1) I memorized Jimmy Spicer's "The Adventures of Super Rhymes." (1982)
2) My brother's friends form a breakdance group and battle other neighborhood poplockers. (1984)
3) My brother and his friends record freestyles and beatbox routines in his bedroom, sometimes while I'd play PAC-MAN on Atari. (1986)
4) I hear Salt (from Salt-N-Pepa) freestyling on "Solo Power (Let's Get Paid)." (1988)
5) I first listen to Biz Markie's classic "Nobody Beats the Biz." (1988)
6) I'm blown away by Public Enemy's album
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. (1988)
7) I fall in love with De La Soul's groundbreaking album
3 Feet High and Rising. (1989)
8) My tenth grade health class talked our teacher into playing Sir Mix-a-Lot's video "Posse on Broadway" during a classroom party. (1990)
9) De La Soul's second album
De La Soul Is Dead gets heavy rotation on my stereo and headset. (1991)
10) I watch the
Yo! MTV Raps! world premeire of The Geto Boys' video "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" while talking on the phone to my brother who was over in Desert Storm. (1991)
11) My friends and I form a hip-hop group and perform at a black history parade. We rapped and danced to X-Clan's "Funkin' Lesson" instrumental. (1992)
12) Everybody on the school bus raps along to UGK's original "Tell Me Something Good" blaring from someone's boombox. (1992)
13) My future prom date and I rap along to Ice Cube's "Once Upon a Time in the Projects" while on our way to an honors' society meeting at school. (1992)
14) My family and I almost laugh ourselves breathless while watching Jim Carrey make fun of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" on
In Living Color. (1992)
15) My friends do a special dance performance to M.C. Hammer's "Gaining Momentum" at an NAACP youth dance, and the ladies give us their attention for the rest of the evening. I danced to "2 Legit 2 Quit" with three fine sistas grooving around me. Yep, that was a
very good night. ;-) (1992)
16) I endlessly play The Pharcyde's first album
Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (which was the first tape that I ever snapped due to playing it so much). (1993)
17) Wu-Tang Clan's debut
Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers leaves me stunned as I jam my headphones on my way to a Black Students Association party on campus. (1993)
18) I listen in amazement to A Tribe Called Quest's
Midnight Marauders at 5 AM while driving back to college for a morning class. (1993)
19) My brother and I watch Snoop Doggy Dogg freestyle on
The Arsenio Hall Show. (1993)
20) I drive back to Beaumont from Houston with my brother late one night after a Beatnuts/Common Sense concert. I jammed
Doggystyle while he took a nap. We wound up just crashing at my dorm room. (1994)
21) My brother and I went to an Ice Cube concert at Club Boomerang in Houston for New Year's Eve. Unfortunately, a few fights kept breaking out, and Cube almost had to shut down the show as a result. (1994)
22) GRITS becomes one of my all-time favorite groups after I first hear their debut
Mental Releases. This was at a time when the Holy Spirit began tugging on my heart into wanting to know God, so this album was one of many voices that ministered to me at the time. (1995)
23) My brother and I see Saul Williams in spoken-word concert at the Industry Cafe in Houston. (2004)
24) My brother and I see MF Doom and Talib Kweli in concert at Club Numbers in Houston. If you've never seen Talib freestyle live, then you're missing out on a masterpiece. (2005)
25) Biz Markie throws a DJ concert in Houston. My brother and I watch from the V.I.P. section (they would only let us in if we bought cigarettes, but neither one of us smokes so we threw them away). One cute (but tipsy) lady kept falling over me and slurring, "Hi, it's my birthday," while I'm just trying to enjoy the show. And no, I didn't take advantage of her. ;-) (2005)
