I can understand the people who say that Twitter isn’t real life or Twitter isn’t your journal.

I believe that when they say it, they actually mean it and I can appreciate that that’s their reality.

I just wish that those niggas could appreciate the same, in reverse. Keep it V.

Those people can only imagine what it means to be non-verbal. Those people can’t fathom the utility of primarily text-based platform for somebody who feels like verbal engagement can be a game of doubledutch in which the jumper can’t never catch the rhythym right.

The question “is this a cry for help?” bothers me.

It’s the audacity!

Because what about my history makes you think that I would ever trust anybody to help me with anything? 🤣🤣

There are no saviors where I come from. Niggas just figure out how to be their own 🙏🏾 Shorty last week asked me why I called myself EhKees.

I told her I was tired of people asking questions they ain’t really want the answers for.

I said “you really want to know?” And then showed her this poem from 2009.

She said “I had no idea.”

so is my name a cry for help?

My niggettes be like “I just want u to guard ya heart, bro.”

I be like, “this ain’t my first rodeo.” I was in love, thought it was the one & I was wrong. And that WASNT eem the 1st time 😅! I’ve bought 2 rings!

And hey, I might be wrong AGAIN but we not jaded over here—WE ALIVE The world still spins.

I choose to be grateful for all of the moments shared and memories earned.

I know a whole lot of people who have only dreamed of the love that I’ve lived through a few times now.

I choose not to grieve. I choose to rejoice.

Cause I was there! Alabanza!

I found myself tryna coach my daughter on how to fit in.

Then my mom was like “Nigga let her live”.

She ain’t say it like that. I took creative license, just now. But still. I was telling my daughter “follow the authority”. I thought I was doing something by couching it with “I mean you can challenge it but you gotta live with the consequence”.

My mom was telling me about how these little white boys are empowered to do ANYTHING.

Proud Dad moment today...Avery gets royalties from every Orange Soda and bought a nice ass lego set today with her own earned money.

She also hit a savings goal that she wants to use to donate to an organization to help support houseless kids in the City. Every trip, Bern hits Avery's "who loves orange soda" drop all throughout the night. I just felt like she deserved something for that because it was her own 5 year-old creativity.

What’s wild about harassment… earlier this week, my kid was telling me that a lil boy at her school was saying he only wanted to hear songs from singers with big butts. And I could see how much it bothered her. She told me about how she checked him for his disrespect to women… …and how he blew her off. So she was holding a grudge against him until he gave an apology that he really meant. “Because women shouldn’t have to worry about that type of stuff”.

It just humbled me, that she was grappling with that type of thing ALREADY. She’s 9.

I can’t change the world. But I can change the world around me.

We have everything we need. It's no secret that i been having a difficult week. and last night was an opportunity to release.

alot of mindfulness. alot of reflection, this morning and the last many evenings.

"if i can go through all that and still be breathing...it's been over, i'm here for a reason"

The walk is over. I got a lot of relationships to water that I been neglecting.

This weekend I was with my seed and my rib. Today I spent time on my body & my brain child ETC.

Tonight, UCANN, Columbus Can’t Wait, & Native Tongues.

all my friends should know ima be round soon We got a 614 Day retreat coming up soon. 2022 gonna be special.

I was chopping with Yogi Saturday about Columbus Sneakerball. We’ll see y’all in the spring.

Cooking with dads in November.

We in the labs with it. It’s campus mentality.

Quick 2021 scoreboard check...

City Council gave 614 Day a resolution making it an official holiday. #local

State Rep Jarrells gave Proud Dad Week a statehouse commendation #state

The AA Wellness Fatherhood Initiative won a national commissioner award #national

#ETCbyEhKees The Real Men Real Talk Virtual Summit had registrations from 230 cities, 43 states, 11 countries. #international

Orange Soda posted a sold out event on it's FOURTH calendar #longevity

Articles in Columbus Alive and 614 Magazine. Grandma got a copy on the coffee table. #legacy

damn dog... looking at these old footages... damn man.

I love this city. I started a group chat in 2011 called the Church on the Drums and the discussion of other Nigga Shit because Hov and Kanye put out Watch the Throne and Niggas wanted to know what I thought about it. Twitter, fb, text, other groupmes. I put em all in one space: The COTD.

Smoked a stick with my OG. Shot a lil pool.

we was talking vision for @TheETCbyUS. I swear EhKees is back in the game with it. It’s alot about columbus that has pained me over the years.

But there’s so much more that has given me joy. I could never turn my back on this city.

We brought back FlyPaper the way we did, started Native Tongues and Orange Soda, created ETC because of two J Cole records after Mike Brown died: Be Free and Love Yourz.

Gotta put respect on black lives while there’s still air in our lungs. If a Nigga says “I put my everything into this”, how ima look at it like it’s irrelevant??

All the time and energy and craft put into these projects—I feel like a hypocrite saying “black lives matter” and then looking at niggas in my community and not caring.

11 years ago, I made this important decision to actively stop being a hypocrite.

There’s still a lot of behaviors I am working to unlearn but I’ve come a long way in my understanding and empathy for other marginalized people. When I hear people say “it shouldn’t have to be your mom or your sister or your daughter for you to care about women’s rights” I agree with them. But I also have to acknowledge that it it took close proximity for me to start looking at life differently.

I used to wanna do it for the glory.

Now I don’t have any goal.

My only aim is to show my daughter that there is no ceiling. I was talking with my moms tonight. We was talking about how the precedents she set, really led to my growth and development.

She be flabbergasted with the route I choose to walk because it’s beyond a reality that she had the capacity to imagine for herself or her kids.

Im not apologizing for my blackness or my success. My truths sound like I’m flexing.

I been letting go of soooo much.

So many times I’ve asked myself this year “what are you willing to lose?” And then “why not everything?” When that nigga tried to put the devil on me, even though I knew that I wasn’t guilty of what I’d been accused, I knew there was Alot I was about to lose.

That’s a permanent stain on my name. Relationships lost or forever changed & a Burgeoning legacy right down the drain.

I only really get along with other hustlers. Every new project is more important than the last because I wouldn’t stop working on something else unless something more urgent popped up.

If I’m working on it, it’s either a means to an end or I am really passionate about it. And I’m transparent about which is which.

Can I be honest about something real quick? It’s been on my heart since the 2-year anniversary. Anxiousness about the parties we was throwing. I didn’t like that I was facilitating an environment for binge drinking because of the mistakes that peoples was making.

People were getting harassed. Getting DUI’s. Texting exes.

This video, and seeing people run through Sole Classics last night, really hit me. All of this is so complicated.

Because I share the emotion and frustration of the protestors and anger of the rioters. I ache for the centuries of black lives lost and systemically oppressed.

https://twitter.com/Nood1le/status/1266603752741576706

I understand the thought process that leads to a “burn everything down” conclusion.

I get it when people past the point of peace say “Nothing matters until black lives matter”.

But I contend now, & always, that “black lives matter” does not only apply to people who have died

Today's the anniversary of my dad's death. I called my mom and she said it sounded like it was him talking to her on the phone. I’ll share some threads I made about my dad and the complicated relationship we had.

Today i am working on some UI & content planning for ETC. After I get my daughter, i have to meet with a collaborator to talk about a project we're working on. Then I'm going to Morgan Harper's HQ for Super Tuesday watch party and GOTV training. After that im recording a podcast. Tmrw, I have an early meeting with my chief of staff and one of my co founders. Then Im recording the first episode of a new video series with the aforementioned collaborator. Then gym, more ETC stuff and at night, the last US-03 debate before recording another podcast episode