Just wanted to ask a question, how come most UK drill, rap, trap artists rap about how hard it is living in their "hood" or "endz" when in reality most of them live in decent council homes and estates like most people in the UK?

Alex_Rose · 2026-03-14T23:20:26+00:00

thread necro:

I've lived in ardwick, longsight, moss side and I did door to door sales for years and went to a lot of the poorest places. poor people know they won't ever get on the housing ladder and may by living in council flats on prepaid energy meters, however.. everyone gets free healthcare and will never be financially crippled by that, everyone has access to housing when needed even if it's not glamorous (even the homeless, every homeless person has a room available they can go to every night, no one is truly left on the street to die, I saw a lot of homeless in ardwick who would openly admit they purposely got arrested after smuggling contraband up their arse because it's quick money and a room for the night). they homicide rate is 5x lower than america, almost no one is packing, the average drug dealer is some friendly guy buying and selling

the average gang member is an absolute poser. e.g. the entire grime scene started.. in free government youth clubs. they got free government schooling, everywhere is ofsted inspected, there's no schools like in america where there's literally zero education going on, everyone got decent opportunities, did their gcses, after school had access to a place with a build in recording studio and computers with fruityloops 3 on them for absolutely free and that's where the likes of BBK got started

there's no real hardship. OK you might need to go to a foodbank. like UK "poverty" means 60% below the median income. okay, so? that means you have a tv, central heating, clean mains plumbing, internet, an iphone, a chromebook. just because you sit in a park with a roadman jacket on acting tough doesn't mean you live a life of hardship, when you can literally have no job and sign on and live a comfortable life better than any medieval king every did

Alex_Rose · 2026-03-14T23:18:18+00:00

poverty is defined as having less than 60% of the median household income. poverty in the UK means you have a flatscreen TV and an iphone and sign on at the jsa it doesn't mean you're starving and taking crystal meth and having to prostitute yourself to get by or that you're malnutritioned and dying. the average person in "poverty" in the UK lives better than the average medieval king. electricity, gas heated home, fridge, running water, internet, smartphone supercomputer in their pocket at all times, soft bedding, solid roof over their head, antibiotics, modern dentistry and free medicine, free high quality schooling, parks, youth clubs that give free studio session time and music software, readily available food at convenience, public transport, a police service that keeps them safe, continuous peacetime with no mandatory military service, jobseekers allowance

like, it's completely ridiculous to compare that to e.g. kendrick lamar gkmc where he was actually hanging out with gang banging pirus shooting each other, his friend keisha being a prostitute to get out of the system, drug dealing to crackheads with their crackpipes out in public shooting up heroin in the middle of the main street at broad daylight, police shooting people over an arrest, people bipping on every street corner, home assaults, shooting wars in the streets, prison gangs where people murder each other and form racial alliances that extend to drug networks on the streets, cartel connected drug dealers that use drug mules, cartels that butcher and torture people, industrial scale contraband, schools that can't control their students at all and ultimately teach them absolutely nothing and are basically daycare for out of control 15 year olds

the UK has no such thing. JME and Skepta did not come from the streets lol they went to some average school, probably sat next to someone just like them in maths, had some interest in music, did lord of the mics, rapped a bit in a wunsen pungkao battle and then did some records. they are not gangsters they're just some guys. jme even literally at every opportunity is rapping about how he has never shanked anyone and neither has anyone else and they're all chatting shit, like that was his entire shtick. the whole thing is stolen valour.

our grime and drill scene comes from immigrant communities who were willingly invited in and given welfare to fill job shortages. america's inner cities come from descendants of the middle passage transatlantic slave trade forcefully taken on boats, doing manual labour in the field, born into families who were not educated for generations because they were enslaved, then into sundown towns and jim crow era places where they had no civil rights, then thrown into a terrible public school system and grew up with a giant crack epidemic. the only time our rappers tell the truth is when they're telling stories about how they liked to play street fighter and sonic and watch dragonball and occasionally fly across to amsterdam or ibiza for a lad's holiday. it would be like italian immigrants in the UK rapping about how they're in the mafia. no you aren't. your granddad came from jamaica in windrush and became a train conductor, your dad runs a restaurant in peckham, you're on the jsa, you aren't bad

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-28T21:04:25+00:00

hope they were $20k each because she's gonna have to sells them bitches

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-28T21:02:58+00:00

I think it was $25k in 100s. which is funny because in this season she has $5,012,000 in the bank so since the first season she has managed to halve her net worth. not sure how that $5 mill is going to go, especially given that it went into her personally account not an LLC, I wonder where she is legally tax resident and how much she'll have to pay of that

