Two-parter today. If you don’t want to bother with the cleanup report, skip to the end for a brief introduction to Philly-based rapper ZekeUltra.
Following up. Today I decided to revisit my first two cleanup sites. As soon as I pulled up to the first one, along Wissahickon Ave in East Falls/Germantown, I could tell that the litter was at least as bad as it was before I cleaned it two months ago. I parked, walked up and down the block, and started to wonder if my first cleanup was just something I dreamt about — not because there was a lot of litter again, but because of how similar this batch of litter was to the first one. In the exact spot where I found two condom wrappers before, there were two empty boxes of condoms this time, same brand and all.
But there were differences, too. Last time, I found no dirty diapers and witnessed no drug deals. This time, I was treated to one of each. If you’ve been following along with these posts, you’ll know that dirty diapers are common occurrence in the streets of Philadelphia. I used to picture parents throwing diapers out of car windows, but this time the diaper was surrounded by baby-sized bottles of Fireball, so now I have a new theory: there’s a secret society of babies that throw wild block parties. Sometimes things get out of hand, someone sheds a diaper, and then they have to call the whole thing off, leaving a smattering of intoxicant-related waste in their wake:
These babies have good taste, too — they won’t settle for Gorilla Glue strains one through three. No sir. Top shelf only:
Also they prefer their water to be Fiji and their Cheetos to be flaming hot. Anyway, here’s what the block looked like before I came by today:
And in the other direction:
And then here’s what it looked like after I was finished, bag count receipts included:
After my first cleanup here, I shared a picture of the skyline. This time, I had driven from Center City up through North Philly to get there, and it dawned on me that there’s something poetic about the view. In the background the most prominent buildings are the Center City skyscrapers. In the foreground, i.e. further north, the most prominent buildings are decaying industrial structures:
Sort of hard to make out in the picture, but off to the left there’s a warehouse/factory with more windows broken than intact, and off to the right there are some smokestacks that aren’t sending any smoke into the sky.
The other site I revisited was near the intersection of Ridge Ave, N. 13th St., and Mt. Vernon St. — along what, in my prior post, I called a vacant lot. Turns out it’s not vacant:
Less than two months later they’ve got a whole foundation dug out for what I’m guessing will be some new apartments — good news for those concerned about litter (vacant lots seem to attract filth) and Philly’s housing shortage, but maybe not for the lowest income folks in the area.
The story here was roughly the same: about as much garbage on the street as there was the first time around:
And here’s how it was looking after the cleanup:
Bag count receipts:
ZekeUltra. The cleanup MC gets his own separate section today. Shoutout to my friend Mitch for tipping me off to ZekeUltra, a rapper with Delaware roots now based in Philly, where he’s become part of an art collective that goes by the name of Bad Apple Commune. Last night, Mitch sent me his 2020 album From Time; I liked it so much that I listened to it for the second and third times today.
The music reminds me a lot of Earl Sweatshirt’s — slow and heavy, melancholy, clever lyrics, bars with subtle internal wordplay, rapping over funky samples. But ZekeUltra is far from a carbon copy; he has something unique going for himself, and it’s hard for me to imagine that we won’t start to hear his name more often. Here are some of my favorite songs and lyrics from the album:
In Volvo, he reflects on the fact of historical contingency:
It’s wild how every past occurrence contributes to now
After the switch-up in 100meters/Moonlight, he puts his own twist on original sin:
Before my birth I made a pact I would sin every chance that I get
Tom Waits, in what might be my favorite song of all time, says “history puts a saint in every dream.” In my favorite line from Comet, and maybe the whole album, ZekeUltra says the same thing in different words:
Missin’ what I never really had
Another line from the song echoes a sentiment expressed by Earl Sweatshirt, who said “step into the shadows we could talk addiction, when its harmful where you goin’ and the part of you that know it don’t give a fuck.” ZekeUltra’s spin on the sentiment goes like this:
minglin’ with my demons, they mobbin’ with me through whatever always give me true affection when I need it, only problem they intention’s to mislead me
but I don’t even mind it anymore…
I think he delivers the sentiment more cleverly and subtly than Earl. Both are talking about being in a dark place, feeling shackled to bad habits, being conscious of where those habits are leading you, and yet losing the will to fight them. But in the image Zeke paints, the temptations leading him into the darkness are demons, and he says they give him “true affection,” which is always how it feels in real time. Only after the fact do you realize you were being misled… and only when you’re deep in the muck do you become conscious that part of you doesn’t even want to leave.
He gets a bit more political on Untitled, weaving tidbits about his worldview in with his drug habits and his approach to relationships and his reflections on the chaos and violence unfolding in his community:
Recognize I’m still a black pride n**** so they shove me into boxes / Voice in my head told me ain’t no other option, so kill n****, from the womb to the casket / I smoke from the blunt so now my voice got a rasp in it / No love for a chick who ain’t passionate ‘bout somethin’
…
I’m from the city where they’ll never hear of bullets ‘til they hit ‘em in the back
And finally, in Headstone — the last and IMO best song on the album — he laments the tragedy and irreversibility of events from his past while insisting on taking responsibility for reaching higher ground:
Wrong first impressions
Cost of depression, and you don’t get a second chance
Pinchin’ pennies just to get the shit I never had
Nobody told me how to get it now I’m livin’ bad
But I can’t blame this shit on them that’s why I’m feelin’ sad
I’m still ashamed of all my sins that I’m still gettin’ past
I hear your name and feel regret but that shit’s in the past
Like I said, pretty heavy stuff. But it’s great music and ZekeUltra is an undeniably talented artist. And I think his aesthetic is suited for our times. People are decidedly not feeling great about the state of the world; whatever the source of our discontent, almost all of us are fearful as we look to the horizon.
That said, we can all wallow in despair, or we can follow Zeke’s lead:
and dawg this livin’ shit’s a lot
and still I give it all I got
All hail the secret drunken baby society