Arson HeatStroke – GottaFullCup
I remember the day I fell in love with hip hop. It was in the Spring of ‘91, I heard “ Children’s
Story “ by Slick Rick. Before that point I had just listened to old school R&B, and I’d heard songs by The Fat Boys, Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC, and really liked songs like “ I’m the Magnificent ” by Special Ed . But for the first time I wasn’t just listening to it, I was feelin’ it. I liked how I could see the story, even without seeing a video ( back then we aint had no cable ). And yes how he illustrated the story with words caught my attention, but how smooth he spit it, is what made is what made me fall in love with rap.
That along with the fact that I was going on thirteen, I started trying to get at the ladies and writing poetry was my way of trying to be a mack. I realized that I really could write, and that writing stayed as just that until ‘94 my ninth grade year when I met this chick named Katriva. She could sing, rap and looked like a short Janet Jackson ( fo’ real, fo’ reeeal ). But she helped me realize, that I was falling in love with the hip hop in her, and not her.
That year, Outkast released, Southernplayalsticadillacfunkymusak, the first time that I felt that the south was represented outside of booty shakin’ music. All throughout junior high, I was jamming’ J.T Money, Poison Clan, Luke and Hometeam, and that gave me my southern pride, but it seemed that the only thing that the rest of the world knew Miami for was Bass Music and Outkast was finally showing the world another side of the South.
That year I started turning my poetry into lyrics. And I met up with a group of more experienced rappers named D.E.M, that put me through basically a Rap Boot Camp. They focused on showing me breath control, stage presence and ridin’ the beat. While I worked on that, I was picking up on the strengths of each of their flo‘s, making me into a Hip Hop Frankenstein of different styles . I learned the voice command from D-Style, the smoothness of M-finesse and the energy from Lord Explict. Over the next couple of years I kept growing, and feeding off of all the talent around me, like my home girl Shawa, that‘s just straight ass up & down hood all day. ( That’s my heart fa’real though ) In ’98, I went off to FAMU in Tallahassee, and knew I couldn’t be fucked wit,,,, lyrically, I was a damn beast. At least I thought, until I met up with a rapper / producer / studio engineer – ( all around hustler ), named Byrdchest. He was in a group at the time called Nappyheadz, which included group mate T-Pain, and this cat is a whole other story. But anyway, Byrd showed me how to break up my lyrics into bars, use emotion, but still be cool, and how to work studio equipment.
Since then, I moved back to Miami, built my own studio, started to work with a new generation of younger artist’s like my lil’ sister Kiaya Canae, and continued to get even sicka’ on every beat my voice meet.
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