REFLECTION & REASON

The first album from Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones--"Illmatic"-- was released on my 16th birthday, in 1994, and it remains my favourite hip hop album of all times. In fact, Nas remains my favourite rapper of all times. As far as I'm concerned, he'll always reign in that genre of music because of who he was to me growing up, and who he continues to be in the industry. An intellectual, yet humble, yet powerful musical soul. Yesterday the hip hop community lost two of its young contributors: Miami's XXXTentacion and Pittsburgh's Jimmy Wapo. My dedication to keeping up with hip hop has waned over the years so I'm unfamiliar with the music of the 20 and 21 year olds, respectively. Regardless, I hate to see the words "rapper killed" or "rapper shot" and know that it automatically casts negativity and doubt throughout the industry. Paranoia. Social unrest. Internal evaluation. Hardly an expert in the genre and barely a seasoned purveyor of hi...

I love a good story, and I particularly love a good come-up story. Amplify that when it comes to the come-up story of an artist, and it's always a tale worth taking in. Netflix is on fire these days, and one of their latest releases is an eight-part docu-series called "Rapture" that takes a deep look into the creative journey of some hip hop legends...and hip hop newbies. I don't discriminate. Of course I was pleased to see that my favourite rapper of all time was featured, and it was great to learn more about Nas, even this far into his career. I appreciated every minute of it. From a legend like Nas, to a new kid on the block called A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie (that I had never heard of until I watched his episode), the storytelling was excellent and even before I had the chance to take in the music of the artists, I was happy to first find out what inspired their artistry. There were eight episodes in total: 1) LOGIC: Gray Matters 2) NAS & DAVE EAST: The Br...