Yeah, I'm a BobbySoxer.

People always ask me why I love hip hop. When I ask why it is so surprising it always comes down to how I look. Because my skin is white & my eyes are blue I’m supposed to be listening to country or pop music. It’s so funny to me how society tries to tell us who we are “supposed” to be. So the other night I finally thought of my answer to that question.

I love hip hop because I can relate to it. Now, I don’t mean that I relate to ALL of it. I have never done drugs, I’m not big into drinking, & I’m not a racist. BUT I have had a gun held at me, witnessed cops break into my house, watched my dad get arrested… all before I was even eleven years old.

I get that some rap is pure negativity—but there are also country songs about suicide, pop songs promoting Molly, & rock songs preaching violence.  In any type of music you have to search for the stuff that truly sings to your soul. When I first heard Monsters In My Head by The Game my first instinct was to make my dad listen to it. The song literally describes his childhood. There were only a handful of differences—his brothers all had the same mom, he was younger than The Game when he was first on the streets, etc. My dad literally got tears in his eyes when he listened.

When I was a freshman at the College of Southern Idaho I stumbled upon Logic’s music and once again felt like somebody understood. His songs talked about all of the negative stuff that he went through, but had positive twists to them. Not only was this amazing rapper about the same age as me (90’s kids shoutout) but we both witnessed some crazy stuff when we were young and never gave up. His music literally gave me hope. 

I witnessed more as a kid than most people will in their whole lives, but I made something of myself. Hip hop just gets me.