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- [00:00]
A
Guys, imagine subletting an apartment, being a temporary renter. Now the roommate in this sublet decides to move out. You do not make consistent enough money to get your own rental lease. So you make a 30 part TikTok series documenting your housing insecurity. Welcome to the mind of a New York City full time artist. Where do I even begin? Guys, this story has been going on for over 22 months now. But now that it has really wrapped up, we have a conclusion. I am so excited to share it with you. So tldr, just for some backstory, at the end of May, a 30 year old they them named Ek who is an artist in NYC. She makes air dry clay keychains. They kind of like look like cats. You can fidget with them. Air dry clay keychains. Full time New York City artist. Anyway, she got onto TikTok where she has a relatively big following and she aired out on all of this dirty laundry about her 20 something year old roommate. Now this roommate whose name is Marlon, like the fish, that's literally her username, Marlon the fish. But she is also an influencer. However, she makes a consistent enough income and so she is the one who has the lease on this apartment and she invited Ek in to sublease a room from her. So she had been temporarily renting a room to Ek. Now allegedly when EK first moved in, I think that this was at the beginning of May, their verbal agreement, their plan upon initial coming together was that in July when Marlon's lease was up for renewal, they would sign a lease together and be permanent roommates and Ek would actually be on the lease instead of just being a temporary two month subletter. However, this is where things really get interesting. By the end of that first month, Marlon realized that there were issues. She realized that this was not somebody that she wanted to sign a lease with. And so Marlon notified EK that she was possibly going to be finding a new roommate that she did not want to do, that she was not going to extend her sublease or put her on lease, just that the situation was not working. And man oh man, did this send ek spiraling. She spiraled all the way to TikTok. Just watch.
- [02:05]
B
24 hours ago I was told by my current roommate that I was getting kicked out at the end of June even though I moved in a month. Quickest backstory on me. I'm a full time artist in New York City and I've always wanted to live here. I broke up with an abusive ex, quit my job, moved here with not a lot of money. Through all of last year, I've just been aching to find home. I felt like this place was it. My room faces the backyard so I get to hear the birds. It has a rooftop and I can see the entire skyline. It's perfect. I have one roommate, and when I met them, seemed like everything was fine. There was a verbal agreement we were going to be re signing in July, and that was when I was going to join the leaf. When I moved in in May, her tone changed and it felt like she started policing me over things that were so elementary. I'm about to turn 30. This person is mid-20s, but acting like they're in high school. She would not allow me to store things on the top two shelves in the cabinet because it stresses her out. When I moved in, I had a different dish rack her the one that has walls on this side. She just had a flat dish rack where she just kind of awkwardly and haphazardly pile up the dishes. And I was like, hey, I've got this other dish rack. Would you be open to us giving it a try? Immediately, she shut it. My entire issue with her through this last month has just been her lack of compromising. And so a few nights ago, I receive a text of her being like, please remember that the top shelf in the fridge is mine. I have just my gallon of milk stored up there in my creamer. Like, you can keep your milk here, but you need to move the creamer. And I was like, is there a reason why? Because you don't have that much stored on that shelf. She's like, because it's my shelf, that's why. And it was end of discussion. And I was too tired that night. And I deal with this in the morning because I need to say something, wake up, and I type out very long text. I spent over an hour working on it because I grew up in an abusive family in an abusive relationship. I just overly analyzed all of my words because I was afraid of things being used against me. The last few months, I've been working on that. I'm coming into myself and feeling more at ease and confident in all the things, but I can still really struggle with taking up space. Of course I'm gonna have screenshots for you. This is exactly what I said. I have nothing to hide. She immediately came back with this, announcing that she was still looking for someone else to live with her. This is the first that I'm hearing of that I thought everything was fine. Besides her sort of hostile responses to me whenever I would bring Something up as, like a compromise, because that's what you fucking do with roommates. We don't even interact. She has her own front door in her bedroom. She doesn't even come through the living room. I stay in my room most of the time. We're kind of on different schedules. I'm giving all of this context because the further that you get down in these messages, the weirder that the shit gets. I got some tea from the girl who lived before me, and it gave so much context into some intuition that I had about my roommate as well as what my role was in this scenario.
