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I was a rock and roll kid, alternative rock (whatever that means, it was all over MTV and the Billboard charts). I had no use for that rap music stuff. If you call hip hop "rap", I find it almost derogatory, and assume you have no idea what you're talking about. I certainly didn't.
In 6th grade, my classmate Chris forced me to take the new Wu-tang double LP home for the weekend and listen to it. That's when I heard "impossible" for the first time. That's when I understood that hip hop was this incredible art form. When Ghostface Killah told this whole story about his close friend being murdered in front of him, in rhymes, I was floored.
"Call an ambulance, Jamie been shot…"
I was a white boy in suburban Massachusetts but I could see and feel this tale of bloodshed in New York City, a place where I had never even set foot. Ghost is still my favorite MC, to this day. As I got curious I got at the ma$e record, DMX and jay-z stuff. I liked how X was probably scaring the shit out of unsuspecting white parents all across the nation, which is kind of what I liked about Marilyn Manson in a way. Hard, violent, and dark with a whole bunch of F words. Our bus driver made us turn it off of the little speakers we had hooked to a Sony Discman on the way to middle school.
Jay-z is one of the greatest Americans of our generation and a hero of mine. "Reasonable Doubt" is one of those masterpiece albums that gets better every time you listen to it. If I…
