I hope they card machine work, this bit%ch always broke

Um can you put one tomato PLEASE

I gotta watch them cause they be messing up my sandwich

and last but not least,

can you add more than that?! PLEASE (with an accompanied rolling of the eyes)

Now, you’d think I was jumping to conclusions but for every road trip I’ve taken where hoodrats locale within miles, it was the same conversation, same argument, if not variations of the statements made. I’m sure the wishes of the Subway maker is thinking, “I wish they couldn’t see us making this damn sandwish I’d…”.  What I also noticed is that my card always works and the girl who does my sandwich is always on point.

What is always funny is that they assume the Indian chick on the register is incablable of using the cash register, as a reason their  card is always declined. More than likely, from knowing, the checks cashed are probably in her name from that franchise or at least someone in the fam..in other words, she owns this b.i.t, so she understands money.

But whats hilarious is that they end up hella embarassed when I come in after them (or before) and it works and you seeing them wishing vexes on my card, like “Don’t Work Dont Work..Dammit…now I gotta come up with another excuse.”  Only to start cussing out the people behind the counter I guess to hope they just say, get out and leave, with a free sandwich. Then for them to only return for lunch the next day, with evil eyes like they better not… My thing, if the service is so damn bad, why return..that answer I’m still trying to figure out… I guess to do it all over again with a free sandwich, cookie, chip and drink?

Oh another one is this need to go all Willy Wonka in a damn subway, seriously who goes there and gets all that mess on the front counter? My stuff cost the same every time but these chicks go in spend like $10 and realize they might have spent too much of their bus, hair, nail whatever money and go in with this infamous statement:

“I didnt ask for banana peppers, you gotta take this back” (When actually requested extra be put on)

Now I don’t want to speak on the Gates vs the Police situation but, if he acted anything like these chicks I see in Subway, then he might just have been due to some sorta of discipline, just saying. So as a note, Black women, if you don’t want to be labeled the angry broke ass sassy chick in Subway, git ya stuff together or risk being called another hoodrat in Subway.

From E!Online:

You’ve seen them featured in music videos with the likes of Kanye West, Outkast, and Jay-Z, but don’t let their supporting roles fool you—these women are anything but background players.

Sorta like Housewives of Atlanta except, they more than likely have their “own” money, more likely not to have a “husband” and a child in a complete “family”…you see where I’m going with this? My question, who the hell is still paying for these chicks in a recession and so many thirsty internet models?

Official Site

‘Have Your Pastry And Eat It Too’
Angela and Vanessa struggle to maintain “brand clarity” and Jessica vies for a company car – MTV

For many people who do business, legal (or not) have had to take extreme measures to promote discretion, about every step they take, to improve their cash flow and have a productive business. In the Black community, we have been over run with women who are now making a living, spying and selling out people they know for informant rewards. It has gotten so extreme, there is now a budgeted order to handle payment of all of the snitches (mainly Black women) in the hood, running to tell on the men or women for revenge, or who is simply doing better than them. In the UK they are spending nearly £2.2 Million ($3.8 Million) and counting a year. The Chicago police alone spends over $1.6 million a year.

With the emergence of gossip blogs, snitching took a digital route and most people are now following the tradition of googling every person they meet and searching for some sort of dirt or identity, to know how much they need to hate or destroy that persons integrity. Dirt is now a commodity for people who lack skills. Sadly, it might be the only skill needed in this new age of public spying and street cameras.

What I could care less about, who’s gay. I have learned in my life, as long as someone doesn’t bounce checks, maliciously lie to protect their asses and throw your business under the bus, or throw salt in your game just because they don’t want to see you better off, I could care less. I’ve run across people who carry all of those attributes. I’ll say “Wow I like how he/shee run their business” and this person will say, “Uh, I heard their gay…” as if their sexuality affects talents, hustle and business motivations. Outing people, who’s a hoe, snitching on their romantic getaways, who’s getting on in who’s bed etc. If the business is tight, don’t be fooled by that factor.

In hollywood, people got mad at actresses like Gabrielle Union and Nia Long not to long ago, calling out these Black operated gossip sites who criticize actresses who’s reputations will affect their castings. Unlike White actress, when Black women act up, I’m sure they lose work and get affiliated with bringing down the filming brand aka not profitable. The Black entertianment industry is getting stronger but the women’s area is still fragile and not strong enough to handle harsh critisism from jealously, let alone inner sabotage.