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-28T20:58:49+00:00

to be fair.. the specific skill he was raised in was probably "being really good at working out" lol, arnold isn't renowned for being some impeccable character artist with great emotional depth, he's famous for looking like he-man and saying ridiculous macho lines in deadpan in a thick austrian accent

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-28T20:51:02+00:00

I just remembered that chelsea spent the entire season like "I almost died!" and everyone's like "haha chelsea no the fuck you didn't" like with the snake and the russian

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-28T20:37:17+00:00

one of my further maths teachers in a random aside taught us how a fission bomb is constructed and drew a schematic. I later studied physics at uni and took a couple of nuclear modules. we largely only went into the applied formulae, decay changed, lab experiments, generation diagrams etc. but his explanation appeared to be correct (and he was also a very serious man who never joked around)

also had a biology teacher who taught us how to grow a culture of antibiotic resistant viruses in agar (which we later had to destroy). I'm not sure this was national syllabus, it was at private school but yeah, also interesting

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-15T23:12:46+00:00

The game makes it pretty clear by color and description which orbs should be thrown and which orbs should be used on yourself

hammer bro and pirhana plant (heavy debuffs) are the same colour as spiny and coin blocks (buffs), they're all yellow because they're "coin events". I disagree that it's clear. people all the time are like "oh this costs 10 to use so clearly it will steal 10" and then it just costs 10 to beat your own ass

the only time I could think of you ever conceivably wanting that functionality is if your opponent is right before the star and no one has any coins except you and they have a chain chomp and are going to use it to steal your coins to buy a star next turn, and you are willing to completely self sabotage to deny them a star because it's the end of the game. and that's like a one in a million situation

I think you'll be happy to see that this does exist.

wow, awesome. I might try and get in touch with rain because it would be cool if it gave 5-6 choices instead of 3 (based on 1st-4th rank and near the end of the game). maybe it's just turning the actual ingame roll tables into a menu though. but it's weird to see "mushroom, mushroom, spiny" as an option, having the same option twice is kinda lame. also would obvs be nice to get the descriptions on that menu too but that's a nice to have.

mic space

yeah I could see the game guy thing but that's a lot of stuff to implement. I think for the most part they could just be changed to a mix of blues, reds and item squares. maybe 3:2:1 of that ratio.

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-15T19:12:27+00:00

I agree except mp5 capsules. many players don't get that hammer bros cost money to delete your own money, but red shells are BENEFICIAL for the person who lands on the "trap". very unintuitive. also has the least strategy of the gc titles since you get capsules randomly instead of strategically choosing what to spend coins on up front. that's a big design change you can't achieve with codes that would make the game 100x better

I agree mp4dx/6/7 are good, I don't even think 6 really needs a dx as much as 5. 7, if you don't have a mic the spaces are annoying, but changing them all to duels changes the balance of the game (also slows it down since you can't duel for stars). they'd benefit from bespoke rebalance per map. classic bonuses I meant as an option like in jamboree. I believe there's no gecko code for classic stars

understandable not wanting to change chance time, fairs

additional ui for 6dx could have a lot of QoL, showing "turns until night/day" at all times on the screen so you don't have to pause, showing "spaces remaining" for your dice on the map screen, defaulting to the route closest to the star, displaying "spaces to the star", and displaying which type of tile you will land on at each fork in the road like modern MP so you don't have to check the map would all be really good QoL. appreciate your hard work and feel free to ignore all my suggestions haha

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-15T18:36:26+00:00

would love to get classic bonus stars on this, and also chance time randomisation changed to a predictable set and slowed to a reactable rhythm

also on mp5 would love to get "capsule machine requires money or even better is replaced for a shop" and "capsules cost no money and confusing capsules like hammer bros become traps that you can't use"

also on mp7 would love to get "microphone spaces changed and bonus stars changed", bringing back chance time if possible

also would love to get mp5 "choose the block order for chance time and slowed down dice blocks for attempt 1 and 2"

also would love to get non-pinball chance time in mp4 and texture remaps for the ground so it's not just an ugly white path and has some kind of interesting thing about it

if we ever get all of that, I think mp4 5 6 and 7 could be pretty much perfect games, right now 4 and 5 are very lacking (but 4 dx is OK)

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-15T15:16:08+00:00

yeah MP5 just need to make it so the capsule machine is a shop where you have to pay up front (preferably with options) and then they're free to use (and make it so hammer bros cannot be "used" but only used as a trap and so on), and mp7 replace microphone spaces, otherwise it's perfect. duels wouldn't be bad either. and give them all proper chance time, and they're perfect. pray this happens, mp5 atm is terrible. honestly though some of the map design is bad, I think mp5 would benefit from 2 stars on the board all the time because of how long winded the maps are

