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Friday 21 October 2011

Pink Friday.

Okay, I'll admit it. Things have not been going as smoothly as I envisaged, nay, hoped. I mean, by my peri-yuletide calculations last year, my recent single was gonna blow me up, Al Quaida style! I was gonna be the hot new thing that EVERYBODY was gonna be talking about. I was gonna be a perennial trending topic, a "TT" for the "tweeps". (okay, don't ask!) My music was gonna be right up there with ozone layer depletion, arab spring, and Michelle Obama's new summer frock as matters which were the very definition of the year 2011.

And I knew I had to get rid of some excess baggage, y'know, in preparation for my new life. Nothing too much, just y'know, the frivolous stuff which won't be compatible with my noveau riche rap megastar lifestyle. For instance, my two stressful and strenuous menial, low-paying (but emphasis on "PAYING"!!!) medical jobs. I mean, I couldn't be a super celebrity while holding a 9 to 5 (or more accurately, an 8 to 4, then a 4 to 10) just for a few coins. I mean, one good show will give me a whole month's salary, right?
Right! *tongue in cheek*

I mean, when I started blogging, I was expecting to write a just few background posts, y'know, about my history, then my philosophies on love, life and lyrics, and when you get a good idea of who I am y'know, pre-stardom, I'd dive headlong into the good stuff. I was hoping to give y'all little factettes about my life in showbiz like...

"Met Tiwa Savage today, just as cute as she looks in her music videos. She must have mistaken me for 'Brymo' because I could tell as soon as she met me that she was 'feelin da boi yeah, feelin' da, feelin' da boi yeah, yeah...' "

Or, "Bumped into Eva tonight. She had some dude doubling as her bodyguard and manager. The moron probably thinks the term 'division of labour' is a pre-employment maths quiz. Still, she ditched him because she wanted to just hang out with me and explore my mind, intellectual that she is. We ended up exploring a whole lot more..."

Y'know, just the simple things that happen in every hot rap star's life...

"Was in the studio when MI and Jesse stopped by. They had heard about me and came prepared to battle. I just gave 'em one of my 2002 verses and they were so nonplussed, MI had to scream out 'Lace, you're the greatest!!!'
I just had to accept the title, because he was not going to take false modesty for an answer.
And by the way, short black boy? TINY black boy would be more accurate...!"

Nothing too elaborate, nothing too deep, nothing too tasking. Just my day to day life as a megastar. Even my boring days would have been interesting to blog about...

"Slow week it's been. I'm meant to have hooked up with Goldie, but she too dey form diva. Anyhoo, I'll just drown my boredom in Dubai. Heard they have a couple of new hotels I won't mind exploring. Wonder who I should take along..."

You see? Just a few sentences would have had you on the edge of your seat, craving my next post.
But, with the way things are, you'll be stuck with tales of my fondness for trekking, my sugar mommy choices, and my stance on social issues like abortion (No, most times), plastic surgery (Yes, most times) and premarital sex (No comment. But why say no when you can say yes?)
*shrugging*
Sorry...

Reality talk now. So, being the man that I am, as soon as I found that music was not bringing in as much cash as I hoped ("As much"? Try "ANY"!!!), I did what every parent sent their child to school for: dusted out my certificates and went back to my stressful and strenuous menial, low-paying (but emphasis on "PAYING"!!!) medical work.

But, to express my emancipation, my rebellion against "the system", I was going to fight 'The Man' in a different way:
Y'see, when I was younger, I used to go to the hospital in Timbs, Jeans and Tees. I was always so gleeful to see the looks of shock on my patients' faces when they found out that the doctor they had waited for, for 45 minutes was this grubby unkempt yuppie ('Yo-Pee' in nigerian english), who seems to still be in diapers.
I loved to change their opinions of me (well, at least, MOST of them) over the 15 minute course of our 'consultation', giving them the need to say, in parting, "Thank you, you're a wonderful doctor. If only you could dress more 'decently'..."

Now, I had been previously intent on remaining in a state of adult age adolescence as far as fashion was concerned, until I needed a job. And to get a job, I needed to be in a suit. I knew that much. So I wore a suit for my interview.

(But my job-hunt is not the reason for this post: I went cap in hand, well, figuratively, to my former offices who were already tired of being besieged daily by patients who wanted to see their 'oyibo' doctor, they were all too glad to give me my old job back!)

But after the interview, I found out I was all dressed up with nowhere to go. So I did what I usually do when I'm bored: (No, not go to Dubai, that was me DAYDREAMING!) I went on a stroll. And the lesson I learnt from that particular stroll is this:
Women just LOVE a guy who is dressed formally!
I mean, I practically had girls throwing phone numbers, bb pins, home and email addresses and loads of other privy information at me as I took that walk!

I'd be darn stupid if I didn't make that lesson useful in my life!

So I decided that I will continue my fight against "the system" fashion-wise, but no longer with the use of informal clothing in a formal setting. I was gonna dress formally, but in colors that were gonna be so angry that "the man" would think a riot was in progress; colors that were so loud that "the man" would wear earmuffs!

And so I did.

Well, last Thursday, I went to my afternoon job in a pink shirt, and just because I can, a pair of pink loafers. I got everyone's looks of shock and surprise like I'd been hoping for, but didn't know it was for a different reason.

Time was going to tell.

I had forgotten I was meant to be on night duty that night at a different hospital where I do locum work. At the last minute, I was reminded, so I went to the other hospital looking like the medical pink panther in black pants.
Intending to leave my night duty post by 8am on friday morning, I received a phone call by 7:50am, just 10 minutes before closing, to remind me that I had to make a court appearance that friday morning, and that my transportation was waiting for me in front of the hospital!

So there I was, in bright pink on a bright morning, headed to a court room to see the Nigerian Legal System at work.
I was in for the shock of my life!

Well, long blogpost short, I noticed a lot of strange looks from all the legal minds in the court room, and thought nothing of it until a lawyer who claimed to have gone to my university (I didn't recognise him) walked up to me and introduced himself, giving me an overly long hand shake. While he shook me, he magically seemed to extricate one of his fingers, and rubbed the tip of that finger repeatedly against my palm...

The gesture had me feeling molested, but I was in too much of a shock to do anything more than leave my hand limply in his. It took me a while to figure out, but that, ladies and gentlemen, was the homo handshake!

At first, I tried to rationalise, "this guy says he knew me in school, is it that he didn't see me with bevies upon bevies of fine girls?" Then I considered his point of view:
Women feel the most comfortable with gay guys because they know there's a zero chance of getting jumped on. With all the different girls I was seen with in school, most of whom knew each other, I must have been either (a), a very slick player, or (b) GAY!

And, apparently, I didn't get the memo that, along with left- (or is it right?) sided ear studs, an encyclopaedic knowledge of 90s britpop, and the high-pitched 'Hellooo', NOTHING yells out, "I'm GAY and I'm coming out the closet!!!" louder than a pair of bright pink shoes on a man!

Ol' boy, the only reason why I did not take off all pink items of clothing I had on me right then and there was the fear that it might prove irresistible to the dude, and I might get a traumatic assault on my hemorrhoids in front of magistrate, prosecutors and defending counsel!

I darn sure know how to leave 'well' alone. (Before someone helps turn it to a 'bore-hole'!)
No, thank you very much!

And so, I'm sticking to the Jay-Z slogan for now, man: #AllBlackEverything!
You can't go wrong with that!

Its Your Boy,

LACE,
Fly Fellow, y'all!