Mos Def Fan Club shirt

Description

So Drake put out a book of poetry titled ‘Titles Ruin Everything’ (A Stream of Consciousness by Kenza Samir & Aubrey Graham, and I wrote about it for Complex. In my writing about the book, I told a story about how I used to hate on Drake in my younger days, and how a conversation with Bun helped me change the way I thought about Drake, and more largely about the way I approached music. It went as follows:

I’ll admit, back in the “Best I Ever Had” days I used to hate on Drake. Publicly! But Drake and I have the same mentor, Bun B, who was quick to teach me a valuable lesson. One particular night, backstage at a show, I was doing my usual Public Drake Hating – which, as a Real Hip Hop Head, I viewed as my duty – when Bun checked me.

“He’ll never be as good as Mos Def,” I said. I’m cringing now, just thinking about how I really said those words out loud.

“Sama’an,” Bun said to me in a very disappointed, fatherly tone. “Is Drake trying to make the same music as Mos Def?”

I couldn’t believe he was forcing me to think critically about the artform I claimed to love so much. I had to be honest in my reply.

“No,” I said. “He’s not.”

“Then why are you trying to compare them?” Bun said.

I had a whole existential crisis in that moment. Why was I trying to compare them? I didn’t know who I was any more.

I was being vulnerable! And isn’t it Drake’s ability to be vulnerable in his music what draws us to him?

Well, Drake read the story and immediately DM’d Complex. I won’t lie, he roasted me pretty damn good. Drake’s DM said: “Can you do an article now where the baddest Instagram girls in the world review my poetry book not the head of Mos Def Fan club…thanks” and for punctuation he ended it with the crying laughing emoji.

What do you do when Drake roasts you good? Well, in my case, I hit up Richie at Members Only Houston and we made some shirts. So now we present to you the Mos Def Fan Club shirt. For the Mos Def fan in your life!

Here’s me, Sama’an, wearing the Mos Def Fan Club shirt in the wild.