Approx 6 minute read:

🇨🇳 Curry finally off the market

🎦 Obsessed enough

🎵 An old friend weighs in on Drake

🏆 Speedy tour of the WC

When I was a kid I knew summer was starting when the beginnings of reggae music would be blasting throughout my neighbourhood.

From the lowered dark green Honda Civic’s with the chrome rims, from the garages that smelled like weed, and from the speakers people put in their bedroom windows - no clue why people did this but I remember the music so I guess it worked.

At first I wasn’t a fan of this music - it was loud and I had no idea what they were saying → I was a kid, what did I know.

And then I grew up and poof, it’s some of my favourite music of all time…funny how that works. So this week’s mix is my version of REGGAE GOLD.

I think it’s been long enough that I can go into a detailed overview of Obession right? Just scroll on if you haven’t seen it and still want to watch it.

Whenever a film does well with a small budget everyone applauds like giving a kid a participation ribbon. hahaha OK that sounds a bit harsh. But that’s exactly what the obsession over Obsession feels like right now.

Is it a horror movie? I mean, it has a couple jump scares that are akin to the horror genre. But it also has a weird twisted sense of humour that the Scream franchise does so well - so I enjoyed that.

But like, here’s the thing - so the movie is about Bear who likes Nikki, buys this weird Wishing Willow thing in a weird store, wishes for the girl he likes to love him back and that’s what happens but the girl becomes obsessed with him, to the point where she does f*cked up things like covering the inside of his front door with duct tape so he has to stay home instead of leave for work - he ends up leaving regardless.

The film builds up their relationship between Bear and Nikki, at first as this healthy, dream-like thing, but quickly shifts with the girlfriend turning into a psychopath, perhaps possessed by a demon (?) - we kinda get a hint at it towards the end but nothing beyond that.

AND THAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH OBESSSION

You get this great idea of a girl becoming obsessed with a guy, to the point where it’s supernatural and definitely horrific, but her character itself is so thin, so underdeveloped, to the point where you’re like, okay I get it, she’s the horror-movie villain but at least give me a bit more on who Nikki is so this all becomes more believable.

Nikki is supposed to be the girl who has worked with Bear, knows him really well, and there’s this history. But as you watch the film, it feels like they kinda just met each other - I don’t get the vibe that they’ve known each other for years really because I think that changes the dynamic of the relationship.

See, if Bear and Nikki’s relationship was more defined as having a history, Bear wouldn’t be so stupid in the movie thinking everything is fine while Nikki does the most fuct up shit like standing in the corner staring at him while he’s sleeping. He needs to think that’s okay (although he tells her it’s not okay later on) in order for the film to progress forward and for Bear’s character to stick around long enough to have more fuct up stuff unfold.

But see? That’s just stupid and frankly as I watched, I felt like the movie was missing something, like there were holes in the story but the film could get away with it because of the novelty of the story masked by the fuct up stuff Nikki was doing.

I don’t know - maybe I’m over thinking it a bit. I’m a film student and every so often I put on my critical thinking film student hat when I watch something. I wish I saw Obsession when it first came out so I didn’t hear about all these Tiktok-ers going off on how good the film was and blah blah blah.

It simply can’t be a 90%+ on Rotten Tomatoes - it’s not on par with the likes of a Scorcese film. In fact, it’s got a Tarantino quality to it - serious, yet goofy at times, but just enough UMPH to make you remember this may give you some nightmares - in which case it’s more like a 80-85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Remember how gory Kill Bill was and the jokes within the film? That’s what Obsession tries to be. It’s still worth checking out - I mean, it didn’t suck after all.

So the story goes I’m outside of my house skateboarding in the street with my buddies and Matthew pulls up in an Infiniti G35. We hadn’t seen him since he moved out of the neighbourhood about 3-4 years prior.

We all go say hi and immediately we’re like, where did you get that??

Around his neck is an iced out Nintendo controller, which was fitting for the guy who would hold video game tournaments at his house for his birthday, destroying everyone in Killer Instinct.

We had heard he was making music for real now. We knew he originally messed around with Fruity Loops and won Battle of the Beat Makers downtown - which irked us because we all downloaded Fruity Loops on Limewire back then and messed around with it, we just didn’t know dude would go on to actually make money with it.

Matthew goes on to tell us he’s making music with this guy who’s on Degrassi - a show all of us knew, but none of us watched. And we’re like cool, totally forgetting the guy’s name.

A couple years later I’m in my boy’s car as we’re going to a club and he puts on this guy’s Drake’s mixtape he downloaded off of his website, says he thinks I know the guy who helped produce a lot of it, “Boi1da”. I’m like, “noooo way, this is that Drake guy??”

Obviously the rest is history.

If there’s anyone’s opinion we should be listening to when it comes to Drake, it’s Boi1da.

This week Boi1da was on Q with Tom Power - a CBC music podcast - to mainly discuss his recent album, What If This All Goes Right, a compilation of Canadian artists that I gotta think a lot of you know.

Beyond discussing the album (which I highly recommend checking out, if anything for its diversity), Boi1da gives insight into working with Drake through the years and just who he is as a person, collaborator, and artist.

If there’s anyone we should be listening to when better understanding who Drake is (aside from the man himself), it’s Boi1da.

Matthew (1da) was never someone to exaggerate or speak just for the sake of it. In fact, there were a few people in our neighbourhood that I remember he used to clown specifically because they talked a lot of sh*t and made stories up in hopes of making someone look a certain way….sound familiar?

The podcast is worth a listen.

More to come with Boi1da in Dulture in the future 😉

Here’s something no one is talking about:

So obviously his fanbase exponentially grew as a result of all of these tours and they all drove millions of dollars BUT there’s something bigger that went on here.

Between the logistics of touring across multiple continents and then running a 24/7 stream tour in the US across both YouTube and Twitch, Speed learned exactly what it took to put on a spectacle that not only would A LOT of people tune in to, but more importantly, A LOT of people globally

And what is something that the entire globe is now turning into everyday?

(The World Cup - the answer was the World Cup)

Look no further than stadiums having to remove sponsorships in lieu of the tournament starting and you’ll quickly realize the World Cup doesn’t just let anyone partner or advertise.

But if you’ve got someone that has proven they can drive millions of viewers from around the world on his own platforms and is a football fanatic then you’ve all of the sudden got a gigantic beacon to leverage for showcasing the World Cup coverage like never before.

iShowSpeed is officially partnering with FIFA and the World Cup to essentially do whatever he wants between the US, Canada, and Mexico with all access to stadiums, and I assume to some degree beyond a regular person, the players, and stream from any game he chooses for the duration of the tournament,.

The thing no one is talking about: Speed has essentially been preparing for this moment since 2023 when he started his international streaming tours. One could argue his stop at Euro2024 and then his America tour was testing grounds for the World Cup.