WHY I AM ME

I was raisedBy 90’s hip hop and R&B

I was raised 

By a white mom and a black dad

Who were both

Both academics and activists

When I was eleven 

I rocked Cross Colours

A black leather African medallion 

And Jodeci boots

I shouted Fight the Power

And Don’t Believe the Hype

And I learned at an early age

Fuck the Police

I crushed hard on 

Treach from Naughty By Nature

And Speech from Arrested Development

I was KC over JoJo

And I was fucking with QWhen y’all were sweating

Light skinned ass Raheem

But then wanted to check for Omar Epps

When Higher Learning came out

I was raised

By the Drummunds

The Winslows

The Banks’

And the Cosbys

And I was hell bent on going to Hillman

I was Rudy at home

But at Hillman

I was a little bit Denise

A little bit Freddie

And just a little hint of Whitley

But only because I loved me some Dwayne Wayne

And my motto to this day is still 

Relax, relate, release

My womanhood was reared 

By Queen Latifa

MC Lyte

Da Brat

Monie Love

And Rage

I was Colie in the middle

And I wanted to rock rough n stuff 

With my afro puffs 

But my hair never really afro’d right

Love Jones made me an artist

The first, second, and forty seventh time I watched it

I started to understand why what I spit

Sounded different than the other kids

At the poetry readings in Kansas

They were poetry

But me and Love Jones 

Were spoken word

I was inhaling Spike Lee Joints

Long before I ever smoked a weed one

If I couldn’t go to Hillman 

I wanted to spend my School Daze 

At Morris College

And although I had that good hair

I could never really relate

To Tisha Campbell and the Gamma Rays

I think that’s why I never pledged in college

I named my shit the chronic

Even when I was smoking schwag

I heard my sister Jamie sing Hold On 

Long before I heard EnVouge sing it

And I once called a radio station and requested

Weak in the Knees by SWVAnd the dj schooled me on air

That it was just called Weak

I never made that mistake again 

Jay Z and I fell in love 

When he sang Song Cry

On the Unplugged album

Our souls were speakingThrough rhythm and rhyme

So I was devastated 

When married Beyoncé instead of me

The Blueprint 1, 2 and 2.1

Was my early 2000’s

And I consumed The Black Album

Before he backed out it

Like I would never hear is voice again

Hip hop was my first love

I am who I am

Because of how my family raised me

And How hip hop made me

With how black art shaped me

There was no one else for me to be

I’m just me