If you’ve ever listened to “that’s my nigga fo’ real” by Young Zee (in the 8mile soundtrack) and “whoa!” by Black Rob (it can be heard in the Bad Boy’s 10th Anniversary…The Hits CD) then you’ll know where I wanna go with my birthday vote of thanks. I liked the way both rappers hailed their peeps in their songs. And that’s how I wanna thank all my friends who remembered to hola at me on my birthday: April 17th, yesterday. You guys are all whoa! You’re my niggaz/peoples for real, I can never forget y’all.

Rolakef, konrad Dramatik Osai, fatima tayo salami, Laide, Chisom Echeta, Cassi Akin, Ifeoma (Jummy), Angelgirl (Nairaland), Palyugo, Chidiogo, Frank Yawon, Ulongozi (it was real sweet of you to call me up by 12am just to be the first to…), Ifydarkangel, Sandra Esoher, my younger sis and my family, Nyereok, Atinuke, Evelyn, Seun Osewa, Jumoke, Ifeco, Da_Uchh, Kenieflex, Maura, Promise, Onyinye Christiana, Ebele Ofoegbu and Justina Uju Azubuike. Big ups to you all. And Laide thanks for the vote of thanks idea from your blog.

And the Strange event of the day was receiving a call from a certain Ibrahim in London thinking he was getting through to Ruggedman. Damn, well the blame or is it praise goes to Google and their indexing of my blog’s content.

By the way Ludacris was in town on the 15th for an MTV base Africa show. He was the main act as they celebrated the launch of their station, which according to them is their 100th. I wasn’t at the show though cos for one, I didn’t feel like going. And two, the price was way above my reach.

And talking about MTV base, one plus of it to me is that they show old school Hip hop videos from the 70’s, 80’s (when Hip hop was born) and early 90’s which you can hardly see on any other station. I certainly enjoy grabbing a thing or two about Hip hop history from these videos. And one fact, sad as it is that I’ve discovered is that the quality of some of those early rap videos is exactly the same as the quality of some of the videos churned out in contemporary Nigeria in the name of Hip hop. What a shame.

Also it’s a fact that many hits in the US charts of today are remixes or borrow a thing or two from old school songs, going as far back as the 20’s and 30’s. And that’s cos they have a good archival system. Unfortunately in Nigeria we’re bad historians and archivists. Hence we can’t effectively borrow from our past musically to enrich our present…the Papal election starts today in a few hours time. Peace!!!

My friend: fatima tayo salami (with a white head scarf) and her friends at school…all I need in this life of sin is me and my girlfriend…peoples!

Yep I’m turning 22 in a few days time. On April 17th to be precise…”they say a TRAE flow is the very thing/and April is the seventeenth/”. And I guess I’m getting old. In years past it was cool saying you’re turning 18 or 19 and you’re teenagish-mature. But being 21-22-23 ain’t so cool and especially when you’re still dependent on your folks. Anyway I’m grateful to Jah for coming thus far in life. This year (lol, like in all other years) I’m gonna have low keyed celebrations. But on the Internet I’ll open a sort of birthday hola register. That is: I want you to leave a comment for me as regards my birthday in this post. See the comment box at end of this write up. You could say what you want and feel about me turning 22. It could be “TRAE you rock, I wish you joy on your special day” or “TRAE you suck, fuck you and your birthday”. Just scribble something at the bottom. It’ll be cool for me as a birthday souvenir, memento or gift.

I’m sure the Pope’s death is no more new news to you. His burial is even taking place today. Well he was a good man and he did much for Catholic Church and Christianity in general. His life is exemplary and he courageously fought illness in his last years. So we can’t but celebrate his death. I’m grateful that I got to see him in 1998, during the Abacha days on his second visit to Nigeria. I was in the Junior Seminary then (I’m all CATHOLIC! But celibacy and priesthood wasn’t for me, so I’m kicking it in the real world) so we sat in front, very near the alter at his Papal mass in kubwa, Abuja. The next stuff now is the election of a new Pope/his successor. The process is called a Conclave; you might want to read about it here. From what I hear a Nigerian Cardinal: Cardinal Francis Arinze stands quite a good chance of being elected as the next Pope. Funny a Nigerian…an Igbo man as Pope. If achieved we’ll be both the baddest people on Earth (Nigerians kinda have a negative image in the World as being corrupt) and the holiest…lol.

I ain’t ending this post without giving props to my girl and fellow blogger (I guess she’s more of a diarist) Laide. Man, can she write! Her stuff is real interesting, captivating and very revealing on the thoughts of Nigerian female teenagers and young adults. She reminds me of the loud-mouthed, funny and straight to the point Juliana Francis. A columnist in The Sun newspaper.

What’s it gon be? “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRAE you rock!” or “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRAE you suck?”