>a little back ground for me....white kid, 7 years old in
>1985 hears a track called "Walk This Way" on the local pop
>radio station....parents hated it, friends didn't like it,
>and my older siblings said they are ruining a perfectly good
>Aerosmith song.

i always thought they were ruining hip hop w/ that horrible aerosmith song. who knew? in retro, i think it was necessary, and definitely provided some energy and capital to the music that it needed to continue. the impact of all that energy, money and attention wasn't necessarily positive, but it is what it is, and the truth is that it did allow for the music's growth and continued existence.
>
>at age 7, begging my 17 y/o sister to buy me Raising Hell
>while she was buying the latest Poison cassette

ahh, raising hell was classic.

>it only grew from there...
>
>run dmc, beastie boys, ll cool j, BDP, PE, and so
>on...through all the phases hip-hop took in those mid-late
>80s.

that was a good time to be getting on board. things were really kinda weak for about a 2yr stretch before dbp, rakim, pe, an them came in.

>around 90/91, i wanted to learn about "old school" hip hop.
>at Target, they used to have these Rap Masters cassettes for
>like $2.99. they were my first exposure to Sugar Hill,
>Treacherous 3, Funky 4 Plus 1 More, etc....

hidden gems. i'm amazed at what i can find online. simply amazed. its a wonderful thing.

>at this same time, i hit middle school and finally met
>people who also liked hip-hop. our love of music transcended
>color. it didn't matter i was white, i knew about hip-hop
>and that's all that mattered. tradin tapes with my boy
>Travis in math class...."you got the NWA?" "yeah, you got
>that new De La?" "yup, how about that Blacksheep?"
>
>those were the days....i had more TDK and Memorex cassettes
>than i had meals in a year.....

never effed w/ memorex (wasn't trying to break the windows in the crib), but i loved me some TDK's.

>
>i seriously can't remember a day in my life since i was 7
>when i didn't listen to hip-hop, so yes, it truly is the
>soundtrack to my life

hey, that's the title. its good to see a lot of people feel that way.

>and Poetx, probably the best post i've seen on hiphops
>legacy, thank you

thanks a lot, i appreciate it.



peace & blessings,

x.

"I'm on the Zoloft to keep from killing y'all." - Iron Mike