Greetings friends! Welcome to double issue 26.43/44. As we continue to celebrate our 25th year of service, we are honored to have our colleague OT share the latest. The other night during our workshop, OT was inspired by us all to rap the following piece to the young men during a recent workshop. We encouraged him after the session, to build an editorial note around the piece and that he has. Thank you. This whole issue is amazing, as we are thrilled to showcase all the writings and art featured in this issue from our amazing workshop participants who step up each week, as well as those of you who reach out to us independently, thank you. Now let’s pass the keyboard to OT.
Saludos to all! This is OT once again reporting live to you from the land that shakes, and boy has it shaken today quite a bit! We’ve had 4 earthquakes in the past 24 hours or less, 6.2, 5.7, 5.8, and 4.8. I’d be lying to you if I said I felt them all because I didn’t! But I did feel one of them while I was watching Netflix and it rocked the whole house. Everything good though folks. I want to extend a warm embrace to you all and hope that you are all doing well mentally, physically and spiritually.
The Winter holidays are coming up and yeah many of us are in sticky situations and we may not get to spend time with our families in the way we want to. Some because of distance, some because we’re off to different ventures and journeys in life, and there are many more situations I can think of but many of you all get the picture.
I want to share with you all a rap that I rapped for some of the guys in the Santa Clara unit this past week in the workshops, and then I want to go ahead and break down what it means to me and what inspired me to write it.
There are rules to the game
If you get caught, say no names
Actions, gotta take full accountability
Street life,
Prison, and death are both probabilities
You don’t want to spend your whole life inside these facilities
Somebody telling you when to shower
Always watching’ out fo’ ya’ enemies
So, check the scoreboard
Ain’t none of us really winning
Juvenile hall or YA
Man that’s just the beginning
Then upstate prison
Federal or state
Time to start obeying orders
That’s something you gon’ hate
Rappers distort reality
with money, cars, women and the fast life
Already lived it in my past life
Look where I’m at
So I suggest you better act right
But who am I to say?
I’m just telling the truth
Then sell out and get paid
I’m just an ex-crook
Trying to tell y’all to live yo’ life straight
So, I hope ya understand
Having morals and principles is what really makes a man
Keep it solid, and stay focused
Shout out to all my guys locked down.
I’m an editor for The Beat Within, but I have a love and passion for music. I love rapping, writing, and producing beats. I hope to one day spend more time on my hobbies than working (like we all do) to make a living, but I actually love working and contributing to this community.
I wanted to share with you all what inspired me to take this route. See, like many of y’all I love that street rap. I love the way artists, like San Quinn, YG, Mozzy, 2Pac (RIP), DMX (RIP), lil’ Baby, Stupid Young, CML, Compton AV, E-40, Big Rome, Jadakiss, Nipsey (RIP), Jay-Z, TI, Young Jeezy, Wu-Tang, man the list is endless. I listen to music every day, sometimes I listen to oldies, sometimes Spanish music, sometimes RNB as well, but I admit that rap is what gets me going. Rap is what I listen to when I work out, when I’m on the bus, when I’m walking to the store, when I’m mad, sad, or trying to stay focused. Rap is my go to.
It was the first genre of music I was introduced to when I first got the USA, so it stuck with me and resonated with me real tough. But as much as I love Rap Music, there’s something conflicting within inside my own persona, as far as where I am in life right now.
Well, first off, I come from the street life. I grew up poor, not that poor, but poor to the point where my mom used to steal groceries from Safeway to feed us, when I was little. Over the course of time, my mom got a job, and we were able to maintain and keep our heads above water. Because I grew up with kids that were in the same situation as me, we all gravitated to the street life.
First, it started off with stealing, breaking into cars, stealing them, and stripping them down. Gangs were always a part of my life, and that came with the territory. So I grew up in the struggle just like many of you and the music I would listen to would depict the lifestyle I was living, and get me so juiced up that it would lead to me and my homeboys getting into trouble, to say the least.
Music would be the catalyst of many incidents. We would be mobbing around in a car, music blasting out the speakers, and the music would have us all four deep in a car, acting out, looking for trouble. I know that in this day and age of the street game, for those of you involved in the street life, it’s the same for y’all and really the only thing that has changed is the music.
We all memorize songs word for word, like pastors recite verses from the bible because those words are testament to what we are currently living when we are in the streets. But many times, those words depict, violence, drugs, betrayal, disrespectful comment towards our sisters and mothers, because that’s who they’re talking about when they use those insults towards women. It can put you in an unhealthy mind state where you don’t make smart decisions. I was one of them.
A lot of these rappers promote violence, say that they would never snitch, and when it comes down to it, many of them will fold, ten times more than your average street guy because they don’t want to lose their money and privileges (but that’s beside the point).
Today my point is to tell y’all what inspired me to write that rap/poem and share with y’all. I wanted to be as real as they can get and let y’all know, that this street life is one-way dead-end street. Prison or death. There’s not too many of us, living happily ever after stories for those still participating in street life. At some point it’s going to catch up to you. The only thing I want y’all to do is think about where you’re at, and where you’re going, and start thinking about where you want to be and how you can get there. Have the confidence that you can succeed because I believe in y’all.
I’m not telling you to not listen to rap. On the contrary, listen to it when you’re stressed, when you’re working out on your free time, create your own, but don’t fall victim to that dead end street. Stand up for yourself and think about what will you do for yourself today? How are you going to improve your lifestyle? How will you assure yourself that you will not end up in prison for life, or dead? Go hard in everything you do. Stick to your morals, principles, and values.
That’s what being real is all about. You all have bright future. You all have the potential to do great things for yourselves, for your family and your community. You need to hear it. I’d be damned if I tell y’all that selling dope and packing guns are your only options. I’d be lying. I’d be faking. And that’s one thing I’m not.
So, hustle up, ladies and gentlemen, strive and reach for success because that’s what you’re really destined to be. A great brother, sister, mother, father, and great mentor to others; a real stand-up lady/guy. This one is for y’all going through struggle. I have confidence in every single one of you that you can accomplish your goals and dreams. You just need to start speaking it into existence and then grind for it!
OT is signing out with much love and respect for every single one of you. The Beat keeps going and going…
Thank you, OT, for your message. We agree with you one hundred percent! All right friends, please stay in touch, stay writing and teaching from this journey you find yourself on. We are listening! Until the next issue.