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…
