I decided to team with it my china-print blouse and Nike Thea's. My thea's are my favourite pair of trainers. They brighten up any outfit. They have also been in the wash a few times and are still looking good so that is always a plus. My coat is the Zara boyfriend jacket from www.daisystreet.co.uk. These jackets were on offer a while back and they had also sent me a discount code so I managed to get it for a really decent price. Daisystreet tend to send out promotional codes quite often in their emails so it is worth signing up. As always, I am also wearing a gold chain and a small pair of gold hoops here which are really hard to see. Alas! I am no professional photographer and I do not own a DSLR (they mean the same thing right?) so my iPhone camera will have to do. #nofilter btw.
Also, just quickly, I have been listening to this on repeat today. Check it out please. It's for the good of your own health.
Over the weekend the hip-hop
blogs/forums were hyping about Drake giving a statement to Rolling Stones magazine saying that
Macklemore’s text to Kendrick after the Grammy fiasco was ‘wack’. As an avid and self confessed hip-hop fan, it’s safe to say that I also came away from the Grammy’s feeling anything
less than pleased. I’m sure you have read all over social network sites about the
hip-hop community going mental when Macklemore won Grammy’s over Kendrick,
Kanye Jay Z and Drake. I do like Macklemore (to a certain extent), but the fact
he is doing ‘so well’ for hip-hop does really grind my gears.
Okay, when I'm in
the club and the DJ plays thrift shop I’ll admit that I am the first on the
dance floor. This probably has more to do with the fact that this is far as hip-hop will go in the clubbing scene as I'm sure you all now. I also think the White Walls video is amazing and recently have
been watching it on repeat (I can’t help thinking that the ScHoolboy Q feature
might be a contributing factor for this though). I’m not going to focus on
the issue of race or even sit here and list off 1000 reasons as to why Kendrick
should have gone home with that Grammy (which I could do by the way). Instead I
want to talk about an issue that many choose to miss. To me, Macklemore is
making a name for himself by highlighting, and arguably making himself a figurehead for, a
community that he doesn't even belong to. This community is the ‘gay rap’
community.
Macklemore is a straight man; he admits that in a lot of his tracks but still chooses to highlight the struggle he faced because a lot of people assumed he was gay (YAWN!) I keep seeing articles across the internet praising him for tackling such a controversial topic. Now let me tell you, there is such a thing as ‘gay rap’, ‘gay rappers’ and ‘gay rap’ fans and although it may not be part of the mainstream -yet- we are here! So instead of getting angry over choices I cannot control or change I am going to use this space to introduce you to (or hopefully remind of) some of my favourites! Le1f
Le1f is an American rapper and producer who is openly gay. Below is the video for his 2012 track ‘Wut’ and I am daring you to watch/listen. When I first heard this track I remember thinking 'wow it sounds a lot like something else I’ve heard' (see if you can guess which track, because I then checked and realised that this track was released earlier-cough-Macklemore-cough-). It’s a little different and quirky but that’s what I love about it. Last summer I was lucky enough to see Le1f in concert FOR FREE at a local bar in Bristol. His stage presence is so fabulous and one of my favourite memories of the night was him singing this song. As he stuck his hand in the air and bent forward I can remember thinking that the sweat beads on his back glistened and shone like glitter. It was what you would call f**kin glamorous and there is absolutely no other way to describe it.
I am not going to lie to you, I first found out about Brooke Candy through tumblr. I remember looking at pictures thinking who the hell is this fierce dressing b*tch? It didn't take me much stalking before I found her. After listening to a few of her songs I fell in love. Not only did this girl have impeccable style, she could rap and she rapped about stuff I cared about. Brooke Candy is a fabulous feminist who tackles the issue in a modern, and may I add perfectly respectable, way through her lyrics. So next time someone calls you a sl*t, tell em Brooke Candy told you not to give a f**k!
Modern hip-hop belongs to Mykki Blanco. Seriously this guy is a genius when it comes to hot beats. He started out as a published poet before releasing his mixtape Cosmic Angel: The illuminati Prince/ss in 2012 under his stage name and persona Mykki Blanco. The first track I heard from him was Wavvy and it literally got me hooked. The idea of a rapper in drag is something a lot of hip-hop fans cannot comprehend. However I think this is absolutely ridiculous because honestly I don’t think I would be that passionate about finding more new music if I hadn't of discovered Blanco. His beats are new and his lyrics are incredibly clever. I can’t wait to see great things from him.
These are a just a few of many ‘gay rappers’ out there and
to be honest are probably the most well-known. You don’t have to go that far to
find them. You might just have to look a little further than The Heist.
Do you have any recommendations? What do you make of Macklemore and his presence in the mainstream as a gay rapper?
Disclaimer: Sorry about the swearing, I tend to get a little bit passionate when talking about the things I love. Also the images do not belong me. Credit should go where it is due.
Friday was the start of London Fashion Week. I wasn't lucky
enough to go but I did spend the whole weekend staring at (and drooling over) beautiful
pictures of beautiful people in beautiful clothes! Here is my first outfit of the day!