See we think all this paparazzi stuff is cool and hip. They didn’t realize this paparazzi, watchful and the near i-spy culture many grow further than we thought with online sleuthing. It has obviously bled over into regular life and is starting to affect communities, married people’s life’s and families. In a King Flex podcast, he makes a good point about Black women keeping their mouth’s shut no matter how bad they’d try to make Black women turn on their men. The feminist movement came and Black women, began throwing Black men under the bus and in time, the entire race fell apart.

Its a conditioning and its safe to say, the Stop Snitch movement saw this coming. Does this mean stop snitching? With sites like whosarat.com, there is obviously a counteract to debunk assumptions. The sad thing many of these new snitch leads come from malice effots and therefore, the cops will still have to do some form of work to close a case. Hard to say, with so many people needing money, there is big business in mearly throwing people under the bus. All i can say, just keep your life as clean as possible, keep your business private and if you can’t do either, your running a hard risk.

Tricking Culutre

A judge on Tuesday ordered rapper T.I. to pay more child support to the mother of two of his children after she claimed he wasn’t providing enough money. Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane told the two-time Grammy winner, whose real name is Clifford Harris, to pay just over $3,000 a month to LaShon Dixon. He had been paying about $2,000 per month. The judge also said the 27-year-old performer must continue to pay for the boys to attend private school, uninsured medical bills and expenses related to the children’s extracurricular activities. Tipton Lane also awarded the couple on Tuesday joint custody of the boys, ages 7 and 8. Dixon, 28, was granted primary physical custody. The children previously spent about 40 percent of their time with the rapper. [via Bossip]

All the making it rain and bottle popping before conception I feel can set the standard that they are owed even more with child. I mean most rats, hood or suburb’s only hustles are snitching/spying and/or having kids. And kids is the most immediate bank. Which makes it all the worth while to not spend money on rats early on cause they’ll more than likely get used to the lifestyle and lash out and for bugie rats, they’ll do it in fear of not be able front.

Of course T.I meant to do good by his sons but, damn. This had me thinking about how now days young hustlers, respectfully take waaaaaay better care of the children. Where as these cornball dudes that stick their noses up at “thugs and rappers” got kids by book chicks and rats all over the spot. And because most corny dudes have an image to keep, you’ll never hear about these kids until they turn to politics.

Either way, baby mama child support would end if money was never needed to get in the knocked up position in the first place…or it seems.

Not since Ru-Paul has this been the time for the Trans-Gender community. First the Andre J cover on French Vogue, Project Runway’s Trannylicious scandal and the Chris feature on a Challenge, I Want To Work For Diddy, Top Model and Janice Dickinson but, she just publicly humiliated hers.

Its also safe to say the Hip Hop fashion has gotten respectfully snug to extremely snug. The color coordinations and fashion ensembles have crossed the gender lines and the phenomenon of carrying purses has definitely been a good look for tricking fans with a lack of an identity. Get’em while their young is what I say.

Overall the presence of Trans Gender people on TV have been very explosive. Growing up overseas, I can vouch that over there, men like Andre J are considered dope as hell. Miss Jay from Top Model got his fame, overseas walking on the runway. Them in top modeling agencies are no secret and actually pretty old. They even cast women who look like men to balance the look.

Tranny’s, Transvestites, and some are just know as Born in the Wrong Body. Could it be that they are warming everyone up to Trans-gender presence, to prep the non noticing audience for full out closet cases? With the transition in diva attitude and styling in Hip Hop….could be. Regardless,Like Vh1′s Best Week Ever Trans Gender people are having a hell of a year and making hella bank from the exposure.

[Image via DListed]

Beyonce in Marie Claire:

I’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.’ [Marie Claire/Bossip]

It escapes people’s mind that it is been a little over 10 years for Beyonce in her rise to fame. I always feel it takes 10 years to make a legend or a culture. Anything otherwise is just a fad. Should Beyonce still get compared? No, she put in too much work to belittle her efforts and its unfair for the next upcoming star to get compared, while putting in their work. Apple and oranges. Icon status to me is just being and accepting that fact that from here on, that icon will get referenced.

