"The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway.

It’s been eighty-four straight days since old fisherman Santiago dun caught his ass a fish.

Matter of fact, this geezer so sh** out of luck dat Manolin, his lil thug-in-training, gotta bail on him.

Manny’s folks lay down the law and tell him he gotta crew up with some other hustla

who makin it rain fish on the reg.

But even though they ain’t ridin’ tight no mo, Manolin still got Santiago’s back.

Erry night he helps Santiago truck his gear back to the crib where they chop game

bout their main man Joe DiMaggio.

And just like Joey D, Santiago gonna stay on his game til the day he go.

So later, Santiago gets up on his hoopty and treks out farther than he usually do.

As he chillin in the deep, his line hook a BIG-ASS Marlin.

Look, this fish got such a fat ass that he pulls the whole boat with him as he try to jet.

But Santiago ain’t backin down.

No matter how much it hurt to hang on to dat line, he ain’t lettin go.

A day goes by and both Santiago and dat fish still goin hard.

Santiago thinkin, “I feel yo pain brutha.”

After three days of raw doggin his mits, Santiago shanks da marlin with his harpoon,

straps it to his ride, and starts flowin home.

But soon a shark creeps up on da boat and and starts grubbin on dat marlin.

Santiago all like “hell nah. Best step off my fish, son!”

So he chunks his harpoon right through dat shark’s dome, but loses his piece in da process. Damn.

When mo’ sharks start lurkin round the boat, Santiago wonderss if all this pain

mighta been for nothin. But our boy don’t quit. He gonna ghetto rig himself a shiv and

keep stabbin dem haters. Even though Santiago keepin it real as he can, them fat-ass sharks

ain’t done til dat marlin ain’t nothin but bones.

After Santiago gets back to the shore, all the hoods on the block gather round

to peep game at the gnarly fish skeleton. It’s so damn big they be thinkin ol Santiago

caught himself a shark.

Then Manolin drops in on Santiago’s crib while he catchin some Z’s.

When he peeps how jacked up the dat geezer’s hands be from warrin with da fish, fool busts in to tears.

Santiago’s crusty ass wakes up, chops game with Manny, and they decide

to become fishing partners again. Then Santiago crashes and dreams his usual dream:

lions chillin on the beach.

Ain’t no doubt bout this book’s main theme:

Man can beast through even the nastiest pain when he got his eye on the prize.

And for old man Santiago, the prize ain’t just flippin dat Marlin for some phat coin,

but to show out and prove dat even though his old ass might be sh**ting in diapers,

he still got the juice.

In all Hemingway’s books, there are two kinds of bruthas: the big dawgs and the lil ol bitches.

The bitches are nothin but yo ordinary scrubs who who cool with just bein normal,

but the Big-Dawgs be all the G-ed up heros

who break off all society’s haters and chase a life outside of what’s normal, like my man Santiago.

Fool takes it to the next level when he literally goes out farther to fish than errybody else.

Not only dat, but Santiago throws up his middle finger to society’s

superficial bullsh**, keeps it trill, and gets tight wit mama nature.

All up in this text we seein Santiago tied to nature’s little homies:

And if you think it stops there, you straight trippin.

On the real, the main animal Santiago associated with is dat marlin.

Some scholas even think dat fish reppin Jesus.

See, to some Christians, dis world only meaningful because of Jesus’s pain and sacrifice.

And for Santiago, it ain't no different:

Homie's life is meaningful because of that fish beastin through pain and sacrificing his life.

And since Santiago feelin da hurt too, he also representin da big JC.

But just cuz you roughin through the sh** don’t mean you always gonna come out on top.

Life ain’t about that, blood. It’s bout strugglin to live til yo last breath.

As Santiago say: “A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.”

So fight the good fight by hittin dat subscribe button and tellin yo friends.

Catch you next week. Peace!