Letter No. 108: Dwanye Carter
Dear Dwanye Carter,
I’ve written a letter to someone every week day for the last twenty two weeks. This friday I’ll have written over a hundred and ten letters. That being said it has made me hesitant to want to fall into this seemingly new age pop-culture trap of “write Weezy a letter while he’s in jail”. Not that I’m oppose to people doing that or think it’s a bad way to spend your time while in prison. That being said here I am writing you a letter.
I saw on the Forbes list of wealthiest hip-hop moguls or whatever Forbes likes to call their list you made twenty million dollars last year. And to be quite honest having, spending, saving or otherwise that amount of money doesn’t particularly impress me. I would be happy with considerably less than that, and something tells me you would be too.
However the ability to gain that kind of wealth certainly says something about the perfection of your craft. I consider myself a fan of Hip-Hop and have since probably grammar school, and you’re certainly not one of my favorite rappers. I don’t think you’re particular bad per-say, but some people with developed fine art acumen’s don’t like Ellsworth Kelly, but I think he’s probably the best painter living. But even people in the fine art world who don’t like his work with any sense respect his craft and the same is true in regard to my feelings on your music.
There’s good music I don’t particularly like, the same as almost any other medium, I if wonder other people feel the same. I’d be curious to know your thoughts on the subject.
In watching a short clip on this Forbes list, I heard Russell Simmons say something to the effect of “life is about perfecting your craft and not worrying about anything else”. And at the moment that hits home as a brilliant thought, so much of the world and it’s many opportunities rely on others who when push comes to shove may or may not come thru on their word or at all. But regardless if you perfect your craft as best you can end of the day I have to imagine with any luck you’ll come thru. Perhaps not exactly as you had imagined but all the wiser for it. Opportunities come and go, when one ceases through none of your own doing another will eventually arise, the key is seeing things for what they are and realizing your own abilities will forever be the constant in the experiment that is life.
It’s funny realizing things like that. The world is a strange place and the more you think you have it all figured out the less you really do. You can stack your books in perfectly balanced stack and one day the wind will blow open the top book. Do you close it and fix the stack or do you just decide to spend the next hour rereading the book? Food for thought.
Sincerely,
Mr. Chandler Easley
603 W. 115th St. #177
New York, NY 10025