Its funny because the Beyonce brand gets overlooked with female distaste. Thats why I hope behind the scenes, B is supportive of Rihanna. We all remember when there was a massive Beyonce backlash towards the dismissal of the original Destiny Child members. From there it was the Dreamgirls issue where people overlooked Beyonce’s incredible performance scenes and instead stayed on the so so acting and Jennifer Hudson/Big Girl posse beef.

Hopefully her role in this new movie will reboot her Hollywood branding and make people recognize Beyonce is a icon and you have to deal with it.

Then she came out of the myspace shadows and she sang live, it was a controversy. I couldn’t understand why rappers can sound horrible and off key but, singing hadn’t reached that level of acceptance. At the time I said, retard rap is hot right now, I’ll bend. I’ll be open. Before I knew it, I realize her album was actually good.

Cassie had before been a model so her visual would not be hard to sell. Of course not being able to sing live had slowly become less of a factor. By that time Cassie went from being okay to be a harlot. No matter how dope her album sounded, she was the that chick, messing up Diddy’s home.

So now here we are, she’s back with an Aaliyah steez. Dancing, showing a bit personality. Why is it so hard to accept her? She has to make people like her, despite what she sounds like. Aaliyah was a like-able person. Could Ciara dance her of the stage or Beyonce out sing her? As an Aaliyah fan, I’m not going there but, she was so adorable, you just wanted to see her take on things. Aaliyah never bragged cause that would taint her adorableness. Can Cassie be the next Aaliyah? No. But she can tighten up her performances the way they trooped up Danity Kane.

Cassie is fashion forward and can potentially be a branding magnetic for Bad Boy. They just have to market her has the fed up chick that realizes the internet sensation fad is over, she’s gotta step up like everyone else.

For me, I get a sense of annoyance and have to walk away. Not because the show is crap but because, many of the cast members are people I have had to deal with in real life. I can say, none of it went well and surprisingly the chick from California on the Downtown Team was more or so my recent turning point for a solid business relationship. But that is actually only as late.

The big fat sassy chick, who’s title is “entrepreneur.” I have had many of shares or run its with that type. In Chicago, they are pretty rampant, that loud and think because they talk proper, their ways are not hood-ratish. I personally hate the term entrepreneur because it signals me as a bullshitter with no capital. She was overly confrontational and in her mind, she is something more than what the has to offer. My thing, will she talk back at a knee jerk like that to Diddy? Once its in you, its in you. We saw what happened to Laurie Ann. Being bossy, on a group effort makes good for one thing, being able to point out other people’s fault and that might be the only contrabution. When you are not truly responsible for a final, final word…your not the boss. To me, in a group its friggin sad and the raving of a loser.

The cornball aka the church boy, I have actually lost money with a dude like that because he lacks one important quality, listening. But not just not listening, arrogantly deciding for you when they are not in control of the final decision. I basically call it hard headed.

The real estate chick reminds me of a druggie I did business with. I can tell she’s that or an alcoholic party girl. Either way, she is not a roll up sleeve type of girl and would be just fine answering phones all day and reaping the benefits of being solely in the know and on the scene.

The dude who looks like Jackie (Serena’s old flame) he is the typical paint by numbers businessman. He saw someone he wanted to emulate and is flipping through pages. But, he actually helps make my point about one thing….dressing up don’t mean JACK, if you cant get the job done.

As a matter of fact, everyone is hella suited up. Which is fine when you have a desk job but even Diddy, while starting Bad Bo was fresh to def and doing it sneakers, jeans and a tee …in a nice way though.

As they tried to attempt task, they eventually had to roll up the sleeves. In the clips throughout the show, you will notice, all the heels and the ties and mess, goes out the window because, your an assistant and when you are not suppose to be in a formal attendance…and sometimes not even then, dressing up dont mean jack…cause its not about you.

Capricorn actually steps her dress game because now, she is on tv but, she is not running ragged like before. She is someone’s boss now. If you notice, Diddy would come in suited and tailored up on Making the Band..and she would be in the back with her hair in a bun, w a hat sometimes, a teeshirt and shorts…maybe flip flops/sneakers. Not a total mess but, Imma run to the store swag.

This show is definitely a good boss look on her.

Overall, having personal/business experiences with the archetypes of the show, it would be fair of me to know who is good enough to be an assistant but, then again, my experiences were not assistant/boss they were co-boss/startup/collab. I can tell you from experience there about 3 potentials with a good mindset. I wouldn’t be surprised that ended up for the final.

