My taste in hip-hop is what it is because of how I grew up.

Which is probably the case for most people. When I was younger, my older sister listened to a lot of Rap and R&B. During the 90’s, those genre’s of music were at their prime. She was in to a lot of rappers from NY. Jay-Z, Big L, Nas, Biggie, Cam’ron, Jadakiss, etc. She had a huge collection of CD’s and cassetes. Of course I didn’t care about music that much at such a young age. But it was always there.

I guessed where I lived (Landover, Maryland) could be considered a ghetto but I always stayed in the house most days. My mother was really protective and overbearing, always wanting me to study and do homework. The only music I was exposed to was the music on B.E.T. I ignored MTV completely because I thought it was only meant for white people, and I couldn’t relate to their music.

When I started buying my own albums, I started paying attention to lyrics a lot more. And I realized that I just couldn’t relate to most lyrics. When I hit middle school, I chose to stop listening to music based on popularity. I chose to only listen to stuff that I can relate to.

Kanye West’s College Dropout album was the first album, I bought and fell in love with. Not one track would get skipped. It felt like I could relate to every word he was saying. In a way I thought the lifestyle I was living at the time was similar to the life he had at my age.

Soon after, I used the internet to educate myself on rappers that I could vibe with. Rappers like Common, Mos Def, Q-Tip, & Talib Kweli all became part of my life’s soundtrack. All of my peers were still only jamming out to the stuff they heard on the radio while I would just put in earphones, and feel like I have a haven all to myself. The music on the radio is just what society want you to listen. Some people are ok with that. As for me, I wanted to find something that spoke to me individually.

And if Lil B speaks to you in a way that nobody can understand, well then hey….more power to ya.