This thing of Ours

"We had no knowledge of this sh_t we just was with whatever" REAL NIGG_S DO REAL THINGS, JAY-Z featuring Too Short

Most of you don't know my beginning with Hip Hop, our relationship hadn't started with a thunderbolt that had struck me and I immediately fell in love with her, it was more gradual for me.. and yep, I said her.. The same way that Common had referenced Hip Hop in I USED TO LOVE HER back in the day.

At that time, I was just beginning to see it as something I wanted to be a part of, and that was because my friends had really started getting into it. Of course I had been introduced to rap by my homeboy Pete in the 6th grade. He was so into NWA that I had thought Eazy E's lyrics were his. It had taken another couple of years before I found my own tribe! No pun intended, because it wasn't Tribe Called Quest initially.

While Pete was rapping Eazy, I was gravitating a little more to LL. That was probably because LL had broken through commercially, which meant he had songs I could play in front of my grandparents as well as my ol g. My mom and I were living with my grandparents at that time, so that meant I no longer had my own room or tape player. My stepdad had manage to smoke up all of our possessions which was why we were at my grandparents in the first place, but that's another story for another time.

When I met the guys who would later become my crew is when Hip Hop took it's root inside of me. Tyvon, Kenny, Mike, and Antwon London were already a group called FDK. When we met they had been doing local talent shows, I believe Kenny's sister was managing them then. Kenny and Tyvon were the rappers, while Antwon and Mike covered the dancing. They were pretty good, they practiced a few times a week and even would match up their outfits. I really don't know why they broke up, but a few years later, me and Tyvon started rapping together.

Pretty much like everything I've come to do, it took time for me to become what's considered as a dope MC. In fact, Tyvon wasn't my first rap partner, I wasn't good enough to go verse to verse with him or anybody else at that time. I'd hoped that one day, he and Kenny were able to do an album together, because they both were dope then, and as years passed gotten better. If I could equate them to anyone it would be KRS ONE for Kenny, but with a Chicago flavor, and AZ for Tyvon. Anyone who's a Hip Hop head might think I'm tripping because they were my friends, but I honestly believe they were that dope, and could've probably been better!

Although I didn't immediately take off as an MC, it literally only took a few weeks before I found the style that would fit me best. I'd sharpen my lyrical sword daily, only letting a few hear me as I progressed. Tyvon initially heard me, and he was encouraging to say the least, but I could tell I wasn't up to his caliber, but after a few weeks he'd heard me again and was genuinely proud of my growth. We'd planned to do some things together soon, but as happenstance would have it, I'd meet some guys who were already further in the mix

Coming home from school one day my next door neighbor shouted me out of his window to come hang out with him. I'd spoken to him a few days prior, and had found out he was on house arrest so he couldn't leave the apartment much. I decided to take him up on the offer, and we became really cool, we'd smoke weed and play Street fighter together. That wasn't anything new to me, it was the same thing I was doing with the other guys around the neighborhood, but it just so happened his cousin Reggie who lived there also, was a music producer.

Probably high one day, I spit something, not sure how it happened, but they was really feeling it and wanted me to hook up with their younger cousin Paul. Paul turned out to be super solid, and we gelled immediately. Before we knew it, Reggie had gotten us a show in which he told us a day before it was time to go. It was at a college in Northwest Illinois and I had to figure out how to tell my mom I was going away for the weekend with people she didn't know anything about. I was in my second year of high school, and although she might've been cool with it, I couldn't leave that to chance.

It just so happened that the recreational center on the next block was going on a camping trip. I'd went there alot already, so I figured she'd be quicker to say yes to that than me going to a college with strangers. So, I told her that's where I wanted to go and she approved. This would be my first show, first time going away for a weekend, first time driving almost out of town, because I had the closest thing to a license...which was a permit. As well as my first and only time to date opening up for Dave Chappelle!..

to be continued