QUESTION: What made you fall in love with Hip-Hop?

      My first love Hip-Hop came along in 1994 with the release of I Used To Love Her by Common. In this song he expressed the adolescent and young adult identities that Hip-Hop experienced. From It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube to Me and My Bitch by Notorious B.I.G, I've been a fanatic. While the content did go against many of my morals, I still found myself in my idle time repeating those lyrics that painted questionable pictures. I thought I was alone with that thought until Lupe Fiasco came out with "Hurt Me Soul". Lupe Fiasco rapped in his song:

"Now I ain't tryna be the greatest
I used to hate hip-hop... yup, because the women degraded
But Too $hort made me laugh, like a hypocrite I played it
A hypocrite I stated, though I only recited half
Omittin the word "bitch," cursin I wouldn't say it
Me and dog couldn't relate, til a bitch I dated
Forgive my favorite word for hers and hers alike
But I learnt it from a song I heard and sorta liked
Yeah, for the icin, glamorized drug dealin was appealin
But the block club kept it from in front of our buildin

      The dilemma and the reason I fell in love with Hip-Hop was the stories touched home. I couldn't help the fact when I listen to Me and My Bitch by Biggie I felt like I jumped into another life where I was moving drugs across the states with my ride or die chick. From drugs to gang to parties to politics, Hip-Hop has always been life and great storytelling of it. 

      To sum it up, the reason that I fell in love with Hip-Hop was because it wasn't rap... It wasn't a description of the painting....Hip-Hop was the paint...the canvass...the artist