Post by J-Hop on Apr 20, 2013 16:57:19 GMT -4
“ALL ABOUT STAR POWER”
I Got The Power!
APRIL 19TH 2013 -- NORTH OAHU, HAWAII | 2:53 A.M
Tired.
Depressed.
Exhausted.
All of the above and more can explain just how I felt. From off an eventful yet successful title defense in Lima, Peru on Meltdown days ago, here I was tonight, or this morning, in Oahu, Hawaii. I knew I would probably be ‘dead on arrival’ if I went back to Brooklyn only to have to depart a day later. Anthony, William and myself just decided to remain in Peru for a day or two more before heading off to the next locale, Asunción, Paraguay for Asylum. We needed a moment to ‘relax’.
As champions, we never looked to relax. We wanted to stay on alert, you just never know what may occur.
With the latest happenings, the updated version of ‘the new kids on the block’, ala “Foul Play”, it was only fitting we stood at “Attention”, with our tired bodies stiff and straight, prepared for the next move. Foul Play quickly became the predators of APW. If we close our eyes, there’s a possibility we would be in a world of hurt. Knowing we were their next opponents, coming this week on Asylum, we had to prepare for anything. They could do anything to rid of us.
I had to remain composed. Anthony had to remain composed, making sure his team was focused on the task that stood in front of us.
Why was I nervous? After what Anthony told me and William about the shit Jason Kash had pulled. How Kash and his group organized that bullshit. It was all I could think about as I tweeted out to them that I’d meet them in Paraguay on ‘D-Day’ of Asylum. I was in Hawaii, camping out at a small hotel.
What was in Hawaii that directed my attention? Kids and teenagers who were in need of a direction. In a more simpler answer ... There were a bunch of ‘Jair Hopkins’ who at one point in life was about to give up, give in to the peer pressure of the devil’s work. Surrounded by madness, they needed enlightenment. I’m no professor by all means, but what I hoped to achieve with this visit was to inspire them to be something more than what most expect of them.
APRIL 19TH 2013 -- NORTH OAHU, HAWAII | 11:36 A.M
@ STARRPOWER Organization
“Whoa! This is dope, Lya!”
Stepping outside of the town cab, it was just me and her as there was a calm, pleasant breeze that was always a Hawaii favorite. The kind that blows your hair and clothes with a short burst. Standing on the steps that led to the entrance of the building, my eyes glanced up at the shiny logo. A ‘Star’ shape with the superscripted number of 2 right above it to the right (★2), “STARRPOWER”, it was legit.
“Thank you! These kids are surely going to love you. I appreciate you taking the time to come here.”
To be completely honest, although she inspired me to come to Hawaii, I WANTED to come, I needed to escape all realms of my life. APW, TDB, even Twitter for a day.
The way I felt yesterday, seeing and replying to comments by those who see themselves as the “best”, it drained more energy than enough. It wasn’t any use to just waste my words and thoughts on petty folks who choose to ignore anything I say anyway. All my talking needed to come one way only, by foot and fists as they go into action.
“Oh, it’s not a problem. I just hope I can impact some kids today! I know Ant and William is going to want to know how all went. I can’t just tell them you and I went to the beach or something.” I said, shrugging my shoulders as she began smiling.
“You’re too much!” She said in response.
No, actually, she was too much. Damn she was gorgeous. Even on her rare ‘off-days’ she had it going. Brains and beauty, rare breed in this world nowadays. It was the reason why we decided she was a fit for TDB, she’s a rare one. But seriously, how in the hell was I suppose to concentrate on these kids with this chica’s smile and glamour all day today? Oh well, focus and deny my eyes from glaring at her. Best possible answer.
“I like this color scheme you got going in here, the gradients are well done.” My taste in art and such wasn’t best but I knew what looked good and what didn’t.
Walking through the halls of the building, we walked side by side as my eyes gazed at all the hanging pictures of the past and present, certain art canvases of some of the students.
