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Come Close – Grapefruit (DYVN) Part 1 of 4
5. Memory Leaves (Anomalie, Masego) “Are you pregnant?” my father asked my sister and the way he asked it suggested that he was just looking for something to say because we had all been watching him and waiting for him to say something. My sister was obviously not pregnant, though to be fair, she could…
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Sun of the Morning – S.a.n.t.a.n.a. (Juelz Santana) Part 1 of 3
“…please blame it on the Son of the Morning” – Jay-Z Lincoln Crowder loved music, even before his birth. His mother Zora would sit next to the radio when she had late night cravings for spicy foods, or if the movement of the baby made it hard to sleep, and she would scan the stations,…
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Come Close – Dribble (Anomale) Part 4 of 4
4. RUBY (Ricki Monique) Rubaline “Ruby” Fae Livingston Jr has the same name as our mother, but the two could not be more different. They look alike, when my sister was a young girl she was the spitting image of my mother in pictures of her at the same age. Even now, approaching forty, she…
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Sun of the Morning – L’homme A La Moto (Edith Pilaf) Part 3 of 3
“…please blame it on the Son of the Morning” – Jay-Z Afonso was furious when he made it back to his tent. Everything inside was ransacked, and his clothes were splayed all over the ground. He immediately checked the tin box where he kept his savings, kicking through all of his belongings to the post…
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Come Close – Dribble (Anomale) Part 3 of 4
3. BLACK MAN (Butcher Brown, Michael Millions) Joel “Jo” David Livingston retired from the US Navy when he turned forty years old. He was proud of his career, but he was happy to be free of its duties when he was done. The navy had given him everything he wanted for himself and his children;…
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Sun of the Morning – L’homme A La Moto (Edith Pilaf) Part 2 of 3
“…please blame it on the Son of the Morning” – Jay-Z “It was a fearsome time in that Kongo Jungle, y’all would not believe. The animals, so many animals, all of them wild and hungry and they saw me and my people as food. We had to fight the animals to protect ourselves, to protect…
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Come Close – Dribble (Anomale) Part 2 of 4
2. Toxic Love (Your Old Droog) “Who Uncle Thomas fucking?” my brother, Cedric David Livingston, asked, obviously drunk, and he laughed at himself. “I bet it’s a bad bitch with all the money you got.” “Shut up, Ced,” I said quickly, “you wouldn’t know a bad bitch if you got her pregnant and she had…
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Sun of the Morning – L’homme A La Moto (Edith Pilaf) Part 1 of 3
“…please blame it on the Son of the Morning” – Jay-Z Afonso stole the motorcycle that he rode into Ladoga, North Carolina in the early 1950s. He cruised into the Bottoms with a leather jacket, black bomber helmet, and dark shades, and everyone on the street watched him with wonder, like he was a visiting…
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Come Close – Dribble (Anomale) Part 1 of 4
1. Personal (Otis McDonald, Mani Draper) “I met someone,” my uncle, Thomas Livingston, said smiling. We were in Ladoga of all places, in the backyard of my grandfather’s house. The men of my family; including my brother, my father, uncle Thomas, my aunt’s husband, and my grandfather; had met to discuss the meat situation for…
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Shuffle – Playlist 2 – 3 – I Hate U (SZA)
The world is black before the light show. The world comes alive with colors and movement, and soon the black is a spacescape with spaceships zooming into the foreground. They look real, or realistic, Solana has no idea what a real spaceship looks like, but she would imagine they would look something like the ones…