my credibility as a hip hop fan and critic
To start this off, I want to confess something. I am not your stereotypical hip-hop/rap fan. What I mean by this is the culture that I grew up in was not one that revolved around the hip-hop lifestyle. I'm not from the streets and I do not pretend to understand what it's like growing up in the "hood" or what it means to be a "gangsta". I never learned how to freestyle or how to DJ and I never learned how to create beautiful graffiti art. I grew up in the suburbs. My family was well off and I had opportunities all around me. The culture that surrounded me was one of mainly Indian/Pakistani music coupled with mainstream rock-n-roll. It was not until middle school that I was introduced to hip-hop and rap music. Sean Paul, Kanye West, T-Pain, Akon, and Lil' Wayne were extremely popular at the time and thus filled a majority of my music playlists. Over the years, my love for hip-hop music has grown and it has become my favorite genre of music. I have been exposed to countless artists, both mainstream and underground and they have opened my eyes to an entirely new world. A world where amazing and inspiring stories of struggle, love, hatred, independence, happiness and sadness are told in the form of rapping over beats. As my understanding of this world grows, so does my ability to critique it and offer my opinion about its contents. Through listening to rap music, I have begun to understand the changes it has gone through since its creation and I am able to effectively communicate my thoughts on hip-hop. I may not have been born and raised in the rap culture, but I have made it a part of my life that will never vanish. I am hip hop.