J-Pizzle: the Rap Queen
With so many genres of music today it is more common to pick and choose the music you like and the music that you despise. My sister Jamie and I are polar opposites in this area; I enjoy anything besides rap music, and that's all she fills her ears with, overflowing its influence into her daily life. Throughout the entirety of the week my sister has made Lil Wayne's songs outline her life style in many ways.
"Hip-Hop attic, hip-hop at it..."
On Mondays my sister has no problem switching out of Sunday worship mode and hip-hopping into Lil Wayne music (her favorite rapper). As soon as she gets up in the morning and starts getting ready for the day the radio is tuned in to 98.5 The Beat and the steady booming bass bellows in the entire house. Because I am a morning person and am always awake before her, I trick myself into thinking that I will get to pick the music that we listen to while getting ready for the day; I am always wrong in thinking this. She is older and always has the last say in what goes on, as far as the two of us are concerned. As she storms down the hall I say my quick good-bye's to good ol' Slow Hand and various Classic Rock artists and mentally prepare myself for the complete turnaround. She dials the knob into the perfect position and my ears start bleeding almost immediately. She knows every word to every verse and even knows every part the backup singers chime in with.
"While I'm countin' my paper...I'm handlin' my biz..."
Tuesday nights, among others, Jamie makes her green paper working the night shift at Lifetime Fitness. From 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. she's at the front desk, cleaning around the locker rooms, or helping members of the gym work the machines. Since there aren't too many people that come to work out during these hours my sister has plenty of free time. This past winter holiday she filled that time by writing her own rap song about Christmas and the family coming to visit. In my spare time I enjoy reading, so one day I offered to read her rap. What she wrote was very sincere and meaningful, but took about a week of Les Miserables to heal my eyes from the destroyed grammar that was used.
"Boy did I mention I fly like a pigeon..."
On a typical Wednesday night after Institute, my sister flies to the top of the list to sing karaoke. The one time I gave in and joined the group, Adam and Adam, two of her close guy friends, were first to rap a duet. Adam #1 didn't even have to glance at the screen for help with the lyrics, he just steadily chanted the words to the song saying, "Now I ain't sayin' she a gold digger..." while Adam #2 spiced it up singing, "She steel me money...when I'm in need..." in the background. The whole time they were up there Jamie was hooting and hollering things like "yeeeaaahhh," "shoot," "that's sick," etc. when it was Jamie's turn she added a little Salt and Peppa to the mix rapping their popular song "Shoop." Finally they all convinced me to get up and I chose to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Everyone loved it, but it was completely out of line with what else was picked.
"Sittin' in a Caddy, bright like Batty..."
Thursdays are the days when most of my sister's other friends have work off and are rolling down the road in their lifted cars with 22"s and bright spinning rims on the way to their play days. Their favorite thing to do is float down the river in tubes for hours on end sun-bathing and having a good time. The best part is when they bring their cooler with the built in speakers so they have sodas and their rap music all in one. The river is fun every once in a while, or even once a month, but it's generally the same river they go to every week with no changes. Mostly when they go, they float down at least twice and spend all day in the company of drunken college students and sometimes make new friends with these people. "Guess what! I met a boy the other day," Jamie called to tell me. "Nice! What's his name? How did y'all meet?" I asked the routine questions. "Well, we met at the river...but he's a good guy, I promise," she tried to reassure me. "Plus, Lil Wayne is his favorite singer too, so we hit things off right away." Most river days don't end with phone calls like this, however. They usually end with burnt shoulders and newly thought up rap songs of the events that happened while outside enjoying the day.
"Started out hustlin', ended up ballin'..."
On Friday and Saturday nights there is always a rap battle or two taking place around town. Adam (#1 mentioned earlier) and my sister enjoy going and hearing the rhymes that others people sharing their passion can come up with on the spot. One night after she came home, I finally asked what it was that she enjoyed about these rap battles, what was it that made her want to go. "Well, aside from me liking rap music, it's really impressive to see someone under pressure and without any preparation get up and start rapping and still make sense. Even when I sit and think about it for a while and write it down, it's hard to make a rap song with good rhythm and thymes that I'm happy with."
When she told this to me it was easier to see that even though I sometimes view rap and all the things associated with it as a joke, it is a real work of art that she is passionate about. This made me appreciate that, even though our likes and preferences are very different, we share the same intensity with the things we are most ardent for. I realized that just because she has a few different opinions on things than me, it doesn't mean we can't value each other's company and friendship.
After that epiphany I wasn't too judgmental when she brought home a boy from one of these rap battles, but I couldn't help chuckling when she introduced him saying, "This is Ricardo, but his rap name is R-Kive. You can just call him Kive for short if you want."
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