In the realm of celebrity, everything is bigger here, the tabs are bigger, holes deeper and the feeling of imposter syndrome realer. You thought money was going to solve everything only to realize it doesn’t solve anything. You worked your whole life chasing a fleeting experience, numbness and cocaine now your daily experience, cause you are alone despite the millions of followers, money stacked high but you have never felt lower. Operating in the realm of celebrity, I always thought being with the stars will enhance my shine, reality is the rot aches like a tooth cavity. The 15 minutes is actually 5, how’s that for brevity? Everyone wants to be famous, everyone wants to be a celebrity. In the realm of celebrity, the stars are just like me, insecure and sensitive not knowing who to be. Expectations and blurred lines hindering who they should be. I will buy that Sportscar, even though it’s not me. Celebrity, celebrity, I thought with my stock high, I’d defy gravity, yes I am floating in the sky in all levity, but I am also empty lacking capacity. In the realm of celebrity, reality is a hoax enhanced by the lights, the friends are actually enemies who are eager for a fight, awaiting for an opportunity to dim out your sight. Celebrity, celebrity, it’s not how it’s advertised. You a slave to the market and money has you hypnotized. Surrounded by celebrities, I thought the feeling would be different but it’s all the same. They should have all the power but they are toothless and tame. Some are struggling to pay rent, living with friends to hide the shame. Some are broken and beat down, maybe it’s the fame. Celebrity, celebrity, got me feeling like Pinocchio, living in a fabricated world and I just want to be a real boy.
I used to be famous back in the day, you know when Dube was on 2 and Stokvel on Sundays. My claim to fame was to entertain you, to make you happy. I graced magazines covers and walked different stages like a catwalk. Panties would be soaked wet when I appeared on the screen and did what I did best. The spotlight was always on me and I’d leave many starstruck, shinning like light reflected on a diamond. I used to be famous and finessing was easy, I would just show up and I would be lavished with gifts and money streamed like a waterfall into my bank account, there wasn’t anything I couldn’t afford or a girl I couldn’t get to the fort. It was automatic, my presence unlocked all doors and left many knees weak. Mute and in awe like a vegetable that can’t speak. I used to be famous, walking on the street was near impossible. Every time I was sighted, the paparazzi would be on my case, bombarding me with flashes that would send an epileptic into space. I used to be famous, I was loved and appreciated for my skills. I mattered, I used to exist. Now I am a fragment of yesterday’s slide show, a glimmer of a star that used to shine bright, a dinosaur that history has left out of its archives. I walk on the streets and no one wants a picture of me, with me, paparazzi is present, they just fed up with me. Finessing is harder as my efforts are off target, Mercedes Benz repossessed as money is proving hard to get. I used to be famous and everybody knew my name, today everything is relative, we are all the same. Panties dry and left to crack on the washing line, abandoned like a kid in foster care who’s never been mine. The spotlight and lights off me, career dimmed out like 6 o’clock in winter. I used to be famous, I was on Billboards that oversighted highways. Today the trajectory of my career is sideways. No one cares, I am an afterthought and kinda look like somebody who used to be famous for a while. Maybe the glitz and glamor was all in my head, maybe I am worthless after all. I used to be famous, I was special and different. Nowadays, I struggle to pay rent. Cause the people who used to love me are now suffering from voluntary Alzeheimer disease, they choose to forget that I once ruled the set. Or maybe they just don’t care. I used to be famous back in the day.
Earlier in 2019, Kylie Jenner was certified the youngest self-made billionaire in the world by Forbes eclipsing Mark Zuckerberg who managed the feat at 24. Kylie Jenner managed this incredible feat aged just 21. She unbelievably owns a third of the lipstick market in the United States. Also she owns a hundred percent stake in her company ensuring that all the profits go directly to her. The internet and social media has been buzzing all year questioning the status of “self-made”, it’s a bold declaration, one many feel she doesn’t deserve considering her last name. She had been affluent and lived a life of luxury all her life. She had the resources and the infrastructure at her disposal. There was no process to her riches – it was like pushing a button. Fair arguments, however she had initiative, she had skill, she had business acumen, she had wit, and she had intelligence to carry out her vision. After all, owning a third of the market requires some sort of consistency and poise. Sure maybe she was lucky but should we strip the title of “self-made billionaire” because of that fact? Never. Reason being all successful people are lucky. Shaun Carter aka Jay –Z is lucky to be alive considering the life of crime he led as a young man. He was born in Macy in the projects of New York. To survive he sold drugs and often got in heated feuds with members of dangerous gangs. He is lucky to be alive. He was lucky he found a skill he could harness from a very young age. He was lucky he got a mentor who taught him about the music business. He was lucky he met Damian Dash and he was lucky “Reasonable Doubt” did as well as it did. Luck comes after a sequence of hard work, it is contagious and can be channeled. This is exhibited on the Kylie Jenner story. Her family, her sisters worked hard just so she (Kylie) can be “lucky”. Kylie Jenner is a self-made billionaire because the business she created comes from her spirit, her psychology, her insecurities – those are the elements that inspired her business model. The fact that she had the resources doesn’t disqualify her.
