Itās gotta be My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as a whole and Graduation for aesthetics/Murakami involvement. Watching the music video for Stronger in 2007 introduced me to not only Kanye, but Japanese Anime, and Daft Punk all things that had an immense influence on my childhood. Around 2013, long after both had came out, I was a freshman in high school battling the culture shock of coming from a tiny niche elementary school going into a high school with enrollment around 1000. I didn't feel like I was completely lonely, but I thought my grade school experience was so different compared to my peers, I had struggles relating and fitting in. All my classmates had iPhone 5cās, I had an LG flip phone and an iPod Touch, I didnāt have any kind of social media when EVERYONE I knew had Facebook, small stuff like all of that made me seem odd to most people and while I had friends, it was rather hard to make new ones.
One day I remember being really sad all day and silently crying waiting for the bus to come pick me up after school. Pulled up my iPod and picked MBDTF, and hit Shuffle All, So Appalled played first, and something about that song cheered me up and told me to keep listening. I vividly remember pulling my wired Apple earbuds to my ears from under my rain jacket and just listening to the rain and listening to an album that became the first album I truly listened to. I found all the lyrics online, looked on Genius to figure out the meaning of everything I heard. Something in that album carried me through those dark years of my life and I will always remember those times.
Sad what has become of the man in our current zeitgeist, but Kanye was/is really one of the greatest to ever do it.
Mar 10, 2025
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rlly lowk appreciate this post as someone who also grew up listening to this album. I hate seeing what kanye has become especially because of mbdtf, and it honestly baffles me that so many people think graduation is his best when mbdtf is right there. Thereās something just so magical to it.
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Class of 21 šš I didnāt go to class in person for more than a month and kinda memoryholed the last half of high school because of it. So many months of my life are almost completely blacked out and I canāt fit more important events on a timeline anymore. Itās super weird and I havenāt summoned the desire to work through it yet.. I vaguely remember being into early Kanye for a few weeks around graduation. I was raised with my parentsā love for Springsteen and grunge and the like which is an ideal foundation. I really loves The Pillows and still do, I watched FLCL and Samurai Champloo pretty closely together in like 2017(?). I distinctly remember finishing Champloo in a hotel on an overnight cross country trip. Those soundtracks have stuck with me since then.
I think I just didnāt listen to a lot of music though.. never used Spotify or anything so I would just pull videos on YouTube when I wanted to hear something. I had a flash drive Iād plug into my car when I wanted something specific. I had a couple Bowie albums on there randomly.. Springsteen of course, Michael Jackson, a couple Tyler albums, sonic highways by foo fighters.. the massive bulk of what Iām into now only really developed after high school when I started thinking for myself and seeking new stuff out.. part of me feels like I had two separate āgaining sentienceā moments being early childhood of course and then later again as I turned 19-20.. this got off track but was interesting to reminisce on !!
May 26, 2025
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Embarrassing to admit bc if his current behavior but I was about 10 at the time. I finally started getting an allowance and it was one of the first things I ever bought. It had been out for a few years atp. I was so excited I had no clue what he was rapping about most of the time but I really liked the song big brother at the time
May 19, 2025
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freshman year was hot off the coat tails of my emo/scene years. somehow transitioned from that to mostly bachata and reggaeton. lots of joey bada$$ / pro era new york rap as well. and i loved lana del rey.
sophomore year was a blur i couldnāt tell you. probably the same with a bit more rap. loved me some lorde tho. i think i also stumbled upon genesis by grimes around this time.
junior year i discovered fka twigs and it changed me. it was a lot of her and childish gambino. anime soundtracks and j-rock too. lots of nujabes bc i had just watched samurai champloo. ultraviolence came out that year. it was crazy.
senior year was a lot. i got back into kpop + k r&b for a bit (had a brief stint in middle school). i was really into mac demarco and loved kali uchis down. i also discovered kilo kish this year. i graduated in the infancy of the flower boy peach sunflower era so that should inform you on what my tastes were morphing into.
i also have awful memory in general but looking back makes me realize i truly tell time through music. thatās the bulk of what i can remember from my teen years.
May 26, 2025
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I ask myself this a lot and I think you should too.
5d ago
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Everything in your life does not have to be subscription based, and subscription does not equate a service being good. If Iām paying $24.99 a month to watch Netflix in 4K UHD, I should expect to see what I pay for, not subpar playback latency, low bitrate streams, many app crashes, and overall looking terrible on anything that isnāt a 4K display.
Remember when you could buy things and own them, like, forever?
There is a better world out there past Netflix, Hulu, Spotify and Amazon Prime.
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You donāt have to tell everyone everything in/about your life, especially online, in todayās online yet frequently data-breached world. Like the great Christopher Wallace once said: Keep your family and business completely separated
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