I'm Hot Becuase I'm a Zen Master

While Mims's declaration that he "is hot" should not come as a surprise to any student of Hip-Hop, his reason for being hot presents listeners and readers with a complex and paradox. We see this paradox expressed through the phrase "I'm hot because I'm fly, you ain't because you're not." Now, "fly" as an adjective does not make much sense. So, we will define it further. According to urbandictionary.com (really, what did you expect me to use as a source?) fly is defined as, "cool, stylish."

Thus we find the paradox Mims presents. It would seem that one of the primary condition for being fly is to be cool. Mims explains to us that we are not hot, because we are not fly, which makes being fly one of the chief determiners of who is hot. If we must be fly before we are hot and we must be cool before we are fly, then we must be cool before we are hot.

There are many possibilities for this paradox. For one, it could be a merism, expressing that Mims is cool in all places and on all degrees of a scale of "hotness." I do not believe this to be the case. There are some levels of hotness that even Mims can not ascend to, more likely because of personal choice than a lack of ability. He claims he is hot becuase "I don't gotta rap" (12). Clearly Mims at one time had a choice of different opportunities for hotness, but chose rapping, much in the way that Solomon chose wisdom. Still, it is hard to imagine Mims being equally as hot in Geek Chiq or dressed in Indie flair.

If this is meant to be a merism expressing place, then it is not a good one outside of the realm of meteorology. It is also redundant, as he expresses that he has been to New York, Chicago, San Fransisco, Sacramento as well as other places. It is clear that he is regarded just as hot in these places as in others.

I believe that Mims' hotness paradox is rooted in Buddhism. There are many famous buddhist paradoxes and it is thought that pondering them brings you closer to Nirvana, but not Kirk Cobain, although that would be pretty cool. Many of them, such as "what is the sound of one hand clapping" and "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" are well known even today. It is clear that Mims has invented his own Buddhist paradox "How can one be both cool and hot?"

The establishment of a new paradox means that Mims is clearly one of the greatest Buddhist thinkers of our time, and is extremely hot. We are all fortunate to learn at his feet.