- [04:40]
A
All right, so that was just part one. Obviously, there are moments in there that made me roll my eyes. Number one, the abusive family, the abusive relationship. She deserves to take up stuff, space, all of the buzzwords that, like, even if it's real, I'm just like, girl, we're so tired, we don't really care anymore. Now, the other thing that stood out to me initially was her being so upset that this roommate, you know, was moving on, did not think the situation was working, wanted her to move out. And she was talking about how they were having all of these hostile interactions. She was not compromising. And yet, Ike, this person was so desperate to make the situation work. Like, why would you want to live in a hostile environment anyway? Beyond me. But continuing on, because this really gets so much better. So much better. Just hearing her side of the story, some of her audience was on her side. Like, one person said, gosh, this sucks. I'm so sorry you were having to deal with this crap again. Because one of the important parts of the story is that she is now on her fifth sublease. She has not been able to find somebody who is willing to sign a lease with her. Real, real, real. Red flags. Red flags. Just saying. Anyway, she has documented all of this on her platform before. So somebody said, I'm sending good vibes your way. Another person said, I'm so, so pleased. Proud of you. It's amazing how composed and eloquent you are with this entire situation. Bravo snaps all of the things. Now, continuing on with the story, she obviously does a part two, part three. Everything is awful. She's being kicked out. And at every turn, she attempted to make her roommate into this villain. You know, she wouldn't allow her to put the milk on the shelf. She wouldn't re sign with her. She said that she wanted to live with somebody who was more like her. She couldn't make up her mind whether she was going to be the one to move out or whether she wanted to keep the apartment and have EK move out. And in every video, she was sharing texts that they were sending to each other, hoping to get people onto. But honestly, as I'm pausing and reading all the messages, all I see is her roommate Marlon. Like, she consistently asks, like, ike, can we please come together and talk in person? I don't want you to continue posting on TikTok. I don't want you to feel like you can't take up space, like, I'm sorry that I did this. Can we please have a heart to heart and work through it? But of course, of course, no, that cannot be done because Ek finds that triggering. So every piece of communication must be done over text. And Marlon finally says, listen, I've seen your videos. I know you're upset. I know you were dealing with trauma triggering whatever is happening. What if instead of having you go out, find another, sublease another apartment. What if I just leave you with the apartment? You find a roommate, somebody to sign the lease you join on because you can't afford it yourself, whatever is happening, and I will leave and find a new place. Now, Ike responds to that and says, if you decide that, please just tell me ASAP so I can work on finding a new roommate. And I will say, that is a very valid response. Now, in all of the text messages that Ike shows, Marlon is very open about the situation. And she also knows her rights as the one person on the lease. She's very clear that they are not a good fit, that she does not want to live with Ike anymore. She is trying to work it out so that IK can have the apartment. But she's also very clear that if she cannot find roommates herself and cannot find a new apartment that she, you know, qualifies for and gets. Because in New York City, getting an apartment is not as simple as just going on Zillow and being like, I want this one. Like, it is a war zone. You have to have like a real estate agent for getting an apartment. You're applying against, like 20 other people. It is like the Hunger Games in New York City. And so she's saying, ike, yes, I would like to make it so that you can have the apartment. But if I don't find another apartment, if I don't get one in the next month, then I'm sorry, but, you know, you are out on your ass. And that, I'm sorry, even if it's, you know, unfortunate, is legally allowed because Ek is a subletter, she is not on the lease. She has no legal rights to resign or just to the apartment in general. And to be fair and play devil's advocate here, I will say that I would understand being frustrated that Marlon hasn't found a new apartment, has not made her mind up, and that you were living in this limbo situation over the last 30 days. But I would also argue that any sane individual that found themselves in that situation would say, I'm not dealing with this. This is too in flux. And would take it upon themselves to start working on finding a new apartment. Find a new sublease, anything to cover your ass in case she decides that she's keeping the apartment and that you are out and that you need to find a new place. Like, they would not continue to make videos online talking about how traumatized and victimized they are. That is a waste of time. Especially when you are not even on the lease and you don't even. No, this girl that you're living with, you met her 30 days ago, like, genuinely move on. Sorry, little rant there. Had to interject that into the story. But now we continue. But it's EK and she doesn't. So throughout the entire month of June, she continues to make videos complaining about Marlon, complaining about how Marlon has not made up her mind yet. And