What are the origins of her luck? Two words. Kim Kardashian. She possess amazing power. Sure her parents had wealth but Kim gave the family as a unit influence. Influence is subtle. Influence sways heads. Influence creates movements and drives change. Influence is underlying. Influence is transformative. Influence is hidden and repressed. Influence is resourceful. Influence is true power. Kim Kardashian is a seductive animal that emits pheromones into the atmosphere for all to take the bait and follow. Ever since her entrance into public life she has had this aura that is irresistible for all sexes of life. Her public persona is the stuff of legends. She is like the new age Marilyn Monroe in the sense that she knows she belongs to the world – to the public. She has created an incredible brand. A brand that is synonymous with beauty, fashion, trends, outlandish, repressed, forbidden and popular culture. The brand she has created is truly amazing. Kim Kardashian has pushed the limits of popular culture so many times. From successfully monetizing an amateur sex-tape over the internet to popularizing apparel that left little to the mind to fantasize about in the fashion world. As a brand, the Kim Kardashian image signified ultimate freedom from customs and systems – her image incited promiscuous intentions, naughty actions, repressed desires, dangerous consequences, erotic fantasies and forbidden transgressions. The Kim Kardashian brand provided a release, a platform to showcase what is underlying and often repressed by society – a platform to be unapologetically you. It is a powerful brand because it enables people to project on to you their darkest and most repressed desires. It is a brand that elevates one to the status of a god. Who could argue Kim’s claim to being a goddess? After all, multiple time she had been all that people talked about on the internet and popular culture. Multiple times she had been what young girls aspired to become. Multiple times she had left men on their knees.
As a result of Kim’s popularity, a decision was made to create a “reality show”. The show would follow Kim and her family as they navigated the world. Central to the show’s theme was beauty. The Kardashians used the show as a vehicle to create a need. We would see the sisters resorting to plastic surgery to make themselves desirable in the eyes of the world. We would see the excessive purchases of designer clothes. The show was predicated on social status and the validation of society. It would leave the viewers empty and with new found insecurities about how they looked and the clothes they wore. It was effective and critical in forming this plastic life. The show was so detached from reality, an element that made it popular and alluring. Everything about the show was bigger than life and so it provided an avenue to escape from the tribulations of life. The show exploited a very critical area in human psychology – the need to be liked and accepted. Status symbols and extravagant purchases represented a remedy and a means to deal with the gaps and holes inside ones heart. In truth one was better off not watching the show than watching it because it was warfare to the mind. The show made minds passive and indoctrinated them into an abyss of misery. However it was a success and central to the Kardashians wealth. Many more spin-off shows were created and the beauty market boomed with the Kardashians at the forefront of everything.
It was Kim Kardashian who started everything for her family. She created a really powerful brand. She exemplified the brand, she lived the brand, she believed in the brand. Whether her public persona is different from her usual persona – that is a different story for another day. Brands are essential in the accumulation of wealth. Kim’s brand is believable. She is a siren. An attractive girl who has all the attributes and features to land any man he wants. Her body and voice solidifies that claim. Her detached demeanor and rich, spoiled girl behavior is what we expect to see and it is what she projects – a larger than life personality that is alluring and devastatingly seductive. Her image evokes all kinds of emotions. She is desired. It is as if she is the brand she created. If youth was forever, Kim Kardashian would be the most powerful woman in the world. However, life is disappointing and looks fade. Still, she is central to Kylie’s success. Kim was bold, daring and provocative. She had a creative energy and entrepreneurial drive that was like no other. She was different. In her prime, she became all that she could be. She was a success. She laid the foundations for her sisters. She gave the Kardashian family fame – something that fast tracks success in any domain. Fame is infrastructure. Fame is numbers. Fame is a chance. Fame is support. Fame is money. Fame is influence. Fame is power. Her spirit is immense and is felt throughout the universe. That frequency emits and ripples a chain of luck molecules – her sisters were the recipients of these molecules and it has enabled them to do amazing things. We are the products of our ancestors and immediate family. Kim and her family created a world that was so big and realistic that Kylie was immersed it in, Kylie was a product of that world and she owned it and took the vision further. Now, her responsibility is to push boundaries and challenge customs and conventions.
antakalipa 