“This is the gym. All the kids love it! Basketball, Tennis and sometimes Soccer if they are up for it.” She said as we progressed with a left turn. “One more left and we will be there at the Auditorium.”
Auditorium? She had her own auditorium in here. Holy hell! I hadn’t seen one since junior high. As we walked through the last straight hallway, we took that left, led by her as we were now at the auditorium. She paused before pushing through one side of the double doors.
“Ready?” She asked, looking back at me.
“Ready!” I responded with a nod.
Pushing open the door, she walked out and went to the left as I followed through seconds later. The kids went crazy to the sight of me coming through, almost resembling the loudness of an APW show. That was crazy, their hands up in the air, clapping, mouths open, yelling to the top of their lungs. I made my way down the slope, slapping some of the kids hands as I made my way up the steps of the stage.
“I know you guys and girls have had several people come in and tell you how to go about in life and what the future has in store for you. I’m no motivational speaker, I’m just going to advise you all not to go on the same route I went early in my life, trying to find the easy way out.”
Sitting down on the edge of the stage, my legs hanging off, not even touching the ground. Short, yeah, whatever. The kids eyes were all on me, intrigued to what I had to say. All of a sudden one young girl, in her early teens, stood up with her hand in the air.
“What route was that?” She asked before sitting back down.
I took a deep sigh as I looked at Lya who had gone off stage, standing in the far corner.
“As an eleven year old who was without a father. Mother doing her best to try and pay all the bills, work, come home and cook a solid meal, help me with my school work, it became too much of a load to handle. I had to quit school, I had to find a way to help out my mother. I took the easy route. I followed in the footsteps of many others in the neighborhood, selling all kinds of illegal substances all for some change to give my Mother for the bills.”
You could hear the complete silence in the room as the faces held many emotions.
“I did what I had to do at the time to keep from being evicted, living on the streets. I hate to look back at those terrible times but as I looked to how I overcame that addiction at one point, getting out of what would’ve been a life-long stay in jail, I battled my way out of the negative and built on the positives. Here I am today!”
I picked up the title that sat next to me, holding it high for all to see.
“A champion. From nothing to something. That’s what I want you all to achieve in life, become a champion. Rise above the negatives and you will achieve that goal.”
A young boy stood up, he looked to be around fifteen. He had his hand raised as I pointed to him.
“Did you ever go back to school to get your diploma?”
I shook my head.
“That would be a negative. All I could focus on was making sure the only person who looked out for me knew that I looked out for her. My mother. She wanted me to go get my diploma, but I chose to not return. However, I do plan on getting my papers in a class in due time. I plan on taking a course in college as well and let everyone know who doubted that I could stay above water, let them see me doing the ‘butterfly’.”
A few chuckles were heard within the audience.
“While I had those dark moments, I was glad to have a parent by my side. You guys, you were either left alone or given away. It made you feel unaccepted in life. I want you guys to prove everyone wrong, whoever may have doubted you, prove them wrong!”
Most of them started to nod their heads, agreeing.
“I know you all have been with Lya for a while since she brought you in. You all have some sort of camaraderie with each other. Take that and build on it. Help each other succeed. Don’t leave anyone behind because of selfishness. You’re all in the same boat, help row the boat back to the shore.”
Once again, more nodding heads.
“I will do exactly that, Mr. Hopkins. I will be better! I will achieve greatness. You have inspired many in such short of a time. I will take all you have said and use it. I will be a champion. I will make sure everyone in here stands as a champion.”
“You all can be champions without actually holding something like this. Before I go, my lasting words to you all are that peer pressure is a dangerous thing. While it may seem cool, exciting and groundbreaking, step back, take a breathe and look at the gains and consequences from it. If the consequences outweigh the gain, it’s best to not follow through with that offer. Be smart because life is going to throw you curve balls as it will expect you to swing at everyone thrown. Once you strike out, that’s it! You fade to black and that my friend isn’t a sign of good. So be smart, be safe, and do the right thing!”
