MY LIFE IN THE UNDERGROUND RAP RAILROAD
My ESCAPE Into HIPHOP
Hip hop was smuggled into my house like Negroe spirituals during slavery.
Our household was banned from listening to secular music — cuz mi Parentals decided to be hyper-religious rassclot Baptist Christian mudda scunts.
But Me and mi five older sibling dem could NOT resist OR be denied the appeal of da growing genre of Hip Hop — now celebrating its 50th year.
We grew up together from time like faithful friends from da hood.
My oldest brudda showed us how to record songs on da radio to cassette tape with our Fadda hand me down boom boxes.
Those mixtapes got confiscated REAL QUICK by Muma who could sniff out contraband like a seasoned Narc.
She wan fi take da boom boxes too but Fadda knew da ramifications to a Nigga SOUL when you remove music in captivity.
So him give dem back to us after a week or so.
It nevuh stop us no way.
Most of da artists and songs in Hip Hop that I grew up loving mi heard first in mi kitchen washin dishes with mi brudda closer in age to me.
He would rap bars from LL Cool J , Busta Rhymes, Wu Tang Clan, Rakim, KRS-One and more.
Mi knew and favorited Method Man’s flow out da group before mi even heard him actually spit his rhymes on da track.
That taught me something about LYRICAL IMPACT.
My brudda did this with R&B too — but mi nuh dig his voice struggle sing 112 and tings so mi mek him keep it to rap.
Muma would come in da kitchen sometimes to figure out why we took hours to finish a light load of dishes and almost catch him spitting da forbidden bars.
But we’d always flip to our own freestyles and she’d walk away with suspicion in her eyes.
That was another part of hip hop mi brudda insisted I learn — lyrical free stylin flow.
I wanted to be Mariah Carey and him want me fi be da next Lauryn Hill.
After I heard Lauryn spit — I wanted to be her too.
I got my first rap name at 8 — TriStarB — and never looked back.
Hip hop resonated with me cuz it was stories bout HOOD life.
And tho mi Fadda worked hard to give us a GOOD life we still grew up in one of Toronto’s worst hoods at that time.
And racism wasn’t as subtle as it is now.
So deez weren’t just SONGS — Hip Hop was da evolution of HOOD BLUES.
And I continued everyday through highschool to risk my freedom to smuggle as many artists as I could into da mudda scunt house to listen and dissect da art of LYRICISM.
Da powerful poetic prose that entranced me since I heard it as a likkle pickney — whispered bar for bar in da kitchen — like da underground Rap Railroad.
Came back to read it again and tell you to check out Danyel Smith's "Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop"--I think you will love it. I am listening to it so I can pause and play the songs she writes about and it's SO FUN.
I loved every line of this.