this is putting her in an awful situation. And for Marlon's part, when you go to her social media pages, you can see that over that same month, when EK is complaining that, you know, she's pulling her through the ringer, all of the things. Marlon was actively touring apartments. She was applying for them. She was trying to find one. It's not like she was just toying with EK for fun and enjoying keeping her in this limbo. Like, obviously, obviously in New York City, she was not going to break her lease and just give up her apartment to this person who was slandering her online before she had a new place of her own. I feel like that's very simple. I feel like it is very common sense. But no, not Tek to EK that was oppression. That was reliving trauma. This was her enduring homelessness. This was housing insecurity. Literally, that is the term she used, housing insecurity. And she was so serious about living through all of this trauma that she even started. This is just rich. She started a GoFundMe so that she could raise enough money to do a month to month rental in the same apartment. She was like, I need enough money for the deposit for this, all of this. I need to pay one lump sum if I need to Stay here. I don't have the money. So she made a GoFundMe. And shockingly, guys, people donated. That is always so crazy to me that there are people that we live amongst who are so emotionally invested and swayed by people like this, but there are. And I'm sure the fact that people donated inflated her iq. Just like Inflate iq. Now, I have to be honest with you guys. I love a curb. My tires know it, my husband knows it, and honestly, Nashville at Large knows it. So when I say that my family needs inflate iq, I mean that Inflate IQ is a smart contract portable tire inflator that fits in your glove box. All you do is set the psi, press a button, and it stops automatically when it hits the right pressure. It works on cars, trucks, trailers, bikes, all of it. No guessing, no overfilling, no more digging through your purse for quarters just to use that. Maybe it works. Air pump at the gross gas station. No, it is so easy. Inflate IQ fills tires twice as fast, it doesn't overheat, and it comes with a lifetime warranty. It is so easy and so convenient that I keep one in every single car. We have them scattered around the farm. We use them on the four wheelers, the ATVs. It is so incredibly helpful. And for a limited time, the first 500 orders will get 40 off. Just $77.99 with free shipping. So the next time that you have a flat tire, you can handle it yourself. Head on over to my inflator.com again, that is my inflator.com and hit those curbs with confidence. Now, speaking of things that have made my life so much better, we need to talk about my friends over at Jevoni now. I talk about them all the time, but Jevoti has truly turned my life and my health around and I cannot thank them enough. Jevoti tests for over 100 biomarkers through blood work and then they will build you a custom supplement blend based on what your body needs now, what's trending or what your friends think you should take. It is based on what your data Sundays and every six months they retest and adjust your protocols so you're not stuck taking the same stuff forever when your levels have already changed. Plus, they work with your diet, your lifestyle, your fitness, everything. They give you a plan for it all. And I want you guys to know, I genuinely felt like I had been living in a fog for the last year and a half and my body was so depleted from pre pregnancy stress and Pregnancy and then postpartum. And Jevity saw all of that in my blood work. It was kind of like going to therapy for my body. And they responded with, we can work with this. Their custom supplement plan is my daily ritual now. And the benefits are so drastic that I can immediately tell the difference when I forget to take them. So now I make sure I don't. To get started and to change your life, just go to gojevity.com Brett Cooper and use code Brett for 20% off your membership. Again, that is gojvity.com BrettCooper code Brett checkout. Stop guessing. Start testing. Your body will thank you. They are so amazing. Go check them out. However, I will say very quickly after that any good favor that she had on the Internet quickly dissipated when she did not shut her mouth. Video after video after video. I mean, we are now up to 30 videos about this saga about her roommate. And the Internet understandably, really started to get annoyed. And you're gonna see why. Just watch.
- [12:47]
B
I was in the park a few weeks ago. I saw a hawk capture a smaller bird and flew up into the trees and I hear all of the little birds squawking around it, and it was very traumatizing. I absolutely sobbed watching the feathers float down, but I knew I was seeing that for a reason. Posted about it on my Instagram story and some people responded being like, I don't care that, you know, the hawk needs to eat. It's just not right. Nature is neutral. Hawks exist to balance the ecosystem. So there isn't overpopulation. They aren't doing this to be evil. They're just existing. They're just eating. A couple days ago, I was like, holy shit. Just felt so supported and so seen by the universe. I am so powerful and magnetic, and I have been told by too many people that I'm not and that I don't deserve to take up space. I don't deserve to eat. I deserve to eat. And I ate. That is literally what my friend said in the text after I told her about the hawk. She was like, you're the hawk and you just got fed. It's like, yeah, we did.
