Please Allow Me to Continue...

So we left off on Jonathan and rap. Well around the 9th grade, Jonathan (After changing his name to Monty) became a pretty successful high school drug dealer so, naturally, by the end of I think his 10th grade year he had been kicked out of every school in Houston and was doing number runs on the border of Mexico every weekend while staying at a boot camp on the border during the week. We had a falling out sometime around there. He rebelled at the boot camp too; it was in his nature and eventually his parents flew him out to NYC and left him there for good. We will pick back up on Jonathan later.

Anyways, 6th grade Jonathan introduced me to rap and I took it and ran with it. I grew to love the music, especially when I was eventually introduced to both Tupac and Eminem. I began writing my own rhymes right around then - it is in my nature to emulate things I think are cool. I was that kid that made his own claymation videos after I saw Celebrity Deathmatch and pretended to be Power Rangers and Mortal Kombat characters. Anyways, started rapping and I wasn't HORRIBLE, but I wasn't good. I do remember though that one day in the 6th grade (at Pershing Middle School) I was rapping and some 8th graders heard it and thought it was awesome. They brought me to our P.E. coach who called me White Chocolate from then on. I didn't get it at the time. In fact, I didn't even think about it until maybe last year and it clicked.

In the 7th grade I decided I was going to make a CD...so I did. I made tons of beats (using the amazingly simple Hip Hop Ejay programs) and wrote songs to 7 of the beats and released it on burned CDs under the title 'One More Word'. My prepubescent voice gave a convincing allusion of Alvin and the Chipmunks rapping. I also had to record 2 lines at a time because of latency issues with the program so it was also quite choppy. I had good lyrics though...it was that year that I started to have good lyrics. 8th grade I did the same thing again - 7 songs, prepubescent voice, choppy flow, and all. This time I called the CD 'You Dun Noe'...I was experimenting with slang, sue me. I went through all my friends call a 'wigger phase' during that time. I guess I did...I had only jerseys and wore a ton of New Era fitteds. I also talked with a slur that couldn't possibly have come from my upper middle class white home - I watched a lot of TV and listened to a lot of Dr. Dre. 

When I reached high school I decided that I was going to make a new name for myself...I was going to take my music seriously - and I wanted to start it all with a controversial bang. This bang came in the form of a song titled 'F#*@ Um All'...it was about all the ways I would have sex with most of the girls in my grade...by name...graphically. So as you might think, once I released it word got to school administrators...the school really went nuts for a day. I went to a laptop school so someone (Parker) had emailed it to everyone by the day. I remember coming out of class 4th period and the entire hallway was filled with people that had just heard the song (I had sold the CD the day before). They all shouted and went nuts...I loved it. I did not, however, love getting suspended, having to meet with all sorts of school officials, writing apology letters to parents, writing I think 7 essays, and all the other punishment they wanted to throw at me. The only reason I didn't get expelled was because Dean Eades basically told me what to say. He knew what he was doing and I appreciate it to this day. My life would have been far different if I have been kicked out of school. 

I kept a low profile after that (one of the conditions of my suspension being that if I didn't get in trouble again it would be taken off of my record). I made songs on my own but I never released them anywhere but on Soundclick. I was a part of hip-hop message boards (first Mun2, then Lyrically Gifted and then The Flow, with a brief stay at Future Producers). That is where I really developed as an artist...I stopped listening and writing so much commercial music. I started to use what I found in life and politics in my music. My mind opened to the range of music. At the same time, Lil' John was just starting to be successful and I was/am a huge Anti-Crunk type of guy. You can dance to it but I really just can't find a reason to listen to it on my own.

My senior year, using mostly connections that I had made on message boards, I released a legit CD for the first time in my life (on iTunes, getting real radio play, etc. etc.) and made some money...finally I was making money on my dream.

Alright, I'm going to continue this again later. We are getting closer to now though and I'm anxious to bitch about all of the shit that I'm doing right now.

Be good.

Tre