CHIN CHECK By Charlamagne Tha God HOPE + FAITH = PATIENCE
G
od loves you. You know how I know? I know because he blessed you with the one attribute that is needed to succeed on this planet. That attribute, ladies and ghettomen, is patience. A person without patience is like Grand Hustle without T.I., Beyonce without a vagina, or Chick-Fil-A without chicken. A person with no patience serves no purpose because whatever their purpose is, , he or she will never reach it because they lack patience. A person without patience wants everything instantly, but that’s not the way God designed things. Anything that’s worth having on this planet requires a lot of patience to receive. Patience is what keeps me from pistol whipping random people whenever I get stressed out. I’m typing this thinking that the first of the month is tomorrow, and I have so many muthafucking bills. Verizon is sending me text messages that read, “To avoid interruption hit send,” my newborn starts daycare tomorrow and they want the tuition for the month upfront, rent is due, I have to pay my AFTRA Healthcare premium, got to throw my moms some money and I owe Julia Beverly, Editor-In-Chief of OZONE, $1,200. But I’ll be okay because I have patience. Patience is basically having faith in your creator that everything is going to be alright; everything is going to work itself out. I flew to L.A. the week before last, and booked my tickets on cheapair.com because they always have great rates. You just have to make sure all your info is correct because they don’t give refunds or any type of credit if you have to change it. I booked my flight to leave on a Saturday and fly back at 6:00 AM Wednesday morning West Coast time because I had to tape something with BET @ 5:30 PM East Coast time. Well, something came up in NY and I had to stay in town on Saturday, so I just booked a one way for Sunday morning and would just fly back on the Wednesday morning flight I had previously booked. Well, I had no idea that because I didn’t use the first half of my ticket and fly out that Saturday cheapair.com canceled the whole damn ticket! Guess when I found out? 5:00 AM Wednesday morning when I’m trying to check in and don’t have a reservation.
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At first I got a little amped with the airline representatives. How they could just cancel something I paid for? I just breathed in, said a quick prayer and listened to that voice in my head that said, “Have patience, my son.” The airline representative told me I would have to purchase a one way to get back to NY and there were still seats available on the 6:00 AM flight. Are y’all paying attention? It is 5:15 AM West Coast time, the flight leaves at 6:00 AM and I’m about to purchase a one way ticket. I imagined myself unbuckling my belt, dropping my SDM jeans and turning around because I knew Delta was about to fuck me so good. What could I do? I was at the mercy of the airline. $600 some odd dollars for a one way ticket? Now to everyone reading this, let the record show that I only had my Chase debit Mastercard on me and on this card I had $330 dollars. At this point you are saying to yourself, “This story only gets worse,” but not to me because I have patience. Patience allows me to be still long enough to realize everything was going to work itself out. I handed her my card knowing it was about to be declined. She swiped my card and guess what? It went through. God loves me. A man with no patience wouldn’t have been able to make that situation work. A man with no patience would have been frustrated and angry and his energy would have been so bad that he would have attracted nothing but negativity. That negative energy would have prevented his creator from putting a hand in the situation, therefore, causing his card to decline. Needless to say, I got back to NY in time to tape for the BET show and all was right with the world. Yeah, my Chase debit Mastercard was in the red a few hundred dollars but I got paid that Friday so it worked itself out. The mathematic equation for patience is Hope + Faith = Patience. You should always Hope for the best and always have Faith in yourself and your creator that you will be put in a position to win. That is all patience is. Every artist that’s in this issue is hoping that they make it to that next level; they have faith that their talent is good enough to get them to that next level and they should have faith that their creator does have a blessing with there name on it. God has never put me in a position to lose.
Even when I think I’m losing, I’m really winning because I’m gaining valuable experience and insight while going through whatever I’m going through. Have you heard the old saying, “What doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger?” Well, lack of patience can contribute to that death as well, because it’s patience that allows you to stay strong in the first place. What do you think kept the great Nelson Mandela strong during those 27 years he spent in prison? Hope + Faith = Patience. Patience is what is going to get all of us through this rough economic period, and please, my brothers, don’t go back to the drug game. Trust me. I know when you evolve out of it and things get rough, the first thing you want to do is resort back to it. You know how many times in the past 60 days I have thought about flooding the streets of my hometown Moncks Corner, SC, with weed? I try to justify it in my mind. Selling crack is whack because crack kills and destroys communities, but weed? Everybody loves weed. Weed never killed anybody! Then I hear two voices in my head. One is Young Jeezy saying, “I’m going back to jail; that’s what my conscience keeps on telling me,” the other is God saying, “If you don’t sit your ass down and have some patience...” Both of these voices are strong enough in my mind to make me fall back from my criminal mind state for the simple fact that Hope + Faith = Patience. I am going to be okay. All my bills will be paid; my health care, my daughter’s daycare, and so will Ms. Julia Beverly. I am destined to become a multi-millionaire anyway. Check for my new special coming on BET all about the DJs; I am the consulting producer. Speaking of patience, South Crack: The Album is at over 11,000 sold and I’m waiting on EMI to cut that check. I had a Pressing and Distribution deal with them. My company Stupid Dope Moves gets 70% of all profits, so you do the math, not to mention the book deal and a certain situation with South Carolina artist Lil Ru and one of the top 4 producers in the country. Damn, now that I’m looking at it in black and white, I’m saying to myself, “Everything is going to be more than alright.” Hope + Faith = Patience P.S.: New mixtape South Crack Pt.10 Trap Boys Love Us and Vol.4 Still Standing hosted by T.I.P. coming soon!!