The ironic thing, outside the temper tantrums of Diddy, I sit every day thinking about how easy it is to get demanding when you can actually ask for a bottle of ketchup if you run out, at 2am. If I could, I can honestly say, yeah, go get it…the tabasco brand esp, especially if I’m paying good and its there for the asking,

You can catch the first show on VH1, on August 4, 2008 [VH1]

I love my mom to death but there are just some things I just can’t ignore anymore. For the most part, we learn our money values from our parents. For me, mine were the example set about poverty and just coming up on stuff by happen chance. I guess in some aspects, mines get a pass because they were foreign. My dad was still serving and though he was foreign to, he really didn’t need much. My mom, her first impression of America was living with a wealthy Jewish family. After my dad passed, her needs returned to home values and even with her Black American boyfriend, I was happy with the mere basics, him, not so much. Don’t get me wrong, moms was doing it big, for her first taste of independence in the US, while on Lee Street in Brooklyn.

But, it was when she lived with her Black America boyfriend, his perception of money, he inherited from his mother, became my mother’s inheritance of money values. She was young, and still learning about American ways and her start with the Jewish family that lived down the street from the Bloomberg family (I wish I was joking), might have not helped her taste, on a ale budget.

So it came down to this, I sorta picked up my moms view on money but as she fell into the trap of his mother’s values, I started noticing a trend and had to do something. At 10 years old and by the time we moved to Chicago, many women who ran the household but had HORRIBLE values in money surrounded us. I on the other hand, started a landscaping business cutting lawns and tending gardens. So ethnic of me, right? But, at 10 I was raking in $500 – $800 a month. Ya’ll figure that out, I’m good.

To make matters worse, the men, who were considered upstanding, educated, blah blah, had even worse values in money. Crooked I should say. I said, why is it in the Black community there is such bad money judgment. The first thing I was told growing up, “The White Man…” I think this is something people missed with my question. When I look around, I’m not talking about “Poor” Black folks, I’m talking about middle class, upper for that matter. I’m talking about, the people who feel they’ve arrived and made, $35K and up but who were living in eternal debt.

My first full time job, in IT, where I was grossly underpaid, I made $17K, with a degree. (Chicago is on some bullshit I know and I eventually quit). With that $17K, I worked an additional summer job to bump my annual to $19.5 K, cover my basic expenses and with that little money, started a business, paid off my jeep, paid off one of my credit cards and had enough to help my mom.

I was roughing it sure, but with $19K, it made me very unforgiving for hundreds of Black women I saw, who were making $45K and up, yet always crying broke. You would see them in St. John’s knits, frequent trips to the boat, their kids wore Jordan’s, etc. I mean, they are middle class right?

It especially made me annoyed helping my mom out who was now, fully assimilated in the Black Woman money management plan. At the time she was making $55K. Pretty good most would think, but here struggle, month to month had me think, okay, mortgage but after that, what is really going on.

When you look at a city like Chicago, many women run important things and most of the city outpost like the colleges and the public school system are ran by Black women with messed up views on what is needed. Yet they were making $80K and up at this point. Just sad.

Now before you think I’m generalizing, there are too many multiple examples around me to not think otherwise. We will never admit, our moms fk up money. They will never get called out, but I’m tired of diverting the real issue. Stop buying Shit you don’t need! Stop keeping up with the Jones, cause not only are they broke too, Jones are trying to keep up with the Jonesburg’s. These women who have jacked up checkbooks are responsible for million dollar budgets that affect the livelihood of a community. So when they spend $150K on furniture for an office of 5 and fire all of the 20 student workers….No, I’m not buying that the White man screwed anyone over.

The worse thing, if the assumed “majority” of the US was raised on bad money values, in general, imaging how bad it is in the Black community. I know one thing is for sure, once I get all my finances in full capacity, moms will not see a damn dime until a financial advisor coaches her. Yes, she dropped the jobless boyfriend, yes she’s making more but, it still persists. And I’m here to say, this here must stop…and you all know it, too.

Money Advice Runs Low for Minority Women [alternet]

Foreclosing on the Dead [Perezhilton]

Chicago Teacher’s Union Money Waste [Chicago Tribune]

*UPDATE*
Some people need to be foreclosed on [Byron Crawford]