Rock Candy Reviews

When I was in elementary school, speaking was a general problem for me. Mainly because I was shy, quiet, and had a bit of a stutter. (Not to mention the fact that I was a Black kid in a predominantly White school.) Even at a young age, my confidence was low, because I was so worried about humiliating myself or people getting frustrated with me.

Believe it or not, some people take timidness as an insult or disrespect. Adults and kids alike seemed to hate talking to me, and were easily offended by everything that managed to come out of my mouth. That was until I heard rap music.

The coolness, the swagger, the articulations, the wordplay! I was captivated by the speed and accuracy of rap artists. My dad got me into bands like The Black Eyed Peas, and solo artists like Flo Rida. He would write the lyrics down (save for the explicit words) and I would practice rapping along. I knew in order to keep up, I had to build my confidence and work through my stuttering. This became my goal.

Eventually, I started speaking more clearly, and I would rap for the kids at school. Maybe it was because they weren’t used to hearing rap music, but they were impressed. My teachers also started noticing me being more social.

That all being said, I never had a perfect relationship with rap music. As a Black girl, I had to constantly make up my own lyrics to cover up the parts of songs I didn’t like. Whether it was sexism, the overuse of the “n” word, or subjects such as threatening violence, there were plenty of obstacles. It’s hard to believe someone can dislike these things and still like rap music, but here I am. Besides, as I grew older, the scene of rap music became more diverse and I found more artists that were more my style.

There are still things I don’t like about the genre. I despise the drama and pettiness of some rappers, and mumble rap defeats the purpose of genre entirely. However, I can’t deny that rap music has played a huge part in my life. The good memories I have will always be special to me.