Atypical

I grew up Pac-esque but Mos-def(anitely) matured into a more laid back guy. Real talk I'm a pretty fly, devoinaire individual without bragging ;) (LOL!). I was militant, disrespectful, and controversial. But since I got A's in school, by society's measuring stick I was doing well for myself. Nevermind the fact I had developed dangerous social habits.

Moving on to college I was able to get exposed to the real world. It humbled me, not because I can't do great things but because as I've grown I have become more conscious of my surroundings. I found that it's easy to get caught up in "going through the motions" and get handcuffed, whether that means watching the last traces of your neighborhood through the backseat window of a squad car as you are whisked away to a "correctional" facility, hearing your mother weep as the funeral processional leads your body to its final resting place, or even if you find yourself living a cyclical existence, uniformed (up at 6:45, shower & shave, slide into some slacks, white/blue button down) staring at the computer screen from inside your cubicle. All in a sense are characteristic of a spiritual death beacuse we are not "Living". One in which your true potential is never reached, your passion is never found, all because you fear yourself. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.' .....We are all meant to shine, as children do.... It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Marianne Williamson

Hip hop is an adjective, allowing one to gain a sense of understanding of an individual simply by a sneak peak at one's playlist. The great thing about this sort of classification is that is never all encompassing. Even the likes of Tupac created music across the spectrum ramging from "Toss em up" and "bomb first" to "Dear Mama" and "Brenda's got a Baby". We see Too Short go from "Cocktails" to "The Ghetto", even Jay-Z from" song cry" to "the takeover" on the same record! Hip hop is truly the personfication of the human emotional roller coaster. To me the Atypical theory, fights against the status quo that says we are to be dead or in jail before 21, it believes the college educated man doesn't have to resort to an 8-5 work day post graduation to be "successful", it affords us the oppportunity to find truth within ourselves. It's hiphop, it's entrpreneurship, it's in the arts, in poetry, it's scholarship, it's being an intellectual.