Two Brothers Music .

One of the first few days I was on my trip, I asked my brother to write me something musically that I could rap to. Let me preface the rest of the post with the fact that he is extremely talented when it comes to producing music. This kid has music running in his veins. He can pick out stuff on the piano, and flesh it out with full chords and runs and everything else. I don't know how he does it, and I'm a pretty musical person myself. He just really has a knack for it.

Anyways, I got back tonight and he showed me some stuff that he'd been working on. By this point, it's been a few days and it's certainly not like he's been working on this nonstop for the past couple of days -- it's incredible. Absolutely fucking DOPE. I realized that him and I have so much potential musically just in that one moment I was sitting there listening to what he had put together. Maybe I'll have to put together some money and get him some producing stuff for a gift sometime... he's honestly that good.

We've done some stuff together musically before and it came out really good. Whether he's playing sax, guitar, piano, or producing it all digitally, he is a true champ. And the best thing is that no matter what happens or where I go, we can always work on stuff and email it back and forth all the time. And that is just freaking awesome. Can't wait to set up my makeshift vocal booth and start some recording... Maybe in the future he and I will make a great team (not that we don't already): me writing the words and rapping, him producing the music! Stoked.

Hip Hop Has Saved Me .

If you had told me in high school that by the end of college hip hop would be one of my favorite genres, I would have told you that you were crazy. Now, granted, as with any genre, I don't like everything that's out there but I've come to have a huge appreciation for a lot of the stuff that is.

I have fallen in love with the beat it provides, like a heartbeat to life. It continues to move me, motivate me, and inspire me, over and over. In the little of my spare minutes I have begun to write some raps down (though, in all honesty, lyrics are simply words and rhymes until you put them to music). I love the intricacy of the language, the complexity to beats, but also how simple it can be. You can have one beat the whole time and the song can still be amazing.

These people are the storytellers of our generation -- realists and musicians, artists and sculptors. I am so glad that my mind allowed me to be opened up to a whole new world. Hip hop has saved me.