Getting up, I received an outstanding reception of applause as the young kids took those words to heart. The words, the struggles of my early childhood were somewhat relative to what they suffered. Supported by only a single parent, a tight bind, either homeless or being given away. They stood up, applauding my struggle and the rise out of it. I held my hands in the air as I made my exit. I departed out of the room as Lya followed. Behind the closed auditorium doors, I nodded with a smile.
“Seems like they like the advice.” I said, wiping my eyes.
“I thank you Jair. They really needed to hear that. You delivered.” She responded with clapping hands.
“As much as I’d love to stay and enjoy one of your home-cooked meals, I have to head to Paraguay and defeat a disease. An infecting disease in APW.”
Lya started to laugh.
“Those three, huh?”
I nodded.
“Take it easy Jair. Thank you once again!” She said as I made my way out of the building.
-----------------------------------
It felt like two vacation trips within a short span of time. I fell in love with the Hawaiian scenery. The beach waves splashing onto the rocks before splashing onto the sand area. The fresh breeze from the wavy water. It captured a ‘Postcard’ like image. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to. I had to take care of business. I needed to shut some illiterate bitches up, for once and for all. Lya tried to keep me calm in thought, but it was an extremely hard deal. I was off of Twitter, I could just imagine how many times “@jairamirhopkins” was tweeted out by the obvious haters in the universe who dislikes my style, my actions, my words.
“I’m going to treat you motherfuckers like Mrs. Gordon did Penny in Good Times!”
“You guys have no fucking clue what you’ve done. You’ve opened this massive-ass Pandora’s Box. You want to kidnap my man’s girl, tie her to a toilet, take a shit in the toilet and leave it unflushed? You want to make a silent, quiet, peaceful man become violent and dangerous as ever? You want to push all the buttons on the dial and not expect feedback?”
“You seriously got the game screwed up. Jason, Johnny, Michael. You three think you’re badasses all of a sudden? You believe you have all the tools to be successful as a team? While it all may seem sunny in Paraguay, you three will fall soon enough. Know why? You three are:”
“Egotistical, Over-aggressive, and Controlling...”
“...You all want to take the steering wheel and drive the car but can’t accept the failure of that car stalling. You all want to achieve greatness by knocking down that brick wall in front of you, but you can’t accept failure when those kicked bricks don’t fall for you. Michael Lively is exposed under pressure, Knuckles runs away when the going gets tough. Kash is failure. Both visually and physically. Sure, look at me weird as I call you a failure. Sure, you’ve won titles, but that’s not what I look at. I look at your actions. Your actions speak louder than your achievements. The way you earned those titles, the way you retained them when they were on the line. It’s the reason why you hate “us”. You hate Anthony, William and Myself all because we do things the legit way. We don’t take shortcuts, back roads to get to the top. We earn it with every possession we are given.”
“It’s what the term “Dying Breed” means. No, we’re not dead. We’re just the last kind on this planet to be patient, do things the right way as it should be. There’s millions of Jason Kash’s, Johnny Knuckles’s and Michael Lively’s. What makes you three different from those million. We’re a rare breed, you’re just a copycat. You call yourselves fucking originals. We appreciate the challenge, the tactics used to try and get under our skins, but come Asylum, there are going to be changes. Your eyes are going to be widened. You three will realize just WHAT THE FUCK you morons have done. By the time you do, it will all be too late. “Foul Play” will surely be “smelly old shit” that saw the abrasive cleaner erase all of it’s remains from the toilet bowl. You three are focusing way too much on taking down Anthony and trying to deplete him but that man is unbreakable. Kash tried it before and did not succeed. Don’t forget about ‘The Smooth One’ and don’t forget about Jair Hopkins.”
“You looking past us like we’re translucent. For whatever happens Sunday night, I’m not going to feel bad at all about it. The devil will cry Sunday night. Because this is Asylum and we are 'The Dying Breed'.”
