My First Songs

I will never forget the first time I ever went to a studio and recorded my first songs ever. It was in the summer of 2013, a summer I always refer to as the “Summer of California Love”. In July I went to California to visit my family and during my second week there my first cousin, Floyd gave me the privilege of stepping in his recording studio so I could put my talent on wax.

All my life I’ve had quite the talent for rapping. I’ve been doing it since I was just eight years old. Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that I’ve always been a talented rapper, so growing up this was one of the traits about me that people would highlight the most when recollecting my identity. During the beginning of 2013 I made it my most sought after mission to go to California for the summer to hang with my family for the summer. I had just come off a long semester from my second year in college and it was much needed. Knowing that a lot of my cousins were tapped in to the music scene in Cali, I was hoping beforehand that at least one of them would guide me to a studio so that I could possibly record myself being that I had never done so before.

My wish took shape and when I went to hang with my big cousin Floyd during my second week on the west he allowed me to step into his well loved studio and create some art. He was aware of the claims that I could rap , but he never actually heard me for himself. A couple weeks before I flew out to visit I kinda wrote a little mini-rap for him to see on Facebook messenger and though he poked fun at it when he first saw it, he actually thought it was some crafty lyricism and offered me the opportunity to come to his studio and chop up some music. The day I came to his studio was a defining moment for me. I had previously seen and been in his studio as a kid, but now I was actually being given a chance to have myself recorded.

When I stepped in the studio he asked me what exactly I wanted to do and I just simply told him that I wanted to record myself rapping. He said it was cool and asked me if I wanted to use some of his pre recorded instrumentals or download some instrumentals from artist who I like and I opted for the latter. Floyd knew I was probably gonna pick some old school beats from rappers I like because he could tell from reading my mini-rap that I had an old school Hip-Hop flow and he was so tight that I actually thought it was funny. So he told me to go ahead and look up a n instrumental with his equipment and after considering a couple different beats I eventually went with the beat to the song titled “DXL-Hard White” by rapper DMX featuring fellow Ruff Ryders label mates The Lox and Drag-On.

After picking the beat I finally stepped in the vocal booth and prepared myself. I didn’t have anything written down and decided to freestyle. Once Floyd pulled the beat up my opening lines went like this:

“J-O-E is the name, I throw it up like hand signs. Blowing up the whole rap game like land mines. Listen to my thoughts, I got my own damn mind and yeah my own damn mind is just a grown man’s mind.“

I started off freestyling the first two verses, but after listening to them on playback I thought they sounded so good that I wanted to write a third verse, so I sat down and put more thought into. I focused that last verse on being conscious and talking about what was going on with the state of Hip Hop and the young Black youth, hence the line:

“Too sick when I’m rhyming fast. R.I.P. Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman you betta watch ya a$$.”

When the song was completed and Floyd played it back for me to hear I was absolutely embarrassed by my voice and thought I sounded terrible, even though I liked my lyrics. Though I didn’t like how my voice sounded on the song, I eventually sent the song to pretty much everyone I know and then some and they all loved it. I decided to call the song “The Introduction” as it was first time I had ever recorded myself rapping. After the positive reception of the song and having it grow on me Floyd let me come back to the studio and record a couple more songs before I left. One of the songs was recorded over the beat of the song titled “Wicked” from Ice Cube and the second song was recorded over the beat of the song titled “Got My Mind Made Up” from Tupac. I titled both of the songs “Wicked” and “Reflection”, respectively. The latter of the two featured my older cousin TJ who has also been a pretty great rapper most of his life.

Both of those songs came out great and all my friends and family loved them both as well. Since that remarkable day a decade ago I have spent a great deal of time recording music with my friends and loved ones in studios. I greatly appreciate all of it because it allowed me to leave my mark on Hip Hop and during this 50th year celebration of Hip Hop history I am glad that I have been blessed to step in a booth and contribute to the legacy.