MALCOM X, PRINCE, COMMON, Operah, and Mos Def
I LOVE music. Everything from Common & Prince, to Tracy Chapman & India Arie. It's all love! I'm a Hiphopper, so Hiphop is my first LOVE! My first tape I ever bought was LL's "I need a beat", BDP, Digable Planets, EPMD, Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy came next. I grew up on my brotha's playing Suga Hill Gang and Trecherous Three. I loved Hiphop when IceT made brothas' stand in the B-Boy stands, with the classic joint "wreckless". I knew how to toprock before I know how to add and subtract. That african drum spoke in a language that was easy for me to understand. Wish heads could feel what brothas' in the 80's felt. When u went to concert and there was a show. U had ur Dj, graffeti, emcee, and ya B-Boy on stage. When Rakim's thrown came out and was spinning, and when it turn for the last time he jus appeared. When LL had his big ass radio on stage. PE had a "letter from the gov't", When Common came out on stage with his pink chucks did a windmill got up and his shirt was dirty as hell. Heads jus doing them, not selling a package, but jus enjoying who they are. Watchin Hiphop grow up was a beautiful and trying experience. Watch Hiphop's f..@! up cuz'n be sold to the mass, and the mass believe they listening to Hiphop. They not doing Hiphop, they rapping. Hiphop is still alive. Love what heads all over the country r doing. Little Brother, Slum Village, Kev Brown, Cy Young, Elzi, Frank and Dank, Common, Blackstar, Tribe Called Quest, Ceelo, Talib, Mos Def, Da La Soul, Pharcyde, Hi-Tek, People Under the Stairs, Group Home, Boot Camp, Immortal Technique, Lauryn Hill, many more. Keep being Hiphop, GOD knows that there is a need. Telling me something more then Sex, Cars, and Clothes. Do that if thats what u do, but touch on something real. Stop selling me on how much u got, and show me what u worth. Stop feeding the kids, BS. Move somebody somewhere besides the dance floor and jail cells. Show me the light, because u got the mic. Be heard! (In the immortal words of David Chapel) Bitches.
I don't watch much television, but I do dig David Chapel and the sitcom Girlfriends. I like the classics, Whats Happening and GoodTimes. Can't forget Sanford and Son, "U Big Dummy".
I love to read, but I read for knowledge, can't read a novel for nada. In 9th grade, the Autobiography of Malcolm X change my life. I thank GOD for that book, and the brotha that was the author, Alex Hailey. Malcolm with his 8th grade education was the smartest man on the planet. He groomed himself to be that. He is a testimony that knowledge is power.
My Popps is my hero. The greatest influence in my life. Not my only hero, but he does stand alone. He is a Great MAN!