1. ericwilson

   Hip Hop (the love of my life)

   Back in 1995, i was a 13 year old lost and looking for myself.I had moved quite a bit of times since i can remember and never really had any “true” friends or real intrest. I was begining to really listen to music though. Although my knowledge of it was not very deep, mostly restricted to what rock and roll my mother and sister listened to, I knew this was something that spoke to me. My mother loved a wide varitey of classic rock while my older sister liked the up and coming grunge scene. This music was great but i found i couldnt identify with it as i wanted to. I was looking for something that spoke on the way i was feeling, on how hard it is to deal with poverty and hard times. As i was walking home from a friends house one night i met two cats playing nintendo outside. they had to be at least 18-19 years old but they were really cool guys.i sat with them and played super mario brothers for a while till i started listing to what they were bumpin on their radio. it was a new kind of music i had never heard before. My mind told me it was rap and i should hate it(a side effect of my sisters attitude) but i couldnt stop listening. This wasnt the “tootsie roll” or “donkey butt” i heard on power 102. this was real people expressing fustration at a system which had failed them. The album was “enter the wu-tang: the 36 chambers” they sent me home with the album and i listened to it over and over. I couldnt believe that something this raw and emotional had escaped my ears. It was love in a instant. After then i wanted to hear everything i could and just tune out the world. flash forward 3 years and im sixteen, and writing ryhmes. i remeber the first time i spit a verse. I had just got off of work and was having some beers with coworkers. a beat came on and i just went off. everyone told me they didnt think i was into that kinda stuff and got a lot of pats on the back. It felt good to have someone appreciate something i had worked on. a couple of years later and i met up with protocol and JC ya savior, and we decided that we could do this. with the help of a mutual friend we obtained the tools to record our own music.People laughed at us because we didnt fit the traditional “rapper” look. Local groups told us that we were wasting our time and nobody wanted to hear what we were speaking on, promoting el paso will only make you “local heros”. But we continued on with the same message and building on the foundation we established ourself on.Now im twenty six years old, i have performed all over el paso and i still love getting on that stage and expressing the way i feel. Hip hop will be a part of my life that i will never turn away from. I hear a lot of people talking about hip hop is violent and just a breeding ground for hate. granted certain artist do glorify weapon use and violence,but what about the shows we perform where all are welcome? what about the shows where older people come and congratulate us on changing their perception of this art form? what about the breakdancers and graf artist and dj’s that dont rap? they are a major part of hip hop, but you wont hear about that. thats not front page news. Violence sells and the media knows it. if this isolated incident defines hip hop then does the bombing of hiroshima define america? does one very violent act condem a whole group of people, regardless of who comitted the act? i’d like to beleive this is not the case, but based on the reaction to this crime committed i’d have to say yes. we are now perceived as the same group who committed this heinous crime. On october 4th 2008 we hope to change this feeling of contempt for a true american art form.

   Sorry for any spelling and grammatical errors

   Eric Anthony Wilson
   “Lonestarr”
   strategic Investments Records

   Oct 2nd, 2008

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