Who am I?

[Originally posted on my otherwise ignored MySpace 08/10/2008...]



Who am I? Funny you should ask that, and I will spend the next little while trying to explain just who it is that I am. To some who should so happen to take this in, it will be immediately obvious who I am, while to others, we will reach the end of my introduction just who it is that I am... To all involved parties, there will be things that were unknown, unnoticed or long since forgotten in my presentation of myself into your world.


I am 16-bar verses and 4-bar hooks.

I am a break beat, a bassline and a sample.

My quantization is set to 1/4 in your loop sequencer.

I am a peaceful resolution to conflict spoken in a violent manner.

I am misunderstood, sometimes even in my own living room.

I am easy to get along with, if you try.

I am a historian.

I am an observer.

I am metaphors and similes.

I am stories and concepts.

I am underground.

I am commercial.

My influence is the African Drum.

My influence is the Indian Sitar.

My influence is the Greek Panflute.

My influence is mama banging pots in the kitchen.

My influence is Great-Great Grandmama singing in the fields.

My influence is EVERY little thing that crosses into earshot from the moments I gain and lose consciousness daily.

My influence is my imagination.

My influences are Miles, Herbie, Bird, Mingus, Jimi, Janis, Bootsy, Morrison and countless others before me.

I am vastly and beautifully open minded.

I am horribly locked into a little box, close-minded to a tragic fault.

I am loved.

I am hated.

... each of those extremes are generally offered with a complete lack of an attempt at effort.

I live in the east.

I live in the west.

I live in the south.

I live in Europe.

I live in Asia.

I live in Africa.

I live in the Caribbean.

One might say that I am omnipresent, a lot like your favorite deity of choice.

Very much like that deity, no two of my "homes" sees me quite the same.

People have been beaten, shot and killed over me.

People have been BORN over me.

I have cause lifelong friendships.

I have caused longer-than-lifelong rivalries.

I have resolved conflicts and bridged differences in opinions.

I'm a paradox.

I am irrefutable reality.

I speaking in rhyming sentences.

I speak in sentences that don't rhyme sometimes.

I am the funniest of jokesters.

I am dead-assed-serious.

I am urban.

I am suburban.

I am boardroom.

I am streetcorner.

I am bedroom.

I am night club.

I am local.

I am tragedy.

I am drama.

I am comedy.

I am satire.

I am international.

I am universal.

I am like Chess; 10 minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.

I am your mother's favorite recipe; I never come out the same way twice in a row, but you know to appreciate the outcome.

I was raised by a single mother.

I am degrading to women at times.


One time, Mos Def described me as being:

... prosecution evidence
An out of court settlement
Ad space for liquor
Sick without benefits (hungh!)
Luxury tenements choking the skyline
It's low life getting tree-top high
It is a back water remedy
Bitter and tender memory
A class E felony
Facing the death penalty (hungh!)
Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive
Violently competitive, a school unacredited
The break beats you get broken with
on time and inappropriate
... went from selling crack to smoking it
Medicine for loneliness
Remind me of Thelonius and Dizzy
Rappers to B-Boys getting busy
The war-time snap shot
The working man's jack-pot
A two dollar snack box
Sold beneath the crack spot
Olympic sponsor of the black glock
Gold medalist in the back shot
From the sovereign state of the have-nots
Where farmers have trouble with cash crops (woooo)
It's all city like phase two
... will simply amaze you
Craze you, pay you
Do whatever you say do
But black, it can't save you

I was fathered in 1972 at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in Bronx, New York.





... who am I?

My name is Hip Hop, and it is nice to meet you... Whether this is the first time we've been introduced or we're being reacquainted, the pleasure is all mine... Maybe, just maybe you will take the time to get to know me, or get to know me again since we first met in the early 80's...