Tag: Music

Nelliel Approved – “Best of”, Awards

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A lot of life occurred in 2025, so much that I cannot blog about it all. I’ve considered vlogging some things, but I think that writing on my blog is truly the best medium for me right now.

I personally support each and every one of these recommendations. I have first hand experience with them. All things mentioned in this post have helped to make this year really great in some way and I want to share the experience with you. I hope that you take some time to either visit, purchase, or listen. Let me know if you feel similarly, have different opinions, or suggestions of your own. I’ve made this post specific to Atlanta as I am Atlanta based, however, most products or media can be found online, if there is something that must be done in person, please consider giving ATL a visit. 🙂

We’re full, but not so full these days.

Without further Ado.

Best of the year Nellielytu – ATLANTA 2025

Hair/Beauty/Skin

Most of my content has centered around this the entire time the website has been up, but I do have a products that I want to spotlight.

Lady Speed Stick Brazilian Mist Leave in Spray – I found this product at DOLLAR TREE of all places. I love the ingredient list, it works very well for my hair, it is super cheap (I go through a lot of this product as I use it as a daily refresh spray, so the price point is amazing. Pro tip: add aloe vera juice for additional moisture.) And the scent! It smells so much like Sol De Janiero (pistachio!) that it is hard to beat. The best, truly. A runner up would be Lola from Rio Rapunzel leave in. Also good but about 15x the price at my local Beauty Master.

Entertainment

Sinners. I know that everyone has been into SINNERS over the last year and I am no different. This movie was truly a treat – not too scary, fun, creative, well shot and acted. I love the use of imagination to create this work. I plan on seeing it again as they have brought it to IMAX for an additional showing. Woah!

Monster Rancher. What a blast from the past. I saw a post about this show mentioned on Threads (my newest social media obsession) and I knew that I had to watch it again. I have not been let down. UPN69 ahead of all the other stations with anime. Definitely worth a new watch.

Lupe Fiasco’s free concert in Boston. Lupe Fiasco and MIT hosted a concert in May with the Orchestra program and it was definitely worth flying in for. Anytime he posts about these types of events, try to check them out.

Interviews

I really love this man.

When I’m working, If I’m not listening to music, I’m listening to interviews/podcasts. I listened to this interview several times throughout the year and it is a good listen every time.

Food

Slim and Huskys. Best pizza on the planet this year! My love of the pizza that they serve is so great. The Rony, Roni, Rone is my go to. As I’m not a tomato eater, their pesto and Alfredo sauce is top tier. Add in that jalapeno cilantro dipping sauce and it is truly a treat.

Music

One Republic. Anything from them or from The Fray is on this list. Their music catalog got me through the workday on days where I’m doing a lot of data work.

Clothes

Rainbow Dresses. I love the simplicity of the standard rainbow dresses and you cannot beat the 10.00 price tag. The look good on everyone with a body con fit – just layer them with some thin heat tech and you are good to go for the winter. I’ve been trying this out during the late fall in ATL and it has served me well without having to pull out the chunky coats. I am just as sad as everyone else that the temps have been hovering around 35-45 degrees, but this combo has kept me well in the early mornings as I walk to work.

House Maintenance

Brookstone heating blanket – I have two of these and they are so helpful in the winter so I’m not running my heating bill through the roof. I have one for my bed and one for my couch.

Places to visit

ATL Botanical Garden – This is truly one of the best places to visit in Atlanta. I have been so many times over the last quarter – they have some of the best exhibits bar none (Alice in Wonderland) and the best winter light show in A.

Friday Listen!

ATL, Atlanta, Google, Lupe Fiasco, NELLIEL Approved, Pharrell Williams

I’m sharing Lupe Fiasco’s latest work – Samurai. He now has a deluxe version – hard to find the work as a whole together so I am just linking to the original released in 2024.

Take a look at his insta to see what he has been up to. Loved the images and video captured of him running the 5k through Japan with the ASAP crew. Check it out here.