Over the weekend my Instagram news feed was covered with copious amounts of pastels from the lucky guys and girls who were able to attend LFW. At the moment I am really enjoying mixing pastel pinks and blues into my wardrobe and today I really wanted to give this jacket some time to breathe even if the weather and all earthly elements in general, were against me. I managed to cop this little beauty for £18 in the Topshop January sale. It was perfect for me because although I have been loving the baby pink coats I’ve been seeing everywhere on the high street, I wasn’t ready to part with a lot of cash for a jacket that wouldn’t go with every outfit I own and that I may potentially only wear once a week. Also because it is a shorter jacket it means I can continue wearing it into the spring. My shirt a silk like fabric and was a Christmas present from my Mum last year. Although I am unsure of the price I do know that it was from River-Island. My jeans are the Topshop Joni jeans in an acid wash grey. The Joni jeans are a staple in my wardrobe (I’ve had about six pairs since they were released) and look good in the day as well as in the night. My boots are the Topshop Chelsea boots and cost £45. Considering I wear these every day I don’t think that this is a lot of cash to part with. My necklace is from Primark and I swear since I bought it I've seen it on so many people. I love teaming this shirt with a statement necklace as it tends to break it up and make me look a little less like a school girl!
I love this outfit! Got me
feelin’ all girly and sweet! How are you incorporating the pastel trend into
your wardrobe?
"Just because I tasted her cum and spit or could tell
you her middle name or knew a record she liked, that doesn't mean anything, that's
not a connection. Anyone can have that. Really knowing someone is something
else. It’s a completely different thing and when it happens you won’t be able
to miss it.” – Adam from Girls Series 3 episode 1.
The above is a quote from HBO’s Girls, a show about a group of four
twenty-something women living and trying to ‘make it’ in New York. Wait, this sounds familiar right? I
originally thought so too. Since Gossip
Girl ended, I fully, and might I add
proudly, admit that I have been trying to fill a Chuck and Blair size hole
in my heart. I can put my hands up and say that “yes, I love American TV shows about girls who wear nice clothes and have a
lot of money. Yes, I love shows about girls who are beautiful and have sex with
equally beautiful people!” So when a friend recommended Girls to me I was sure I would soon become obsessed. I was right.
As soon as I started watching I started relating myself to the characters. I
wanted to tell everyone that “I’m think I’m a mix of Marnie and Shoshana, who
probably thinks a lot like Hannah, and desperately wants to be like Jessa”.
Now in its third series, Girls follows Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshana as they try to act
like, and hopefully become, successful ‘adults’. However, there is definitely
something different about this show. Anyone who watches it will know that it
shares almost zero similarities to Gossip
Girl apart from the location. The details I have given also make it sound a
lot like Sex in the City. It is not.
It is not about shopping or fashion. Instead Girls deals with female
emotions and contemporary issues in an intelligent, humorous and realistic
approach.
The lead character Hannah, portrayed by the
brilliant Lena Dunham who is both a writer and producer of the show, cannot be
described as anything less than self-obsessed. Hannah is a writer who believes
that she is ‘the voice of a generation’. The audience watch as she struggles with
mental illness, money troubles and friendships. She has a turbulent relationship with her (a loose term to use when talking about the
first series) boyfriend Adam, and more importantly, herself. In the beginning Adam is horrible to Hannah;
he is objectifying, ignorant and controlling. But as the plot develops and the
characters grow he turns himself around. Soon he appears to be the wisest,
kindest and most romantic man in the world. Even
if he does still call her ‘kid’, a pet name that I want to hate but regrettably
do not! All of the struggles the characters face on the show are dealt with
in a similar way, making audience members, such as myself, relate, laugh and even cry. The writing is so brilliant. You just have to go on
tumblr and search #girlsHBO to see all the hilarious and outrageous quotes. There are also lots of amazing guest stars. Including
actor, writer, rapper and comedian Donald Glover, or Childish Gambino to fellow
hip hop fans, who plays Hannah’s romantic interest in series two.
Although I could talk for ages about how much I love this show, some things I've read on the internet suggest that a lot of people do not agree with me. One thing that really interests me is the way it is approached as a feminist text. For me I think Girls is feminist. Dunham seems to take her clothes off at any given opportunity and this is not because she’s a size 0 and has a conventionally beautiful body. The truth is in fact the opposite of this. Why shouldn't young women be subjected to a body image that is more realistic? Some people tend to think the problem is that Girls tries to be a feminist text and ends up as a representation of ‘post-feminism feminism’, displaying the contemporary white middle-class version of feminism instead. Some people also tend to criticise Hannah and Adam's relationship.
However, I would have to disagree. For me
Girls demonstrates some of the very real issues that we deal with in today's society. I like to refer to myself as some sort of
feminist. But lets face it, we do live in
a society where couples meet over the internet or even a phone app, in a tacky club
or bar. A society where we do care about what people think about us, enough to
post exactly what we think they want to hear within a restricted word limit of
140 characters. For me, the people who
dislike Girls mostprobably don’t like it
because it tells them a truth about themselves that they would rather not admit. You
are like Hannah, you do want a boyfriend like Adam and you have probably acted
like Marnie more times than you care to remember.
Do you think Girls is a feminist text? What do you make of series 3 so far?
And if you don't watch you can make your mind up for yourself and watch Girls on Sky
Atlantic on Thursdays at 11pm.
Disclaimer: none of these images are mine and credit should go where it is due and sorry for spoilers I just hope they make you want to watch!
