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My Writing is Largely Inspired By a Wide Variety of Other Art Forms
Here’s What They Are and How They’ve Helped and Influenced Me
I’ve noted this before but when I was eight years old, an older cousin played 2Pac’s Hit Em’ Up for me — and my mind was absolutely blown.
It’d be four more years or so until I bought an album of his on my own but I definitely became a fan from the very first time I heard that song.
Though I had no idea who he was talking to or why he was so angry at them, it struck a cord deep within me and I slowly but surely became a voracious fan of rap music, by say age eleven. Inappropriate? Probably. Inspiring, definitely.
Right around the same time I bought my first 2Pac album, a man by the name of Marshall Mathers — who the world would come to know as Eminem — released The Slim Shady LP. Though it was 2PAC who first turned me into a rap fan, Eminem made me feel like it was okay to write rap lyrics, despite the fact I was a white kid from a middle class neighborhood.
I literally studied both of their lyrics growing up. I wanted to write like they did. 2Pac had a way of telling the world exactly what he thought about it. Eminem, who in my opinion is the best lyricist rap has ever seen, blew my mind with the things he was willing to talk about in his music. I respected how open both artists were in their writing. Nothing was off limits. They said exactly what they felt and they didn’t care who thought what about it.
By the time I was thirteen, I was obsessively writing rap lyrics in every notebook I bought for school. While other kids were taking notes, I was writing lyrics. I wrote lyrics on an almost compulsive level. When I wasn’t, I was coming up with different rhyme schemes in my head or reading the lyrics of other rappers I liked. The odd part though, I kind of always knew I’d never actually rap. I just wanted to write lyrics, I had no desire to record or become a rapper.
However, I’m almost certain if it wasn’t for rap, I wouldn’t be writing this or anything else today. It’s an art form that will always hold a special place in my heart.
