It's wearing on my nerves...

The thing that irritates me about a lot of my people around my age is what followers they are. There's not a lot of originality...a lot of folks whole style is 'do what the next man does'. It's like people can't think for theyselves. They'll just go with whatever they're fed. What kind of person will you be if you let yourself be molded by everybody else? You can see it with these people...every new song is the hottest, every new rapper the best, every new style the flyest...no matter whether its true or not. 'I'll have what he's having!' seems to be the motto for such folk.

The most telling signal is the clothes. (Yeah, its superficial, but its also visible...) 4 years ago, everyone was wearing jeans 8 sizes too big and hoodies that doubled as tents in a emergency...because everybody on tv was doing it. Look around today...all the new videos show 15 year olds prancing around in electric pastel multicolor skinny jumpsuits and prescription glasses with no lenses...and it's the hot thing in the streets now. Most of the same people know damn well they was clownin folk who wore tight ass clothes into submission a couple years ago...now they're proudly rockin that shit because the media and their peers say it's okay now. I've actually had people say they wear the things they do because other folk are. Nobody sees anything wrong with that?

The worst part about all that fickle fashion is it makes it harder for people like me who want to look like...myself...to find clothes. What happens when some new outlandish trend comes down off the airwaves? They put it in all the stores, replacing the regular clothes. I actually went into a store I used to shop in and couldn't find ONE pair of jeans that wouldn't subject me to intense testicle compression...not to mention a shirt over a L. I left there vowing to never return. Of course, in 3 months when the videos show people wearing some other crazy shit, that'll be in the stores instead...but I'm still shit outta luck. Online shopping has become my last refuge. I shouldn't have to pay shipping charges to avoid looking like some 13 year old Twitterholic.

I swear, if a new video has Lil Wayne and Drake wearing puffy pirate shirts, denim rhinestone skirts and a cape with Timbs, I bet my whole next paycheck it'll be a week tops until you see folk rockin that getup in the streets. Remember Von Dutch? Ed Hardy? The LED scrolling belt buckles that would show a name/message? (In the interest of full disclosure, I'm ashamed to say I'm guilty of that one. It was years ago...in my defense, I legitimately liked it and only actually wore it once before the batteries died...we all make mistakes lol...I learned a valuable lesson...) Those stupid Kanye shades that defeated the entire purpose of having eyes because you CAN'T FUCKIN SEE? All worn by some celebrity, spread like wildfire in the hood, and faded out as fast as they came. It's only a matter of time before this too, shall pass.

The conclusion to be drawn here is obvious...nobody actually liked those things, but bought them because everybody else was wearin it, so they had to. It's like a whole subculture of 'Me Too!' Ever see those packs of teenagers wearing 5 different colors of the same outfit, lookin like the Aeropostale Power Rangers or some shit? How much you wanna bet they're gonna look back at pics of themselves in 10 years and cry? It's like every day is Halloween, and they're going as 'anybody but myself'. At some point, you have to do you. Not him, or him, or him over there either. You. Fitting in is overrated if you don't fit in with yourself, too.