www.SammyDoodle.com
since about the time hip-hop was exposed to mainstream culture through platinum novelty acts of the early nineties i had begun listening. during my junior high school days albums had been released by wu-tang clan, cypress hill, and dr. dre which gave me a glimpse into more credible artists. when high school started for me i had discovered listening to punk music mostly from england, the kind with the spiky hair and mohawks. it was my first true experience in life with non-conformity and an underground music scene.
that scene shaped my life until a couple years into college when i had gone back to listening to hip hop after listening to an artist named eminem. the way he put his songs together blew me away and i thought hip hop had really evolved over the years. so i started downloading lots of songs, kind of catching up on what i had been missing over the years. this was around the time when napster had just blown up and college kids were really taking advantage of it. so eventually i took a term off of college and ended up moving to new jersey from my hometown of staten island and started going to rutgers university in newark.
during that summer i started freestyling because i saw a similarity in the way people would start a band in the punk scene and how kids would start rhyming in hip hop culture. it's that do-it-yourself attitude that should potentially produce humble artists. so i had been rhyming to myself for a couple of years but was having trouble expressing it in front of others at the time. i was getting myself inked up, which i felt couldn't hurt in order to protect myself and others around me. plus i knew there's a certain image people expect to see when you come at them as a rapper. one day my tattoo artist had asked me how it was going with my music. i remember telling him how at this point i really need time to myself to study and learn more before i can express a message to others through music.
for a couple years of my life i stopped writing rhymes and being around my friends altogether in order to get myself straight. i didn't even think i would come back to music, i was deep in learning about religion and clean vegetarian living and i didn't expect to pick up rhyming again. when i made my pilgrimage to mecca i remember there being rhymes in my head while i was on the bus or walking around the streets. when i came back to the states i started being around my old friends again who were in a dancy punk band making their own music. eventually i realized it was time for me to start writing again and i hooked up with alex plus who had gone to school for audio recording and was making his own instrumentals. since then i've been recording my music and incorporating into it what i had learned in that period of personal development.
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