The Good Ole Days
Dec29
In high school I rolled with this crew of hard-core emcees named The Branch. The group was comprised of my friends from my neighborhood. We were all really serious about our craft (rhyming) and were basically offered free studio time at this spot around the way. After the crew started recording their first mixtape, I was kicked to the curb. (I didn’t completely fit their gangster style and my lyrics wasn’t good enough according to some members) At first I was distraught because I would be the only Branch member battling every little niggah in the high school who EVEN LOOKED at our squad wrong. How could they kick me out when I was THE MOST respected high school emcee in our three city radius at the time (that was a BIG look back in those day lol)
Moving on, before I was dropped, I linked up with these white emcees in my high school who kept getting suspended as a result of them making diss records about the teachers they hated and the principal. They called themselves Dynamic Direction. We crossed paths when a whack group made a mixtape dissing The Branch and Dynamic camps. We retaliated with our own diss (me featuring as a rep for The Branch) A week after the Cd came out, they found out that I had got “dropped” from my camp and went pretty hard recruiting me.
We eventually started trying to form a label together. We rented out halls and teen clubs to throw parties and perform at. After one of our last parties I came home ONLY to receive THE BIGGEST ASS WHOOPING of the decade…I mean, belts, fists, high heeled shoes and a coaxial cable (the one you use for cable television). What the hell did I do to deserve this type of embarrassment? Here I am, an 11th grade honors student, getting my ass dug in by my mother…report cards wasn’t even due to come out for another month or so and I KNOW I didn’t get a “C” this semester so WHAT THE BLOOD-CLOT SON!. Come to find out the SAT’s that I had signed up to take at the beginning of the year were being given the next day (well 4 hours away) and mom dukes was mad that I didn’t get proper sleep. Ain’t nothing like a good ass-whoopin to tuck you in huh?
My school is a 30 minute walk from home and the test was scheduled for 8:00am (the same time I woke up). After getting another ass-whoopin, I ran to the school and begged my way into the exam room. PHEW! I only missed one math section of the test…not too bad right? Well, it wouldn’t have been had I not fallen asleep during a reading section…I woke up with ten minutes left because the guy giving the instructions for every section became annoyed and threatened to throw me out if I started drifting. For inspiration, I thought about the impending child-abuse that would be waiting for me if I came home early after getting kicked out of the test and woke the phuck up.
A few months later my mom sat me down within arms reach and opened the results in front of me. I remember this like its yesterday…
Mom: Niggah you better be glad this came in the mail because I sho was about to tax yo black ass. I thought you went and hid this shit.
*she opens the envelope thingy*
Mom: Niggah you got a 1370! It aint no 1400 but it’ll do!
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaan! My butt cheeks un-tensed (lol) and I let out a DEEP breath of relief!
The way kids are supposed to be raised…aaah the good ole days…
Moving on, before I was dropped, I linked up with these white emcees in my high school who kept getting suspended as a result of them making diss records about the teachers they hated and the principal. They called themselves Dynamic Direction. We crossed paths when a whack group made a mixtape dissing The Branch and Dynamic camps. We retaliated with our own diss (me featuring as a rep for The Branch) A week after the Cd came out, they found out that I had got “dropped” from my camp and went pretty hard recruiting me.
We eventually started trying to form a label together. We rented out halls and teen clubs to throw parties and perform at. After one of our last parties I came home ONLY to receive THE BIGGEST ASS WHOOPING of the decade…I mean, belts, fists, high heeled shoes and a coaxial cable (the one you use for cable television). What the hell did I do to deserve this type of embarrassment? Here I am, an 11th grade honors student, getting my ass dug in by my mother…report cards wasn’t even due to come out for another month or so and I KNOW I didn’t get a “C” this semester so WHAT THE BLOOD-CLOT SON!. Come to find out the SAT’s that I had signed up to take at the beginning of the year were being given the next day (well 4 hours away) and mom dukes was mad that I didn’t get proper sleep. Ain’t nothing like a good ass-whoopin to tuck you in huh?
My school is a 30 minute walk from home and the test was scheduled for 8:00am (the same time I woke up). After getting another ass-whoopin, I ran to the school and begged my way into the exam room. PHEW! I only missed one math section of the test…not too bad right? Well, it wouldn’t have been had I not fallen asleep during a reading section…I woke up with ten minutes left because the guy giving the instructions for every section became annoyed and threatened to throw me out if I started drifting. For inspiration, I thought about the impending child-abuse that would be waiting for me if I came home early after getting kicked out of the test and woke the phuck up.
A few months later my mom sat me down within arms reach and opened the results in front of me. I remember this like its yesterday…
Mom: Niggah you better be glad this came in the mail because I sho was about to tax yo black ass. I thought you went and hid this shit.
*she opens the envelope thingy*
Mom: Niggah you got a 1370! It aint no 1400 but it’ll do!
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaan! My butt cheeks un-tensed (lol) and I let out a DEEP breath of relief!
The way kids are supposed to be raised…aaah the good ole days…