Controlling the future is hard work. These days I find myself making less and less rash decisions in order to create a future without the sort of consequences that I have grown to hate. Simple things like turning down that extra shot of tequila right now in order to not have a hangover tomorrow (a.k.a el futuro, folks). That’s how that shit works. You control the future by positioning yourself properly today so that tomorrow’s outcome is exactly what you wanted it to be. Does that make any sense, padawans?
We all know that the past is gone, and until real life versions of Doc Brown and Marty McFly come stumbling our way that’s all there will ever be to it. That’s where sadness and regret breed anyway, and yet here I am, giving you the key to controlling tomorrow because of my own past; because of my own mistakes and episodes of sadness and regrets that chewed away at my moments in-the-now. Moments that in retrospect could have been awesome memories were spent as more grim and dark moments fueled by other grim and dark moments that had already gone away. Do you see that? Did you catch the cycle?
It’s good to know what tomorrow is going to bring. All that shit that you were taught about not worrying about the future is bullshit. I mean, sure, don’t fret about moments that may not arrive, but whether they get here or not makes zero difference once you know what the outcome will be. You see, by controlling tomorrow just the way you want it, it means that right now, in-the-moment, you are living life just the way you need to be living it. Controlling the future gives us balance that way. It helps us measure what we can handle versus what we uncontrollably never could. It allows us the sort of responsibility to our minds, bodies and souls that even most of our elders and ancestors could never achieve. That’s what makes it all so dope. It’s not that you are such a master of the universe that you have this superior power to control the future like they do in comic books. Nah, it ain’t that crazy. All it is, is recognizing the roads that you have already been on and maybe making a left turn or a right turn somewhere different than you ever have all those times before.
I’m not sure why this dope-as-fuck Arrow Benjamin tune inspired this in me today. Maybe it was the song’s intro which sounds like it’s transporting us into some other dimension before his John Legend/Outkast-like vocal drops. Maybe it’s the way the overall vibe and groove of Arrow’s hymn feels like it just uprooted us from our seats onto the Soul Train Line back in the 70’s, even though none of us here could possibly know what that felt or sounded like. Or maybe it’s just that taking some of the good parts of production techniques & styles from the past to place them here in “Look At Me”, will allow for it to be the hit record that it will become—tomorrow.
Banger.