I Got The Power!
APRIL 19TH 2013 -- NORTH OAHU, HAWAII | 2:53 A.M
Tired.
Depressed.
Exhausted.
All of the above and more can explain just how I felt. From off an eventful yet successful title defense in Lima, Peru on Meltdown days ago, here I was tonight, or this morning, in Oahu, Hawaii. I knew I would probably be ‘dead on arrival’ if I went back to Brooklyn only to have to depart a day later. Anthony, William and myself just decided to remain in Peru for a day or two more before heading off to the next locale, Asunción, Paraguay for Asylum. We needed a moment to ‘relax’.
As champions, we never looked to relax. We wanted to stay on alert, you just never know what may occur.
With the latest happenings, the updated version of ‘the new kids on the block’, ala “Foul Play”, it was only fitting we stood at “Attention”, with our tired bodies stiff and straight, prepared for the next move. Foul Play quickly became the predators of APW. If we close our eyes, there’s a possibility we would be in a world of hurt. Knowing we were their next opponents, coming this week on Asylum, we had to prepare for anything. They could do anything to rid of us.
I had to remain composed. Anthony had to remain composed, making sure his team was focused on the task that stood in front of us.
Why was I nervous? After what Anthony told me and William about the shit Jason Kash had pulled. How Kash and his group organized that bullshit. It was all I could think about as I tweeted out to them that I’d meet them in Paraguay on ‘D-Day’ of Asylum. I was in Hawaii, camping out at a small hotel.
What was in Hawaii that directed my attention? Kids and teenagers who were in need of a direction. In a more simpler answer ... There were a bunch of ‘Jair Hopkins’ who at one point in life was about to give up, give in to the peer pressure of the devil’s work. Surrounded by madness, they needed enlightenment. I’m no professor by all means, but what I hoped to achieve with this visit was to inspire them to be something more than what most expect of them.
APRIL 19TH 2013 -- NORTH OAHU, HAWAII | 11:36 A.M
@ STARRPOWER Organization
“Whoa! This is dope, Lya!”
Stepping outside of the town cab, it was just me and her as there was a calm, pleasant breeze that was always a Hawaii favorite. The kind that blows your hair and clothes with a short burst. Standing on the steps that led to the entrance of the building, my eyes glanced up at the shiny logo. A ‘Star’ shape with the superscripted number of 2 right above it to the right (★2), “STARRPOWER”, it was legit.
“Thank you! These kids are surely going to love you. I appreciate you taking the time to come here.”
To be completely honest, although she inspired me to come to Hawaii, I WANTED to come, I needed to escape all realms of my life. APW, TDB, even Twitter for a day.
The way I felt yesterday, seeing and replying to comments by those who see themselves as the “best”, it drained more energy than enough. It wasn’t any use to just waste my words and thoughts on petty folks who choose to ignore anything I say anyway. All my talking needed to come one way only, by foot and fists as they go into action.
“Oh, it’s not a problem. I just hope I can impact some kids today! I know Ant and William is going to want to know how all went. I can’t just tell them you and I went to the beach or something.” I said, shrugging my shoulders as she began smiling.
“You’re too much!” She said in response.
No, actually, she was too much. Damn she was gorgeous. Even on her rare ‘off-days’ she had it going. Brains and beauty, rare breed in this world nowadays. It was the reason why we decided she was a fit for TDB, she’s a rare one. But seriously, how in the hell was I suppose to concentrate on these kids with this chica’s smile and glamour all day today? Oh well, focus and deny my eyes from glaring at her. Best possible answer.
“I like this color scheme you got going in here, the gradients are well done.” My taste in art and such wasn’t best but I knew what looked good and what didn’t.
Walking through the halls of the building, we walked side by side as my eyes gazed at all the hanging pictures of the past and present, certain art canvases of some of the students.
