But here's a little background (and no, I'm not gonna front and write this in third person).

I was 12 years old when I first heard "Parents Just Don't Understand" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. It was the subject matter that I could relate to, but after buying the album I fell in love with the music itself. My friends and I would turn down the sound on the Nintendo and just have that CD (and soon others) playing on repeat. Hip-hop became the soundtrack of my life.

I would hook the TV up to a tape recorder so I could have Yo! MTV Raps on my walkman (we didn't have computers and mp3s, and it wasn't easy to find hip-hop in Montana). I had headphone wires running up my shirt through most of high school so I could discreetly listen to KRS or Tribe during history class. Working at Dairy Queen as a teenager I would write lyrics on burger wrappers and spend a lot of time in the walk-in cooler because the ice cream machine made a rhythmic tapping sound when it was running low on mix, which made for a good enough beat for freestyling. My senior year I signed everyone's yearbook in rhyme.   continue -->