- [13:45]
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I have no idea.
- [13:45]
B
We're going to be living three weeks from now because my roommate is being a and changed her mind on me when she said that I was going to stay and renew my lease here for July and she was going to be the one leaving. I'll never forget the fact that my ex used to say that he thought that I was a weak person. Whenever I would ask him. If he thought that I was resilient, he could never give me a straight answer. When in truth, I've always been really good at sitting with my emotions and doing my best to transmute that. I've earned my badge of honor of being resilient in the face of what feels like absolutely impossible circumstances. No one can take that away from me. What I did find was a dollhouse outside of my apart trust that I inspected it thoroughly before bringing it inside. But here's the reason why I got it. I make worry stones out of polymer clay. This little couch and a bed, a table that has the coffee and cake and a bookshelf and a fucking car. And I'm sure you already see the vision. Oh my God.
- [14:42]
A
Now I am not here to rain on anyone's parade, but I just need to say that if you have enough time to renovate a dollhouse for your polymer clay fidget cat, you have enough time to get a job. You should be posting about this and having fun and having hobbies after you have a job, after you get a W2 and you can go and get a lease of your own. That is all I'm saying. Like she spent how many hours posting 30 plus TikToks editing them, setting up her camera on the fire escape. You had time to go get a job? She was very busy tiktoking and making handmade polymer clay kitty cat key chains and her and those keychains are actually the victims and the oppressor obviously is the landlord. Because what happens next is that she did end up finding a new roommate to come in and sign the lease with her. However, the landlord. Oh the zava landlord informed her that they together did not make enough money to sign the lease.
- [15:36]
B
I submit and they're now like you guys make under the income that you need. And I'm like what the fuck do you mean? I did the math. I make over the amount. Also, I've been here for two months and I've been paying rent on time. That should amount for something like girl,
- [15:48]
A
I get that it is frustrating, but also, have you never rented before? Actually, we know she hasn't because she's been subleasing for the last five homes that she's lived in in New York City. But it's not about if you have enough money to pay the rent in New York City, they need your annual income to be 40 times your monthly rent. I know that that sounds insane, but as you can see here, that is just the rule. And so I am guessing that you cannot show them that with your clay keychain. But not to worry, my friends, because Mayor Mamdani is going to save her. And you might be wondering, is it through free rent, rent stabilization, rent freezing, whatever he's doing up there in New York City, Communist China? No, he's saving her with his poetry.
- [16:28]
B
Just watch. I'm on my fifth sublet now and I know the life that I signed up for by being a full time artist in New York City. Mom Dani gave a speech after the Knicks one and I don't have like all of the words memorized, but he was like, what is New York if not your back is up against the wall, your dream just out of reach, unsure how you'll make your next rent payment, and looking at those 99.6% odds that are against you and smiling because in that 0.4%, New Yorkers find a way. I'm stating the facts of where I'm at and that my back is literally up against a wall right now. But one thing that I know for sure is I love New York and I belong here. And I'm not going anywhere. I want this to be a win for all of us. Because now I know so many of you are invested in this and I want so badly to get to the end of this and be surprised at like a miracle that has come through for me and it be even more than what I could have imagined.
