WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK: 029

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK - DJ KHALED

See I had to think long and had for this one. I've been tossing and turning. I've been struggling to come to terms with the truth. This weeks Wasteman of the Week is a wasteman I actually like. In the internet era people like DJ Khaled are absolutely sent from heaven. Whenever he gets in front of a camera it's fucking gold. He's released his new album this week and in doing so done the whole hip hop radio press run hip hop artists usually go through when dropping a new release.

The interview below is one of my favourite videos this year. He looks like he is wild coked up, just talking the most about absolutely everything. It really is incredible viewing. He is just so so funny through out, talking about his come up and why he deserves the respect of his critics. It's fascinating viewing, if not only for his struggle with saying the word 'accurate.' (16:00)

And even though we all know he is a wasteman, he actually comes out of it looking pretty good. He's a wasteman who we all love to hate. An anti hero, and realistically he makes the internet fucking fun. Remember the 'Say my name...you smart' skit? Like he didn't know what he is doing. He's a stupid fat idiot but I fucking get so so excited whenever there are new videos of him, so this week has been crazy.

ANOTHER ONE

NEW YORK: PART 3

Here's the third and final part of the stuff I saw in NY!

We were going for breakfast at like typical, shit breakfast dives most days. I still cannot understand how meat and syrup can taste so nice together. It's like the pancakes bridge the gap. I don't get it.

We visited the Yankee Stadium for a tour. Pretty sick, steeped in history even though it is the new one, the tour was obviously more about the clubs legacy than the actual building.

This guy was puuuure cracked out when we got in the queue to go in. Just a little reminder we were in the Bronx now haha.

Memorial park was at the back of the field and had little plaques dedicated to legendary players.

Baseballs signed by every New York Yankees player.

One thing that was true of New York is that they were sports mad. Like with basketball, American football, hockey and now soccer most sports having at least 2 New York teams, there is just sport constantly on, everywhere. Everyone is so proud to represent their city and it spills over into the sports culture. People everywhere, all the time wearing Mets jerseys and Nicks hats.

The subways were cool. I guess mainly being in Manhattan I didn't see the mental crackheads I wanted to see. Maybe next time I'll go stay in the Bronx.

On the Thursday we went to Madison Square Gardens to watch New York Rangers host Arizona Coyotes in the hockey.

The homeless are odd in NY. People just kind of leave them to it, and they don't beg you and shout things at you all the time like they do over here. I imagine more so than our parents generation, people of that age have grew up around a lot of homeless people in New York, and they seemed to be part of the cities identity.

We went to Hooters to watch the Liverpool game and eat before going to MSG. I had a blue cheese and bacon burger, it was pretty good.

Dan's steak and cheese looked so so good. I should have just got this.

The hockey was sickkkkk. Our seats were pretty high up but they were dead in the middle, we had such a great view of the game.

It was cancer awareness week in American sports, and this girl who was like 13 and was told she would never walk again came out to sing the national anthem. She does dance and shit now, she was just killing it. Everyone gave her a standing ovation and cheered for her so loud. It was such a moment.

couple mandem

As we came out of MSG we had a little mooch around Times Square at night. It was so so lit up.

It was so exhausting, there was so much foot traffic. Just non stop people all the time.

Some of the police had these sick little one man electric cars. It's got the bar for the flashing lights on the top and I assume, with that, a siren. I wonder how fast they go. Can't really imagine chipping down the highway chasing an escaped criminal in this, can you?

Yeah same

The next morning we went to a batting cage. I was so sore for days after. Obviously didn't warm up, why would you bother? It was pretty fun. Felt all inspired and shit after touring the Yankee stadium.

I'm going to find it so hard to convince my kids not to just hammer fizzy pop and throw sweets into their faces when I'm still gonna be about that when I'm old

This was pretty cool. We stayed in Little Italy on out last night.

Obviously went out for a quick sloz

All fucking week I was getting nosebleeds. It was mental. Imagine being me, in New York, trying to be all cool and give the nightlife a bang and I get a fucking nosebleed in the club. Imagine that. What a fucking born nerd.

T with a big pizza. I really fucked it on our last day. we ate out three times and every single time I got something so so shit compared to the other lads.

Since I've been writing my blog and photographing food for it I've affected this weird annoying trait where if one of my friends is going to order the same thing as me I'll change my order usually. Because I want to see as much of the food as possible. I did this here and I fucked myself over. I'm going to change it as of TODAY

Cinnamon Jolly Ranchers. What a time to be alive. I wish British confectionary companies took cinnamon as seriously as American does.

