Lil' Wayne- Skater with a Clothing Line?

I know I'm behind on the times, but I just found out that rapper Lil' Wayne started a clothing line called TrukFit, which is a skate brand of sorts, specializing in t-shirts and snapbacks (that's simply a baseball cap for you old timers like me, I'll save further discussion of these hats for a later post). This clothing line is only available online from TrukFit's official site, Karmaloop, CCS, and Zumiez (I'm assuming at least some of the items can be found in Zumiez stores nationwide). The design on the shirts are similar to your average skate brand shirt- some featuring the brand name in all caps, a little "mascot" of sorts, some catchy slogans, and etc. There's even this martians shirt with the face of a martian who looks to be high, which would make sense that the slogan on the shirt says "Feelin' Spacey", but who knows if they're actually trying to subliminally reference marijuana in a t-shirt (but I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were the case). Overall, I think the line is alright.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's because I'm older, but none of the items in the collection really grab my attention. Part of this could be because I'm starting to move away from screen printed t-shirts (blame my evolving sense of style that still isn't that great), but I still like t-shirts. Maybe it's the font style used for the shirts and hats, I don't know. It's just not my thing.

Now, many people have called Weezy (I think that's what he goes by...) a poser for his recent involvement in the skate community, while others have welcomed and embraced him. Whether or not he is a poser is not for me to decide, and honestly I do not care about that fact right now. I'm just trying to figure out how a guy who really just got into skating over the last year has his own clothing line. Well, the fact that he has a clothing line is not the unbelievable part (he is Lil' Wayne after all), it's the whole fact that this clothing line is being clearly marketed towards the skate community. How often does an amateur skater get their own clothing line? I've seen videos of Weezy skating, and he's not bad, but he's nowhere near pro level. It's hard to tell if this is just a phase for him, if he's legit trying to go pro, or if he's just genuinely interested in the skate community and wanting to give back in some way.

In a way, I'm probably making myself sound like a "hater", but believe me when I say that I am not. I honestly would rather see a young skater with a ton of talent start his or her own skate apparel collection. This could be someone who hasn't gotten sponsored yet, but they've got the talent to be pro. It doesn't take too much to start your own t-shirt line (I've seen it a few times by different people from area), but actually getting the attention of a wider audience besides your friends/family is the tough part. Lil' Wayne has a huge advantage because he's already popular in today's culture, and he's also becoming buddies with more and more pro skaters (including some of my faves, such as Paul Rodriguez and Nyjah Huston). He has the connections these young skaters wish they had.

What was the point of this post anyway? Well, I guess it's to see if this clothing line is just a money thing (but who would really openly admit that?), or if Weezy really wanted to start this collection because he believes it's truly that awesome. Or maybe if it were revealed that TrukFit gives a percentage of its profit to skate-related charities, then I would have no problem with this collection (even though I still wouldn't find it appealing to me) since it's not for complete personal gain. Let's just sit back and see how long this collection lasts.

Video for a Day: "Lightspeed" by Grieves

"Lightspeed" by Grieves

You need to slow down 

Every once in awhile sometimes

To see how the world goes around

You need to slow down every once in awhile

'Cause you don't know, you don't

No, you don't need to go so fast

We're Young, But We Shouldn't Settle For Less

Living in a college town and being a "poor college student" means sometimes moving into apartments/houses that have been lived in by hundreds of other "poor college students". Some of these places aren't too shabby while others look quite...dated. And I believe "dated" is being nice in some cases. Lessors/landlords don't always help keep the places up as nice as they could because college students will be living there. They figure that we don't really care how the places look, as long as they're affordable and the main utilities work. As long as we're paying good money, we shouldn't just get the bare minimum.

So here's the situation...

Three friends and I will be renting a house not too far from school. Actually, we are currently renting it (12-month lease, $1100/month, that started June 1st) and only two of my roomies are staying there for the summer. I went down to visit the place two days after my other roomies moved in to check things out and take photos and whatnot. A few major issues were discovered as well as many minor issues. I informed my one friend who won't be able to come down to the house until it's time for school to start again about the issues. Her response? Basically, she says that as long as everything is working, why do any of those issues matter, except for like one major issue. I love my friend, but I was actually shocked to hear her response to the issues in the house.

We weren't expecting to live in a perfect house, but we expected for some things to be fixed before we moved in. My one roommate who is staying there now is all "we can fix this, clean that", which is true in some cases, but some things are just not our responsibility at all. We shouldn't be spending our own money to fix a place that we're only renting for a year, repairing damages left before we moved in. It's not fair to us that we have to move into a house that isn't really "ready" for us nor that we have to fix ourselves. Whatever repairs we do to this house ourselves, we should be repaid for honestly, or we can take any additions with us (except for paint on the walls and similar repairs).

• There's a ton of chipped paint throughout the house, a minor issue, but it would be awesome if they gave us paint to fix these walls. 
• We're not responsible for grass care, so it would be awesome if they could cut down all of those weeds in our yard. It looks like they haven't cut the grass in months. I'd just cut the grass myself, but they claim we don't do any yard work, just shovel the snow during winter. 
• The outside of this house needs a paint job, especially by the door.
• There's a hole in the wall in the living room that is about the circumference of a baseball and more than a surface issue. One of my roomies' boyfriend hung a nice painting he did over the hole lol.
• Cracks in the ceiling- water damage maybe? 
• Rat/mice droppings in a cabinet near the floor in our little hallway outside of the kitchen. Do. We. Have. Rats?!!!! This is a major problem that needs to be fixed. No exceptions.
• And other random issues

My point is that as young adults, we have the right to demand nice things as well. People expect us to screw things up all of the time, but not all of us are "bad" or look to purposely damage property. As a lessor/landlord, I would want my lessee(s) to move into a nice and clean place, in hopes that they would want to renew their lease or rent another one of my properties. I wouldn't promise the lessee things that I wouldn't keep... But it's okay. This is all a learning experience.

As Blink-182 said, I guess this is growing up.