G, or @thugtear, is a “misunderstood twitter terrorist with strong ties to the community.†He believes Mississauga will be the new LA in a few short years and has a podcast called Turn Your Location On (TYLO) with his friend Kadeem Johnson (@kadeemdadream) dropping shortly. This week, I talked to G about three of his favorite tweets, plus weird threats, funerals, and his Young Thug content.
G: This is my aristeia. It’s my most defining moment on Twitter. It showed me how much people people don’t give a fuck about facts. There was this YouTube series that was dedicated to “exposing the evil online and preaching the good news of Christ,†and they spoke on how this tweet pointed out excessive idolatry and godlike worship of celebrities. Like someone actually used a bag of my breath to push their own ridiculous agenda and I loved every minute of it. And the cherry on top was nobody in my family even cared this happened.
How did you find out about the YouTube video using your tweet?
I think I was tryna stunt and show my friends a video of some famous lady talking about it which led me to stumble upon the video. It’s a pretty interesting video and the guy has a soothing voice so I can see why he has a decent following. I wish he reached out to me so I could’ve explained myself a bit better. I’m not sure if the truth would’ve benefitted him, though.
Is this the most bizarre reaction you’ve seen to a tweet of yours? Does anything else beat it or come close?
Probably, I’m not even sure I’d call it bizarre, people use tweets to convey messages that don’t always necessarily reflect the opinion of the person who tweeted it. I think the most bizarre reaction I’ve seen is when a certain twitter personality messaged me once asking for my address. I think it was a threat or something. They were located in Africa and it was like 9 AM. Like if you’re gonna threaten me, the least you could do is wait until the sun sets and be within driving distance. It was weird…cause I don’t like airing people out, but at the same time, like c’mon.
Death is wack. Super wack, so I understand when people say shit like “my funeral gonna be lit.†Ideally, I’d want people to have a good time at my funeral, too, but who’s gonna be the person that walks by my grieving mother and tears open that bottle of peach ciroc. Like I can’t cosign you, I’m dead. You won’t be able to look at me for the thumbs up. Deep down inside I’d want my funeral to be reminiscent of a wedding but I’m scared that my haters would show up and I wouldn’t want them to have a good time at the expense of my death. Damn, just realized this would make a great Dave Chappelle skit.
Do you do writing outside of Twitter, and if so has Twitter affected the way you write at all?
No, I don’t write. I’ve tried in the past but it’s hard. I’m fine with just following great writers.
What are your fav and least fav things about being on Twitter?
Learning. I learn a lot. I know sometimes people hate admitting that a social platform like Twitter can be impactful and mold them as a person but I’m fine with saying it changed my life. It gave me knowledge and perspective that no modern education could. I wasn’t the greatest person before I was exposed to the different voices on that site, and I can see it by looking back at my old tweets. I also love the funny people on the site. I really wanna start listing them off but there are so many and I’d feel guilty forgetting one. Its the politics surrounding Twitter that bothers me. I don’t want to get into it but a lot of people are harassed and from what I understand, Twitter, through their policies, should be preventing that. Oh I also hate old white guy Twitter. All Lives Matter Twitter. Kaepernick, show the flag some respect Twitter. You’re disrespecting a future U.S. army soldier Twitter. Jesus is white Twitter. We should guide Tomi Lahren in the right direction Twitter. That’s about it.
Choosing which tweet is your favorite is like picking your favorite child, so this is really easy. I love this tweet. My Young Thug tweets hold a special place in my heart. Most of my content, at least for a few months, was different takes on how great Young Thug was as a rapper. I don’t remember what inspired this but I did know before I pressed send it would do numbers. I did get a little hate for the comparison but I’m not gonna even bother with addressing that. If you know, then you know.
Are there any other notable periods of your time on Twitter? What are topics that you never tire of writing tweets about?
Tweeting about being unemployed and broke. I’ll never forget when I was fired. I felt like I was in an Eric Andre skit or something. And normally I’d tweet about a situation like that as it was happening or right after…but damn. I was so embarrassed because I was better than what I was doing, and the way I was being treated but I was fired. My boss had to let me go, cause I wasn’t up to their standards. Like gotdamn, I was literally stacking shoes for a living, you ain’t have to do me like that. That period of time gave birth to my best tweets. Nothing is more fire than a broke boi tweet.
Oh shit, one thing I’ll never stop tweeting about is Jesus’ race. He was black.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone trying to have a good time online?
Don’t slander Jamaican food, and give your attention to Black women. They’re the most creative/entertaining/funniest online. Oh and block/delete/ignore people on site if they rub you the wrong way, but don’t block me. I’m not like those other Twitter accounts.
Jenny Nelson lives and writes in Brooklyn.