It’s been awhile, man. Nearly eight months. With the words to follow, this open confessional is not meant to merely take up space on the crowded freeway that is the Internet. Instead, I construct this with the hopes you take a few minutes away from whatever Hawaiian studio you’re in and allow yourself to digest this letter.

As it stands, I likely will never see as much fame or fortune as you have been blessed with throughout the course of your career. And I’m cool with that. With those highs also come lows that only you can truly understand and come to grips with. I’ll be honest – when the whole Taylor Swift incident went down, I was upset. Not because I was a Swift fan, but because I knew you would regret it once the Henny wore off. Given the recent track record of fellow superstars Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger, however, you come off as a regular “Dolemite” with the women folk nowadays. If it means anything to you, I’m still unable to name one Taylor Swift song. But I digress.

I also respect the fact you probably never had the opportunity to grieve over your mother’s death. As much I’d love to see you emerge back onto the music scene, that happens to be one situation where my own personal greed takes the back seat. My opinion notwithstanding, that is definitely a pain I genuinely hate to see people experience, fam. My grandmother was in the hospital for two weeks and I damn near lost my mind. My mother is my heart and the thought of losing her scares me to the point of tears. Hell, even typing that last sentence gave me the chills. Losing someone close not only means their physical leaves, but it also means a part of you is gone forever. That’s not always the easiest lesson to grasp and conquer. So God bless you (and anyone else) dealing with that.

Enough sentimental stuff though, on to the music.

It seems like every week a new rumor surfaces of a different artist heading to Hawaii. Alicia Keys. Jay-Z. Pete Rock. DJ Toomp. KiD CuDi. Drake. At this point, I wouldn’t put it out the realm of possibility of Barack voicing the intro with Lauryn Hill gracing the hook. Granted, they could all very well be heading to the 50th state for vacation. It’s more intriguing to think otherwise, however. If you want to do a song with Outkast and/or Eminem, I’d fully support that too. Whatever it is, Good Ass Job is shaping up to be an epic album. I say that with confidence and having not heard the first second of what the album possibly sounds like. Better yet, you’re four LP’s in and I’ve yet to hear one I didn’t appreciate. So, please, take all the time you need. But hurry up. But take your time while you’re hurrying up – if that makes any sense.

Your ultimate place in history is not for me to decide, although I consider you one of the greatest ever. Rankings usually create more confusion than answers anyway. I’ll keep it all the way 100 with you – the game needs you. Yeah, you can be an asshole at times, but that comes with the territory. Whether it was speaking out against the government or completely losing it at award shows, the music, at least for me, superseded it all. There aren’t many artists today making music I can say I’d expect to listen to 30 years from now, mainly because people are afraid to allow music to tell the stories of their lives, flaws and all. From College Dropout to 808′s, we’ve all see the growth of Kanye – from a no-named Chicago composer to an international superstar.

I, for one, appreciate the hell out of that. To avoid repeating anything, we’ll just end it here. Hopefully some of what I said made sense. If not, well, I tried. With that said, I (and the rest of the industry) will continue to play the waiting game. It’s not like we have much of a choice anyway.

Respectfully,

J. Tinsley