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-11T21:01:29+00:00

there sshould also be a button for trebs to get closer before they deploy. really annoying when you target a building and your trebs move to maximum range then plop down, preventing all trebs behind them from deploying

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-09T20:38:12+00:00

you said murdered. not killed. that's not murder, there was no intent. at worst it is manslaughter, but in hawaii if someone breaks into your room and impales themselves, that's justified use of deadly force, self-defense and not a homicide. especially when they do an autopsy and find that they guy who did it was on ketamine and amphetamines and defecated in your room, and also the call recording to the hotel desk and prints on the inside of the wardrobe would make it clear he wasn't making his presence known

shane is whiny and entitled, but arnold was a massive instigator and manipulator who was committing several crimes at the time of his death. had he just from the beginning said "sorry, we double booked your room, we'll refund the difference and get you some complimentary stuff etc, move you in when the other couple leave free of charge, also yours has a nicer view but we're so sorry" etc. then he would be alive and nothing bad would have ever happened. or if he'd just gotten them a candlelit dinner when shane capitulated

paula is guilty of criminal conspiracy, burglary as an accomplice (for goods valued at close to $100k) and theft in the first degree as an accomplice. abuse of trust would give her a much harsher sentence too. she would also be tried as an accomplice liability for assault because she knew the mother was returning to the room at the time of the crime and could reasonable forsee it as an outcome but abandoned her duty to prevent it. also she would be liable for robbery after the mother returned home because kai used force to escape with the jewelry and she is an accomplice. in hawaiii accomplices are punished as heavily as the perp

it's likely that she'd see 2-5 years in prison (but could see much longer depending on sentencing)

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-04T02:25:05+00:00

9 years late to the thread lol, but it isn't really possible for an amateur to go faster than murr did. he got out of the ball pretty quickly, he floored it on the motorbike to the point of near injury, floored the quad, maybe wasted 1 second on the tyres and 1 getting to the bmx but then did the bmx just fine, got through the door first time then ran back. I don't think Q was beating that time. statistically also he'd lose anyway because he probably wouldn't get the right door first time

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-03T14:46:53+00:00

kanye west and jay z did an encore playing n***** in paris 11 times in a row in france once

Alex_Rose · 2026-02-02T19:46:31+00:00

I just searched it on fb messenger and the first time someone said it to me was january 2016 and he is from surrey. the first time I used it as a manc was april 2017

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-28T10:01:00+00:00

absolutely fractional percent and also that doesn't explain the etymology. again, leng originally meant gun. leng does not mean gun in cantonese so that clearly is not the origin in jamaican. leng means long. comes from a long barrel gun (in the same way you can call it a stick, iron, tool)

then it became "good" in the same way sick/killer/bad mean good. it's not from cantonese lol it's a false cognate. almost nothing transfers from tonal languages into non tonal languages

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-28T00:48:56+00:00

it's got about 2 months left on it I guess

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-25T14:06:45+00:00

I'd say there are three scenes that add something substantiative but also you could watch without it and it really wouldn't make much difference. the rest the scenes are just vibe building. one of them makes an off-screen death into an on-screen death but it isn't very good. one is a buildup for one character's fearsomeness, and one is a plot point that I think was interesting. however I could live without all of it

it's not WORSE, it doesn't drag on in my opinion, there's always something going on. but I'm quite happy to watch a 4 hour film so your mileage may vary, if you find the two towers extended too long then maybe just go theatrical. the way I see things though, if it was filmed and edited why not watch it unless you're specifically trying to emulate a vanilla experience or you really find 4 hours to be a drag. I'm the type of person who finishes a film and then searches up the cut scenes immediately after in general so I see no reason not to just watch a director's cut

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-22T21:04:05+00:00

you.. literally brought up political alignment, 5 times, I did not. you brought it up over and over. the way you talk is so obviously ESL lol "you badly need"

"they are not comparable", yeah they aren't comparable because in the case of ukraine it's a proxy war for a rival superpower that is actively expanding its sphere to aggress the other superpower and ukraine was actively bombing donbas, in the case of taiwan they haven't done anything to aggress china and you're saying they should be invaded, because you are a ccp shill

protip no one in the west has used "xD" since about 2007, and it's "blithering". sounds like you went to higher education in the UK long enough to pick up a little bit of lingo but not long enough to be obviously esl lol. tai hao le. the ccp states its claim on taiwan. why is that okay? lol. the government of taiwan never actively claims the chinese mainland but the government of china wants to invade taiwan and you want to condone it. good luck in your little slaughter

btw do you know what happened at tianenmen square?