“This is the gym. All the kids love it! Basketball, Tennis and sometimes Soccer if they are up for it.” She said as we progressed with a left turn. “One more left and we will be there at the Auditorium.”
Auditorium? She had her own auditorium in here. Holy hell! I hadn’t seen one since junior high. As we walked through the last straight hallway, we took that left, led by her as we were now at the auditorium. She paused before pushing through one side of the double doors.
“Ready?” She asked, looking back at me.
“Ready!” I responded with a nod.
Pushing open the door, she walked out and went to the left as I followed through seconds later. The kids went crazy to the sight of me coming through, almost resembling the loudness of an APW show. That was crazy, their hands up in the air, clapping, mouths open, yelling to the top of their lungs. I made my way down the slope, slapping some of the kids hands as I made my way up the steps of the stage.
“I know you guys and girls have had several people come in and tell you how to go about in life and what the future has in store for you. I’m no motivational speaker, I’m just going to advise you all not to go on the same route I went early in my life, trying to find the easy way out.”
Sitting down on the edge of the stage, my legs hanging off, not even touching the ground. Short, yeah, whatever. The kids eyes were all on me, intrigued to what I had to say. All of a sudden one young girl, in her early teens, stood up with her hand in the air.
“What route was that?” She asked before sitting back down.
I took a deep sigh as I looked at Lya who had gone off stage, standing in the far corner.
“As an eleven year old who was without a father. Mother doing her best to try and pay all the bills, work, come home and cook a solid meal, help me with my school work, it became too much of a load to handle. I had to quit school, I had to find a way to help out my mother. I took the easy route. I followed in the footsteps of many others in the neighborhood, selling all kinds of illegal substances all for some change to give my Mother for the bills.”
You could hear the complete silence in the room as the faces held many emotions.
“I did what I had to do at the time to keep from being evicted, living on the streets. I hate to look back at those terrible times but as I looked to how I overcame that addiction at one point, getting out of what would’ve been a life-long stay in jail, I battled my way out of the negative and built on the positives. Here I am today!”
I picked up the title that sat next to me, holding it high for all to see.
“A champion. From nothing to something. That’s what I want you all to achieve in life, become a champion. Rise above the negatives and you will achieve that goal.”
A young boy stood up, he looked to be around fifteen. He had his hand raised as I pointed to him.
“Did you ever go back to school to get your diploma?”
I shook my head.
“That would be a negative. All I could focus on was making sure the only person who looked out for me knew that I looked out for her. My mother. She wanted me to go get my diploma, but I chose to not return. However, I do plan on getting my papers in a class in due time. I plan on taking a course in college as well and let everyone know who doubted that I could stay above water, let them see me doing the ‘butterfly’.”
A few chuckles were heard within the audience.
“While I had those dark moments, I was glad to have a parent by my side. You guys, you were either left alone or given away. It made you feel unaccepted in life. I want you guys to prove everyone wrong, whoever may have doubted you, prove them wrong!”
Most of them started to nod their heads, agreeing.
“I know you all have been with Lya for a while since she brought you in. You all have some sort of camaraderie with each other. Take that and build on it. Help each other succeed. Don’t leave anyone behind because of selfishness. You’re all in the same boat, help row the boat back to the shore.”
Once again, more nodding heads.
“I will do exactly that, Mr. Hopkins. I will be better! I will achieve greatness. You have inspired many in such short of a time. I will take all you have said and use it. I will be a champion. I will make sure everyone in here stands as a champion.”
“You all can be champions without actually holding something like this. Before I go, my lasting words to you all are that peer pressure is a dangerous thing. While it may seem cool, exciting and groundbreaking, step back, take a breathe and look at the gains and consequences from it. If the consequences outweigh the gain, it’s best to not follow through with that offer. Be smart because life is going to throw you curve balls as it will expect you to swing at everyone thrown. Once you strike out, that’s it! You fade to black and that my friend isn’t a sign of good. So be smart, be safe, and do the right thing!”
