Had to be when I went downstairs to the basement to my uncle's room and he was singin along to "Survival," by the Grandmaster on his black and gray Aiwa boom box. I forget which uncle it was but I was about 4 at the time and since the only word I could make out was "Survival," I just kept repeating it when the chorus part came out.

From then on, I wasn't really feelin' hip hop yet but I used to buy up hip hop records when I went out with my pop and some of my uncles to try to look cool( My pops the oldest of 8 and my uncles were of teenage years during the early-mid 80s). Man I used to love going into Sound of Upper Darby on 69th St. every week with my day,looking at those album covers was like an art gallery to me. I'll never forget seeing the Sugar Hill 12' album covers for the first time. To me it seemed like this new black otherworld where everything was fresh,new and automatically cool. I gotta make me a shirt with that Sugar Hill pic on it.

I don't know what did it to me one day but I just knew my ass wanted to hear some "Rock The Bells," and "Dear Yvette," so I consider LL's "Radio," the first album I bought because that's when I really got into hip hop from that point even if it really was the Run DMC S/T. I still have both albums and they're still in good condition. I took care of my shit when I was a kid,if you even put a scratch on one of my records or my toys,you'd finna catch a bad one to the back of the head. As an adult though, I'm not as careful as my things as I was as a kid,don't know why.