When did you fall in love with hip-hop...

 

 

Brown sugar has been like one of my favourite movies for time unknown. I have watched it 16 times and can almost recount the scenes and the lines blindfolded. One of the questions Sydney asks and Dre later states is; “When Did you fall in love with Hip-hop?” I love hip-hop music, of all the genres of music it takes first place in my heart. I may not be as knowledgeable about it as I should be but it calls to me like no other genre of music. Music, from my childhood, was just another background prop in the stage that was my life; nothing conscious in what I listened or liked. In fact for a very opinionated person I had no opinion on music till my teenage years and even then it was based on doing what I needed to do to fit in with my peers. For the life of me I cannot identify one particular artiste that inspired me to love hip-hop music for its own worth rather than a currency to gain acceptance. The artistes that really grabbed me by the horn were: Tupac Shakur, DMX, Xhibit, Missy Elliot, Red Man and Method Man, Da brat, Lost boyz, Mc Lyte, Run DMC, Nas, Dre,,,,YES the 90’s is the real Era of Hip-hop …at least for me.lol

 

Gangster Paradise was the first hip-hop song I could recount each and every word …and for some bizarre reason made me feel like I was part of some community by just listening and loving that music. I was 13years old and 13years later I still think that song is off the hook. My relationship with Tupac started as a hate/contempt as I saw his picture and for the life of me I could not explain why I felt they way I did. I heard Biggie’s Mo money more problem way before I my ears ever had the honour of hearing any of Makaveli’s songs and boy did I regret the years I wasted hating on Tupac without really appreciating his music. To this day there is no rapper who can drop like Tupac did. He kills it in ways that most artistes only dreams of. For a while I was convinced dude couldn’t have died it was all  a hoax and some big conspiracy and would go on rants to defend my silly beliefs. Brown sugar has a quote that I adore to this day: What is the difference between rap and hip-hop? like the difference between saying you love somebody and being IN love with somebody. Rap is just a word!

 

 

Yet the precise moment in time when I committed to hip hop would be when I bought my first album: And there was X-DMX. I was in high school and my family had mom and pop shop. I would be the person selling goods all day while my parents rationalized that it would give me enough time to read. It is a painfully boring and in my mind torturous job. Morning and evening were the peak times but during the day one could die of boredom if not the frustration a teenager feels in more or less being locked up while her peers were free to do what they wanted. I rarely stay bitter or negative for long hence I had to get an outlet or an escape if you will. Books for m an early age were a refuge and an escape but music came very close second. That holiday while sitting in that shop DMX must have rapped and sang till our neighbours must have felt they were intimately acquainted with him but Fall in love I did for when the music was on..I did not feel imprisoned or powerless to change what was an almost unbearable situation but rather free.

 

One day I amy read all these and be disturbed but hip-hop as a genre has no rival in my eyes….and make no mistake I am not talking about the drivel that is currently being produced and labeled crank or whatever..for that is NOT HIPHOP…but that is another conversation for another day…So when did YOU fall in love with HIPHOP?