Getting up, I received an outstanding reception of applause as the young kids took those words to heart. The words, the struggles of my early childhood were somewhat relative to what they suffered. Supported by only a single parent, a tight bind, either homeless or being given away. They stood up, applauding my struggle and the rise out of it. I held my hands in the air as I made my exit. I departed out of the room as Lya followed. Behind the closed auditorium doors, I nodded with a smile.
“Seems like they like the advice.” I said, wiping my eyes.
“I thank you Jair. They really needed to hear that. You delivered.” She responded with clapping hands.
“As much as I’d love to stay and enjoy one of your home-cooked meals, I have to head to Paraguay and defeat a disease. An infecting disease in APW.”
Lya started to laugh.
“Those three, huh?”
I nodded.
“Take it easy Jair. Thank you once again!” She said as I made my way out of the building.
-----------------------------------
It felt like two vacation trips within a short span of time. I fell in love with the Hawaiian scenery. The beach waves splashing onto the rocks before splashing onto the sand area. The fresh breeze from the wavy water. It captured a ‘Postcard’ like image. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to. I had to take care of business. I needed to shut some illiterate bitches up, for once and for all. Lya tried to keep me calm in thought, but it was an extremely hard deal. I was off of Twitter, I could just imagine how many times “@jairamirhopkins” was tweeted out by the obvious haters in the universe who dislikes my style, my actions, my words.
“I’m going to treat you motherfuckers like Mrs. Gordon did Penny in Good Times!”
“You guys have no fucking clue what you’ve done. You’ve opened this massive-ass Pandora’s Box. You want to kidnap my man’s girl, tie her to a toilet, take a shit in the toilet and leave it unflushed? You want to make a silent, quiet, peaceful man become violent and dangerous as ever? You want to push all the buttons on the dial and not expect feedback?”
“You seriously got the game screwed up. Jason, Johnny, Michael. You three think you’re badasses all of a sudden? You believe you have all the tools to be successful as a team? While it all may seem sunny in Paraguay, you three will fall soon enough. Know why? You three are:”
“Egotistical, Over-aggressive, and Controlling...”
“...You all want to take the steering wheel and drive the car but can’t accept the failure of that car stalling. You all want to achieve greatness by knocking down that brick wall in front of you, but you can’t accept failure when those kicked bricks don’t fall for you. Michael Lively is exposed under pressure, Knuckles runs away when the going gets tough. Kash is failure. Both visually and physically. Sure, look at me weird as I call you a failure. Sure, you’ve won titles, but that’s not what I look at. I look at your actions. Your actions speak louder than your achievements. The way you earned those titles, the way you retained them when they were on the line. It’s the reason why you hate “us”. You hate Anthony, William and Myself all because we do things the legit way. We don’t take shortcuts, back roads to get to the top. We earn it with every possession we are given.”
“It’s what the term “Dying Breed” means. No, we’re not dead. We’re just the last kind on this planet to be patient, do things the right way as it should be. There’s millions of Jason Kash’s, Johnny Knuckles’s and Michael Lively’s. What makes you three different from those million. We’re a rare breed, you’re just a copycat. You call yourselves fucking originals. We appreciate the challenge, the tactics used to try and get under our skins, but come Asylum, there are going to be changes. Your eyes are going to be widened. You three will realize just WHAT THE FUCK you morons have done. By the time you do, it will all be too late. “Foul Play” will surely be “smelly old shit” that saw the abrasive cleaner erase all of it’s remains from the toilet bowl. You three are focusing way too much on taking down Anthony and trying to deplete him but that man is unbreakable. Kash tried it before and did not succeed. Don’t forget about ‘The Smooth One’ and don’t forget about Jair Hopkins.”
“You looking past us like we’re translucent. For whatever happens Sunday night, I’m not going to feel bad at all about it. The devil will cry Sunday night. Because this is Asylum and we are 'The Dying Breed'.”
