When we see all these fake upbringings of stars, whether they in hip hop or rap, it comes to mind their false advertisement of solitude and how they managed to overcome their so called hardships in life by their own strength

Apart from boasting, many singers are nothing but raw talent in rhyming with dozens of people working for them and a very good advertisment campaign. Back from the best battle of all time: Juice Crew vs BDP many tried to climb on the back of dissin legends of rap just so they can get attention. KRS One did it for attention to his lyrics, some decades later MG Kelly did for the money, so Eminem let him have it. Before that Ice Cube dissed Eazy E, Dre and MC Ren bringing gangsta rap to life. One of the most iconic rap legends ever,Tupac Shakur, had lyrics that made anyone living in the hood feel that his or her hardship is recognised, and Tupac brought the hood to the White House . So did NWA and Biggie with his notorius flow unmatched to this day. They wanted money and fame, but they also did something to the community, they brought the community to the spotlight. They made the whole world to see itself. They blew up with songs, while the goverment blew them up.

So, having this in mind it is really hard to try and even conceive that our hardships in life, in our hood, could even compare to the ones these people had growin up. We didn’t have drive by shootings and gettin hit by a stray bullet,  we didn’t have the Five- O pullin us over and beat the hell outta us just because we „looked suspicious” or we in the wrong neighbourhood. We didn’t have two gangs spilling blood on the streets just because we wore the wrong colour of clothes, like in L.A. We didn’t have Bloods and Crips, Calle 18 or Vatos Locos. We didn’t have store clerks shot in the face for a Colt 45… But we did have different struggles, what you might call white people problems. We had broken homes, and domestic violence. We had to see our fathers batter a woman because she wasn’t enough, we had to witness our mothers trying to conceal their wounds in the bathroom, we had to go through days and nights of screaming and yelling. And we had to push through this and educate ourselves not to do the same. To see that this is not normal. So we put on one of Eminem’s cassette in and just vibe with the words, or nod our heads on Tupac’s Dear Mama.

This is what hip hop and rap really is about: connection to the roots and appreciation to the people around us that never held back in being there for us.

We didn’t had the „hood” but we understood it. In exactly the way it was sung by these kids…