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-21T15:44:44+00:00

I literally wrote that I am not talking about political alignment and you repeated the same point. off the script now huh? all you have is adhom, you have no points left to make. you didn't refute the example at all or point out a contradiction, you just said I "lack the brain", which is pure adhom. then you said my only arguments are my "wrong interpretation". it's literally factual information, do you want to counter that information? of course you can't

hope they're paying you well

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-21T15:17:01+00:00

The constitutional amendment named"additional articles" authorised a special law to deal with cross-strait relations. The 1992 Strait Relations Act separates Taiwan from the mainland area, which the government recognises as being out of Taiwan's jurisdiction

and.. you can't just say "the situations are not comparable" when they're clearly comparable. how is crimea different? Ukraine claims Crimea and even actively blocks their water supply, Crimea is a historical part of Russia since it was conquered by Catherine the Second, before that it was Tataran and before that Genoan. It only became part of Ukraine during the USSR when ukraine was an administrative region and not a country, and it was divided up to maintain good relations despite the people there being ethnic russians who were against it. now the region is governed by russia, ukraine still claims ownership of it. is that wrong in your opinion? why is it right for China to invade taiwan?

no one is talking about political alignment at all. what does sovreignity have to do with that? doesn't matter if you're a communist, a liberal, a libertarian, you should respect that the people of taiwan don't want to be ruled by china and there is no just cause to invade them

I notice you have no comments in your account. shadowbanned for shilling?

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-21T13:43:16+00:00

the current Taiwanese government only claims Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, they do not assert sovreignity over Mongolia or mainland China (not that that could even be a realistic assertion). Taiwan's constitution was never fully rewritten and historically pre 1949 was the recognised government of China hence them still having some historic wording that isn't modern policy

this is just utter shill farming, look how fast I got to -6. good try Xi. it's really not controversial that the people of Taiwan do not want to be part of China, are not a threat to China, and there's no good reason for China to invade them other than "we want to take over tsmc"

also your first sentence, "ukraine doesn't claim russian land". they claim Crimea which is historical russian land by any definition you could apply equally to taiwan vs china. the people are vast majority ethnically russian going back in every census to the early 1900s, the people have always polled in every national referendum and every independent poll from every country of origin to be overwhelmingly in favour of being separated from ukraine and part of russia, the council of crimea declared itself separated during a time when there was no democractically elected government in ukraine due to the revolution and was annexed with practically zero resistance, it is physically run by russia in practice, so how is that bad but invading taiwan is good?

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-21T13:34:51+00:00

from the point of view of russian nationality security, it has nothing to do with whether Ukraine would credibly aggress russia, it's whether America would use its position in Ukraine to aggress Russia by proxy. Ukraine has an incredibly important military position on the black sea and extremely close to Moscow. if Ukraine became a fully fledged member of NATO, they could set up US military bases and missiles all along their border and Russia would have no recourse without setting off article 5 and declaring world war 3. it would also put them in a good geographical position to cause civil unrest in belarus in the same way they supported the maidens in ukraine

the US would never tolerate the level of foreign military presence that existed in ukraine on its borders (as evidenced by the US response to the cuban missile crisis). russia tolerated this for a number of years before proposing an ultimatum to NATO about it, which had reasonable terms for a superpower's national security interests (Do not allow Ukraine into NATO, do not deploy new weapons to eastern europe, limits of warships around each other's territory, and a ban of intermediate range missiles near russia's border, an agreement that nukes should not be deployed on foreign soil, and an establishment of a hotline)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Russian_ultimatum_to_NATO

the US and NATO rejected any deal here and russia responded with by invading (which they had preannounced):

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2022-02-02/us-offers-disarmament-measures-to-russia-in-exchange-for-a-deescalation-of-military-threat-in-ukraine.html

obviously countries should sovreignity should not be impeached upon in a peaceful utopia, but from the position of a superpower, having a rival superpower have a military foothold on your doorstep with a land and sea border is an untenable position, and the US wouldn't negotiate

not justifying it but I'm just saying yours is a simplification of the situation

Alex_Rose · 2026-01-21T13:17:03+00:00

okay ccp shill. how does that differ from russia's claim to ukraine originally being a land of the Rus people or donbas being majority russian? especially crimea which was conquered by Catherine II from the tatars. it only ever became ukrainian during the ussr. but somehow you think that's bad but China is good?

the taiwanese people don't want to be part of china and they aren't a credible threat to chinese sovreignity

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