When Did You Fall In Love With Hiphop?

Angela Martinez is one person I truly admire. I wish I would’ve had more exposure to her line of work growing up, because I could have seen myself attached to hiphop in that same matter.  Think about “When did you fall in love with hip hop?” That question has had me in a choke hold ever since I first heard it.

For me, it started with a moment I’ll never forget. One of my mom’s friends brought me the typed-out lyrics to The Message. At that time, I was struggling with reading. I had support and resources, but fluency and comprehension weren’t my strengths yet. I could call out the words, but I wasn’t reading. I don’t know why he gave me those lyrics, but something about that typewritten rap pulled me in. I read it… and I visualized every single word like a movie.

Then one day, I’m riding with my dad, and suddenly that same song comes on. Baby, I was rapping my whole heart out.

Fast forward to the 1st time I heard Run DMC, and that was it. I had my Adidas with no shoe strings, driving my mama crazy. Ice T woke me up at 6 in the morning. LL Cool J had me carrying a radio everywhere because he said he needed love. Too $hort introduced me to the Ghetto and made sure I never wanted to be irritated by my Kotex. And Ice Cube? He let me know early that he was NOT the one.

Then came Salt-N-Pepa pushing it, Da Brat had me funkdafied, Lil’ Kim made sure I didn’t have time for the fake. Honestly, I could go on forever.

Let me tell you, I wanted everybody to listen to my music. Nobody wanted to hear that “garbage” (my grandma's voice). But I didn’t care; hip hop was mine.

Then I had kids… and hip hop grew with me.

My firstborn had me vibing to Yo Gotti and yes, I have some secrets I’m never telling. My son put me on Lil Boosie, and we were thugging outside with our bootleg cable.

My other daughter introduced me to Kevin Gates. My other son brought in Rich Homie Quan. And I have love for them all. Recently, I was introduced to my niece, Gloria Hallelujah!

Hip hop has always been a part of my life. I’m still into it. Still connected. Still feeling it.

And that’s why I admire Angela Martinez's career so much. She’s doing something I would love to do, capturing stories, voices, culture, moments.

But who knows? Maybe I’ve been doing what my heart desires all along… using my own voice, telling my stories, and loving hip hop in my own way. From the first lyric I stumbled through to the music my kids put me on… I’ve been loving hip hop, and I’ll never stop.