- [17:25]
A
Me, me, me. It's all about me. I want a miracle. I mean, for you guys as well. Everybody who's so invested in this. I want us all to be surprised by how it's more than I could have ever imagined. Even though I created this circumstance for myself and it's all by my own doing and I'm being so dramatic and I've created a controversy online. I just know that I'm the victim and I deserve so much. Oh my God. This is what I mean. It is an epidemic. It is an epidemic of the mind. Between the tearful quotation of mom, Donnie to my back is up against the wall. But I'm gonna fight for I have like, I have no words. It is just so incredibly perfect. I feel like I am watching a play and all I can really say is, marlon, roommate, I get it. I get why you are not signing a year long lease with this person. Everybody now understands. Even if my bedroom had a private entrance and I didn't have to go in the living room, whatever it was, I could not do it. And the good thing is the Internet also understands because now literally nobody is on Ek's side. And the comments, I just have to say, are awe inspiring. After we spent literally a decade doing the Oppression Olympics, everybody, oh, I'm so sorry about my privilege and I've done all these things. People are watching these videos and I feel like what EK is doing is the culmination of all of these years of victimization, of telling people that they are not responsible for the circumstances of their life, that everybody else is out to get them, that the world needs to come and save them. All of that. It has culminated in this 30 part TikTok series. Everybody is watching that and going, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, our society has become so insane. My personal favorite one, this guy said, too much time on TikTok, not time on LinkedIn. Another person said, baby, this is not a movie. Go to work. Somebody else said it. Did the journal factory explode? Somebody else said, please, I've had a long day at work by the way. And then somebody else said, bruh, I don't want to be 30 living like this. Obviously not. Who would? All of the comments were going, oh, actually this is really unfortunate. This is not cool. Starving artists. This is actually really, really unfortunate and very embarrassing. Now that specific comment reminded me a lot of when I decided that I probably did not want to be an actor for the rest of my life. If you didn't know, I grew up as a child actor. I lived in and I think a lot of people assume that it was just because of politics or the vaccine mandates that I decided to walk away. But really it was about kind of this sort of thing, number one, the people that I was around. But it was about lifestyle. Like I saw adult friends, mothers who were very successful, but they were never around their children or families because they were always on location in another state shooting a TV show, a movie, whatever it is. I watched friends bounce from part time job to part time job, collecting unemployment between jobs because they never knew where their next paycheck was coming from. I saw 30 year old friends, we're talking about 30 year olds. I saw 30 year old friends who were on huge Netflix shows. Not just like one episode here and there, but were regulars on Netflix shows and they were sharing condos with other 30 year olds because even with jobs like that they could not afford a home of their own. Even like a rental home of their own at age 30. I looked at that and I was like, not for me. Like I admire those who love it so much that they are willing to go through that. Who can live in that Kind of limbo, but certainly not for me. I knew from a young age I wanted a family, I wanted to be a mom. I wanted to have the freedom to homeschool my kids. I wanted to be able to know where my money was coming from, know that I would have a consistent income, not be bouncing from job to job. That kind of consistency was so important to me. And I looked at that lifestyle, looked at those 30 year olds who are still going through this, and I went, absolutely not. And I feel like most normal people at the age of 30 also would not want to be crying on TikTok about subletting an apartment and not having rights to that apartment because they don't have a good and therefore can't even get a real lease. And it is all EK's doing. This is not New York City's fault or the economy's fault. Whatever it is, it's her fault. That is the part that is so ridiculous. And I'm so. It's such a white pill. The people online have seen through this. Like, this is not homelessness. This is not somebody that is down on their luck. This is not housing insecurity, whatever that made up term means. This is, I'm sorry, it is an idiot that is dealing with the consequences of their own actions. Like you. I know that you feel like you have the soul of a New Yorker, all of those things. You do not have to live in New York City to make cat fidget, spinner keychains, whatever you're doing with the polymer clay, you don't. I'm sure that you want to live there, lots of people do. But you are not owed that. You are not owed the miracle surprise at the end of the video, whatever you're expecting. And so it's a hard pill to swallow, but you do not deserve, nor do you have a right to live in New York City or any place for that matter. And so if you choose to move to one of the most expensive cities in the world anyway, then you have to do, do what every other person does. You have to work. If having a stable home and being on the lease for an apartment is your priority, then I'm sorry, you got to go get a W2. You need to be making 40 times that monthly rent. If your priority is to live in New York City, not have a full time job, but instead make the polymer clay cats and sell them at markets and on Etsy, that's great. But then you cannot complain about not being able to reach that apartment goal. It is that simple. You have to choose what you are prioritizing like. We all have dreams and aspirations, we all feel slighted at times and feel like life is not fair. That's kind of the whole shtick. But it is not honest to blame your roommate or blame the landlord or the world or the economy or Trump or your trauma, your abusive ex boyfriend, your narcissistic dad, whatever it is. For a situation that you have chosen to put yourself in, that is your bed, you have to lie in it. So girl, crack those knuckles and get those fingers clacking on. Indeed. If this is a priority, get a job, get a lease, shut up or move back home. It is that simple.