Cain Culto

ATL, Atlanta, Lupe Fiasco, Uncategorized

I’m really into this. I found him on TikTok a few months ago, nice to see that he is doing well. Made it on Colors. The beat is really hittin’. I’m pretty sure that he is a possible super producer in the making. Love the violin. I’ve listened to some of his other work, but it doesn’t resonate as much as this song. He has a really interesting background… I do kind of fear that these lyrics might be somewhat sacrilegious, so I may not continue to listen. I’m very open-minded, however, I do tend to steer away from listening to things like that. Check out some background on the song here.

Interesting that I like Lupe Fiasco so much, isn’t it? He is a well known Muslim…. he tends to be respectful, at least with his lyrics. 😉

Anyways, just wanted to share. I hope that Cain releases more with up beat tempos.

Here are a few more artists I like on Colors.

Btw, I said I would mostly just share about my love of @Lupe Fiasco and @Pharrell and @MichaelBJORDAN

But I do like Cain.

Here is one of my fav one shots from Lupe:

Pharrell just cause – music Sundays.

xo,

Nelliel

Lupe Fiasco, I love you.

HVAC, HVAC Midea, Lupe Fiasco, Renovation, Uncategorized

Over the last two or three years, I’ve been attempting to see Lupe Fiasco live whenever he is making public appearances. I like that he is easy to see, he does shows very frequently. however, he does not make frequent visits to the south, at least for concerts. I’ve been able to fly several times up north to Boston to see him live – in case you are unaware, he is a visiting scholar at MIT. Impressive, yes? I think so, too. (Can you believe that there are now programs emerging at elite collegiate institutions for students to study rap to and learn how to be rappers? WOW. Wow. Yeah, I’m pretty sure most of the rappers I listen to learned by listening to other rappers via the radio, or MTV, BET… the streets. But I’m not really sure… still pretty cool. I know he even visited my alma mater, but I’m not sure as to why.

In early May, MIT + LU did a free to the public concert with some of the students from MIT’s 2025 Jazz Ensemble. It was lovely. No pictures allowed, but here is one from his show with BOB back in 2023. Lupe doesn’t seem to like pictures, hard to get any anyway without the MIC in his face.

Oh well. I’ve seen him plenty.

Lupe

I got to go to Arizona to see him, even got a hotel upgrade, which has nothing to do with him, but it was nice. 4 days in AZ, was super cool. Nice and relaxing but hot. So hot! I sure do wish that the FashionCitizen was still around, they were so much fun to watch and were based in AZ, at least during their height.

Anyway, I’ve noticed that Lupe often has budget friendly tickets or even free to the public events. If you can’t catch him on a solo tour, you might be able to see him with, funny enough, touring rock bands during the summer. (If you don’t know who he is, he is one of Pharrell‘s close phriends, or was. I tried soooo hard to talk up CRS on Twitter a few years back but I’ll just have to accept that it is now defunct. I don’t want lie though, I’ve done some searches for his events and they don’t always feature him. So if you’re trying to see him for the free, be careful as the event might just be about him. One example is the DMV Festival, Words, Beats, and Life, he was the first honoree to receive the Rap Laureate, but he was not able to attend the event. The program was beautiful nonetheless. Though he was not in attendance, I did have a good time staying at the Capsule Hostel near Howard University. What an experience.

I hope that one day I can get a picture with him and an autograph on sweatshirt I purchased on Mercari – this is a good place to get things if you missed out MERCH from different eras like I did. I even got one of the 1/50 tees from his ITJOTLOD time – check out the Japanese Cartoon (Lupe’s rock bank) album here if you haven’t ever heard it before.

I only have one question to ask him and he has been hard to chat with… but I’ll just pose it here:

Lupe, if you ever read this, how do you come up with your album concepts? They’re really great. As a arts student in undergrad, I struggled with concepts. I’m technical, but having good concepts is essential to making good work.

Good work. <3