......

Q.