I found this hipster doughnut and coffee place near china town when we were mooching about on the last day. Look at this fucking doughnut! I was so sickly and nice. Man, the food in NY was incredible.

I don't think i've ever had so long to wait from booking a holiday to actually going on it, and NY really didn't disappoint. I felt completely knackered when we got back, Dan had a pedometer (lol) on some app on his phone running by accident and we were walking 25-30 km per day haha. It was so tiring, I feel like we fitted so much in. If you've never been and you like city living, and like visiting London and so on you'd love it. It's hectic and exhausting but I cannot wait to go back.

NEW YORK: PART 2

Yooooo part two!

Ok so one day I split up from the other guys and did some shopping on the lower Eastside. I got the subway too far up and ended up in Harlem for a few blocks, it looked soooo different to Manhattan haha. There were some guys racing remote controlled cars up the street, people were betting on them. Either way, I walked back along the side of central park and saw this guy. I can't remember his name, but look at that fucking outfit.

I found the flagship Ralph Lauren store. Fuck me, it was ridiculous. 5 fucking floors, open fire places, cabinets with polo awards, big leather sofas everywhere. I got offered a drink when I walked in. Some guy in the lift with white gloves asked me what floor. Upstairs there was a bloke swanning about with a little dog with a Ralph Lauren coat on. Jesus. 

Dan holding stuff from the bodega part 1: A Colt 45 40oz.

The bodegas were so so sick. They sold everything you'd want, like a pure good selection of drinks, booze and sweets but then each one had a sandwich bar inside. On the right you can see piles of different meats swamped in sauces. You tell them what you want, on what bread and with what cheese and 5 minutes later it's $4.

I had a chicken pesto sandwich on a hero (a long soft roll) with mozzarella and jalapeños. I think it's easily the thing I ate that I'm thinking about the most since I got home.

We went to ground zero, to the 9/11 memorial museum. I was off school on that day, and I watched the second plane go in live. I've always been completely fascinated by the whole thing.

They'd built the museum on the actual grounds of the World Trade Centres. Parts were still intact. Like you'd walk down and there would be a rusted steel foundation towering 60ft next to you, and then at the bottom it was all twisted and ripped apart. This staircase was still in tact, but covered in dust and concrete from the collapse. Thousand of people escaped via this staircase on the day.

This flag was patched together with bits of other flags from all over the country to replace the one from the towers that got lost in rubble while they were clearing up the site.

There was a little part of the museum that was dedicated to peoples tattoos. This one was pretty mental.

'No day shall erase you from the memory of time' kind of a sick quote. Behind this wall were all the unidentified parts of bodies and bodies that belonged to people who died that day.

The museum was by far the most comprehensive and interesting museum I've ever been to. They had this one room where you couldn't take photos and little A5 photos lined the walls top to bottom. Photos of everyone who died in the towers. Next to this room was a dark room with two benches, facing projectors that one by one remembered the people who died. Someone would come on, they'd show you where they were from, their job and then it would say, for example 'Meredith Jenkinson, remembered by her widower, John' and then John would tell a funny little story that painted a picture of her as a slideshow of photos of her played. It was such a nice touch, very personable. It really got me.

One massive room had loads of vehicles and stuff that was on the ground that was half ok, half completely fucked. suspended in mid air was one of the engine turbines from the plane. How incredible is that!

My favourite part of the museum was this one bit with TVs showing you footage from around the world of when the story broke that the first plane had gone in. Obviously, initially everyone thought it was an accident. Then you turned the corner, they had the same TVs in the same order but with footage of the second plane hitting, and obviously various news anchors and presenters realising it was an attack rather than a freak accident.

This is the new World Trade Centre building. 

Even the basic food like paninis from some anything shop looked unreal.

Tom only drinks Fiji water now. Basic water makes him nervous.

More roadman squirrels.

I saw a couple men who definitely slapped a woman to snap her out of a state of hysteria during the wild cocaine 70s in New York.

We turned this corner, I'm not sure of the area, maybe like near East Village and it was so cool. It suddenly looked a lot more like the New York from movies and shit. People playing handball.

Mandatory WL roadkill.

This pizza place was pure famous apparently. The wall was covered in photos of A list stars (like Leo DiCaprio level of celebrity) who had visited. Didn't want a photo of Kurly Hypa though... very interesting.

Bit weird isn't it.

LOOK AT THE FUCKING BEAUTIFUL NEAT SELECTION DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS FUCKING SHIT

Dan holding stuff part 2: a 20 deck of Newport menthols.

Dogshit photo but a few road signs were giving me pure mixed signals. The roads were hard enough to cross anyway, I don't need this shit to contend with.

That's part 2 done! I'll be back tomorrow with my third and final part!