Wednesday, October 3, 2012

I was born and raised in NEW YORK CITY

     We as native New York(city)ers tend to take this for granted. Which is natural, for something that has been routine for your whole life to be that normal. But others seen New York City as something so amazing.

     I had this realization a few days ago. I was reading an article on complex.com titled "Soundtrack To My Life: Kid Cudi's 25 Favorite Albums". KiD CuDi, one of my favorite artists, is from Cleveland, Ohio. In this articles he lists his top 25 favorite albums and gives a brief back story as to why he loves each one.
Number 12 on his list was The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready To Die(1994). CuDi said:
I would literally sit back and listen to those guys with my sister and be like, 'Man, this shit is wild.' These are the go-to guys I went to when I wanted to learn about New York. I was growing up in Ohio. It's a whole other ball game where I'm from.
    I was literally in shock when I read that quote. Mostly because I've never felt that way, I've never looked to a group of artists for that reason, and I've never considered anyone feeling that way about New York. I've passed all the neighborhoods these artist have grown up in and to me they are just concrete blocks and brick buildings. But I often have to take a minute and realize how iconic my city is, all 5 boroughs and Long Island. There so much history in the arts, There is a museum everywhere, The Harlem Renaissance, The Bronx is where Hip-Hop culture began HELLOOOOO. This also reminds me of Ice T's recent documentary "The art of Rap: Something from Nothing." A great deal of this film is filmed in NYC. Ice T captured amazing scenery of the project buildings, trains/train stations, and graffiti across the whole city. These are things I see everyday. People from all over the world come to my city, basically, to take photos of my life.

   This is all that motivates me. To push myself as an artist and to represent where I come from to the fullest. I don't if I am ever going to influence and inspire a child form Cleveland, Ohio.

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